The Swiss experimental noise band Film 2 recently released a very special album titled ‘Sorge*’ via BlauBlau Records.

The band consist of Jonas Albrecht, Elias Bieri and Elischa Heller and on their latest album they experimented around a 40-minute song called ‘Welt,’ that has been performed, captured and processed three times in three different contexts and no one knows which version will end up on the turntable. The three versions are all the same and they are different, simultaneously.

The three young musicians have been playing their way through the Swiss underground, drawing circles between dark cellars and niche festivals like Bad Bonn Kilbi for almost a decade. The explosive concerts full of brute emotionality, reaching from 20-minute-high speed-sets to 4-hour-performances, have always been vital in searching for artistic and social urgency through high-volume sound and collective meditation.

If you order a vinyl, you will always get a random version. There are 33 vinyl records for each version. There are three covers as well. There is no correlation between the artwork and the version of ‘Sorge*’ you receive. Additionally, every new moon and every full moon, one version of ‘Sorge*’ streams for 12 hours on http://unbewusst.love

“The 3 versions are all the same and they are different, simultaneously”

You recently released a very interesting album that consists of a 40-minute song called ‘Welt,’ that has been performed, captured and processed three times in three different contexts. Can you elaborate how you originally got the idea and concept behind it?

For our album ‘Sorge*’ we thought and discussed a lot about the process. We consciously intended to put a lot of energy into the process of creating rather than focussing on the results. This kind of approach, which also presupposes an open-ended mindset, really allowed us to take it slow, take a lot of time to come up with ideas, let things emerge and think of the album as a whole. It also allowed us to take risks and sense into what we are curious about to explore in the course of making this album. It was after we composed the piece ‘Welt’ and after we played it live for the first time, that we decided we wanted to make three versions of it. For us, playing ‘Welt’ came to feel a lot like a practice, a meditation that made it intuitive for us to decide to play and record it multiple times.

How would you categorize your latest album, ‘Sorge*’ in your discography? Do you feel this is a new direction that the band is trying to explore?

It definitely sounds different than what we have done before. In a way we could probably say that there is a clear succession in how we approach music, how we experiment with sounds and most importantly, how we function as friends – as human beings that are interacting with each other. But even though there is some sort of succession, it is always something new, when we create. So it probably is safest to say that ‘Sorge*’ does not determine a specific direction for the future. Everything is still possible and we ourselves can be curious about what happens if we come together the next time. Maybe it will be more deconstructed or suddenly we feel like producing a pop hit? Let’s see what wants to emerge and what needs to be expressed.

I’m sure readers would love to hear more about the three different versions of the vinyl record.

There are 3 versions of ‘Sorge*’. The 3 versions are all the same and they are different, simultaneously. It’s the same song, which we took to 3 different spaces; played, recorded and mixed in 3 different contexts. If you order a vinyl, you will always get a random version. There are 33 vinyl versions for each version. There are 3 covers as well. There is no correlation between the artwork and the version of ‘Sorge*’ you receive.

One version was mixed by Elischa Heller and recorded by Film 2 at Spinnerei in Bern (Switzerland). Spinnerei is a concert venue that is very dear to us. It is integrated into a beautiful building with apartments and the venue is run by some of the tenants – amazing people. Another version was recorded and mixed by Lukas Ruzen at Studio Suze in Bienne (Switzerland). Yet another version was recorded and mixed by Domi Chansorn at G5 in Zurich (Switzerland).

Would love it if you could share some further words how you originally met and what led to the formation of the project?

Well, we were pretty young when we met. We were going to the same school when we were about 14 to 18 years old. We got familiar by volunteering for the local Jazz festival in Willisau. It then started when we played the music for a youth theater play. We were three crows. This project really made us realize that we liked playing together. One thing led to another. We then had a room and came together very often – jamming, experimenting, listening to all sorts of music and hanging out together. We were lucky to have found each other back then. We became very good friends, which is, what in the end made us stick together and we’ve been making music ever since.

You have been very involved with the underground. How would you describe your scene for underground music in Switzerland?

The scene in Switzerland is vibrant, with amazing artists and there are some really nice venues too. Besides our home and family BlauBlau Records, there are some amazing labels like Bongo Joe, Humus, A Tree in a Field, Strecke or Oh Sister, that are for sure worth checking out.

We see the scene as a relatively loose web, being connected by curiosity. Making music that lacks the kind of degree of commercial aspirations that is needed to thrive financially is not possible without supporting each other and without living up to solidarity. It is very important to make meaningful connections, politically as well as for reaching ways of subsistence and we would go so far as to say that we pledge for solidarity to be an end rather than the means to an end. But finally, artists in alternative scenes are dependent on public and private funds and we could say that even though being an artist in Switzerland means living a relatively precarious life, we are still quite privileged.

What are some future plans?

Maybe a single, maybe a new vinyl, definitely becoming more radicalized and hopefully playing loads of concerts, since that is where the magic really happens.

Klemen Breznikar

Headline photo: Giulia Spek

Film 2 Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
BlauBlau Records Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / YouTube