Despite being active for over ten years, Pharmafabrik does not have anything ressembling an extensive discography. It is, instead more a case of focus and quality over quantity as its releases show and a label geared towards the vision of its creator, a vision that can be understood through these label’s sampler compilations.
1 – How and why did you come about starting Pharmafabrik?
I suppose I was looking for a radical difference and the best way to achieve it is perhaps the form in how one produces the different music – something that doesn’t provoke indifference like most of the nowadays media, raping us constantly with the art museum and uncontrollable publicity of the products of materialism. We live in the time when even the most banal and obscene is culturized, the art is dying and with its death we inherit a grand museum. Pharmafabrik is like the reflection of this time and of something that has already disappeared. Our own existence not being the argument anymore, all we are left with is to appear, without worrying if we are heard or not.
2 – When you started Pharmafabrik, were there any labels that you could say were a reference/inspiration for your efforts?
There are a lot of interesting and active labels that intrigue me. Each and every one of them is looking for its own image. And these images allow me to see the whole of the contemporary music as a ritualistic collection intended for ritual usage.
3 – Almost mandatory question, how did the name “Pharmafabrik” come about?
The name is only an artificial construct of the object. In this case it’s about mystifying the famous poster of Bayer Pharmaceuticals from the year 1899. That’s why the name was a logical choice for the label that produces a way out of reality and into the illusion.
4 – Since the inception of Pharmafabrik, are there any events in the history of the label that you’d consider as particularly relevant, from difficulties and setbacks to successes?
The problems are always like warnings of the theatre of actuality. The label is free of all real economy. Success is an incredible image – every album is a success because it’s full of static electricity and because it’s realized at all.
5 – So far what would you consider as special highlights (or successful) releases and artists in the history of Pharmafabrik?
Every album is set in a different stage and through its own aim it arrives at the ideal form, even if it’s the form of its own disappearance. “Trancemissions” doesn’t disappear in death or its end but in the fractal dissipation. “Signia” is a reflection of the real and the wrong – it glows in the sky of simulation and then disappears in infinity. “Keshiki” represents growing of the sound inside of a vacuum, where it falls into a delirium and gets lost in it.
6 – Are there any releases in particular that you would recommend as good ‘introductory material’ to the Pharmafabrik label?
“Fabriksampler” is a good introductory material. The album “Fabriksampler V1” was roaming inside itself, grounded but right on the point. “Fabriksampler V2” was reflected in the infinity and simultaneously not able to touch the ground or root itself anywhere. “Fabriksampler V3” will continue to draw the marked line in the orbit.
7 – Looking back, do you have any regrets with the label? If you could go back and change something, what would it be?
There is always the human factor. The human who does things that have long ago lost meaning, except in TV ads. Print, finance, graphics, mixing, mastering, production, etc. – too many fragments and from time to time there’s a breakdown, without optimistic promises. Looking back I wouldn’t change anything, all has its purpose – anomalies happen but the rules stay the same.
8 – An obvious question, but what is Pharmafabrik’s ‘relationship’ with the Internet? From promotion tool and digital sales to file sharing and piracy, how has it affected you?
Internet leads in the direction where we deal with the definitely unrealistic world beyond the principle of the truth. The value of Internet communication is in the circulation between computers and we feel it as a spectacular euphoria in the form of promotion, digital production, file exchange, etc., and as a delirium, at the same time taking in all of the pathology of that system.
9 – Slightly related to the previous question, how do you see the concept of ‘netlabels’ and, as a label head, what is your perspective as to the future and evolution of physical media (CDs, vinyl, etc.)?
Inside the netlabel concept we can find the development of the increased movement that changes the processes of publishing into a chaotic turbulence. In the time of the rediscovery of scenarios, the vulgar abundance of the market, multiple variations of all earlier forms and ultra fast product circulation, netlabels are only a tool to promote the contemporary forms and a sort of a mirror which reflects the trends.
Evolution of the physical media like CD or vinyl is a race of technologies with all of their perverse effects, and the paradox is that with the greater bandwidth we only strengthen the relation of unsharpness. The future definitely lies in the microchip implanted into our brain, where the music is saved in the superior format and the signal processor in the brain decodes the data, received through the wireless connection.
10 – Perspectives for the future: what lies in the horizon for Pharmafabrik? Can you share some long-term goals and where would you like to see the label heading?
I wouldn’t want to go ahead of the results of all the possible signs and wishes. I am in a state of protuberance and for now I stick to the boutique releases. The progress grows and the bigger the indifference of the production to its own source, the bigger the acceleration.
11 – What other labels/artists would you recommend at the moment and why?
There are so many things produced and accumulated that they have lost their purpose. We live in the era of unlimited sound multiplication, sounds that we have to produce continuously in some kind of a fatal indifference. Lately I exist in a virtual space between insane noises and the silence of total inertia.
12 – Thank you for your time, do you have any final comments?
Thank you for the interview and the support. To you and all Connexion Bizarre readers I wish a lot of satisfaction and lots of discoveries of new frequencies in the year 2009.
Relevant links
www.pharmafabrik.com
Pharmafabrik @ MySpace
— interview by Miguel de Sousa (January 2009)