Martijn Tellinga (1974): musician, publisher, programmer, radiomaker, boyfriend, son, friend, dutch, amsterdam but not happy about it.
Mixer was not born out of a sort of vacuum or emptyness I felt or saw in electronic music and the label-side of it, there are many labels and many people, some are doing really good, some less ( in variable orders luckily). I had been organising concerts and parties for a long time, had been fascinated by electro-acoustic music for a long time and it just felt like a good thing to do; to start a label/ platform for the music I like. It grew organicaly from the things I was doing allready at that time (1999). While working on it I discoverd that the actual production of a title from beginning to end is a very nice aspect and one that I can appreciate much more than, for example, the planning and arranging of a festival. So I guess that I felt this a bit allready when thinking about starting a label.

The idea is to use Mixer as a platform for -composed- electronic and electro-acoustic music in it's widest form. There are many shapes and genres, all are equally (un)-important and hip and therefor not. My personal interest in electronic and electro-acoustic music lays very much with the medium itself as well, apart from the actual result coming from it. To focus on a certain type of "experimental" electronic music seems to be denying the actual meaning of that word. I prefer not to use it and describe Mixer activities in more neutral terms. To have a label policy like this enables the label to shape itself through time and determine it's identity as influences come along and go again, just as a person's taste in music does. I did not feel for getting lost in a dozen sublabels for every idea I have, and therefor decided to choose one name for one label, which is open for many influences.

By keeping my ears open; listening to music, visiting concerts, scrolling through demos although that did not really brought me anything..offcourse the Staalplaat shop gets me in touch with a lot of things, I meet people through the concerts I organise. A bit of everything really.

well, to be honest I don't come up with the idea, the designer does. Kyra! has a typical style which I like very much. The designs are super-simple but strong and very much about raw structures and texture. The packaging is offcourse more expensive than the standard jewelcase but after some time you find the right adresses where manufacturers know what you want and charge a reasonable price. It's more the time and effort you have to put into arranging several fabrics, rather than getting a finished product from a pressingplant.

I guess the difficulties I find here are the same as everywhere for someone running a small independent and unfunded label , releasing music which has hardly any commercial value. But I like doing it so it's all worth it.

For sure there are plenty of people and groups busy with interesting things when it comes to music. Amsterdam tends to make people stay on themselves it seems though. There are only a few shops, podia or institutes and they don't act together weird enough. Rotterdam seems to have been the better city over the past few years, showing greater interest in experimental arts and young artists.

Well, the word has iternationally spread a bit allready, but the Netherlands are really not living up to their reputation of "open" and "tolerant" lately. The more recent governments became more and more right-wing, showing only interest in fast money and prestige. So, for the smaller initiative in any field, there isn't much to get, either in money or whatever other kind of support.

I get in touch with quit a bit of Japanes music, hearing the more recent pop- influeneces combined with typical Japanese minimal and abstract computerised music. I like Kozo Inada very much, although some of his things are a bit too minimal for my taste, I catched a nice Minamo concert recently. Yosuke Arai (Jidai), from which I released a cd-R on Mixer, does very nice and subtle things. It seems a lot of people are working with computers and electronic equipment in this field of music, there's a lot of music coming from Japan. I do know a bit from people having played there ; ultra small shop-concerts on the 12th floor, humid heat and being the tallest person around. Fascinating country where I definately need to go, sooner or later

Continueing the Split Series I started some time ago, continueing more or less every series I started really. There's nice things coming out this year: a split LP by AGF and Johann Johansson, a split LP by Kaffe Matthews and Maurizio Martusciello; 2 mini cd's by Sachiko M and Lionel Marchetti, a double 7" by Joe Colley. Plenty of stuff, mostly vinyl. I won't be organising events though for the coming years, as I will be studying Sonology at the Royal Conservatory fromon september this year. But maybe I will pick that up again once I'm finished.

-"Terminal Pharmacy" by Jim O'Rourke
-Philippe Blanchard/Christian Renou "Play Lunch"
-"Transiency" by Main
-Brom Bron 3 "Sovezacht" by Roel Meelkop and Tore Boe
-Blectum From Blechdom "Snauses And Mallards"