Vibrasphere: Swedish synergy

Swedish duo Vibrasphere have come a long way in 10 years. After gracing the stages of some of the world’s greatest festivals, they return down under for the Strawberry Fields Festival in November, providing a promising start to the Australian summer. ITM finds out more.

How did you start making music?

We both started out using Amiga computers with tracker programs and soon moved on to buying proper synthesizers.

Are you both full time musicians or do you have “normal” jobs?

Robert is only doing music, while I (Rickard) have a small part time job at the University on the side.

Your albums always combine an interesting blend of styles, with chill out tracks at one end of the spectrum and deep progressive trance at the other. What made you choose this format of production?

Well we always enjoyed the chill out stuff, and when we produced our first album we found it necessary to have some chilling moments in between the pumping tracks to create a more interesting vibe. We felt it worked out really well so we have continued like that on all our albums.

Which of your releases is your personal favorite and why?

Probably one of the Vibrasphere chill tracks: San Pedro, Manzanilla and Tierra Azul, but also Floating Free was quite an unexpected track that we did not think much of when we produced it.

What have your major musical influences been?

For me (Rickard) it all started in the mid 80’s with bands like Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Kraftwerk and Alphaville. Then the acid house came at the end of the decade and I was hooked on that. Since Robert is a bit younger he started pretty much directly with electronic dance music and soon moved into trance.

Many Australians were disappointed when you were unable to appear at last year’s controversial Earthcore Festival. Exactly one year later, what can we expect from your performance at the upcoming Strawberry Fields Festival?

A lot of new tracks and a set that ranges from very progressive and some techno stuff up to more progressive psy oriented stuff.

How do you typically build a set?

Most of the times we start with a lower tempo under 130 and the very progressive stuff and then slowly move up and mix in more psy oriented prog. This has always worked the best.

Robert, after the release of Lime Structure you left the group for a while, returning in 2005. You no longer tour. Do you feel that you are missing out on a certain part of Vibrasphere?

Robert actually started to play gigs again last year. However so far he is only doing gigs in Europe, as it still is a bit hard for him to fly. And yes of course he was feeling he was missing out on some things during the years he was not playing at all.

Ten years and five albums later, where do you see Vibrasphere’s future?

At this point we actually do not have a fixed plan for the future. We are taking a bit of a break from production right now as we fell we need some new inspiration. We have produced at least one album every year for the past 3 years and also taking into account the current downfall of the CD we feel it is good time to do this. Maybe we will finally make that downbeat album everyone wants us to do. The future will tell…

One of your most famous tracks Erosion was recently remixed by Melbourne based producer Child. Do you see yourselves working with any Australian producers in the future?

Never say never. There is a lot of talent in Australia when it comes to electronic music. We have done very little collaborations in the past, but with the help of the Internet these things are lot easier these days so lets see.

What is your favorite thing about Australia?

There are many. Cascade Beer, the Sushi Train, the sun, the beach and all the friendly people.

Strawberry Fields Festival take place in the Victorian bush over the weekend of Saturday 28th November, also landing in Byron Bay for a single day of partying on the 28th.

You need to be logged in to add comments... Login Now

There are 0 user comments