Hailing originally from Agboville, Ivory Coast, West Africa, Mr Raoul K moved to Germany in 1992. While he was working as a carpenter, he got into dance music, started to play records and later set up a studio and learnt how to produce his own tracks. In 2007, he launched a label called Baobab Music and soon the mesmerizing pieces got noticed by renowed house DJ's and clubbers worldwide. We are glad to have Raoul playing at Nolla this Saturday, right before the release of his debut full length Introducing My World. We reached him for an interview about the album, his production methods and DJ sets.

 

Your debut album is coming out in March. How did you approach the record as an entity? Does it contain only previously unreleased material or did you want to include some of your older tracks as well?

 

– I was really happy when I got the mail from Mule Musiq telling that they would do an album with me. I wanted to do something different than my previous 12" was. I thought of the album as a story about the life and the music in Africa. It is definitely no dance album. The title tells the whole story, I guess. I produced new edits of three tracks that we already released on Baobab Music to be released on Introducing My World.

 

How was the album recorded? There seems to be lots of live instrumentation combined with classic house production on your tracks. Can you give us a brief introduction to the different instruments that can be heard on the album?

 

– I visit Ivory Coast at least twice a year to record new music. I meet there with local musicians at the Edec Music School, a school for percussionists. Usually I play some simple rhythm tracks and record what the musicians play along with that. I've worked together with musicians like Leye M'Baye, who plays a Senegalese drum called Saba, Secou Diabate who plays the Cora and whose father is considered one of the best Cora players in the world. Other instruments are the Balafon and the Ngoni, for example. Most of the musicians use self-constructed instruments. When I'm back home in my studio, I cut the recorded tracks, lay out the tracks, do the arrangement work and add the "European" sounds. 

 

 

Hypnotizing is perhaps the first adjective that comes to my mind when listening to your music. Do you think there is a special factor which makes repetitive music captivating rather than tiresome? Many of your tracks go on for about ten minutes very naturally – can you describe how do you create that kind of suspense?

 

– That's hard to describe. I don't work on the suspense – it just grows out of the tracks. If you imagine the production as a dialog between the music and me – a kind of call and response – every step relies just naturally on the other. There is no "construction" in it.

 

Who or what inspires you to make music?

 

– I love to read (or listen to) what other producers say about their music and their methods of production. That really inspires me and I often start laying out new tracks right away.

 

Have you planned to perform live as well (perhaps with a ensemble of musicians)?

 

– I'd really love to play my material in a live set. That needs a lot of preparation – I think of bringing in the musicans that played on my tracks from Africa and perform my music with them as a real band.

 

Besides the album, what's coming up from you in 2011?

 

– There will be plenty of new material from me this year. I did a track for a compilation that will be put out by Fat Souls Records, a remix for Infiné and there will be a new Baobab Secret called The Balafon Teachers out this spring.

 

 

How would your describe your DJ sets nowadays, what can we expect to hear at Nolla? Are there certain labels or producers whose material you have been playing a lot lately?

 

– As usual, I will play a balanced mixture of old and new tracks. I've played a lot of Carl Craig's tracks and Innervisions' releases recently, but I really can't say what exactly will be in my box.

 

What have been the most pleasant gigs for you so far? Are there any places you especially hope to visit soon?

 

– I like to get in touch with the crowd, to feel the people, to get some energy back to generate more energy. I felt that especially at The Eye @ Nefertiti in Gothenburg and at Eleven in Tokyo. And maybe at Nolla – I'm really looking forward to it!

 

Check out Raoul's SoundCloud page for more tracks and mixes!