SPRAWL IMPRINT : an interview with Douglas Benford and Iris Garrelfs
by Philippe Petit

Sprawl is the London based underground playground and test tube for futuristic sound. Our events provide incubation periods for new and infectious ideas. For over 5 years this has included everything from serious turntable abuse, global internet link ups, virtual parties, minidisc doctoring and live music all rolled into splendid parties with big screen visuals. For now we have suspended our monthly nights in favour of one-off events.
The Sprawl Imprint is structured around the same fault lines and featues releases by artists such as Scanner, Freeform, Osymyso and conceptual compilations such as
Hmm, an album of international hymns and anthems and other investigations of childhood influences featuring David Toop, Kreidler, Kit Clayton, Vladislav Delay, Antye Greie-Fuchs (of Laub), Freeform, Wang Inc, Shenton Engine [of Add N to (x)], Benge, Opiate (current Björk collaborator ), Wiggle (Ken Ishii collaborators), Farben, Matrix, Carl Stone, Kaffe Matthews and more.
We sent questions to Douglas and Iris who operates the organization.

	I'd like to know a little biographical information about you, such as how old you are, where you grew up, your schooling... Any sort of information that could help readers to understand how you got to be who you are today. si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Born 1961 (!). Grew up in the countryside, just remember being bored – ordinary schools - read a lot, and worried about growing up mostly through my teens, whilst listening to Tangerine Dream, Sparks and Kraftwerk etc until punk came along when I changed to the possibilities of Eno, Wire and Cabaret Voltaire etc. School was followed by a few boring jobs (at least i got to save up for my first synthesizer, the humble Wasp), and the Art College, where I trained to be a graphic designer (only because I wanted to design my own record sleeves). Recorded mainly pop music in the 80's, thank God for Acid House and Detroit Techno. They rescued me. Remained a magazine designer for 12 years, inbetween recording solo, plus odd projects with Momus, Sarah Cracknell (St Etienne), Andrew Weatherall... (I have roots in Windsor where a lot of these musicians came from). Started a label called Suburbs Of Hell; a very JG Ballardesque concept label! BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs : I was born and raised in Germany. I grew up in the grey and lifeless Hanover, which only ever had its varied punk scene going for itself. Later I lived in Berlin where I studied ethnomusicology at the Freie Universitat and vocals at the Hochschule Der Kunste. I never finished my degree because I got too busy doing music and gallivanting around the experimental music scene, which involved late nights and a generally unhealthy lifestyle. Studying vocals is the most tedious thing you could ever imaging, especially trying to avoid becoming an opera screamer. In London I worked as a jazz singer for a while. but I never have been one for rules and stuff. So that got a bit stifling too. You started to play music and to release records over a decade ago so which friendly piece of advice would you give to someone who wants to start his label ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Not to ever do it seriously or full time, it is too hard. Have a nice full time well paid job, and then use you spare time to work with music. It was never my plan to have to give up design, it just became a necessity..i am creatively fulfilled but much poorer! Don't ever believe that you will make your fortune from music...unless you construct a boy group! BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs : And stick by your guns. Don't let yourself be swayed by 'market forces'. As Doug so rightly mentioned, there is not that much market to go around. And a networking attitude is essential. Sprawl Imprint is operated by Iris Garrelfs and Douglas Benford. Could you tell us about your involvement as musicians, both Iris and you, how did it start ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: The club idea started whilst I was still involved with Pantunes Music (a label/artist/remix project) and Suburbs Of Hell; after a gig where Iris and I were playing our own material we decided to start a club to showcase music we liked, and in 1995/6 the internet was just getting a hold - I used to be an avid reader of the US 'Wired' magazine - and after a short while it became obvious we should have a label linked to the events, so we kind of did that off the back of Suburbs for a while, then it gained it's own identity. BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs : Sprawl was meant to be a kind of underground playground. A test tube for embryonic Sci-Fi music.
	What did you do so far ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Solo albums by myself, and the Pantunes Music project, Osymyso, Puppy, Freeform and collaborations between me and Scanner. Then there are the compilations - each has specific theme and is hard work to put together : The Broken Voice - all electronic treatments of the human voice Chinese Whispers - a remix of a remix idea, where each artist is working blind and then Hmm, which is artists from around the globe doing their versions of hymns... all them we are very proud of...our favorite artists such as Vladislav Delay, Kaffe Matthews, Jan Jelenik, Kit Clayton etc. Plans ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: At the moment it is difficult to say, since the finances of the label are limited! So we as artists can at least concentrate on our own music now...it would be nice to get a Bit Tonic album out, also the japanese artist Matrix/bluedisc, and we have lots of good compilation ideas; but we will have to see. BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs : And play more live I think. We did a little thing at Batofar last year and are just back from a festival in Berlin. Get Sprawl on the road ! To me the role of a label should be to discover new acts, help them get promotion, distribution, spread the word on their creativity. Is this important for you ? BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs this is our basic motivation! si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Yes indeed. For instance, on hearing the Osymyso material i thought this is not really what people expect of Sprawl , but at the same time it's so well done, someone should release it. Quite often I will encourage an artist to go in a certain direction, and gave Freeform and Osymyso a lot of pointers - although it's totally their own material - about what I like I suppose. Their work needed to be exposed; i think that now there are very few English artists who have their own individual attitude/sound unfortunately, everyone is keen to fit into a genre... The people I admire today in England include snd, Apache 61, Bit Tonic, Vert, People Like Us, David Toop, Kaffe Matthews, Chris Morris......those that are not even strictly 'music'. What was the reason, or motivation to start yours ? Weren't you satisfied with other label's music ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: The motivation was always to create an outlet for our own music! But if you have a record label, then distributors usually want more than one or two artists, so it's good to find other people to release too...as long as I like their work. I think in this field it is full with different, small labels and the all have their own agendas: some records you can buy just because you associate a certain sound with the label eg ~scape, most labels I would say I only like the odd artist (eg Warp, Ninjatunes). I am certainly not satisfied with UK labels mostly now tho - no one really takes risks or explores the directions offered by labels like mille plateaux, chain reaction, sigma etc. There is always the difficult line to draw between what we like and what will sell any copies... Most labels have an example, or a favorite other label which they like, and you ? Any label you could say was an influence on you ? Any label that you think has been influenced by yours ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: I can list many english labels over the years (obscure/opal/land, factory, even mute, warp) but more contemporary labels I admire are Sonig, ~Scape, Mego, Chain Reaction, Kitty Yo, Sub Rosa, Mille Plateaux; all by coincidence, european...English labels seem to be a boring at the moment, it's a strange artistic climate here. I guess I think as our contemporaries as Leaf, Lo, law and Auder, but we have differing philosophies nowadays I think - I cannot get very excited with much of this breakbeat and post-rock stuff.(I like Tortoise a lot tho)..many because I often feel I've heard it all before. After the initial adrenalin shot of 'drill n' bass' things haven't really moved on. I can't think of any label _influenced_ by us I must admit; I have no delusions as to our image in the music scene!
	Did you start with a certain idea, concept ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Only to (a) be linked with the sprawl events and (b) always think of a good idea for 'concept' compilations, otherwise they just become like 'another compilation' with no character. How would you describe a typical Sprawl Imprint act ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Individual. Difficult. Funky. Dark. Light. Colourful. Endearing. Absorbing. Having a sense of the ridiculous too. BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs music done by people with a path. With a drive to explore and change. Could you give us some precisions on the actual scene in London ? Any other local label, activists that you feel close to ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: The scene in london I find quite strange; there are so many clubs, bars and venues, but very little that is interesting because there is a commercial agenda all the time...a few years ago it seemed very healthy - there was the Scratch, scanner's Electronic Lounge, the original Rumpus Rooms, and they all seemed pretty cutting edge, and popular. Now, often we are having foreign acts contact us for suggestions where they can play and I can't think of anywhere...new spaces emerge eg there is a new bar called Public Life and a couple of people are doing really good events there; The Wire magazine are of the few people who put on good events; The London Musician Collective also do some interesting things like the very popular Japanorama tour (Otomo Yoshihide etc). Sonic Boom last year at the Hayward Gallery was interesting too (Brian Eno, David Toop, Max Eastley etc) was good to. As a label i think we feel a little isolated, tho we keep in contact with people like Leaf (Tony Morley is quite creative with his acts and events), Touch, Law&Auder, Lo...but we are all quite different in attitude. Vertical Form, Planet Mu and Fat Cat I admire a lot too. Anything to say on the musical situation of England today ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: It seems very media orientated. ie v. commercial = good. There is also more and more nostalgia. I am not anti commercial music or nostalgia, but it ends up with all radio stations playing the same music, and very few outlets for interesting/experimental music. I almost feel sorry for kids! But every few years you do get some kind of movement which is hopefully a rebellion against the media/usual channels, as punk and acid house became. Everything is very hedonistic; i enjoy a drink, but it's as if you _have_ to take loads of drugs or drink lots in order to enjoy a lot of trance, garage, festivals etc. This is even seen as 'cool'! Anything that is different is quickly absorbed into the media (radio/tv/magazines), which is like a huge cultural vacuum cleaner. And made blander. These i only my old fashioned views; I am quite old! Is there anything that you regret or that you'd change if you could ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Mmm. I must admit I don't have many regrets - I never had the opportunity to 'sell my soul' to music...so I don't have any choices to regret, if regrets are by definition, taking the wrong choice somewhere in your life/career, when offered a choice. I have been fairly conservative in my choices, but I've never regretted that; I call it 'realism'.. Any album or band that you wish you had issued on Sprawl Imprint ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: There are still a number of acts we want to release, who are not widely enough known: a Benge album would be great, we want to do a matrix/bluedisc album, it's all finances that provide the obstacles. I wish we'd got a pole or a burnd freidmann remix for Hmm! (they couldn't for various reasons), Also a Thomas Brinkmann one and Minit, but their tracks were too long to use !
	I have noticed that a lot of electronic labels are distributed by a lot of mailorder-lists rather than proper distributors, or better say mailorder-lists that have extended their activities and sell to some very specialised Indie record stores. But they do not sell to chain stores. On the contrary your label is distributed by bigger distribution outlets who are able to place records in every store. So do you think that it is an advantage for your records to reach those music supermarkets ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: I feel it probably helps get the name of the label around, but the large chains sell very few of our records - nowadays there has to be a big name attached to a release before they will really push it - hence our most popular album release was the one with Stereolab involved. BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs: well, they don't. Reach the music 'supermarkets' I mean. Apart from the automatic ones like Tower for example. Mostly independent shops really. Distribution companies just don't have the resources anymore to push every little label into the shops. And further afield even that thins out. You started your label a long time ago, so how do you react to the change in the market, i mean there are more and more chain stores and less and less passionate/smaller record shops. Are you affected by that (de)evolution ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: I think as shops become less and less of an outlet, the internet has opened up new opportunities - either thru helping us contact new distributors or publicising our stuff. I think it's definitely evolution - hopefully mp3 or similar become a manageable format to sell, say a whole album with artwork that will come as a package, then you could so easily get it from the artist or label directly. I like the fact that vinyl will not go away too. I think shops will change along side labels - maybe a shop will become just a big guide to bunch of websites...there always seems to be ways and means, in a kind of underground way, and I like the way distinctive non- commercial sounding people like scanner, pole etc can make carve their own route...I like to think i have made/am making my own unique path as well, without any commercial pressures. I always planned music to be a part-time thing for me, for it to remain enjoyable, so to me it is a bonus that i am (almost) doing it full time. This has taken years of trying different approaches out; I do personally get bored quite quickly, so things always have to move on for me... I said once to someone in the mainstream music business they were A&R and I was R&D – research and development! BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs: Internet: definitely! Should really take over from traditional distribution comapanies to spread the word. But small specialised shops will stay! Where people can go and talk about releases. And as things change, so will Sprawl. That's what we are about. Shapeshifting. What are your goal as a label. Futureplans ? si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: I will admit that a label has always been a way and means to release my own recordings, so it would be great to get more of my stuff released, and the other projects by iris as bitTonic, something by bluedisc...we have plans for various compilations but these are a long way off. There is no goal, except the actual existence of the releases themselves; i think to make more money within our artistic criteria, travel more, open people's mind away from just dance/popular/mainstream music - I have always listened to a wide range of more left field stuff...I hate the fact that anything instrumental is often called 'chill out' music in the 'dumbed down' media (Moby as seen as 'cutting edge', it's hilarious, as if nothing has changed in music in the last decade) - that's why something like the recent japanorama tour in the UK was so refreshing - between meditation and abrasion; there are lots of possibilities as software/technology opens up improvisation, textures and rhythms. Upcoming releases ? Please give some details on every band, name of the record, etc... si-cut.db/Douglas Benford: Sprawl imprint will be slightly dormant, while we work on a few things, such as our own music. I personally have releases coming out on various labels and am looking forward to more travelling, and promoting a sprawl ethos! Hopefully we will be working with other artists we like later this year...and the club will comeback in a different form...
	Discography : VARIOUS "THE BROKEN VOICE" A compilation of commissioned exclusive works. The brief: to provide a track which mutates the human voice into electronica. Music ranges from progressive drum & bass to trip hop and intelligent techno, featuring tracks by MRM, Scanner, BitTonic, Exact Life (Moby, William Orbit collaborators), V-Neck, Daniel Pemberton, Mr Psyche (Paul Thomas, BBC Radio 1FM), Shenton Engine (Ann Shenton, Add N TO (X)), Phoenix Jig, Immersion, and Lovecut DB (with Sarah Cracknell of St Etienne). "There should always be room for ventures such as this to exist" Melody Maker format: CD only cat: SOH-S01-024 SI-{CUT}.DB : "BEHIND YOU" This is the second SI-{CUT}.DB album by Douglas Benford, the first being "Nuisance" (also available via the sprawl website!), one of The Wire's albums of the year 1995. BEHIND YOU has been produced by Scanner who described the album as a "Squarepusher meets Black Dog" type thing. Files were e-mailed from Douglas' to Scanner's studio where they were downloaded and mixed. Full discography is on http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans/benford "Imagine Squarepusher and Luke Vibert being normal. That's what BEHIND YOU makes them look." Muzik format: CD only cat: SOH-SP-025 SCANNER vs SI-{CUT}.DB "THE BOVINE REVOLVER EP" The Sprawl's first vinyl offering comes in form of this collaboration by Robin Rimbaud and Douglas Benford. 4 mad pieces of funky aural delight . An extract was featured on the debut THE WIRE magazine cover-mounted CD, "The Wire Tapper". "Triangular experiments from this leftfield supergroup, that succeed in whipping up a weirdbeat tornado." I-D format: 12" vinyl cat: SP-VIN-01 PANTUNES MUSIC "IN SEARCH OF THE SURFACE NOISE" An exotic bend of drum & bass and electronica. Released in conjunction with the Pantunes Music Label. Two guys called Douglas, Messrs Doug Martin and Doug Benford. Together Pantunes Music have worked on remixes for Fuji Maki (Japan), Sarah Cracknell (St Etienne) (UK), Otsamo Sato (Japan), Laila France (Bungalow) and remixed a Sony Playstation game track along with Jimi Tenor, Ken Ishii, Mike Paradinas... " imaginative techno jungle..." Mike Paradinas "Fabulous...Photek-esque!" Spongeboy, Ambient Soho format: CD only cat: SP-026-PAN7 VARIOUS "CHINESE WHISPERS" This is the ultimate in concept compilations, where even the participants themselves didn't know whose music they were remixing. Taking more than a year to complete, the CD is based on initial samples by Stereolab with remixes of a remix of a remix by Mike Paradinas, Slang, Ultramarine, T-Power, Freeform, Subtropic, Sons of Silence, Bedouin Ascent and Stereolab. Styles range from electro, drill n' bass, mad techno, big-beats, to easy listening dub and abstract disco. "Chinese Whispers' cinematic equivalent is in the arch sampler Tarantino's Pulp Fiction" The Guardian format: CD only cat: SP-027 PUPPY "HORIZONTAL" Debut Album of techno artist PUPPY - 'Like Orbital scoring a David Lynch Movie...' PUPPY, aka Dave Hodgson is a Seattle based artist, born in the UK and now involved with designing computer games. An exclusive track was featured on THE WIRE magazine cover-mounted CD, "The Wire Tapper 2" "It's the monstrous sound of urban breakdown... " Ministry format: CD only cat: SP-028 FREEFORM "ME SHAPE" This release features Freeform aka Simon Pyke constructing rhythms from 2 years of recording not so ambient noises and interweaving them with mel-odious sounds. Simon has supported Autechre on tour and recorded for Warp Records, Skam, Law and Auder, Sub Rosa, Headphone, Leaf and others. "...blurry, deranged squeezebox sounds and devious Latin percussion. Think of a more clunk, plaintive PLUG with weird droid basslines, and Brazilian rhythms. Nana Vasconelos has been captured by PlayStation robots and hidden in a lego castle. See if you can find him." The Wire format: CD only cat: SP-029OSYMYSO "WELCOME TO THE PAILINDROME" This debut album by OSYMYSO aka Mark Nicholson is a strangely warped party album, an antidote to post-millennial tension, full of Luke Vibertish type funkyness and Tipsy-like lounge core. "Osymyso combines a Monty Python sense of humor with hipswaying beats on Welcome To The Pailindrome; everything from spoken word records to dog food TV advertisements get chopped up with the rhythms and its damn fun." Andrew Duke, Cognition /Vice/In The Mix format: CD only cat: SP-031SI-{CUT}.DB "RATE OF LIVING" Si-{cut}.db (...pronounced 'Sye Kut Dee Bee') is Douglas Benford and 'Rate of Living' is the third si-cut album. It's a complex but melodious creature. more info http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans/benford "... leftfield stuff for sure... Rate Of Living does prove surprisingly enjoyable, melodic and even quite danceable in places. It takes real talent to come up with something so strange yet likeable" Future Music format: CD only cat: SP-030 VARIOUS "HMM" A massed rank of cutting edge sonic artists and experimenters from around the globe tackle their chosen traditional hymns and anthems...an absorbing sonic adventure featuring such luminaries as Kreidler, Kit Clayton, David Toop, Vladislav Delay, Wang inc, Benge, Shenton Engine [of Add n to (x)], Opiate, Antye Greie Fuchs [of Laub], Wiggle (japan), Farben, Matrix (japan), Carl Stone, Kaffe Matthews, Apache 61 + many sprawl artists: si-cut, puppy, freeform, BitTonic, Osymyso format: CD only cat: SP-032
	BitTonic/Iris Garrelfs biog BitTonic releases include a special vocal experiment for the Broken Voicecompilation on the Sprawl Imprint alongside Scanner, Immersion and others, contributions to the Counter Intelligence Subproject 01 on Germany's Electro Chemical Research label together with Kreidler, Aube and others and to The Female Of The Species compilation on Law and Auder. This track has been listed as one of the highlights of the compilation by The Wire magazine. The BitTonic first album for the Sprawl Imprint entitled Under Construction will follow later in the year. I have also collaborated with Freeform, Koan Master, Kaffe Matthews, Osymyso, Scanner and others Resident DJ at the weekly Sprawl club, she has also played at the ICA, Big Chill, Scratch, the Scala, Gaia Live, the Monastery of Sound Festival in France, the Enchanted Garden festival and others. Live appearances include The Big Chill, the ICA, London, Back To Basics, Batofar in Paris, Podewil in Berlin, Sprawl and many more. Iris has also compiled an airplane channel for Swiss Air and appeared on Sky TV, BBC World/News 24 and Arte. In her second incarnation as a photographer, Iris has been published by magazines such as The Wire, The Face, Muzik, Marie Claire, Spex (Germany), and others. Artists photographed include Ken Ishii, Primal Scream, Scanner, Autechre, Carl Craig, Coldcut, Goldie, Luke Vibert, Squarepusher, 4 Hero, Run DMC and many more. Sprawl club biography The Sprawl is an established UK event organisation featuring the best of today's sound/beat/avant garde creative people, combining installations, laptop exercises, net stuff, multimedia and other happenings. It is also a recording label, and both the club and label are run by Douglas Benford AKA the artist si-cut.db and Iris Garrelfs AKA the artist Bit Tonic. The first Sprawl was in London January of 1996, and besides weekly and monthly events, also staged the Sprawl Compass, special events in Brighton and at Futuresonic (Leeds), have been involved with the Monastry Of Sound events in Normandy, played on the Batofar boat, Paris and recently at the KlangKrieg "avant pop" festival in Berlin. The Sprawl is currently monthly, every thursday at the Global Cafe, London. The Sprawl is also held a weekend of challenging music at the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in 2000, "GroundSwell" featuring CHRISTIAN FENNESZ, NIC ENDO, DAVID TOOP, HALLUCINATOR, JAN JELINEK, ANTYE-GREIE FUCHS, OSYMYSO & SUTEKH. The club has featured, live and DJing: Kodwo Eshun, Solar X, Benge, David Toop, Spymania/MDK, Fat Cat, Paul Schütze, SND, s.o.l.o., Capitol K, Hallucinator, Baby Ford, Vladislav Delay, Vert, Sutekh, Sons of Silence, Scanner, DJ Spooky, Talvin Singh, Witchman, Boymerang, Twisted Science, Immersion, Freeform, Amon Tobin, Luke Vibert (Plug/Wagon Christ), Cristian Vogel, Sarah Cracknell/St Etienne, Add N To (x), Ultramarine, Subtropic, Andrew Weatherall, Si Begg, Bedouin Ascent, Simon Fisher-Turner, Endemic Void, Elixir, Tao, Spring Heel Jack, Ronnie & Clyde, Mellowtrons, Spongeboy & Tench, Dr Rockit, Neotropic, Kushti, Richard Thomas, Plaid, T-Power/Chocolate Weasel, Third Eye Foundation, Phil Levene, Jega, Animals On Wheels, Icarus, Mu-ziq, Klute, Apache 61, 10 Sui, Klute, Conemelt, London Electricity, To Rococo Rot, Leafcutter John, Ceephax, Johannes, Cursor Minor, Fibla, Michael Prime, Nic Endo, Fennesz, Farben/Gramm, Safety Scissors, Signer and many more artist information si-cut.db: http://home.earthlink.net/~efrans/benford> BitTonic: www.dfuse.com/sprawl/BitTonic SPRAWL http://www.dfuse.com/sprawl/ E-MAIL <douglas@benfo.demon.co.uk> <iris@sprawl.org.uk> TEL/FAX (+44) 208-568-3145 mob 07957 483 437 BROADCAST [19.30-00.00 gmt] http://www.globalcafe.net