Jan Jelinek

by Diana Potts   Jan Jelinek recorded under the names Farben and Gramm, as well as his birth name, and became a revered producer of electronic music. Moving to Berlin in 1995 for the sake of his university degree in philosophy and sociology, Jelinek started experimenting with sampling media. His experimentation turned into solid productions, and in 1998 he started releasing records under the moniker Farben on Klang Elektronik. In April of 2000, he released the fourth Farben 12, Raw Micro, while also recording under the name Gramm. The Gramm alias served as a vehicle for Jelinek to create a compromise between listening and dance music. Using his sampler as a tool to dissect and tape together new tracks, Jelinek moved on to Stefan Betkes Scape label for Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records. Jelinek cut and pasted jazz sequences from the 60s and 70s, rearranging them with audio tools for a unique end product. In addition to performing live at clubs, he has taken part in electronic music-focused festivals and largely contributed to the Hanover, Germany-based Expo 2000, creating multimedia land and soundscapes for the youth media exhibit. One such performance with a laptop group, Computer Soup, was caught on tape and released as Improvisations and Edits: Tokyo, 09/26/2001. In 2003 Jelinek returned with La Nouvelle Pauvreté, a record that matched wits with Loop-Finding-Jazz. Another collaboration was released, also in 2003, with Triosk. The result, entitled 1+3+1, featured Jelinek tweaking out the live trio. The earthy Kosmischer Pitch (2005) and Tierbeobachtungen (2006) followed.