'Wildfire Spreads' features remixes of each of the original 'Wildfire' parts by 12 worldwide artists (France, Washington, Scotland, Sweden, etc.). To put together such a gigantic cast, I invited both close friends of mine and foreign artists I was an absolute fan of. Result is a mind-blowing trip made of glitchy IDM, raw techno, dirty trap, and even dark italo. After all, fire knows no frontiers.
Vertebral about Wildfire Part 1: "It’s all about the story. I often get back to this core idea (not to say this obsession): a good song primarily depends on the narration. You can’t afford to be boring. It’s the same as in a movie. For the listener, sounds occur like actions and events, inspiring thoughts and mental images. And Wildfire is a great movie. That’s why I wanted an epic opening for this remix. I conceived it like a time traveling trip from the ancient Egypt pyramids flashing forward to the 90’s Detroit underground scene and back again in the end, as a sort of reduced reflection of the original album circular structure. Hope you’ll enjoy the flight."
losscom about Wildfire Part 2: "This remix was a blast to work on. I tried to infuse a sense of urgency and panic into a track with what felt like fairly benign beginnings. Inspired in part by my own run-ins with fire as a child, I tried to craft aggressive sonic elements from mangled bits of the rich soundscape of the original track, embellished with fresh synth arps and rhodes melodies to make it my own. While this remix clearly strays from the genre roots of the original, I hope you still enjoy!"
Shônagon about Wildfire Part 4: "When Cinder proposed me to work on one of his tracks I immediately agreed. I chose Part 4 because it seemed to me quite close to my own music, not to mention its powerful melody and its balanced, shaded and dynamic structure. Before putting my own colors on this track, I listened to the entire Wildfire album several times to absorb its universe and experience its particular story. Next, I took all of the sounds from Part 4 separately and mixed them in a different order while trying to stick to the spirit of the original track. I then shook up the structure and added an analog and melancholic layer in the background to connect the different parts and to tell another story, my story. I was quite moved to discover the inside of Cinder's compositions and even more to add my personal touch to this track. With the help of Vertebral and Cinder himself, I improved my remix enough to obtain something both personal and faithful to the original."
PPaulus about Wildfire Part 5: "Surprisingly more alkaline than acidic, the fifth Wildfire part has this naive and romantic feel that only an eternal teenager could understand. While I felt warmed and shrouded by this sentiment, I couldn't help myself feeling like it needed to be tamed. Taming takes time and it needs the right tools. So, in order to be able to translate Cinder's original sonic state into the landscape I foresaw while I firstly looked into the flames, I had to build myself the right tools. A huge aluminum plate, a few speaker and piezos became the perfect translation devices. After stripping the garments off of the original I forced these primary sound waves to travel through this surface, creating duplicates and resonances. This newly transformed raw material would become the primary elements to build a new sonic landscape. From raw analog elements to metallic and organic constructions, it was all about creating tensions between antithetical concepts."
Moke about Wildfire Part 6: "I immediately fell in love with the vibe of the original track with all its lush synths and warm sounds. My goal here was to sublimate these key strengths and to transpose them into a more bizarre, more personal context."
United Audio Emirates about Wildfire Part 7: "We immediately fell for the catchy synth lines of Wildfire Part 7! It has a cool retro vibe in it, with beats reminding us of legends such as Tom Middleton, Autechre and Polygon Window, as well as the 90's Artificial Intelligence compilation albums from Warp. Wildfire Part 7 has both a rough and a soft side that suits United Audio Emirates well. After chopping up the beat, preserving the excellent snare drum and bass drum sounds, we had the flow coming. Of course we added some extra bitter sweetness - just can't help it - it’s in our DNA!"
Faex Optim about Wildfire Part 8: "What matters to me is chord changes. I've always held a fundamental belief that you can have the best production in the world, but without the musicality of good chord changes it's worthless. When I heard the two chord intro in the original I automatically heard a third - not as a criticism of the original track, but as a realization of how little the difference really was between this Cinder track and something I would do myself...one extra chord. You quickly realize the aesthetic style between artists can be differentiated by one minor adjustment. The crux of the remix is that one adjustment, re-sampling and adding an extra chord that is a result of looping and pitch-shifting. It makes a new song in it's own right. From there it was a case of building a song in my own style while still keeping the elements of the original - albeit re-sampling the original track's main melody through tape to fit the sound I wanted for the remix."
Cialyn about Wildfire Part 10: "My first listening of the original track made me immediately think about the kind of sounds you could hear in 80s TV shows. With this remix, I wanted to "re-contextualize" the tune as it were a reminiscence of childhood - a distant memory of a music you heard in your past life with some uncertainty in it."
Nocto about Wildfire Part 12: "For me, making a remix is both an opportunity to enrich my musical lexicon and an invitation to play with friends who speak another language. Let us face it, the resulting mating of sounds can give rise to many surprises.
Wildfire is hot! Its wonderful main theme immediately seduced me. This theme is my starting point, the flake I used to induce a snowball effect. Actually I almost got lost and crushed by an uncontrollable snow bank, but ultimately I reached the destination. The result of this journey is now available as the conclusion of a compilation I'm very excited to dig with you."
credits
released May 24, 2017
Remixes written, performed and produced by respective artists
Original tracks written, performed and produced by Cinder
Additional production and art direction: Vertebral and Cinder
Artwork and design: Alice Dirwimmer, Denis Salem and SVDK
Mastering: Nicolas Risser @ Kilohertz
Special thanks to: Walter for his endless patience, Michel for his kindness and support, SVDK for his communicative madness, Wesley for his lofi aesthetics advices, Voiron for hope, Principles of Geometry for nothing in particular and of course each of my 12 guests for their amazing work
Electronic music producer. Live performer. DJ. Co-founder of label and party organization Ultratech Records. Co-founder of techno collective Endless. Writer for Manifesto XXI. Head of Acid Protokol.
Emotionally stirring avant-techno from Surgeons Girl, offering a field of percolating analog synths to get lost in. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 18, 2022
Fragile, breathtaking music from French American artist Lyli J, lit up by softly glowing synths and gentle vocal melodies. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 11, 2024