SA: What do you think of yourself as?

SB: hmm…funny and difficult question ;) I am not a musician by common definition. I don’t play an instrument. I shape, create and arrange sounds. I take pictures. I like to film. And I like to post-produce those formats. And I like to combine sound, words and visuals. My philosophy so far was DIY (do-it-yourself) based. These days I am trying to look for collaborations with other people or to encourage the development of artist-networks.

SA: Where do you position yourself within music scene?

SB: I could call myself a "lap-top artist", but since this terminology was only used as a press hype, which helped to describe a change/shift in the production and performance methods, I see my myself somewhere between a "sound designer" and a "digital conductor" (conducting my software). My "home" is the new electronic music movement, which was amplified by hardware and software technology development (expensive hardware was replaced by easy to obtain software, with a stronger emphasis on autodidactive composition approaches). But I don’t follow any specific aesthetic school. I am getting bored by one specific approach or sound, and after I know how a process works I want to move somewhere else. What impress me in compositions is the tension between unpredictability and random structures on the one hand side and flow and space on the other.

SA: Who was an influence for you? I mean in the most general sense not only musical sense… some guitarist also please…

SB: People? Well, the usual suspects: parents, friends, girlfriends, fellow artists etc.
I never had a personal mentor, which I miss a lot, sometimes.
When it comes to guitarists my whole teenage period was filled with wanky guitar solos by guys with fluffy hairstyles, who’s names I don’t want to remember now (even if it seems like lot of people wants to (re-?)discover and valorise his/her bad taste of 80ies rock). In (HC)punk(-rock) guitar solos were taboo. Riffs, breaks, speed and walls of sound were creative elements. Hüsker Dü, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Big Black were my favourites guitar bands at this time. But also The Smiths. Being fed up with alterative rock and the upcoming grunge wave, I dived into early break-beat and minimal techno. Guitars were gone for me for quite a long time. I started to rediscover guitars by studying the history of blues music. I was shocked to realise that the whole white-rock history is a total rip-off of classic blues music. What make me really listen to guitar music again was the so called "New York downtown scene". Marc Ribot, Fred Frith and Bill Frisell and all the other fine musicians (not only guitarists) who are mainly gathered around John Zorn´s label TZADIK impressed my ears a lot.

SA: Do you work only on music or do you have another job?

SB: Right now I am working only on my own projects.

SA: You worked with several labels and projects… How did you meet Kompakt?

SB: I know KOMPAKT (and all the label universe around PROFAN, STUDIO ONE, KREISEL etc.) from the very beginning. GAS (beside BASIC CHANNEL) was/and still is the most influential ambient electronic music for me. Some time ago I have composed/recorded 2 tracks which did fit so much on MILLE PLATEAUX, where I was releasing the most of my work at this time. Looking for a home for my new compositions, I found out that KRANKY and KOMPAKT could be (musically and aesthetically speaking) a good place to put them out. I sent anonymous demos to both labels. KRANKY didn’t respond and Wolfgang Voigt of KOMPAKT called me few days after receiving my tracks. This tracks were released on the "milk & honey" 12´´.

SA: Would you like to speak about your future projects?

SB: - remix/interpretation of a track by THE NOTWIST (out soon on ALIEN TRANSISTOR)
- development of INTIFADA OFFSPRING (my current project on MILLE PLATEAUX) to a hybrid-media-, information- and net-working platform. Please read the attached text about IO.
- End of this year "presence/absence ::: into the void", a CD/DVD release on SUB ROSA, a collaboration with Eran Sachs from Jerusalem and Ran Slavin from Tel Aviv, which documents our work for the XIIIth Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow, Poland.
- I am planning a collaboration with Tim Hecker reviewing and interpreting the work of Ennio Morricone.
- Together with Maximilian Jaenicke (who done a video clip for my track RANDOM_INC "losing touch" — on clicks´n´cuts 2) and Didi Fire we will soon start to work on a DVD production. Based on video-codec manipulations.
- a review of the music, the label work and time spirit which surrounded the label SST.

SA: Which software do you use on "Milk and honey"? How do you work on music in general? Which guitars and amp do you use to records them?

SB: For KLIMEK productions the first step is to choose the sound sources. Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not a guitar player. All sounds are coming from various recordings, mostly from the repertoire of my favourite guitar players. Guess who ;) ? I have sampled lot of single tone fragments and started to shape new sounds out of this material. The next process is the arrangement, which is done on the free software AUDIOMULCH. Recently I have also started to records with instrumentalists for example a young lady named Katja playing a string harp. Those recordings will be the next KLIMEK release on KOMPAKT. More recordings will follow soon.

SA: May you suggest a play list of ten records to all people who would like to get nearest to the music you like? Which music do you like?… Can you suggest some preferred movie too?

SB:AUDIO RECORDINGS (without any particular order):
FELT (everything), MAZZY STAR "she hangs brightly", BLIND IDIOT GOD "undertow", TIM HECKER "radio amor", ROBERT HOOD "minimal nation", BARRY ADAMSON "negro inside me", OL´ DIRTY BASTARD "the return to the 36 chambers", SUN RA & WALT DICKERSON "visions", SHUT UP & DANCE "£10 To Get In", SNAKEFINGER "Chewing Hides Sound"
MOVIES (without any particular order):
DAVID LYNCH (most of his works, also the soundtrack compositions with ANGELO BADALAMENTI), "yanoon yanoon" by GRUNEWALD, WEICHSELBAUM, FINKELSTEIN, ZIOLKOWSKY, "news time" by AZZA EL-HASSAN, "happiness" by TODD SOLONDZ, "my best fiend" by WERNER HERZOG, "invasion of the body snatchers" by PHILIP KAUFMAN, THE SIMPSONS (all episodes), "pawnbroker" by SIDNEY LUMET, "sip si 32 doe" (aka "beyond hypothermia") by PATRICK LEUNG, "last temptation of christ" by MARTIN SCORSESE

SA: Where is the difference to you between play live and play in studio?

SB: When it comes to KLIMEK sets: at home I am taking much more time to develop tracks. Jamming & dubbing along around themes. For live presentations I find this approach too long-winded, so I try to be more precise. When I perform I am well prepared for the gig, than I don’t like mistakes and surprises when I play live.

SA: Next concerts or festivals will you play in which? Which festival would you like to play tomorrow? Which festival do you suggest us to go and listen?

SB:I don’t care where I play, as soon as my presence is desired. I don’t have a good overview about festivals etc. But I think there are lot of events/festivals with no soul or sensitiveness how to make a good line up of artists, without simply picking up the top votes of polls from hip music magazines.

SA: Do you live in Frankfurt, do you? What about the scene in the city you live and around it? Can you speak to us about some friends, clubs to go or art-gallery to visit?

SB: I don’t go out in Frankfurt. I don’t think that there are a lot of nice & interesting clubs in this town and even a nice pub is hard to find. I like the gallery PORTIKUS (). I like to be in parks and on the streets.

SA: What about the art and photograph on cover artwork in "Milk and honey"? How did you manipulate and choose images?

SB: The pictures have been transformed with a similar process to that one of reversing colours/creating a negative or positives. I don’t have a digital camera and so I am scanning all my pictures with a slide-scanner. And there are plenty of possibilities how to manipulate the scan process.
Every picture in the artwork of "milk & honey" is strongly connected to the corresponding track title. All of the pictures has been taken in Israel and Palestine 2002-2003. The front cover picture is by Palestinian photographer Steve Sabella ().

SA: Multimedia performance… Are sounds and images independent each other or are they related in some way? In which direction is going your research?

SB: There is always a connection between my pictures and my music. Creating a distance between visuals and sound as big as possible doesn’t stimulate me (anymore). Nowadays when I am preparing a gig, I select the visuals very precise. Actually I am pre-preparing the whole visual set and improvising the sound arrangements while watching the pictures. One day surely I will turn this approach around (per-preparing sound and improvising with visuals). And later I will start to work with two machines: one for visuals and one for sound.

SA: And what about the video inside Milk and Honey CD? Do you play it on live concert, don’t you?

SB: The video is by my friend & partner Ran Slavin from Tel Aviv. It was done for Transmediale 2003 in Berlin and I don’t mind to screen it again ;)

SA: Does audience understand your performance in general? What do you aspect from the audience?

SB: Hehe…no I don’t think that I have played in lot of places where my music was REALLY appreciated. Mostly I have played in front of an indifferent, bored, not attentive audience or I was simply over exhausting their patience. But from time to time there are places with magic where during the performances I am trembling out of excitement.

SA: Would you like to watch some of your videos on some television program? Why?

SB: Sure. Why NOT? I don’t mind when more people can see my work. The only thing which I wouldn’t like is when my work is getting squeezed in a frame/context I don’t like or don’t want to see my work in. But this can happen with all other media formats as well.

SA: Many artists from PALÄSTINA and ISRAEL you worked with… What do you think about Palestine and Israel war?

Esatta…
It’s good you name it "war", and not like most media calling it "conflict". It’s a huge tragedy what’s going on in the land of "milk and honey". The young generation on both sides is growing up without being in touch to each other, just knowing clichés and media created stereotypes. I believe that only by jumping over those walls and barbed-wire fences and starting to communicate with each other one can make a first step to end this madness. Communication and (productive) confrontations! This generation must stop to re-produce the prejudices on both sides. During my visits I have met some wonderful people who are devoting their whole life to do so. But their road is filled with stones, concrete walls and barbwire and there are too many people around who are gladly adding more obstacles. The present situation urges so much for a decision which need to be done: a two-nations-one-state way or finally making the Palestinian state possible, and removing the settlements and the wall of dispossession and returning to the "green line" borders. To do so both societies need to decide which way they want to go. And this could be a painful process for both sides. Lot of jewish Israelis have more common life perspectives with liberal Palestinians than with fanatic right wing people. People there need to start to look at each other as human beings and not only as Jews, Arabs and Muslims. Both sides have a very closed perceptions of their (national-religious) communities. Pointing the finger of criticism toward one self is considered as a betrayal. And to break through this barrier is an act of big strength. The israeli and palestinian society is trapped inside their traumata which makes it hard for each side to see the other. And everyday a new wound is being added. Recognition and a sincere apology for all the pain that has been done on both sides is of big importance. The leaders on both sides are corrupt to the core and they are working hard on maintaining the influence of their political clique and through their blindfold and pigheaded hard-liner position doing their best to make the situation escalate.

SA: Italy on your future project?… Performance or holiday?

SB: Both would be nice. Everyone is free to invite me for a show. And I would be more than happy to see Sicily one day

SA: yeaah: Sicily is good sometimes and I'll let you try the best Pani ca meusa you can ever dream for breakfast… the music will improve for sure dear... ;9
Have you got a personal website Klimek?

SB: INTIFADA OFFSPRING is a platform for artists from Palestine, Israel and other regions, who have dedicated their work to the artistic deconstruction of the so-called "middle-east conflict". It is considering Palestinian, Israeli and international perspectives of individuals who have been born into the historical surroundings of this conflict: those who live in an occupied land, those who live in Israel, those who have chosen or have been forced to leave their homeland and, finally, those who are searching for a peaceful co-existence in this region.
"Intifada Offspring" represents the urge for a change of perspectives on the Middle-East region and struggles for political stabilization and peace.
The name "Intifada Offspring" was introduced with a video-work by Tel Aviv based artist Ran Slavin and showing upon a re-edit of an american TV series a reflection on the pointless, vicious and endless loop that the two sides are engaged in.
The name stands for a generation of Israelis and Palestinians who do not believe in occupation and the shed of blood on both sides. It stands for a process of acknowledgement and convergence between artists on both sides.
BIZZ CIRCUITS play INTIFADA OFFSPRING Volume 1: Nishbar Li Ha'Zayin is the first in a series of releases, virtual and real-life based actions and artistic statements, which aim to establish a network of artists, where creative confrontations are possible.
Intifada Offspring is looking for spaces devoid of walls, barbed wire, dogmatic barriers and prejudices. It is trying to find a basis of communication and work, which breaks through the limitations of categories such as: Jew and Arab, Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Palestinian. This approach aims to set up an ongoing process of establishing various joints and independent artistic co-productions, which will be documented on http://www.intifada-offspring.org