Psychogeography #8: Cosmin Trg’s ‘No Fixed Abode’

Over the last decade Cosmin TRG has become a Techno figurehead. He takes inspiration from grunge-fuelled warehouse parties, obscure minimialistic film scores and beyond. The result is abstract, fast paced club music, dark soundscapes and hypnotic grooves. With a ridiculously busy schedule he himself says he cannot be tied to one place in particular. As a R$N favourite we finally managed to pin him down and discussed some locations that spark his imagination. Over to him..

"I’ve moved house more times that I can remember. I now call Berlin home, but it’s a figure of speech. I have to live in more than one location at once, at least vicariously, to avoid falling prey to geographic ennui. Some places in my head don’t exist any more. Others, I haven’t even been to or don’t exist at all. Yet they exist as memory, making for a strange topography of the mind."

Nonbei Yokocho, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

©C.Nicolae
 

"Nonbei Yokocho is a tiny street just off Shibuya, with minuscule bars and eateries that can fit about four or five people. They give ‘intimate’ a whole new meaning. The perfect place to enjoy a haibōru and some dry fish on the side."

Lulu’s, 113 Franklin Street, Greenpoint NYC (Closed)

©Google Maps

"All my happy places are bars. I was spending a few days in New York at the end of my US tour back in 2013 when I walked into Lulu’s. It was about a block away from my place, not very crowded so I went straight for the Low Life Special: a Miller Highlife, shot of whiskey and free pizza. By the third or fourth round a heavily tattooed token hipster couple came in, ordered beers and chasers, had an argument about work and stormed out. The music was metal, the drinks were stiff, the cold unforgiving. I came back every night of my stay there. It closed in 2014." 

Shooting Range, Buzau, Romania

©C.Nicolae

"This is a structure I associate with my home town. It’s a concrete object on an army shooting range, designed to keep bullets from straying into nearby crops and trains. It is deserted now. Like much of my home town, it’s a relic of community suspended in time, feeding off memories, crushed provincial dreams, its potentiality frozen. A fun place, for the whole family."

Cornerhouse, Manchester (UK)

©Under The Skin (Still)

"The Cornerhouse is a fantastic venue for arts in Manchester. I came across it when I went to one of the first screenings of Jonathan Glazer’s 'Under The Skin'. It was in one of their tiny cinemas, and watching this beautiful oddity with 10 other people in the room was such an intimate, warm experience."

Military Base, Buzau, Romania

©C. Nicolae

"Sheet metal tank used in military training. It ran on a metal track pulled by a steel chord. Used to play army games there before '89. In the middle of the Cold War nobody gave a fuck about us kids running around the base. There was nothing going on. The logic of cold war meant nothing was going to happen anyway. In the years after the fall of the Iron Curtain the base was sealed off, signs and guards warned against trespassing. Service became optional in 2006, which meant fewer troops every year. The base now looks deserted, save for a horse and this rusty tank. The signs say there is a Center for Special Ops training which probably means some guys on computers playing flight simulators. There are no fences around the compound, and rumour has it it's just a matter of time before the army property gets chewed up by real estate sharks."

Schwimmhalle, Landsbergerallee, Berlin Friedrichshain

©C. Nicolae

"This is a brutalist’s wonderland. Exposed concrete everywhere, I often visit that space to get inspired and get my fix of chlorinated water, it’s a swimming pool."

Beer Temple, Amsterdam

©C. Nicolae

"Back to a bar. I love the variety of beers on offer, and apparently so did this person who bought 7 to 8 beers and took notes all evening. Expertise."

Barbican, London

©C. Nicolae

"Perhaps a very obvious choice, the Barbican is my next-day pilgrimage after a gig, to filter out the post-rave noise and find some more inspiration."

Cosmin TRG has a forthcoming record on his own imprint Fizic. Follow him on Facebook here.