Herrmann Kristoffersen: The 'Monday Is OK' Mix

Music

In February of this year photographer and producer Daniel Herrmann and his partner, singer-songwriter Kristina Kristofferson, released their first collaborative outing on our cassette label offshoot Bytes. The album was a beautiful collection of long, meditative and atmospheric soundscapes made during a winter spent at one of their homes in the Taunus forest, in the outskirts of Frankfurt.

Individually they’ve both had their fair share of musical accolades; Daniel as Flug 8, who has been a regular on Ransom Note Records for the last few years, and Kristina as Mono Girl, who formerly composed music for Nintendo.

Stimulated by an introduction from a friend to Börft Records, the pair have created a mix in homage to the Swedish label, recorded in their woodland home…

Please introduce yourself… Who are you, where are you, what are you?

Herrmann Kristoffersen: Kristina Kristoffersen and Daniel Herrmann. Travelling artists between Denmark and Germany. Human on Planet Earth (at least for now) with a huge interest in atmosphere and all kinds of weird and fabulous.

Tell us about the Monday mixtape you’ve put together for us.

A friend of ours, Paul David Rollmann, founder of airbag and workshop records, visited us in Taunus and presented us with a usb stick of Börft records back catalogue. We were amazed by how much music they have supported through out the years and have spent hours and hours of listening to the music while doing other creative stuff. We are honouring the Swedish experimental electronic label and it’s artists, with this mix. Börft started as a cassette label back in 1987 and has been going on strong since!

The mix isn’t that much of an easy listen, it has it’s quiet moments, but was created in these strange covid19 times, and insists on pushing limits between weird and wonderful, space and textures.

If it were to be drawn what would it look like?

Wild lines of thoughts and emotions, the result of holding a pen in your hand, drawing on white paper and thinking of life in it’s complex presence.

If it were a food what would it be?

Astronaut food and an apple.

What would be the ideal setting to listen to the mix?

A nightly walk in the forest with your dog, just to see things from a different angle. But also, a deep stone cave could work out perfectly, if you’re not too scared. 🙂

What should we be wearing?

Anything shining.

Where was it recorded?

In the Taunus Forest, our German home.

Are you on the same wavelength as the boomtown rats or do you actually like Mondays?

A weekly discussion we have, as it always depends on what the week will be having in store for us. Some mondays suck when you’re off to do stuff you don’t feel like, but ideal is to enjoy your life as much as you can and focus on all the good there is.

Who got you hooked on electronic music?

We have both been working with electronic music for years now. The amazing thing about it, is that it is in such a development all the time and leaves a lot of space for new ideas as your mind is growing older.

Who would you say are your biggest influences and what are you hoping to achieve with your music?

Let’s just say anyone who dares to think out of the box and use their creativity to create soundscapes and worlds to dive into. A good start would be Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk or Aphex Twin. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. As you can hear in our mix there are plenty of things to discover. A state of personal inner satisfaction is what we aim for.

What were your original aspirations as musicians and how do you think you’re shaping up?

Both of us started young in the music business and have been through everything from major deals to indie and punk bands. Music has been many things for both of us. We still can’t imagine a life not creating when we need to.

What are you obsessed with at the moment?

Anything shining, good talks, nature and a healthy body.

If you could travel in time… wWhere in time would you go? Why?

The idea of travelling back in time, let’s say just 50 years feels tempting, because you could be a pioneer with the knowledge you’ve collected so far, but with all that is accessible right now, you can see enough that gives you a good feeling about how things were, have been and can be. The future is tempting too. If we’d be brave enough to watch the stars and earth from space, it would probably be very amazing to experience together.

Some self help questions for a Monday…

Am I excited to dive into the challenges that I have lined up for the week?

A great question that you should ask yourself very often. You create your own future in living in the now and being in connection with yourself and your emotions. Good as bad ones. We all want to feel like we make a difference and have development in our lives. Go out and live it!