After a four year hiatus, techno heavyweights Marc Romboy and Stephan Bodzin joined forces in the studio once again to work on what is arguably one of the most interesting two-song EPs out on Systematic Recordings (ironically and oh so fittingly, the EP marks the iconic underground record label’s 100th release). We caught up with Marc Romboy to hear his thoughts on the collaboration, its use of musical contrast and why he considers his work with Stephan to be the most remarkable music coming out of Systematic Recordings.
This one is pretty generic, but every EP/album has a story. What sequence of events led to the creation of this one?
Well, this EP is indeed something very special to Stephan and me and the reason is pretty simple as we haven’t made any music together for almost five years. Due to our full travel schedules it was not really easy to find a slot of at least one week to dedicate to studio time, but we took off the entire month of January 2014 in order to work in a relaxed atmosphere. And especially the fact that we weren’t stressed from traveling and business gave us the opportunity to concentrate only on our music.
On the EP, “Kerberos” keeps things playful and lazy, while “Styx” is much darker and more serious. The juxtaposition is actually quite lovely. Anything you can tell us about that decision to contrast light with heavy?
This contrast-rich kind of track selection has always been part of our philosophy, if you look at previous records we have released. For example, think about the 12-inch we did that included “Atlas” and “Hyperion”: it was two totally different moods. So this is not really something that we plan, but it keeps the work in the studio exciting – otherwise it would become boring.
Is one track more yours than Stephan’s, or was each born equally of the two of you?
The songs are released under both of our names, and there is never really a track that is more from Person A or Person B. It is a process we have directed together, otherwise we could have released them as solo tracks.
This EP marks the 100th release on Systematic Recordings. What significance does that have to you, and how does this EP represent what SR is all about?
It goes without question in our opinion that the collaborative tracks by Stephan and me are the most remarkable pieces of music out on Systematic to date. On the one it was coincidence that we reunited to join forces at this point in time [for the 100th release], but on the other hand it happened to be perfect timing of course.
The EP is available for download now on any digital retailer via Systematic Recordings.
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