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Ahead of ARCADIA, Planéte chats new directions & curation

26 April 2019 | 11:09 am | Caitlin Medcalf

This May long weekend, ARCADIA will be returning to Queensland's scenic Goomburra Valley for two days and nights of some of the best electronic music this country has to offer. There's less than two weeks to go until the festival is upon us, so we thought it apt to chat to one of our favourite acts on the lineup - PLANÉTE.

The Melbourne producer's rise continues to be an innovative one, with each piece of music coming from him being carefully considered and well-selected. While his music has always had a strong emphasis on curation, so too has his career as a whole.

After curating a month of music on Manchester based content network MCR Live, he then went on to curate a whole month of live music for a month, teaming up with Melbourne venue Section 8 and the team at Good Manners to do it.

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2018 saw him release his debut EP Continuum, an ambitious project that saw him put together a continuous and seamless playback style release, complete with accompanying visuals from Melbourne artist Tristan Jalleh. And the innovation didn't stop there. Post-EP he's released four tracks, all edging closer to a new found direction for the producer.

His latest, 'Hidden Shade', sees him opt for club-friendly house music, but with the Planéte touch. Ahead of his set at ARCADIA, we threw a few questions over to him to touch base on his time curating a month at Section 8, what kind of direction his new music is taking him in and what he's going to bring to the festival.

You can check out the newly announced set times for this year's ARCADIA Festival below the interview.

Hey Planète! You’ve kicked off 2019 with some huge feats already! Very aptly supporting Jon Hopkins and releasing your house-iest single yet, ‘Hidden Shade’. What else have you got planned for the year?

Plans for this year involve a lot of writing and a reset approach. I have been shifting my productions more so to the sounds I like to play in DJ sets. I have been fuelling the expensive habit of buying heaps of records, so I feel I am planning on releasing some club tracks on vinyl and getting my foot in with more DJing. 

You also curated a whole month of stellar music at Section 8 throughout January. How did that come about?

It was a joint effort between Section 8 and Good Manners. I have had a curator style residency in the ideas jar for some time so this just came altogether very nicely. Had so much fun with it that it’s definitely in the sights to try it all again.

You’ve previously curated a month of music on MCR Live, but curating music for a space is something different altogether. What was your process like for curating this live space?

The monthly segment on MCR Live started with showcasing local Australian electronic acts and the last few episodes I just went in with a 2 hour DJ mix. Getting a feel for what different people play is handy but then when they are in a particular live space, you see a certain side to them. A DJ set at one bar venue is very different to a 2AM slot so essentially I picked artists whose music I liked for their versatility.

What was it like performing consecutively - whether it be DJing or performing live - over four weekends? Did you get the chance to try new things?

The whole experience was just that, trying new things. Particularly as I had staged this so it was 2 live sets and 2 DJ sets, I tried to place myself either at the beginning or the middle or the evening. Just because of the scheduling, the task for all the sets was just to keep the energy at a constant. I have got this fascination with opening DJ slots, it seems like nearly everyone can play a headline set, so I am drawn to how song selection early on can dictate the mood of space. Having the opportunity to understand how to captivate and read a crowd thoroughly was the main achievement here. I learned a lot!

Can you talk us through the creation of ‘Hidden Shade’ and how creating this track differed from your usual process?

'Hidden Shade' was a quick piece. It involves a lot of layering and (similarly to how I approached the month of shows) a very constant and resting dynamic with no real intense peaks or troughs. This is where I think I am evolving with my productions. I have in the past found that I want things to be climatic, however I think that simplicity and restraint is harder to achieve and therefore more of a challenge. Also, older works are just long forming pieces, where 'Hidden Shade' has some vague sections. I am getting more into a combination of these. There are also some Zelda samples in here.

Will ‘Hidden Shade’ be part of a longer body of work?

Unfortunately not. I have several 2 track and 4 track EP's stacked on my hard drive. So the hunt for labels to release these will begin shortly.

You’ll be heading up to Queensland for Arcadia really soon. It seems like there’s really no other festival like Arcadia in Australia right now. What are you looking forward to about the festival?

Looking forward to the atmosphere and attitude from the organisers and patrons. For the festivals like these, so many hours are placed for a short 2 day festival, so I will be making sure that I value everything and try and get amongst the sights of the location also.

What kind of setup will you be taking to Arcadia?

I have been taking my modular synth setup with me for the last 6-9 months but I might only bring a small section to the festival. I have a little drum machine and sampler which I will pair with Ableton and see what happens there. I have found that the last few sets were hugely improvised, so I will play mostly unreleased material and a few reworked releases.

Who are you excited to see perform on the lineup?

Pretty much everyone. I haven’t seen a single act play before and knowing that there is a large representation of the local Brisbane scene there will be interesting to scope out.

Final Release tickets to this year's ARCADIA festival are on sale now. Grab yours here.

ARCADIA FESTIVAL

Feat. Set MoPlanéteLubokuDVNA & more

18+ EVENT

SATURDAY 4 - MONDAY 6 MAY

GOOMBURRA VALLEY | QLD

Image: SUPPLIED

Words by CAITLIN MEDCALF

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