meditative ambienCE PEppered with wistful electronics AND GLITchy BEATs.

Sydney’s Jacqueline Frier drifts into weightlessness, gifting us with a pensive journey of ambient, experimental and broken beat. Aiming to shine a light on local talent, almost half of the tracks featured are courtesy of Australian producers, with three cuts from Jac herself.
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Can you tell us a bit about your journey and evolution into electronic music and how your love for ambient and experimental came about?

Well I guess it all started from my eldest brother. He is an amazing producer and DJ, and exposed me to a lot of electronic music in my teens. He pushed me and booked me for my first opening gig almost six years ago. Over the years I travelled as much as I could to find inspiration. My love for ambient and experimental music came from watching films and listening to each film score. From there I discovered a lot of ambient music and I instantly fell in love with the feeling it gave me. It’s like a form of meditation to me. I’ll never get sick of it. 

Are you formally trained in music?

Not one bit! My Nana taught me how to play with two hands on a piano when I was young and ever since then I can only play by ear, not read sheet music. I’ll hear something in my head and spend a while on some keys, transfixed until it sounds right to my ears. A few years ago I taught myself how to use Ableton and I guess it just went from there. 

How did you decide to approach your mix? Any favourite tracks or moments in there for you?

The first half is really melancholic and builds into the second half of the mix which is more broken beat. There’s two tracks in there from my friend Kris Vango who’s from Australia but based in Berlin. I’ve known Kris for about 20 years and have loved so many tracks he’s made. He’s a really talented individual that is just happy making music for the sake of art and releasing creative energy from within. You can hear it in all his tracks. 

Also the last track is called ‘Water’ by Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini (from NIN). Two great artists. This is such an emotional and yearning track. The first time I heard it I was sitting in my dining room on my own with my headphones on and I got taken away to another place. It was a really special moment and I messaged Dan straight away to tell him how beautiful it was and how happy and sad it made me all at once. An extremely powerful track that will hit you in the guts over and over.

You’ve included some of your own productions in there too?

Yes! I included three of my own tracks among about eight other Australian tracks in the mix from artists such as Lou Karsh, Systrum and Eastern Distributor.  

Which artists inspire you in the ambient/downbeat/electronica realm?

Aphex Twin, Nujabes, Deru, Apparat, Burial, Nightmares on Wax, Traumprinz, Nils Frahm, Evigt Mörker and finally Muséum who is Guillaume Coutu-Dumont, Frédéric Aubourg and Gabriel Coutu-Dumont. Guillaume sent me this LP of theirs a few years ago and there’s a track called ‘Little Dead Things.’ It’s one of the most beautiful tracks in existence and will stick with me for the rest of time. 

All time favourite ambient/downbeat/electronica/experimental track, LP or mix compilation?

Mix: DJ Metatron aka Traumprinz - ‘This Is Not (Giegling Mix 07)’
Album: Aphex Twin - ‘Selected Ambient Works 85-92’

Do you plan to release any of your productions? Can we catch you playing this style of music anywhere in Sydney?

Yes that is the plan, to release, as well as compose music for film. The only time I got the chance to play this style was at Subsonic 2017 where I was invited to play on the ambient stage. It was very surreal. This huge tent had fluffy carpet everywhere, cellophane walls and all these crazy pieces of art everywhere. You had to leave your shoes at the door and  people would just sit, trip and chill or stare at the ceiling. I loved everything about those two hours. It was designed and built by Aliy Potts. She’s super talented. 

You can check out the full tracklist for Jac’s mix over at SoundCloud.