„No system, no formula, always a bit different…”
Writing a biography for an artist – especially a DJ or electronic music producer – is often quite a hard task. Usually, there isn’t much to note down. The guy or the girl is happy with his or her status of being able to travel the world carrying a record, CD or laptop case, act as the centre of a party and work some more on the mini-pop-star-reputation, which is habitually and simultaneously the only point of interest. With Gilb’r and I:Cube alias Chateau Flight it’s the other way around. There is a certain impossibility of compressing their art, music and vision into the narrow space granted to the format of a press clipping. Their respective musical heritage echoes the sounds of Detroit techno soul, Chicago and their jackmasters, the warmth, boom boxes and mirror balls of New York as well as early European electronica, Italian disco, German krautrock as well as the delays and reverbs King Tubby or Lee “Scratch” Perry experimented with. You just can tell the time spent researching in record shops, listening to mix tapes and collecting vintage and modern gear.
You can take a step into their universe on the brilliant Versatile blog (http://versatilerecords.blogspot.com/) or with the armada of beautiful club 12”s and artist albums they have released on the ever-evolving and inspiring Versatile Records label. That’s what you get, when you can’t stop being a music nerd.
But back to Chateau Flight: Shaped in 1997 in order to remix Pierre Henry, the dynamic duo from Paris went on to produce two albums, an original soundtrack recording for the French silent movie classic Les Vampires, various smash-hit-singles like Cosmic Race or the Baroque EP for Dixon and Ame’s highly acclaimed Innervisions imprint and more and more remixes (Theo Parrish, Stardust, Femi Kuti, Joakim, Juan McLean et al). Their sound is as versatile as the label that Gilb’r takes care of and as detailed as the productions I:Cube does on his own. It’s a slippery slope to define it. When they came together for the first time to rework the above-mentioned Pierre Henry, they did the remix in no time almost without any talking – intuitive understanding or a conversation without words. Their individual approach merged into Chateau Flight and I:Cube likes to describe the results of their collaborative efforts as pretty unpredictable: „No system, no formula, always a bit different…”
The same words apply to their appearances as DJs or as a live act. Instead of a boring and predictable textbook sets, they throw everything in the mix that influenced and inspired the Chateau Flight sound system. Timeless house and disco gets mixed up with electronic freshness, spiced with surprising turns and joyous peaks. While they care to jack your body with other people’s records in a club context, you get an altered version of Chateau Flight’s musical taste when they take a firm stand behind their laptops and machines. Either they compose new sounds for a screening of Les Vampires, stimulate your brain with ambient soundscapes or focus on the specific elements of their sound hone sin countless remixes, jam and production sessions. Whatever Chateau you decide to travel to, rest assured it will be a great Flight!
Gerd Janson
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/chateauflight