Kaspar Tasane brings his own signature style of grooving, hypnotic progressive house to his re-imagining of Abstrakt.Digital’s Dream Sequence.
Known for his releases on labels like onedotsixtwo, Manual Music, Perfecto, and more, Kaspar has become one of our favorite producers and is a rising DJ presence to keep an eye on. Expect more from Kaspar on Dissident Music as well, with a full EP on the way in 2023.
Connect with Kaspar Tasane on Soundcloud
Thanks for talking to us today – as the year draws to a close, do you think you’ll look back on 2022 fondly?
Thanks for having me! 2022 has been a great year. I joined the ProBTech North America Management alongside legends like Noel Sanger, Amber Long, Seth Vogt, Micke and others. Filmed my first video set for TDJS by the northern coast of Estonia. Received support from some of my idols like Hernan Cattaneo, Nick Warren, and Guy J. Travelled to Buenos Aires, the capital of Progressive House. It has been an amazing year!
First of all, we want to get to know you “from the beginning”. How did your history with music begin?
I didn’t come from a musical family but my family had a good collection of cassettes, vinyl, and CDs that I used to listen to as a 5-6-year-old. Like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Depeche Mode. A lot of Italo-disco was around that time as well, so I think those artists and genres definitely influenced my taste in music as a kid.
I discovered house and techno when I was 12 by listening to Finnish Radio Mafia and Raul Saaremets on Estonian Radio 2. Around that time I discovered a bunch of dance music-oriented TV shows on British MTV and German Viva as well. Like Berlin House and Club Rotation, which played a lot of trance. Trance was kind of taboo in Estonia, even though we had huge warehouse-style events like Trance Deliverance and Atmosphera.
By the time I was 15 I had a pretty decent amount of records and started to DJ at house parties in Portland, Oregon. In the summers I would go back to Estonia and DJ at some clubs and festivals where my friends played. It was pretty easy to get into clubs when you were underage back in those days haha!
For you, what is the magic of music? The thing that makes it such a big part of your life?
I think it’s the ability of music to take you to a certain place or a state of mind. Electronic dance music does it extremely well by combining very hypnotic grooves with trippy otherworldly sounds and powerful melodies. You can be in a club in a country where everyone speaks a different language, and thinks about things way differently than you, but somehow everyone is feeling the same rhythm and sound. It’s something that connects us in a world that is more divided than ever.
Music is something that connects us in a world that is more divided than ever.
Kaspar Tasane
Your Soundcloud bio reads simply “the house that trance built”… can you elaborate on this?
Yes, I wanted to have a simple statement there that encompasses my music and what I’m about. The big push for me to start DJing came during the turn of the millennium which was a time when trance was at its peak and you had trance DJs playing progressive house records and progressive house DJs also playing (progressive) trance records. That crossover sound is what I fell in love with and I feel like it also comes through in my sets and productions, as people have told me 🙂
Trance has a rich history. It’s a genre that fell out of favour for a while, but that people seem to be gravitating towards more and more. Why do you think that is?
To be honest with you, I haven’t really followed the trance scene for probably over a decade. I lost interest in the full-on-uplifting-140BPM sound around 2005 or so when I switched over to the progressive side. But then the progressive trance scene kind of headed in a different direction than me haha!
But to answer your question, I think trance is one of the most powerful, positive, emotionally charged genres of music out there. People maybe need that in their lives more. The EDM festival kids have gotten older and maybe more open-minded about other genres like trance. Of course, it may just be related to everything 90s, in general, making huge a comeback. Go frosted tips lol!
How did you approach your remix for Dissident? Were you familiar with Indro’s original?
Noel sent me the original a few months ago and asked if I was interested in remixing it. Releasing on Dissident has been one of my dreams for years now and having a chance to bring my unique twist to the original – of course, I said yes!
Indro (Abstrakt Digital) is one of the main artists on Dissident and made a really dope original. And I’ve been a fan of Noel since he opened for Tiesto in The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon back in 2003, so it was perfect!
I approached the remix just like I always do. I listen to the original stems and pick out a handful of my favorite ones. I loved the hypnotic vocal sample and the melodies Indro made, so I opened them up in my DAW and started playing around with different rhythms. Once I had the drum and bass groove dialed in, the track pretty much wrote itself.
It already got great feedback from DJs like Anthony Pappa, Ogawa, Kenneth Thomas, Lexicon Avenue, Gustin, Kiz Pattison, so make sure to check it out! 😉
What does your current studio setup look like? Lots of hardware, or are you mainly ‘out of the box’ type producers?
I only use software and I’m definitely a gear minimalist. I have a treated studio room that has sound panels built by my good friend Mike Varnado, as well as a pair of Yamaha HS80Ms and a subwoofer and the FL Keys midi keyboard. Software-wise I use FL Studio, Sylenth, Pigments, Omnisphere and some fx plug-ins. I know these tools pretty well, so I am able to lay down my ideas pretty quickly.
What is the best advice you ever received as an artist?
Quantity over quality. BUT, …that doesn’t mean you should release everything that you make lol. The more ideas you make, the more quality ones you’ll have that you can actually choose to finish and release.
You’ll also be practicing different aspects of the production flow over and over again. Like sound design/selection, writing, arranging and mixing. You’ll also be less attached to any piece of music that you make, which will let you maintain your objectivity. I think for your mental health in general, it is more beneficial to make 10 tracks in a month rather than 1 track in 10 months lol.
What will be your focus for 2023?
Making a ton of music and enjoying the process! Hopefully, meet some of you in a club somewhere!
Anything else you’d like to tell us…?
Check out my remix of Abstrakt Digital’s “Dream Sequence” as well as my new EP “Heavens Above” on Gustin’s fresh InTu Music imprint! I also have a regular DJ Mix series on 21CPH on SoundCloud called Rogue Transmission where I play that classic groovy, hypnotic, slightly trancey progressive sound that I told you about earlier 😉
Thank you.
Thanks for having me!
