Narrations is Simon Lane, an Australian-born, Georgian-based electronic musician. Originally from Brisbane, he gained recognition through its underground music scene, DJing at parties, raves and club nights. As a producer, his sound tends to favour melodic, romantic and atmospheric techno. His debut album, “Impermanence“, was released on his label Ooteeb in 2014 to devout local acclaim, and features the lingering 808 patterns of The Other People Place entwined with the heart-aching pads and chords of Underworld. As a DJ, he is known for playing a zesty and ever-eclectic array of styles and moods, spanning genres such as minimal techno, African and Asian psychedelia, Latin polyrhythms, as well as basement electro, punk and rock styles.
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- “Beyond Portal 1” is a title that evokes journeys and transformation. What does this project represent for you, and what lies beyond the portal?
Thanks for taking the time, Tanzgemeinschaft. That’s an interesting question. So last year while on a multi-day hike with some friends one of them asked me another interesting question which started it all off: “If you could do anything for one month, what would you chose?” I didn’t take to long to answer, and said I would gladly spend it in the studio making music for fun, not knowing where it would go. Afterwards I decided I would take him up on the challenge and worked to arrange my life for it to be possible.
After a bit of a struggle getting started (it had been a while) I eventually got in the groove, and kept making tunes until the month was up. I tried my best to put all expectations out of my mind and just enable flow. I didn’t know that it would be an EP—or that each track would work in the order I made them (I made them as they appear in the release, tracks 1-4). I was surprised and relieved to know that I had something at the end of that process that wasn’t total garbage.
So it turned out that the name was fitting, because if you imagine a portal it is a doorway you step through not knowing what is on the other side. That’s exactly what the creation process was with this release.
- Your music is often described as melodic, romantic, and atmospheric techno. How does emotional sensitivity play a role in your production process?
Well, genres aside for a moment, if I think about those descriptions they seem present each time I’ve been deeply moved by music. Sometimes its physical, sometimes its sensual, and sometimes its more intellectual, but the emotional component was usually the thing that unlocked the experiences in the first place for me. I guess I try to dial those three things up a healthy amount in most cases.
At some point I realised that one of the aspects I cared most about in music I loved was its tenderness. It shows control, balance, poise; but also that an artist wrestles with deep forces beyond their control. Nina Simone’s ‘He Needs Me’ is a classic example that comes to mind. Maybe I didn’t channel that so much in this release as the last album, but it speaks to the same emotional connection I feel. This release seems more like I am channeling LFO or The Advent, and if I’m honest I am also deeply romantic about those records.
Advent’s ‘Armageden’ or Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Control I’m Here (LFO Remix)’ seem closer to this EP, though they are far more impressive records. You can be romantic about all manner of things. Raving, having experiences on a sweaty dancefloor, going down internet rabbit holes while vibing on an unusual playlist; these are all deeply romantic to me, just in a different way.
- You came up in Brisbane’s underground scene but are now based in Georgia. How has this geographic and cultural shift influenced your sound?
It’s quite fascinating actually because I see some of the same cultural aspects being echoed here now that were present in Australia 15 or 20 years ago, but with a different twist. I’ve spoken with fellow expats who grew up in Europe and are now based in Georgia and they say the same about Tbilisi, comparing it to millennium-era Germany, as one example. Perhaps a unifying thread between these places and times is a kind of “online-frontier” presence of mind, if I had to sum it up. That’s certainly what I feel when I visit Bassiani, and spaces like that.
For starters, not everyone is on their phone—which is great. My read on it is a lot of people are there as kind of cold plunge to being online—a release. Despite that there is a “cyber” vibe underneath it all, like an unseen layer. I know that probably sounds silly, but it feels hopeful to me. It reminds me of Brisbane in the 2000s. We’d be on rave forums online at home, or at raves or parties, so it was also kind of like going from one basement to another.
But to answer your question in terms of shifts, I guess my sound had more of a sense of longing when I was back in Brisbane. Probably because I had the travel bug, but didn’t fully acknowledge it. I just wanted to get out and see what was beyond my home city. It’s not that I don’t still feel that now, but it has transformed somewhat.
- Your debut ‘Impermanence’ blended elements of The Other People Place and Underworld. What were the main inspirations behind ‘Beyond Portal 1’?
Musically I think I was listening to a bunch of recent Black Dog releases, as well as E-Saggila and HVL, who are all phenomenal artists and have all put out incredible material in the last few years.
But outside of music I recall I was finding it super inspiring going on mind trips listening to interesting podcast interviews about topics that were way out of my depth, and then diving into the subject matter with ChatGPT or a similar LLM, then back again. I think I discovered the Turpentine Network’s podcasts at the time.
I found I could get this amazing flywheel of learning going between those two mediums, which allowed me to go as deep as I liked on a given topic, but also had that random factor because I didn’t know exactly what the human podcast hosts and guests were going to talk about. It was a super energising and inspiring break from making music.
- As a DJ, you’re known for blending minimal techno with African and Asian psychedelia, Latin rhythms, electro, punk, and rock. How do you build your sets to unite such diverse influences?
I think context is your canvas as a DJ. I find too many DJs think in absolutes, like they have to be ultra-narrow or super-wide, and miss out on finding their own sweet spot of scope. For instance just playing the latest 140bpm main room trap, or only the latest neo-hardstyle whompers for two hours. That’s like painting with a canvas the size of a credit card, which would be fine if it took me on a journey, but often it has basically the same mood, same vibe, same build-ups, same drops etc. from one track to the next.
My method is pretty simple really: I learned to cut before I learned to mix. This allowed me to have the confidence to put any two tracks together if they worked in the sweet spot of the context window I was trying to achieve. Through trial and error I discovered I prefer to connect context on the basis of mood and energy. For example, an African Mbalax track and a Mount Kimbie track might have totally different styles, keys, BPM, average level, instrumentation, textures etc. but if the mood and energy is a match (i.e. it goes somewhere interesting) then you have an interesting development in the story or journey of your DJ set.
Any DJ can do this, and yet I find a majority either haven’t explored that in their own tastes, or are too afraid to. I look to Ricardo Villalobos, Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Mr. Scruff, Honey Dijon…great DJs like these have figured it out and I’m constantly inspired and learning new things when I hear them play.
- You’ve been running Ooteeb since 2012. What does it mean to have a label of your own, and how do you decide what to release?
I feel like my label is super abnormal, and also super personal. It’s kind of like bamboo—growing for a long time beneath the ground, not appearing to do much, before it shoots up. In my case I needed to do a lot of development before it could. My hope is that its at the start of the “shooting up” growth phase now, not like with rapid expansion but just in terms of occupying more of a spotlight in my life. It’s still my goal to release music from other artists, but for now its strictly a personal outlet for a little while longer.
Also the decision to pause being a diehard vinyl junkie for a minute helped, and instead of pressing vinyl releases I am focusing on doing high quality digital releases for now, with the goal of returning to physical formats later on. So that has been a huge weight off my shoulders, especially after travelling so much and now relocating to another new country with a different economy and market for physical formats.
But even with digital, I decide what to release on the basis of, “If I made an expensive pressing of this in the future, am I confident that I could one day sell through at least most of the units, or enough to break even?” I’ve made a lot of crap before, and said no to that question a good amount. I really try to be cutthroat about that and answer it honestly now, which is one reason why there are only 3 releases on the label after 13 years.
Additionally, I don’t want a glut of digital releases in my catalogue just because its easy to make them. I believe the opposite to perhaps many record labels, that you should release as few records as you possibly can, but that you believe all of them are essential. Not that you can’t make large volumes to improve, as an artist, but just being OK to wear that particular “label person” hat when it comes to what the label is about.
- “Beyond Portal 1” feels like a beginning—should we expect a follow-up? Are there new portals already opening in your musical journey?
Well, hopefully yes! Between that and a new album I can’t say for sure which will come next, but one or the other by the end of the year is my goal. As for portals, thanks for stepping through this one with me! 
Thank you!
