Jasmine Guffond, originally from Sydney, came to Europe to tour as part of the duo Minit, ended up setting up home in Berlin, began recording here and released her debut album The Demolition Series in 2008 under the name Jasmina Maschina. Her stage name/alter-ego manufactures intriguing soundscapes blending modern electronic, experimental sounds with guitars, piano, violins, the lot. Jasmina is equally comfortable at the microphone playing minimal, folk infuenced songs as she is at letting the shuffling, cracked electronics take over the show and carry us off to dreamland.

Her new album Alphabet Dream Noise will be released on 30th September. It’s full of wonderful, dreamy compositions that draw the listener into a world of sleepy, remote scenes and will be featured on 29th September at the album release party at HBC where Jasmina will be joined onstage by her special guests for this special show: Boris Hauf (barritone saxophone, Steve Heather (drums), Simon James Philips (piano), Theresa Stroetges (guitar, electronics, viola).

We met just before her rehearsal held at Bethanien to talk about the new album.

How did you come up with the name Jasmina Maschina?
Jasmina Maschina: I was inspired by a Kraftwerk album Mensch-Maschine, and I loved this idea. It’s how I interpreted Kraftwerk’s ironic take of a German cliché – that we’re all human robots. I thought then I am Jasmina Maschina. Jasmine the robot.

How would you describe your music?

JM: For me it’s a cross between sort of folk, song writing and also experimental electronic soundscape. It’s minimal electronic.
You’re about to release a new album. Is this your second album?

JM: Second for Jasmina Maschina. I previously released a few albums with Minit and once with Organ Eye, which is another collaboration.

Where did the idea to name the album Alphabet Dream Noise come from?
JM: That actually came from a friend. A long time ago, 15 years ago now, I don’t know exactly. In Sydney we had this noise duo called Alphabet Dream Noise and she came up with the name. She found it in a novel by a New Zealand writer Janet Frame. I actually totally forgot about it, it was so long ago. Sometime last year Alphabet Dream Noise just came to my mind and I thought, Wow. That is such a great album title. So I had lots of ideas for how to make use of it. It was a great title for this installation I had, it was a great title for just another musical project, but it was also a great album title. I just really liked this Alphabet Dream Noise as a title. It’s like another language, dream language. People often say to me that my music is very dreamy or that it’s made for sleeping.

When did you start working on the album?
JM: Over a couple of years, I guess. Some of the songs are a couple of years old. I would work on them whenever I had a bit of spare time. There are ones from this year as well.

Would you say there was any major difference between working on this album and the previous one?
JM: I kind of worked in the same way, at home. Pretty much except one song which was recorded by Holger Müller in a studio. It was really nice, actually, to just play and have someone else think about the recording side. It was pretty much the same process otherwise. Then again, I think, I kind of have changed.  The first album is much more song focused and this one has songs of course, but then it also has experimental sound. I wasn’t so completely obsessed on the song aspect, this time round.

Who else did you work with on the album?
JM: Theresa Stroetges plays guitar on one song on the album. We’ve toured together a lot in the past, and she pretty much always plays with me live. Last year we released a record together, with half her music, half mine. She also has a solo project called Golden Diskó Ship. Then there is Steve Heather, who while in Berlin, sometimes plays drums with me. He plays drums on part of the songs.

When did you know that the album is ready?
JM: Well you just get to a part where you have to finish, cos I also had to work. You can’t work on something for ever. So I just had to set myself a deadline, give it to the label and then see if they want to release it. Then there was another deadline to make changes.

You moved to Berlin for music I presume, and I wonder if the kind of music that you make has a better ground here for it to thrive on than in Australia.
JM: Well I kind of actually moved here because I wanted to move to Europe and I liked Berlin. The thing about Europe is that it’s better for touring, and also in Berlin there are so many places to play live compared to a city like Sydney. So it does give you a chance to just develop stuff in front of an audience. Europe just has a bigger population and lots of cities to play in. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have more of a home here than in Australia.
I was thinking more in the lines of your music – that perhaps it can be a little more appreciated over here because of the huge culture of electronic music, maybe more so than in Australia.
JM: I wouldn’t say more so. It’s just as strong there. There’s just more people here.

What do you find mostly influences you when creating music?
JM: In a way everything. I’m inspired a lot by other music also by the sounds I hear, the environment. My ideas come from everywhere in a way. Sometimes from reading an email from a friend, from something that they say, something that I’ve read or a film that I’ve seen.

What are your experiences from playing in Berlin clubs?
JM: Pretty Good. Last time I played a Jasmina Maschina set it was actually at Antje Oeklesund. Every time I played there it was really great. The audience was really nice. I recently played here (in Bethanien) a few nights ago, but not really a Jasmina Maschina set. We played a couple of variations of my songs with everyone jamming over the top. That ended up being really, really fun cos the musicians were just so good and it was just so easy to do something together.  There was this freedom to create, over the basic foundation of a song that I have played plenty of times live. It was nice.
They can also bring something that you didn’t think of.
JM:Yeah, yeah, and that’s great. I like that cos I think I tend to have one sort of one mood in a way. It’s nice to hear people bring a different tension or something.

When you look back, what was the reason behind you wanting to become a sound engineer. What fascinated you about sound?
JM: When I finished high-school I knew I wanted to do music, but I also knew that I wasn’t interested in commercial music, and that I would probably have to find some other way of making a living. I was thinking in a very practical way, I guess. I wanted to do something sound related. I also got interested in sound engineering cos I was so dissatisfied with my experience in studios. I thought engineers often didn’t take me or my ideas seriously. Sometimes I was sort of obviously lied to. For instance I would ask “Could you take off the reverb a bit?”  and then they would say “I did”, but then I could still hear it. I just thought I have to learn this for myself so I can communicate with these people or just not have to work with them. It’s nice to be totally independent for your own production. Even though it would be also nice to work in a studio with more high-end equipment, but then it’s having a budget, finding the right people to work with. I quite enjoy just being autonomous.

Interview & Images: Olga Baczynska

So we’ll see you all there at HBC on 29^th September for the official album release party, with live guest musicians: Steve Heather (drums); Boris Hauf (Barritone Sax); Simon James; Phillips (Piano); Theresa Stroetges (guitar, viola) and DJ’s: Gebrüder Teichmann; Markus Detmer; Tonwerkstatt; Schatz.

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