Saying the Unspeakable with Henrik Schwarz

Henrik Schwarz has always avoided the flatfooted obviousness of the lowest common dancefloor denominator. For nearly two decades now the German producer and DJ has been imbuing his take on deeper-dwelling house with a sense of the unadorned and organic. With this most recent release, Instruments, he's taken this stance to it's semi-logical conclusion and gifted us with a series of orchestral re-interpretations of older material performed and recorded by a Japanese ensemble at Tsukiji Honganji Temple in Tokyo. That material was then then edited with the help of classically-trained musician Johannes Brecht. The result is a record that beguiling, intriguing, and often beautiful.

Schwarz, of course, isn't the first nominally club-focused producer to swap the glowstick for baton. From legendary label Deutsche Grammophon's Recomposed series – which has seen Carl Craig take on Ravel, and Matthew Herbert mingle with Mahler – to Kate Simko's recent single with Tevo Howard, the concert hall and the nightclub are edging ever closer.

On a sunny afternoon in central London, we zipped up to the palatial suite Schwarz was hanging out in, for a chat about the collision of worlds as we gazed out at Hyde Park.

THUMP: What for you, as a listener, is the appeal of classical music?
Henrik Schwarz: I was trying to access classical music for many years and I found it difficult. Somebody said that music talks about the unspeakable aspects of life and I like that. When you listen to music you can get answers to questions you weren't aware you had and I think classical music does that very well. If you go to a concert hall today there's a problem because orchestras are mostly playing the hits. Even if they're trying to challenge the audience they'll play a hit, then something difficult, then another hit. From my perspective this isn't very enjoyable. I'd rather have three 'difficult' things in a row, only one of which I might enjoy, because I'd get a new perspective.

I went to the philharmonics in Berlin regularly to see if I could find new things. And I found them, of course. I've heard some crazy stuff, but you need a lot of patience to get to it and that might be too much for the average music listener. I listen as a producer too, so even if i don't like the music I've heard, I can think of it as work, and not as a lost evening.

You used the word patience there which is interesting. In a very general way, do you think most people lack the patience to immerse themselves in classical?
For younger people, I'm not sure if they've learned patience at all. I know what it is and I like it. I want to dive deep into things and discover the unknown. With music, we can all now hear everything that's ever been recorded but no one tells you where to go.

What do the big classical 'hits' speak of now, and how does that differ from their moment of inception?
The thing is, they are still fantastic pieces but I've heard them hundreds of times. It's the same with my record collection. I've got great stuff but I might not listen to certain records at the moment because they don't change me. If I hear something in the concert hall I've heard ten times it doesn't change me. It doesn't have an impact. I don't know if those 'hits' are connected to every day life in 2015.

Is one of the ultimate purposes of music to change the self?
For me personally, yes. You might be a very ignorant person and you might go to a club and listen to stupid music there and a DJ might play something that gives you a new perspective and you might be a new person on walking out. You didn't ask for it to happen but it did. This is important. It makes the world a better place.

Read more about the interplay between classical and the club

What you have to do today is be brave enough to stop and think and not let all that noise interrupt. I realized last year that I needed time to create. You have to play less. That's a decision which means I earn less which means I can invest less. But I want to try new things. I have to do it. I don't just want to party. That's not enough. There's so much more to electronic culture than partying. A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine said he's turned away from club music but it isn't about music - partying took over and music is just background noise. He's not wrong.

Lets think about the relationship between musicality and dance music. A lot of producers have only dealt with software. Is that damaging to dance music?
I don't think so. It's another time. When I started we had drum machines and 303s and we couldn't play the keys. We had to think about how we could do that, how we could make something that means something. That's still the same. Now everyone with a laptop could be a producer but most of what they produce is just noise. 20 years ago you had to sit and think about how you stood out. That's still the same. You've still got to have the idea.

Did it feel liberating getting away from the 4/4 kick?
It felt wrong. In the first version of the record there were drums, percussion, beats, and it sounded wrong to me. It had to go. I spent three years working out why I felt like that. I have a theory now, and I don't know if it's true, but for some reason I think the classical instruments take the music out of time. When you have beats you can date things, work out time periods. It felt radical to strip it away. It freed everything else up. It's still there in your head, though.

Does the 4/4 kick work on people in an elemental way?
I don't think it's just the 4/4. Its groove in general. From dancing round fires onwards. dancing to a drum is very human and it brings us together and its something inside all of us for the last 20,000 years.

Humans don't want to be alone. That's why we go to clubs.

Instruments is out now on Sony Classical.

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