30 years ago, along with partner Mariko Takahashi, Steven Winter founded the label Winter & Winter, representing boundary-pushing musical art. With a roster including Ernst Reijseger, Paul Motian and Mauricio Kagel, the producer is constantly on the hunt for images and visions of his sonic universe. Looking towards the future, he would like to see audio enter into the world's greatest art museums whilst continuing to move people with his unique sonic language.
How did Winter & Winter come about? Stefan Winter: In my head, I heard these completely different interpretations of Trios by Schubert, works by Schumann, Mahler symphonies and Bach Suites - but also of Tin Pan Alley and the Great American Songbook. Heavy with emotion, touching, tender; and also painful, poignant, tangible. I heard the music and saw its colours and pictures, so I set out to paint those pictures with a microphone.
How do you select the artists for the label? With composition, the most important question is "how are we going to bring this to life?". I look for artists who have their own language, but who are also on my wavelength. Producing is like making a film in which I'm the director.
Which artists have particularly influenced the label? Collaborations with Ernst Reijseger, Paul Motian, Mauricio Kagel, Fumio Yasuda, Uri Caine, and Zapico with his group Forma Antiqva...but the biggest influence probably comes from what I observe on my travels. Our world is so full of sounds which tell a story and which can transport us back to memories of our childhood we think we've forgotten. Myself and Mariko Takahashi travel across the world together armed with recording equipment, listening and capturing music and sounds. Noises and sounds have a profound impact on my work and I like to share my experiences with people.
This year Winter & Winter is celebrating its 30th anniversary. How do you feel about this milestone? I feel like it's a new beginning! I'm full of ideas which are just waiting to be made reality. I'm changing, and my new experiences spawn new projects. I want to transform them into sonic art. I have this recurring dream where I am laying the foundations for a sonic art museum.
How are you planing to celebrate the anniversary? With a special release called Jubilee Edition Winter & Winter. It brings together ten albums which I have personally selected, spanning classical, jazz and works which will be listened to by people like you and me.
How do you think the music scene has changed over the last 30 years? The music industry has been consistently devaluing recording quality; it's all about the bottom line. The visionaries have all but gone silent or disappeared. We have the same insignificant managers, no "delinquents" or people standing up for music as art, just people producing dull, faceless music to bring in the cash. This isn't just confined to music - you can see it in other fields too. We're heading down a slippery slope.
Do you reckon it's harder to be a musician these days? I don't think that it was necessarily better in the past. Today, the huge figures involved in art have become synonymous with value which...is just a mistake. We need to understand that profit has nothing to do with good art or music. That's not to say that wildly popular music isn't always as good - that would be just as ignorant a judgement as saying that those who sell millions of records are therefore the best.
Over the course of the past thirty years, the way that music is consumed has changed radically with the rise of digital music. How has Winter & Winter had to adapt to this change? I record music. The way that recordings reach the listener is, and always will be, constantly changing. I think that in the future, digital art will have the same legitimacy as analogue; analogue may have something that its impossible to recreate digitally, but at the same time digital works open the door to numerous possibilities. Just look at photography; you can see that there is no one more legitimate path to take, with art photography finding its way into galleries and museums. I also think that the internet changes things in the same way the printing press did 500 years ago. Without Gutenberg, we would have no access to information; the internet and the digitalisation of our world is revolutionising our lives in much the same way as Gutenberg and the printing press did. There are still big changes to come, even if they can feel a little threatening, but personally I really believe in the future.
How do you see Winter & Winter fitting into the world of digital music? The digital world has allowed me to realise some of my most out-there ideas with sound. I don't want to completely abandon analogue as it contains that spontaneity! I'd like to work between the two. Our recordings are not made to sit on the shelf, but to be listened to and to be released into the world.
What are you goals and projects for the future? I'd love to see audio art finding its way into the world's museums. The narrative power of noises and sounds is immense; I really think that people are particularly sensitive to and touched by sound. Music recording is real Fine Art. I'd love to reach and move people.
Discover Winter & Winter on Qobuz
Original interview by ALEXANDRA GRILLMEIER Translation by RACHEL HARPOLE
