Jorkes: “Transcend“

IMPACT is another thoughtful and widescreen project from Freeride Millenium.

The ever-dynamic Freeride Millenium, one of the most exciting contemporary labels in electronic music, will drop a bold new three-part compilation series called IMPACT. The first volume will feature tracks by the likes of Massimiliano Pagliara, Jorkes, Alinka, Each Other, the duo of Justin Strauss and Max Pask, Permanent Vacation’s co-founder Benjamin Frohlich and Raphael Schoen with a further two volumes due for release in January and February 2022.

IMPACT came about after a conversation between label boss Jorkes and Lisa Jäger with whom they run the hot all-gender sauna parties in Vienna. When lockdown hit and the parties were paused, they were left with nowhere to channel artistic needs and exchange feelings in an open and free space. When things started to open up, clubs were left out of the discussion and in these moments it became clear how important club culture is to the way of life for many, but also the IMPACT it has had on mainstream society.

From political movements to gender identification, sexual liberation to amplifying multiculturalism, club culture is a real driver of change. The pair then moved to set up discussions under titles such as ‘clubs as places for freedom and emancipation’ at the WAF Galerie that Lisa co-curates. Massimiliano Pagliara, Therese Terror and Cecile Balbous from Queer Base all contributed and two further talks are planned, with each one corresponding to each of the three volumes of IMPACT.

Today we are psyched to premiere a new track called “Transcend” from label founder Jorkes, who splits his time between Vienna and Stuttgart and always operates at the fringes of any given genre. His track “Transcend” is a deep, dark and dirty low-slung house groove with menacing bass and eerie synth work.

In Jorkes’ own words: “The lyrics of ‘Transcend’ are ‘Relax and Trans / Close Your Eyes And Dance / Free Your Mind / Your Body Will Follow / All Is Fine’. I´m pretty sure I´ve heard excerpts of this in some of Rauhofers Club 69 styled songs from around that era, but I can’t exactly recall. They just popped up in my mind and out of my mouth. “Relax and Trans” can be seen somehow as a command to follow, a path that needs to be walked.

I have been studying Paola Revenioti lately. She is a transexual sexwork-icon in Greece. She started working the streets in the sexwork-strip Syngrou Avenue in downtown Athens in the mid-70s. Her being outspoken about being transexual and a sexworker, she was pioneering and paving the way for all queer people in Greece. She was the first of us to be invited onto television and radio these days and educated the very conservative orthodox Greek society in a very charming, loving and caring way. With her appearances she basically blew up all sexual taboos that existed at that time. She opened the doors for so many that came after her. Her magazine ‘Kraximo’ is something of a cultural heritage to the LGBTQI+ history of Greece. She transcended Greek society into something more romantic and sexy, full of trans pathos. I have only deep respect and unconditional love for what she did and tried to channel her activism and existence through the song.

She lived in circumstances and fought against dangers that we also find in our days: Religion, ideology, hate. These are the true venoms to our life and our existence. We must transcend as a global community and leave them behind us. For everyone to be free, we must liberate ourselves from them. I firmly believe in science, freedom, nature and love. Because of us being digital natives and consuming all trauma and decay within seconds and directly in front of us, our world becomes more complex, more vulnerable and also more outrageous. Religious bigots want to take hold and control of the bodies of menstruating people; theocracies and surveillance regimes are taking over and restricting freedom; racism and fascism is on the rise; radical, false and dangerous opinions become the mainstream. On the other hand you have people that are on our side of the isle, but call each other out for 10 seconds of insta-feed-fame. Instead of canceling culture and exposing culture, we must cultivate a culture of care and tenderness towards the ones that so far had less education on sensitive issues. We must connect the bubbles and not expand the gap between them, because otherwise it just adds up to division and thus hate, which is counterproductive and in the end anti-emancipatory. It will prohibit us from transcending. To all of them: Relax! Close Your Eyes and Dance. Living true freedom and love will give an example for others to follow. Let’s begin to transcend.”

Blast it below exclusively on LAGASTA.

V/A – “IMPACT – Volume 1” will drop on December 17th via Freeride Millenium.

Pre-order it here.