Konstantinos Soublis’ music was born in urban Greece and really found its path during the mid 90s, in a city that existed in a state of ‘flux’ like no other in the 20th century. Berlin’s social, historical and political factors all came to bear both consciously and unconsciously on the musicians experimenting in the city around the turn of the millennium and the freedom in the city’s creative spirit was very much a reflection of these wider factors. This, along with the naivety and liberalism of the time, mixed with punk-like rebellion against form gave birth to many of the strains of techno and electronic music that now dominate the sound of clubs the world over. Fluxion was swept along in this wave of creating for creativity’s sake during this special time, with an organic, naturally fluid and playful attitude towards pushing artistic boundaries.

That today’s hyper aware and monetized world owes so much to this creative spirit that is now regarded a luxury, is one of the great contradictions of our time. In his recent work as Fluxion, Soublis dissects these impulses that have set him on his course and explores them with a mature, meditative approach. Acknowledging the alignment of factors in the past that saw him release on now mythical Chain Reaction label, he keeps this in his consciousness but seeks constant evolution, exploring how these factors unique to his artistic development have brought him to embrace his present process.

While much of the scene Soublis and his contemporaries spawned have become aggressive and direct, Fluxion’s work takes the long view, “allowing sound to breathe”, interact and meld together in new and unexpected ways. He plays with the mind’s conventional expectations in pieces of music, with no one loop repeating itself. Motifs may come and go, appearing unexpectedly in new and wonderful forms but with each experience of his music he wants the listener to perceive in it in a different way.

A live Fluxion show is entirely improvised, exploring the role of the musician in the 21st century. He is highly influenced by the level of reciprocity and interaction that exists in the club between live performer and dancer, and after 20 years of experiencing this unique place to communicate this to new audiences and in new environments, the artist himself is often taken into the realm of audience, as his own creations are layered up and find an unintentional life of their own. This could be ethereal or perplexing, depending on how the listener’s personal musical journey has wired his brain to hear these sounds.

The collection of sounds may come across as not belonging together but then ask the question; what is perfection in music anyway? Why should this be detached from the artist himself to experience the thrill of experimentation, the unknown of how people will perceive his on-the-fly composition. In maintaining the performer’s own curiosity for sound and the purity in his own music, these incidental accidents or “mistakes” as he puts it, are fed back into the performance, probing again at the vibrancy of the room when the artist decides to take control of the musical flow again.

Fluxion’s current work is Vibrant Forms III, the latest part of a trilogy that commenced in the year 2000, his 8th in total.

 

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