C-drík
[INT]
Born in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), and currently based in Berlin, C-drík is a musician, activist, curator, DJ and author. He runs Syrphe, a recording label focusing on electronic and noise music from Asia and Africa, and establishing connections between different disciplines and media.
His musical style ranges from electronica, dark ambient to industrial and field records, making evocative and psychedelic sound collages.
Prior to living in Berlin, C-drík was based in Belgium and The Netherlands, while constantly traveling across South America, South East Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He has been performing and conducting both academic and journalistic research, an effort he first embarked on in 2005. Between 1991 and 1996, C-drík ran a tape label, Sépulkrales Katakombes, which published music from bands from locations as disparate as The Netherlands, South Africa, and Chile, before establishing Syrphe in 2002. Syrphe hosts several solo and collaborative records by C-drík, and also works with producers and composers across the world.
As a researcher, C-drík’s work in Southeast Asian music led him to co-author NOT YOUR WORLD MUSIC with Dimitri della Faille, published in 2016. Considered "[t]he first book aiming to chart the spread of noise music across South East Asia," (The Wire) NOT YOUR WORLD MUSIC contains essays and interviews with artists, and an extensive discography of noise and industrial music from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. This led to C-drik writing “Power through networking: Reshaping the underground electronic and experimental music scenes in East and Southeast Asia” for CTM’s New Geographies publication in the same year. The book was awarded the Golden Nica by Prix Arts Electronic in the Digital Musics & Sound Art category in 2017.
C-drík is currently a writer for Norient magazine, and continues to run Syrphe.
