Håkan Lidbo- Bitmapping the molecules of sound

When it comes to clubbing he likes the mod idea of dressing up, for if it looks like you have some control over how good you look then people might think that you are in control over your professional life. TranZfusion discovers what goes on behind the man in the nice 60s suit.

Stockholm's Håkan Lidbo (pronounced Hawk-Can-Lid-Bow) doesn't wear suits very often, only for photo shoots, weddings and the Swedish Grammy awards. Instead, he prefers to concentrate his efforts on creating structured, intelligent, serious and funky electronica.

Recently crowned one of the top 100 producers in the electronic music world by Urb Magazine, Håkan has over 200 productions to his name under Eloge, Fifi, Force Tracks, Plastic City, Repap, Skint, Tektite and Transmat for starters.

Born in Malmo, Sweden, Håkan has been dubbed the 'Teflon Producer', for no one style sticks with this Swede. Håkan can and has taken on house, ambient, dub, disco, techno, euro-pop, jazz, Latin, electro, funk, hip hop and acid all with the finesse of an accomplished equestrian rider, turning out the monster disco remake of 'Brazil' for Street Knowledge, the vocal House sensation for Paper, and the 'patchcord perversity' of Mille Plateaux's Clicks + Cuts 2.

Håkan got his first taste for performing at age eight, with a Kiss impersonation, from there it was piano lessons and rock bands performing rather average covers; it all culminating with the purchase of a synth.

"I never really liked playing in bands. I hate working with badly organized people, drummers that are always late, bass players that rather would play jazz - I prefer making everything myself, that's why the studio is my favourite environment."

Håkan's first solo production was an acid jazz number called 'Solid State', sampling Miles Davis and John Coltrane on top of heavy hip hop loops, it lead to Håkan supporting Public Enemy on their Scandinavian tour in 1991.

His first ever release was the acid influenced 7" called '1-3-7 Disco Heaven' in 1988. Håkan paid for the production himself.

"I made 300 copies and sold about 70."

Håkan's production schedule soon became hectic when he began to take on artists all over Europe. Success came to many under the prowess of Håkan, including Danish transvestite 'Alexis', the Orb's Andy Hughes and his band Anesthesia (Blueroom) and Martin Smith (Exploding Plastics).

Håkan had a brief stint in running his own labels, 'left < > right recordings' and in 1998 'Deck Deli'. Today however Håkan runs a licensing/publishing company called 'Container' with business partner Anders Moren; they started the company mainly to ensure that Håkan's publishing rights to his own music were protected.

Today they are the only publishing company in Scandinavia with a total focus on electronic music, licensing house and techno to 50 different labels around the world.

Influenced by Scritti Politti, Jeff Mills and everyone in-between, Håkan is always on the look out for his next piece of vintage hi-fi equipment.

"I think that an interesting atmosphere in music often comes from the bad sounds and lo-fi equipment."

What is highly evident in both Håkan's previous works and his latest album 'Sound Molecules' (sequel to 'From Stockholm with Love') is the attention paid to sound and production, with the use of preset sounds a definite turn off.

"I'm very picky about single sounds; I want every little sound to work with the atmosphere of the track. To do this I will process the bass synth, hi-hat and snare drum through the same filters and effects to get a solid sound all through the track. I don't want people to say 'this is preset sound no #1 on that synth and here they are using the new plug-in for that software…' "

Steering away from the depressing and aggressive side of electronica, Håkan prefers the vibrant, uplifting and preferably humorous side of electronica. He remains open to all genres and intuition tells him that improvisation mo Tags