Kalm

Kalm doesn't dig the crates - he just buys them whole, takes home and then bounces them off onto his tracks in ways resembling more cooking than music production. With his roots deeply in jazz music, Kalm uses original instrumentation and a great deal of sampling, believing firmly in a traditional song-writing model at the same time.

"People tend to think that the technology can save them or be a substitute for great songwriting, which it's not," he says. "It's really hard to write a song on the computer - some people manage it - but in most cases its outright boring and static. You can turn all your knobs but it just does not excite. And it is really hard for me to imagine somebody sitting behind the computer or a mixing desk, all of a sudden being hit by great ideas one after another. That's why a significant mass of contemporary dance music is what it is - professional and boring."

Starting to produce music only about a year and a half ago, Kalm issued his debut under Umblu Records together with fellow labelmate Tallinn 73 in spring 2002. Their split-CD Autopiloot worked on various jazz themes from broken beat to 50s cool jazz and 60s psychedelic pop, claiming significant critical acclaim.