#60: Safy SNIPER

Safy SNIPER presents Star Search & Destroy which embraces mythical icons of rock and pop music and deconstructs them beyond (re)cognition: Elvis, Donna Summer, Barbara Streisand and Michael Jackson at the age of eight – Safy Sniper creates their deconstructed double always new, always different.

Safy’s special guest is Cem “Jammin’ Unit” Oral with whom he performed already in the late 90ies. Cem is also known as one half of German acid/techno group Air Liquide. Recording (as with his partner Ingmar “Walker” Koch) under a seemingly endless array of pseudonyms — including Cube 40, Zulutronic, Bionic Skank, G104, and Ultrahigh — Oral was one of the most prolific artists on the early German acid scene and helped organize Köln’s influential Structure label group (which included the Blue, Structure, and DJ Ungle Fever imprints). An active producer and engineer since 1991, Oral produced mainstream house and techno for some of German’s most commercial labels before following his distortion-ridden muse in more experimental directions. His nickname Jammin’ Unit derives in part from the German pronunciation of Cem (“jam“).

 

Assaf Etiel aka Safy SNIPER (b. 1960 in Haifa, Israel) is working and living in Berlin since 1985. He is one of the pioneers of video scratching and was one of the central figures of Berlin’s club scene in the early 90ies. In his live concert-video performances he deploys common consumer electronics equipment and the appropriate archive of videos. By manipulating his set, reminiscent of a collection of damaged players, a new composition is created, which functions not only as a self-standing musical clip, but also as an acid-tongued comment to the genre. Synchronicity between sound and video is a top priority for Safy. Originally he used laser-disc players, allowing him to fast-forward and rewind, jump and omit parts smoothly in real-time. Today Safy uses a more comfortable laptop with software that is almost as good to produce a perfect illusion of a non-linear narration with a seemingly linear continuing video. Extra sound sources are deployed in order to accentuate and backup the original sounds of the video. Details that generally fall through the cracks of perception thus become visible and analysable. Coincidence and improvisation in the interaction of image and sound play the leading part in his performance.