All the way from Portugal, The Advent, a.k.a. Cisco Ferreira, came down to Japan last May on a tour produced by ArcTokyo, playing at Nagoya's Club Mago and Tokyo's Ageha.
Cisco Ferreiira started his career as an engineer for Jack Trax Records in the latter half of 1980. From there he went on to release singles through Transmat's sublabel Fragile, R&S etc. By the beginning of the 90's Cisco Ferreira had already made a name for himself. In 1993, he teamed up with Colin McBean to for The Advent. In 1999, Colin Ferreira and Colin McBean parted ways and Colin Ferreira carried on The Advent as a solo project. Despite being alone, Colin Ferreira continued to release high quality tracks, establishing himself in the top ranks of the European techno scene. In recent years, Colin has various tracks ranging from straightforward simple tracks to heavy electro tracks and his set for the Japanese fans reflected that style of variety.
> interview : h.nakamura (HigherFrequency)
HigherFrequency (HRFQ) : This time, you've been staying in Japan for a week. How have you been? Did you have any chance to see around some Japanese cities?
The Advent (Advent) : It's been great being back in Japan.. it's for sure one of the best countries I like to play even though I only played one time, I always remember it.. on this tour I did get a chance to play 1st time in Nagoya @ the club Mago really nice venue and a good night,
HRFQ : How do you describe Japanese techno scene? What do you think is the most interesting in comparing with the scene in other part of the world like Europe?
Advent : The fact that you have great venues is a big part, in the whole of EU there are a few good clubs but Japanese clubs are always more exciting to play.. for me Japan is a tech-no country anyway!!! plus you have great Labels, DJ's & producers here, I really like the Shufflemaster productions on Subvoice..
HRFQ : We find in your bio on the web that you now have nice family with two kids, and moved them to Lisbon, Portugal, together with your studio. Are you spending most of your time in Portugal now? How do you compare your life in Lisbon with the life in London?
Advent : yup.. I had a chance to move out of London back in 1999 and I took it, that's the good thing about making your own music you can take it anywhere around the world. Also being from Madeira a Portuguese Island, it was like coming back to my roots, for sure the lifestyle is better than London especially if you have kids, as there is more open space for them to be kids.. my house is near the beach so in summer time it's like a holiday every day.
HRFQ : Can you tell us about how the dance music scene in Portugal is going?
Advent : Portugal is one of the best places I like to play in EU, and living there means for me no hectic travel schedule, there are parties on every month which take place across the whole country, so the Portuguese scene is in demand by all the DJ's from house to tech-no, plus they also arrange big festivals and a huge street parade in "PORTO" .. I think that's good for a country. A decade ago no one would of thought of performing in..
HRFQ : We think techno scene in Europe has experienced a kind of difficult time last year, especially when the company like Prime Distribution went bankrupt. Do you think the whole scene is once again becoming more vital than last year, or does this down spiral trend still continue?
Advent : Good question.. I think that the time Prime was in operation back in the 90's it never dictated the tech-no scene - and I don't think any distribution house will ever predict a scene!!.. Prime was a company that started to slip up in selling & buying records, plus the fact that the majority of the smaller labels which I think brought a good profit into the company weren't getting paid.... I worked with some of the labels and I was disgusted to hear what was going on regarding payments, so it didn't surprise me that they went down, I think it's a good thing that happened, because now that all the bad imitating records have gone - all the best artist's and labels have already now got new set ups with other distributors. The focus now should be on the quality not the quantity, so expect good music from now on.
HRFQ : Love Parade is not going to happen this year, and this news has given Japanese people a kind of negative impression about what's going in European techno scene, How do you describe this incident? Do you this event has become too big to be handled by underground people?
Advent : Well that's 99% true, they still have to wait until the final decision, which they will know by the second week in may. You shouldn't see the Berlin love parade as the only street party that happens in EU , I think last year the Zurich street parade had a bigger turn out so I don't see Berlin as a negative because there are other great parades to check out,
HRFQ : Do you think the whole scene is still going too much commercial, or has it returned to how it should be, like more underground and experimental?
Advent : Yes exactly, this is one of the reasons why Love Parade is having problems because they went too commercial too quick and know they are in a bad situation, so it going back to the underground is a good thing.
HRFQ : Under such environment, your label Kombination Research has been doing quite well, keeping quite constant releases. Is this the label just to release your own stuff? What is the secret behind such stable operation?
Advent : When I started this project, the main Idea was to release only my productions, in the case with most labels they do tend to release records with other artists and some times they can sell less, but if artists have specific labels which are strictly for there own solo productions - for sure they will maintain sales.. there's also that reason why you have new talent out there because the only way they can get some sort of recognition is by releasing on well known labels. I did release one other project that wasn't me - it was from ABSTRACT THOUGHT -DREXCIYA STORM# 4 and for me it was a real important release for my label because they have inspired my electro roots from the early 90's..
HRFQ : How about Alpha Recordings? Is it more on housey side of your production?
Advent : yup, house is where it started.. way before techno, tech house or trance, so it's why I make that style, when I worked as a sound engineer, I had the pleasure to session some of the pioneers of that time and what more can you ask for if your learning from these guys, and the music was house so that rubbed on me, and has effected my music ever since so with my G Flame project it was just a way to release another side of my music..
HRFQ : Do you have any upcoming CD releases out of these labels in your mind, like your original LP or mix CD?
Advent : There are always release planned, ALPHA 008 should be in the shops now through NEWWS in Belgium and more will follow in the coming months, so expect more good music from Alpha..
HRFQ : Do you think MP3 download is affecting the declining trend of the market much?
Advent : I don't think our music suffers more than the commercial market, because our music is always duplicated before it goes online so the quality isn't 1st generation - where as with let's say some one like "MADONNA" who work's in major studios around the world, it only takes one assistant that works in any of the studio's were she is booked to make a quick copy and before you know it - it's online getting a million hits. that will make a huge dent on her sales, I see a lot of Advent music online but the quality in most case's is really bad,.. Watch this space for WWW.ADVENT/MP3.COM
HRFQ : Are you interested in releasing DVD stuff? If yes, what kind of things do you want to try? Like DVD Mix CD like Jeff Mills' Exhibitionist or maybe collaboration with short films?
Advent : More short film - Documentary.
HHRFQ : We're happy to hear you're still getting along well with Colin McBean, and he was the best man of your wedding. But have you seen any differences over the style of sound production of The Advent between before and after Colin left the unit?
Advent : No, not at all. I think from KR007 "when we split, the style hasn't changed...I get this question all the time but if you know my musical background you will know that I had released records way back before I met Colin. I was solo for the 1st 4 years of making music, like the 1st releases on R&S way before Ken Ishii, Joey Beltram, Aphex Twin even Derrick May who I 1st introduced Renaat (Vandepapeliere) to, plus I did the 1st release on fragile "detroit" and other labels. So I don't think it had an impact on the music..
HRFQ : We think your sound production is mostly based on computer. But some of techno artists have started returning to a kind of old school studio set-up like out-board stuff after going through new technology too much. What do you think of it?
Advent : You think wrong!! because all my past production "pre 2000" was all using older analogue gear - I only used the computer as the sequencer, plus being a sound engineer 1st, I always like to use outboard gear on my music , still do..
HRFQ : Apparently, you did not always have good time with major records company, especially when you worked with Pete Tong at Internal. How do you describe the recent struggle of majors? Do you think it's because there're so many business men who don't know what's happening on the streets?
Advent : Not completely true, it's only when our main A&R-label manager "Christian Tatersfeild" left "Internal" part of the Polygram company that we had to deal with Pete (it's all gone) wrong as an A&R man.. and he knew absolutely 0% about Techno at that time, all he knew was the typical 3 names Derrick, Kevin & Juan?, when we discussed artists like UR & Basic channel he didn't know who they were.. from that point, we knew we were in trouble, when my last Album "NEW BEGINNINGS" that was released on FFRR, it was delayed almost 13 months!!! So by the time they released it they missed the timing by over a year, that was a big fuck up.. so I left!!! that was the main reason why. Regarding business men without knowledge, well you have them to thank for trance being so big and techno is forgotten in the UK..
HRFQ : I think your web site is really cool, probably the best DJ's site I've ever seen before. I really enjoyed playing games out there like Packman and Space Invaders... Can you tell us who designed this web site?
Advent : It was A.Paul, a DJ / Producer from Portugal who's also a web designer, I gave him the art work and we spent a good time together on it to get what I wanted, the main feature for me was to make it more usable than other sites out there, which for me only showed you one side of the artist's/ labels personality so I really wanted to try and make it very user based than your average site, thanks.. glad you like it..
HRFQ : Can you tell us your recent favorite tunes?
Advent : Chris McCormack "erase techno" it's a few months old now but it has longevity.
HRFQ : Do you have any next break artists or DJs in your mind?
Advent : WLA Garcia from Portugal.. new talent to look out for..
HRFQ : Any message to Asian fans?
Advent : I want to thank the advent fans for supporting my music, thanks to you why I'm back in Japan.. peace in the middle east & love to you all
End of the interview
"Crash 02 feat. The Advent @ ageHa, Tokyo" Party Report (7th May, 2004)
