Dewy electronics from the Bavarian forests.
Number 40 in the Theory Therapy series is a mossy bed of iridescent electronics and ambient textures by Berlin-based DJ Akimat. We absolutely love the Aussie-born selector’s taste in music and the way they craft mixes around specific themes. This one was inspired by “intricate, gentle nature in the forests of Bavaria” and features a bunch of recent favourites from Concave Reflection, dj hexscrew and Ultrafog. There’s also a forthcoming one from our label hidden in there too.
Hey Tamika. How are you doing today?
Quite alright thanks! Currently enjoying a slow, cozy morning, watching the rain.
Where are you based at the moment? When did you move?
Berlin, for the past, mmm 4 years I think…
What was the last song you listened to?
Harmful Logic - ‘Not Tonight’
Where’s your favourite place to listen to music?
In bed or riding around berlin or nestled up with frens.
What’s your favourite way to find new music?
Depends on the mood. I love hunting on Soundcloud. Sometimes I am in a kind of berserk mood and just zoom and cut through hundreds of mixes and comps and stuff. also Stalking ppls likes, mixes, youtube accs, I’m quite a lurker.
Your 3 X L mix is named after a place/space in Alasdair Gray’s Lanark. How do you put mixes together? Is music the genesis for the mixes you make or does it usually start with something else?
Yes it is :) I was going through a particularly dark phase when I recorded that. There is always a story or a world built around the mixes. I love zoning into ethereal worlds. Usually there is a prominent swampy element to all of them.
Having a thematic vibe also enables me to keep it concise, because I'm drawn to very vast and varied types of music. Im v into films and I think of mixes kinda like a little mind film.
I wont record a mix unless I have felt connected to a theme…
This mix is just about a place. A cocoon, a mossy forest clearing. A place to zone out and rejuvenate. Being still and warm, soft earth, dewey spiderwebs. Forest spirit. A cute place.
Also, Lanark is amazing. What else have you been reading lately?
Yeah isn’t it! It’s my good friend Jack (jank Inc)’s all time fav book. And I *really* trust his taste so I was super excited to read it. He talked it up a lot! It’s a wild book. It took me 2 attempts to read it. Just started reading ‘the mushroom at the end of the world’ by Anna Tsing. On a bit of a mycology kick atm.
What inspired this mix?
Intricate, gentle nature in the forests of Bavaria.
Where did you record it?
I recorded it in 2 chunks. One at refuge worldwide radio, my second home. The other in my gloomy dungeon apartment. (The photo I sent was the place I was in my mind when I recorded it haha) It's from a recent trip to Bavaria, (the week in between the 2 recordings).
How do you typically record mixes? Do you have a preference depending on the genre?
Dancey mixes I prefer using CDjs. So will go to the Refuge worldwide studio across the street to borrow the setup there <3 So grateful for this. Otherwise just at home on the turntables, laptop.
Where would you recommend listening to it?
Maybe a slow rainy morning at home, a journey on a train. Or cuddled up with a cutie.
Theory Therapy mixes are about sharing the music that you personally find therapeutic or cathartic in some way. What does that mean for you?
Yeah the previous mixes in the series have all been deeep!!
I guess all music can be considered to be therapeutic. For me, the most cathartic moments tend to come from listening to beautiful, realmy mixes. Or finding that rare df euphoria the club. But ey it can also come from unexpected stuff too, like listening to an uber driver's loud trap on a morning drive.
Anything that makes ur heart glow, or that throws ur mind out of your body, mind spirals and the weight of existence haha. This mix flows transitions between soft and swampy to melancholy. I tend to find the deeper and heavier on the melancholy to be where I find the most solace.
Is there a particular album or piece of music that you find yourself returning to for similar reasons?
This track. I think I came across it a year or 2 ago in a Perila mix. It has stayed close. Woah its such a hauntingly deep piece of music. I listen to it whenever I'm having a bad moment. There was a period where I was putting it on first thing, every morning and would floppy dance around the house to wake up with it.
I really wanted to include it in this mix as its so appropriately restorative, but it was in another I did recently, so left it out.
Tell us about some fun things you have planned in your life, music or otherwise.
Few projects in the old pipeline. Little jam bands w friends and some music collabs…more time working my own sounds.
My friend robyn (dance____98) and I’s show on refuge still on hold. Some fun themes w that coming up.