Lis Van Horssen has been making music since the age of 13 and working inclubs since she was 17. Her practice now spans electronic music production witha focus on bass music and IDM, DJing, curating electronic music line-ups, andrunning a FLINTA record and booking label. The label focuses on minority groupsin electronic music and is the only active FLINTA label in the Netherlands. Shealso manages three artists and works with around six others, helping them withparties, logistics, and club bookings. The interest in running things andshaping what happens in club spaces has always run alongside her passion formaking and playing music. She has been involved in underground movements sinceher teenage years, starting on the club floor before moving into playing andproducing.
Lis has been at Contact for two or three months. She values is thesecurity of the building, which matters when you have a lot of valuable musicequipment. She also appreciates the sense that you can get a lot done here andthat people are around to help with all different types of projects. At anytime of day, there tends to be something going on and someone to spend timewith.
Most weekends she has two DJ gigs, and she likes to prepare a couple oforiginal tracks to play at each one. At the moment she is working on a remix ofa Baroque piece from Chungking Express for a closing set this comingweekend. She likes to layer in specific sonic elements that can be introducedand built on throughout a set. She is also in the process of reorganising herentire music library, having spent the past four or five years accumulatingtracks and now taking the time to make the collection more efficient.
Her primary inspirations are two artists from the world of electronicmusic. The main one is Autechre, an IDM duo Lis describes as some of the mostextraordinary sonic creators. She saw them perform live once, a three-hour setplayed entirely in the dark using a custom-built digital audio workstationdesigned solely for their own sonic expression. The second is Aphex Twin, whoselogo she has tattooed on her arm. Different from Autechre, she says, butequally remarkable.
The project that means the most to her is the record label she started inits entirety. Lis started the label three years ago and it continues to grow,with many more projects on the way. Being the only active FLINTA label in theNetherlands and actively bringing this music into the spotlight is somethingshe is extremely proud of.
