interview

He’s also Compost Records' world travelling A+R man, one third of the Truby Trio (in cahoots with Fauna Flash), and curator of the wonderful ‘Glucklich’ compilations, of which volume 5 is just released. So you see, more than most, he’s entitled to give it the big one, but all he does is apologise for his mixing (yeah right), charmingly field the enquiries of many a trainspotter, say thank you a lot, and give us a quick lesson in wine appreciation. Chap.

Starting in 1994 Rainer’s ‘Glucklich’ series of compilations have become a must have for all those seeking links between the old and new of Brazilian influenced sounds, and the selections have moved with Rainer’s own taste.

"When I started", he says, "it was about making old obscurities available, like up tempo jazz fusion stuff, mainly from German Krautrock bands from the ‘70’s, who’d have one or two decent tracks on strange LPs – just one little Samba track! Over the years new music came that was the same spirit as the old, and I wanted to represent my DJing style more truly".

Rainer’s DJing style, and his hectic globetrotting schedule, like that of old Acid Jazz contemporaries Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge, have directly influenced the spread of the new sounds of jazz, Latin, and Brazilian music over the last few years. These styles infiltrate every current form of music from techno to drum and bass, and he now gets people sending him tracks recorded specifically for ‘Glucklich’.

"There’s so much Brazilian influenced music around now that I could do a five or six CD selection without losing the quality. ‘Glucklich’ means happy, and that’s how a lot of Brazilian music makes me feel so the tracks should be uplifting and have a sunshine feel. Some tracks, like Os Ipanemas’ ‘Icari’ on the new one, are a bit more sad, but

"that is what the Brazilians call ‘tristessa’. It is like the sadness but without losing the happiness, and it’s that balance that I love about Brazilian song writing".

As the sounds of Brazil have spread far and wide, the sounds of Rainer Truby and Compost have travelled equally as well. The superb Nicola Conte and Freeform 5 remixes of Truby Trio’s mighty ‘High Jazz’ single are on the way, as is the long awaited Truby Trio debut album, and Rainer will be back for more UK dates in the New Year.

"Yeah, we wanted to release a Truby Trio album about two years ago", says Rainer, "but we forgot to make it! It is definitely a worldwide affair right now. You know there are a lot of us who came from the acid jazz days, and we survived that. It was a bit of a difficult period, and then it got reborn as new jazz, which is a bit of a swear word right now! So I hope we’re going to survive that as well, and keep on doing what we love".

(This article originally appeared in iDJ magazine, December 2002)