Modeselektor (Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary) and Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) - three of Germany's favorite electronica sons - have teamed up before as the hybrid project Moderat. In 2002, to be exact. But after what was called an "exhausting" effort, the three musicians went on to work on their own full-length albums as separate Modeselektor and Apparat entities. Apparat recorded and toured in support of his set, Walls, in 2007, while Modeselektor's sophomore release, Happy Birthday!, also led him to collaborations and remixes for the likes of Maximo Park and Bjork.

Now, these two talents have realigned to release their collaborative album, Moderat, which blends chill, dubstep, and ambient sounds into an impressive brew. Moderat was just released in May, and they're promoting the set with a rare North American tour, on which they'll be joined on stage by members of the visual art group Pfadfinderei, who will sync three screens of video to the band's concert performances.
  

While it's been obvious to most that Modeselektor and Apparat were made for each other within the electronica world, what took them so long to actually complete a full-length project?

 

"Well, we've been friends for a long time," Apparat explains, "we met eight years ago at at label showcase event in Berlin and we instantly got along. The sets we played were pretty different, but the approach was kind of the same. We had the same roots too. We played improvised live shows for a while, and we tried to make an EP - which turned out being a bit complicated as we were kinda unexperienced at this point. After years of solo projects and lots of gigs, we felt like we needed some challenge... something new... so we talked, and finally thought it might be cool to reanimate Moderat."

  

Apparat calls the Moderat's composition process a complex, measured "search for a sound" that differed from how each of them normally put together songs.
   "One of us would start a song, and then pass it to someone else; sometimes we passed a song 5 times before we decided to start producing it together. Some songs had eight different versions, like we were remixing them all the time. We were more or less on a search for a sound, and we found it in the very end of the production."

  

That sound showcases a dynamic range on the new tracks that is much broader than what listeners would traditionally connect with Modeselektor and Apparat tracks individually; another result of blending their singular skills into a collaboration.

"Maybe that happened because it was the three of us bringing in our very own ideas," Apparat says thoughtfully, "I think even Modeselektor didn't really function as Modeselektor - more as Gernot and Szary. Because they didn't have to create 'their' sound, each of them could work more freely on the material. Also, sometimes different guys would make different parts within the same song, which made some of the tracks pretty eclectic."

Even though it's obvious that this skillful trio work well together, the future for Moderat still remains hazy, so enjoy the current set of tracks while you've got 'em.
  "Before we started the whole thing, we talked a lot about how we were gonna do this project," Apparat says, "we wanted to do it with all our energy, but, of course, we have our own projects too. So we decided on touring hard for four months, and then we'd get back to our own lives."

"We might do another record in a while," he continues, "but that's nothing we want to plan right now. I guess in three years, we'll sit on some balcony again, start talking about old times, and come up with the idea to make a Moderat record... just exactly how it happened this time."

And in those three years, if Apparat gets his wish, some of their audience might start getting the clue that electronica is indeed an art form - far more than merely cause to jump up and down and ingest alcohol.

"Sometimes it feels like the biggest part about electronic music is not about music - it's mainly party," Apparat explains, "and not so many people really care about how exactly they party. We just played a rave yesterday - 3000 people on the floor. They liked the set and it was fun - but personally, I prefer to play for people who really appreciate the music, not just the rave. Maybe I'm just getting old," he laughs.