Hasta La Ideas

Two Düsseldorf artists bring their photo fanzines to the city’s experimental music festival

A combination of experimental art and music, the Open Source Festival hits Düsseldorf this Saturday, and two of the city’s leading artists will be there peddling the latest issue of their notoriously coveted fanzines. Produced in limited edition, Issue #41—entitled “Das März Heft”&#8212comprises eight evocative images creators Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber shot in Japan last March. Out of their standard run of 105 copies, 15 pack an extra special punch accompanied by a clear vinyl record from Elektrohorror, a project by Düsseldorf musician Sven Vieweg.

Festival-goers that don’t get their hands on the special OSF issue can still take home a unique edition. Stuke and Sieber are bringing enough photographs with them for around 50 people to create their own zine. Once the fanzines sell out and the festival is over, they will release a final batch of 35 copies, still comprised of entirely different photos reflecting their time spent in Tokyo, Sendai and Osaka, which will also be available for purchase online.

The creative duo behind Germany’s subversive ANTIFOTO photo show (which this year included Jason Evans, Ted Partin and Olivier Cablat to name a few), Stuke and Sieber are known for their candid portraits and have an extensive roster of international exhibitions in their portfolio along with their self-published zines. Pick one up from their website for €65, where you can check out several other books and projects.

A 16 year single malt scotch whisky strong enough to take down a Norse god

Taking inspiration in the distinctly Nordic heritage and unforgiving climate of the Orkney Islands where the celebrated Highland Park distillery stands, the recently launched Thor single malt scotch whisky is as powerful as the Norse god for which it’s named. As the first release from the much anticipated Valhalla Collection, the 16 year single malt is characterized by a “forceful” nose dominated by “an explosion of aromatic smoke”. Once past these initial notes of gingerbread, cinnamon and vanilla, the dry flavors give way to a sweet body that settles nicely on the palette, making Thor one of the more memorable spirits we’ve sipped recently.

Bottled at 52.1% abv—nearly 9% stronger than the highly sought-after Highland Park 18—the concentrated Thor is unabashedly flavorful when enjoyed neat and responds well to a splash of water, mellowing the peaty bite to a more mortal level. While some purists may scoff at the idea, Thor has the integrity to withstand a bit of dilution while remaining strong enough to put a bit of hair on your chest.

The truly elemental spirit is an absolutely delicious departure for Highland Park, and with only 1,500 bottles being released Stateside—23,000 worldwide—it’s sure to create quite a stir. Visit Highland Park online to purchase directly for $200 a bottle.

Tracing the sport’s past and present in a pair of complementary books

Written, edited and designed by professional snowboarder, graphic designer and filmmaker David Benedek, the new two-volume book “Current State: Snowboarding” marks three years of hard work across 450 pages. Interviews with some of the sport’s most prolific characters, such as Jake Burton, Terje Haakonsen, Shaun Palmer and Peter Line, are included alongside images from the past three decades. This massive tome attempts to show the current—if still a little blurry—state of snowboarding, from personal narratives to ambitious, hand-drawn infographics that trace the evolution of freestyle tricks. We had the chance to ask Benedek a few questions about the limited run of his new publication.

What made you decide on the format of two interconnected, large-format books?

I always like the idea of having a separated visual layer that basically illustrates the written content. The lower book is mostly all text while the top one works like an additional photo book. Also, this way I didn’t disrupt the flow of imagery and could obviously play a lot more with design ideas, which was really fun. The content of both books correlate from beginning to end, but they work perfectly fine as individual books, too.

The content of the book consists of 23 interviews, which seems rather specific. Why not 24?

(Laughs) That’s just a random number I ended up with. I never set out to make a 450-page book either, but at some point I just had to quit interviewing people to save myself from total insanity—even though I am not entirely sure that worked.

With so many influential subjects, how did you choose who to interview?

I basically made a selection of people who I thought represented different eras and areas of snowboarding’s past 30 years—people who influenced what snowboarding culture is, or will be in the future. It’s a very subjective selection, of course. In a way, those people represent a large part of what I feel snowboarding is.

Why did you choose online distribution rather than something more traditional?

Well, I actually have a publisher in Japan, but I realized pretty quick that in most parts of the world I wouldn’t find someone to share my… well, very un-economic ambitions with this book. Since the production costs are pretty ridiculous and I didn’t want to make too many compromises, I figured it would be best to go direct, which has been working out really well.

Out of the 2,000 printed copies of the book, more than half were pre-ordered and the other half are selling out fast. To purchase a set or for more information, head over to Current State, where you can also watch the making-of video for some behind-the-scenes action.

A limited edition single-varietal vintage release shakes up the vodka scene

Prized for its silky mouth feel and distinct flavor, Karlssons began in 2001 when a group of Swedish potato farmers sought a way to improve their business. At the behest of Peter Ekelund—well-known as an entrepreneur who had helped launch Absolut in the 1970s—the group began working together as a collective and immediately saw an uptick in demand for their Swedish-grown spuds.

This success spurred another idea—to make a vodka from the many varieties of local virgin potatoes. Ekelund brought on Börje Karlsson, a former colleague and master vodka blender (he’s the guy who created the original recipe for Absolut vodka), to create a vodka from the crops of these local farmers. From this was born Karlsson’s Gold, a blend of potato spirits that lend the small-batch vodka its signature taste. Master Blender Börje Karlsson blends the individual spirits and vintages from seven different potatoes, all of which are grown in Sweden’s Cape Bjäre region. Karlsson finds that these potatoes are much like grapes, with noticeable variances from season to season. When sampling the spirits he realized that some of them were exceptional on their own, and the idea for Karlsson’s Batch was born.

The first single varietals worthy of Mr. Karlsson’s small batch mission were distilled in 2004, but this limited-edition Karlsson’s Batch 2008 marks the brand’s first major single-varietal vodka expression commercial release, made exclusively from Gammel Svensk Röd (Old Swedish Red) new potatoes harvested in 2008. The label bears the name of the farmer, Bertil Gunnarsson, along with the property from which it was harvested and the bottle’s number in the edition. The vodka is very distinctive, and unlike blended vodkas that aim for even palate, has a sharp and complex flavor profile.

This deconstructionist concept is a bold move in a market dominated by expansion almost exclusively from flavored vodkas; it’s more often seen in the domaines of champagne and whiskey. Karlssons may be the first spirit brand to embrace this approach.

Karlsson’s Batch 2008 is restricted to 1,980 bottles, the majority of which are headed for select retailers, bars and restaurants in the U.S. market, including New York’s PDT, Del Posto, Craft and Astor Center, among others.

If you miss out on this edition stay on the lookout for the second Batch release in Fall 2012, featuring the Solist varietal from 2009.

Swedish brands collaborate in watchmaking

Choosing for its name the acronym for “Transforming the Industry of Watches”, Stockholm-based TRIWA sets itself up as a plucky brand of self-proclaimed leaders in their field. The still relatively young brand has evolved from a plastic-dominated offering to a strong line of crisply designed, reasonably priced timepieces and this Spring, TRIWA debuts its latest model, an affordable up-market collaboration with Swedish haberdashery Herr Judit that marks the company’s first automatic-winding model.

Last year the company contacted Herr Judit founder Christian Quaglia to collaborate after seeing one of his previous joint efforts. “I didn’t really know much about TRIWA just that it did plastic watches in different colors,” explains Quaglia whose primary condition to the project was that the piece would have to be done properly if it was to be done at all.

“Eventually we met for a little chat and to discuss what they had in mind. I unveiled my idea—or, rather, outlined my personal demand—that we create a mechanical timepiece. A real watch, not battery driven as with TRIWA’s other previous offerings,” says Quaglia.

The parties started from scratch, and Quaglia worked closely with one of TRIWA’s designers to lift source material and images to give the watch its 1940s grounding and visual references. “The collaboration was much easier than I had feared and we soon began to realize our shared ideas really intuitively and naturally,” he says.

Together they created a distinct piece with a classic tortoise-like acetate face and modern stainless steel to prevent premature dating. The backplate is transparent to reveal the mechanical movement, which is shielded partially by a leather band from Tärnsj&#246—the same region responsible for the watch’s movement.

TRIWA & Herr Judit Automatic was released in a limited run, numbered 1-200 and available online for $375.