FOCUS #2
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IBRAHIM ALFA JNR
Ibrahim Alfa now in his mid 40s, has had close to 3 decades as a recording artist, he began studying the piano at age 7 and had his initial experiences performing playing pieces at school concerts, in his early teens he taught himself via endless Jimi Hendrix VHS tapes, to play the guitar. and was recruited to play Bass in his school band, which predominantly played 60s Blues and Soul covers. He discovered computers age 10 when his school built a computer lab with a collection of BBC Micros and after his mother bought him an Amstrad CPC464 around the same time, the foundations of what was to be a lifelong passion for computer and synthesis were formed. A relative introduced him to Steve Reich and John Cage in his early teens, and he discovered Acid House and Detroit Techno via KissFM’s Colin Dale and Colin Favor’s radio shows. Whilst far to young to attend the raves that were heralded on the radio, his love of electronica was initially fueled by what he found to be a resonance between the minimalism of Reich and Cage and the minimalist structures that he heard on the radio. He started collecting techno records in the early 90s and spent his most of his free time making mixes on first belt drive and then Technics turntables, and tinkering with cheap drum machines and synths. By the time he had reached his 18th birthday composition and recording his own music had grasped his interest far more than DJing and via the record shop he was working in Brighton, England he secured a deal for his first EP which was soon followed by dozens of other releases predominantly for labels based in mainland Europe.
He began his first DJ booking with a gig at EUROBEAT2000 and spent the next decade performing his live act at clubs and events across the world with a firm base in Germany and western Europe. His record labels Automatic and Semi Automatic came to existence via a distribution deal with INTEGRALE MUZIQUE and he used them to specifically give a home to “outsider music”.
By the mid 00s a series of personal tragedies and failures, combined with the closure of his distributors saw him back to recording and developing his music largely just for his own pleasure and research, and releasing a more varied selection of electronica and Techno via a digital label distributed by FINETUNES. TRAXDATA OYABUN Inc.
2017 saw the release of a very well received album for Germany's Workshop records, recorded some 15 years earlier and accepted as " lost in the chaos” until a CDR was found in amongst the bits and bobs of his dear friend David Moufang’s studio space. The release reached number 2 in Germany's Groove magazine album chart and heavy rotation in many Dj sets.
Though his own interest in 4x4 had long began to wane, his love of Electronica at large only deepened with continuous studying, researching, experimenting and the occasional live performance in mainland Europe. As well as maintaining a constant stream of uploads to his Soundcloud page. in 2022 after re connecting with the legendary Force inc records, the first of a Trilogy albums beginning with MESSIER87 appeared on MILLE PLATEAUX records followed in 2023 by the second part SIRIUS A in parallel with a new directly experimental alias count0 utilising the award winning sounddesign application STAR WAVES.
2024 sees several new albums including an LP for the home of his techno music Acquit Records and continued experiments specifically with with SonicLabs STARWAVES as well as the long rumoured return of the infamous Automatic.