Chilling the Do is a live performance project focused on long duration chill-out sets that can go on for over 4 hours. The core members are Kassem Mosse and Mix Mup, but performances often feature changing guests. The format is open for different ideas and collaborations beyond music, including stage performances and video works.
MM/KM is a dance music production alias of Mix Mup and Kassem Mosse. It was first used for an album titled “MM/KM” released on The Trilogy Tapes in the UK. Various international live performances, remix work and a further EP for The Trilogy Tapes followed.
CTD and MM/KM are not a band.
Two examples from Berlin:
“We were invited to perform as Chilling The Do for Maerzmusik at Kraftwerk Berlin. Within the context of the post-industrial architecture of the venue and the line-ups of events that take place at Kraftwerk, such as Atonal and Maerzmusik, we didn’t feel comfortable with the image of two men performing machine music on stage in an old power plant. The idea of our performance was to undermine and question this rockstar position. The actual setup and disassembly of our equipment became part of our four hour performance.
We invited friends to join us in the performance, everybody was free to do whatever they wanted on stage. Some people played cards, some made collages, some joined our musical improv session. Instead of using the massive screen intended for visuals in the back of the stage we used 3 TV monitors to show video-loops we had made of shots of our friends filming their hands touching and caressing plants.
One year later we where asked to open as MM/KM at Atonal. Once again this was a challenge for us. We thought about ways to avoid a particular masculine overpowering stage presence that we saw as a common element of other live acts invited for the festival. We started by building a sample pool of Barry White vocals. We were interested in the contradictions & theatrical quality of White’s yearning and melancholic, highly vulnerable machismo. The finale was a 20 minute loop of Barry White crooning the phrase “happiness” in an epic build-up to nothing. The voice mutated into a empty gesture run through a flanger, gaining weight, but not gravity, an imaginary presence, a sea monster of sound echoing through the dark concrete void of the Kraftwerk. While we performed we opened the stage for everyone. Friends, festival staff, stage hands were invited to join us on stage to have a chat and smoke. It made for a communal alternative to a fog machine. And again we consciously decided against the big projection screen. Atonal uses a special upright screen, resembling ridiculously over-sized smartphone, that has become a unique element much posted and lauded in social media currents. We opted out of this visual spectacle and once more used video monitors to screen another collaborative piece with friends: this time the material showed people painting their fingernails.”
L.L., G.W.
Setup for MM/KM at Atonal 2016
Video stills from “caressing plants” 2015
Video stills from nail paint videos 2016
Thanks to: Anna, Antje, Falk, Felix, Jeremy, Louise, Julie, Lili, Lutz, Nabihah, Maria, Max, Pedram, Rolf, Steffi, Tiphanie, Valerie