Kristoffer Tellstroem is one of Oslo’s busiest club people. Between promotion, booking, organising and DJing he’s been a dominant force on the scene. Usually operating in the background, the Swedish/Oslo resident can also be found playing some of the city’s most prominent DJ booths as Tellstroem or ATK.141.
Adopting the latter as his Techno alias, you can often find ATK.141 at Kristoffer’s Djupet events around town, where Techno is the main ingredient. After a couple of events at Jaeger, ATK.141 comes to the Jaeger Mix with more of what we expect, Techno. The mix errs on the harder side of the genre with pummelling kicks and draconian overtures through harsh synthetic sounds.
After 3 previous appearances as Tellstroem, Kristoffer finally adorns his ATK.141 alias for this occasion, giving us the opportunity to ask the producer, DJ, booker and promoter more questions.
ATK.141 is your Techno alias. When you play as Tellstroem your sets are already quite diverse and can bridge quite a few genres. So why opt for a specific Techno moniker?
Felt it got a bit confusing when im playing Disco, Cumbia, Reggae afro funk etc etc with tellstrom, I wanted to distance it from each other, Atk.141 is only Techno, fast & Hard, no compromising.
What was your initial introduction to the genre, and how has your taste for it evolved up to that point?
90s rave scene in Stockholm. My older Brother was heavy into techno and the rave culture, he bought a lot of mixtapes from local djs. I tagged along and went to my first rave at 15, since that just keeps on going.
Is there a track in this mix that sums it all up for you?
Not really. I’m not a purist, with one type of “techno” in mind, I’m a bit all over the place, Acid, trance, industrial, 90s shit new shit. No limits.
This mix errs on the harder side of Techno. As ATK.141 is there a specific sound or subgenre of Techno that appeals to you?
Not Really, I’m just looking for a type of feeling, then of course you will always get a bit coloured by where the scene is at the moment.
Wednesday in the backyard might not be the ideal context for this kind of Techno. What did you feel you had to adapt to if anything as ATK.141 for the situation?
Did not really adapt, but if it would be a packed club, it would definitely be sounding a bit different, harder and more energy =)
We’ve been associating ATK.141 with your concept Djupet. How are these two things dependent on each other?
Not Really.
Tell us a bit about the ideas behind Djupet?
Just booking acts I want to see myself, no big plan actually.
Besides Djupet you book for a few other places too including Villa. I suspect it leaves little time for Djing, so when you do get a chance to DJ, can you fully distance that part of you, or does the promoter/booker always influence you in some way in the booth?
Most venues I’ve worked with hardly played at, I booked Kvarteret in Stockholm, never played there, same with Villa, Never played there. And Ingensteds I’ve mainly played on Djupet nights, but that’s a new thing though, there’s been a lot of djupet nights that I did not play. I’m more or less A DJ who started throwing parties, and then promoting just happened, never was planned.
Djupet and ATK.141 is very much about Techno. As somebody plugged into the scene, how long do you think the popularity of Techno at the moment is going to be sustainable as it is and where do you see it heading next?
No clue, taking one month at the time.
Is trend something that informs your DJ sets ever and what do you always look for in a record either for ATK.141 or Tellstroem that goes beyond any trend ?
It’s impossible to say I’m not influenced by trends, but I’ve never been the type of dj going in 100% for a sound, and playing 100% Detroit or 100% this or that. For Atk.141, I’m only looking for a certain type of feeling, hard, raw and hitting, and also your occasional what the fuck is that, type of track.
With Tellstroem I go for everything, rock, reggae dub etc, that’s more of an obsession of collecting all types of music. Right now I’m only buying Cumbia.
Before that it was only reggae and dub for a long while.
Ok, so when can we catch you next and what else is on the horizon for Djupet and ATK.141 specifically?
It has been a very hectic year, this and the last year. I have no plans at all. Except traveling a bit and buying records. But probably gonna start planning next year soon, I got a couple of bookings in mind.