KRAAK FEST 2026 HIGHLIGHTS: Institut für Feinmotorik
Institut für Feinmotorik has been exploring the jagged boundlessness of prepared turntables since its founding in 1997. Currently made up of Daniel van den Eijkel, Florian Meyer and Marc Matter, their output lies somewhere within that odd, clunky threshold between sound art and mechanical techno, welcoming all the weird routings and trance-dance inductions that may occur. We learned more about their history and past/futures, here below!
IFF has a long and rich history behind it. Mind walking us through it a bit?
We started making music together around 1997 by mixing the empty endgrooves of vinyls, generating weak rhythmic noise/silence. Soon after, we recorded our first records and self-released them. A music magazine from Berlin, Artefakt, got in touch asking for an interview, which we provided. Soon after we were asked to play a concert in Cologne, which we did as well. Then came records on the Staubgold label and we started playing live more frequently. We also remember getting a postcard from the great fusetron label asking to do an album with them, so we sent a DAT. For some years, a friend from Cologne, Melanie (Wratil) joined the group. Moreover, we extended IFF's activity more and more beyond prepared turntables, like organizing events, parties, some art stuff, performances, video, radio pieces, a music theatre called “soiree divers" (e.g. at Cinema Nova Brxls in 2013), an audiovisual version of our live sets called ‘iff then elze' (e.g. at Bozar in Brxls in 2013) and a gallery show. We tried to develop our sound over the years but mostly failed to do so.
You guys had a hiatus at some point. What spurred the reunion, and what was that like?
Actually, we never disbanded, so we were not able to do a reunion. However, after one of the original formation (Mark Brüderle) unfortunately left the group, we hardly played shows or recorded for a couple of years, instead focusing on different side- and solo-projects, jobs, education, life etc. Some 3 years ago we found ourselves living in the same city again, which had not happened for decades and we took the chance and rented a rehearsal space. There we realised that we are not done with this stuff yet, so we picked up where we had left it. Positive feedback from recent shows and renewed interest in the sounds our turntables produce keep us going. We also started to develop new ideas how to break up the structure of live sets and include other artists, or collaborate in a live-setting, something we want to explore more (see below, "IFF Expanded”).
How do you plan your live sets? And tell us more about your set up, namely the Octogrammoticum and the objects you enjoy integrating into it.
This is the question we ask ourselves before each performance, actually we have a word for it “wiemachmas” (how-do-we-do-it), at some point before a show one of us asks to do the “wiemachmas” and we'll sit down and define a few constraints (or not), what objects to use (or not), a structure or timeline (or not). We never do fixed compositions, although tried some instant composition approaches through constrained improvisations. Some worked better, some less so: for example, we tried hand-sign systems to coordinate joint actions during shows, or using coloured cards drawn at random to steer our improvisations in specific directions. But in the end, it is all about listening to each other (in every possible sense).
Regarding the objects we follow a hands-on approach, focusing on things you can find in most households, like rubber band, paper strips, adhesive tape, or CDs onto which we scratch patterns and play them like a small record, with the needle picking up all the physical bumps and structures – thats how we compose our raw material, the sounds that we add up on 8 turntables. Octogrammoticum: 'Octo' is just Latin for eight, 'grammo' is taken from "Grammophon" (turntable), plus a suffix referring to the assemblage as a whole – also containing the DJ-mixers and the table we place everything on – into one object in its own right. Thats our instrument, a mechanical drum machine if you like. Of course you can as well play drones and abstract noises when the tables do not turn.
All of you have your respective side projects and obsessions, care to share more about them?
Yes. We recently started a new live-format (IFF Expanded) trying to combine and collide some of our side- and solo-projects, as well as inviting guest artists, into the live interaction of various sets and people. We are very excited to try out new structures of live-events, whole evenings with clusters of group improvisations and sections of longer (solo- and guest-) sets. We are curious where this will take us.
What does the near and distant future hold for IFF?
We aim to open the project through expansion, including guest artists and collaborators, or searching for alternating ways to structure our own sounds and music. We have also recorded material that might or might not sound new and are still trying to evolve our own set-up and sounds.
Institut für Feinmotorik bring their jerky rhythms and Octogrammoticum to KRAAK Fest 2026 this March 14 at Het Bos. Snap your tickets here!
