For a Franco-Dutch electronic music duo Parallelle, music is both the vehicle and the destination. It is the medium, language, and stream of connective tissue to the like-minded community. The creative powerhouse Julien and Thomas de Bie have just unveiled a new venture – FOLDER, which is a record label and collective platform to celebrate the sensation of analogue culture.
Embracing the ethos of digging vinyls and commitment to high-quality music productions, the freshly established label collaborates with multidisciplinary artists to champion the power of collaboration and substance of analogue movement. We caught up with the brothers to explore their vision behind the newly launched record label and figure out what’s in their folder. Listen to the first release of the label
Could you tell more about your background as musicians, artists, and curators?
We’ve been playing music since our youth. Moving to the Netherlands in 2011 opened the door to the more underground electronic scene, in which we dived in ever since. Playing and producing, first separately, then in 2017, we decided to join forces in brotherhood and created Parallelle. At that time, we created our first label, Klassified, for more experimental, cinematic sound. This March, we launched our new label FOLDER together with Marc Mahfoud.
Your music style spans across various genres and influencers. How do you navigate between these different sounds and expressions?
We have evolved into different sounds throughout the years, but today we would say that we focus on a more melodic minimal tech, with housy and jazzy twists. Keeping it dirty, sexy and groovy, if you know what I mean.
What do you find artistically inspiring in analogue culture? How did your new label / collective FOLDER come to life?
We are quite old school, we are probably the last generation that was listening to music on a cassette walkman, staying hours in la FNAC or Virgin Store listening to CDs before purchasing the chosen one. Thomas has been scratching on Technics since he was 14 years old. We wanted to bring back not only the analogue sound but also the physical aspect of sound, therefore, we are pressing each release as vinyl.
Do you collect anything else besides vinyls?
We capture sounds and small instruments around the world as some sort of sonic diary.
May you share about the ways you maintain joy and playfulness in your creative processes, especially when it comes to music curation with your newest label? Did anything change since you moved to Lisbon?
We kept a childish heart, so we live quite playfully in brotherhood. But in general terms, a good routine, some time-off to focus on production and curation, and always keep an uplifting aspect of groove, musical story. Lisbon has been a breath of fresh air for us. Back to our Latin roots, the sun, the ocean, and the good vibes.
What’s in your folder?
A bunch of old soul and hip hop tracks such as A Tribe Called Quest – Can I Kick It, a fresh find: Krewcial – Clouds Edits, a French classic: Sea, Sex and Sun from Serge Gainsbourg.
The folder also has some photos from our latest crazy shoot with Neel Gupta in New York City.
It has some jazz repertoire scores we like to jam on, such as A Night in Tunisia, The Girl from Ipanema or Misty.
www.instagram.com/parallelle_
www.instagram.com/folder.rec
Photos by Neel Gupta www.instagram.com/neelgupta
