London-based composer-DJ Gabriel Prokofiev (b. 1975, London), the grandson of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, started with music when he was ten years old, playing in pop bands and eventually writing songs. He studied classical composition and electronic music at Birmingham and York universities and has produced and performed various dance, “sonic art,” and African music under a number of aliases. In 2003, he co-founded an electronic music record label that would become Nonclassical Records. The label has released fourteen albums that consist of original, instrumental music and electronic remixes of these works, and hosts a monthly club night. I interviewed Prokofiev at the Nonclassical studios in Shoreditch, London on July 8, 2011.

Edited Interview Excerpts

How did the club nights come about?

I put contemporary classical music in night clubs because I wanted my friends to come and hear my music, you know, and I just thought, I knew they weren’t going to come to the classical concerts, so that’s why it all started. So initially the aim was…about the live performances, playing new classical music, in a setting that felt more appropriate for our generation, really. And as well for contemporary classical music often it’s quite – though it’s connected to older classical traditions – often it doesn’t really suit the concert hall, a lot of the pieces.

The DJing happened because I put the first one in a nightclub and then I thought, what music is gonna happen before and after the live sets, there’s gonna have to be a DJ, and I just couldn’t think who would be the DJ.

And then once the Nonclassical label started – that was all going back to 2004 – that started to provide ideal music to DJ alongside contemporary classical performances. If you just try and DJ pure contemporary classical music, often the way it’s produced, and the nature of the music, means the dynamic range is just so great, in the kind of the lively bar atmosphere it just disappears, and then suddenly you’ll hear this loud crescendo and a kind of scream, and then there’ll be nothing – it just doesn’t really work. So the remixes we’ve got are really cool because the production angle and the production standards are more geared towards PA systems and being played in a sort of noisy environment.

Do you try to make a seamless transition – like, there’ll be a set of the ensemble and then [the DJ will] pick it right up?

Yeah, totally, the idea is just to keep it rolling. And as much as possible, the DJ sets should react to the live performances, so sometimes I always look for some material that’s similar instrumentation to what’s just been onstage so that connects with it. Often it’s people from the Nonclassical label performing, so when they perform tracks we’ve released, obviously then we can play the remixes straight after, and that’s always really cool.

Have you ever come across original compositions that involve definitely a heavy EDM focus with instrumental writing that may achieve similar things that your remixes are achieving in a way?

Well, I mean, some of our original tracks on Nonclassical before they’ve been remixed are already a bit like that, I suppose. The Concerto for Turntables, the third movement, that’s already got this kind of heavyish beat in it, so some of it is already heading that way…

I often play Stravinsky Ebony Concerto, because that’s got really cool percussion parts, it’s got grooves in it, it’s got kind of funk. That works, that’s obviously an original… It’s interesting though – specifically for DJing, it’s that whole production thing, and the way classical music tends to be recorded is sort of a lighter way. Tanzy Davies actually, her stuff, Neon, we’ve just put out an album of her stuff. Neon, even before we recorded it, I used to DJ that quite often, because that’s got these…high hat patterns and percussion patters that are very urban-inspired, so that always works DJing… And some electroacoustic stuff, but normally I mix it with something else, like, say, Stockhausen Kontakte. I often mix that over other tracks, because by itself, you can have like thirty seconds of it and then you drop in something with more of a regular pulse…

The Alarm Will Sound albums – I played one of them last night – there’s two or three tracks on there that I like to DJ. The best one is the “Blue Calax” one… Their big breakthrough was this orchestration for sinfonietta of this Aphex Twin album [Acoustica]. So that’s obviously playing electronic dance music acoustically so obviously that’s going to have that kind of connection.

Do you think that it’s more of a musical change that is more significant for changing the audience, or do you think the venue is perhaps the draw, that it’s not in a concert hall?

It’s the whole mix, it’s the whole package. I mean, everything’s connected. People, younger generation, just feel I think more comfortable, more relaxed in a bar/club setting, it’s just more enjoyable. If you can listen to some really great music, be having a drink of beer or wine or something at the same time, and then hang out there, make a whole evening of it, have it a night out and then there’s cool DJing, and you get to just be in an environment where the music’s different to the norm… For a lot of people they feel more at home there. And so the venue is very important, but the fact that we have the DJs makes it complete.