Giving form to a broad personal project of continuous inquiry and existential expression, A World Of Service marks the Ostgut Ton debut of Spanish producer, DJ and artist JASSS aka Silvia Jiménez Alvarez.
The evolution of A World Of Service has curved around genre collapsing and unexpected metamorphoses. Formerly the name of the monthly radio show JASSS hosted in Berlin, and soon to be the title of her expansive multi-sensory touring concept in collaboration with Ben Kreukniet, here A World Of Service is powerfully concentrated in sonic form. Throughout the album JASSS muses on the especially current human and technological barriers to interconnectivity; both lyrically and musically she deconstructs the self, unmasks anxieties and interrogates the insufficiencies of language as applied to gender, identity and interpersonal relationships. Forming her own fluid, nuanced lexicon in response, JASSS seeks a deeper understanding of her multiple selves, emerging through unbridled adolescent rage and the wisdom of maturation, traversing liminality with abstract electronics and baroque industrial pop. Visually this is underscored by Matt Lambert’s uncanny floral cover portraiture, as well as the record’s distinct scent of wet earth, flower and woods developed for the album by Meri Bonastre and applied to the vinyl innersleeve.
Following the imaginative nostalgia of Weightless, her 2017 debut album for iDEAL Recordings, as well as her series of blistering dancefloor 12”s for Whities/AD 93, A World Of Service folds personal and societal concepts in on themselves, not seeking answers but rather luxuriating in the unique friction that questions create. JASSS is intensely focused yet musically unbridled; this is reflected in tonal shifts of A World Of Service. Through the computerised yearning and bruising of a heartbreak on “Luis”, to the jagged and wordless tundra of “Vapor Dentro”; the intriguing juxtaposition of warm, alluring Spanish vocals against rigid pillars of industrial heft and bass grind (“Camelo”), and the soaring maximalist industrial pop of the album’s closer, “Wish.”
As intensity rises through the pandemic-era trip hop of the album’s title track “A World Of Service”, JASSS sings: “Pleasure / Is nowhere to be found inside this world of service / I call to be my life.” Pleasure may remain elusive to her, but in the determination to make peace with her various identities in this technological age, JASSS offers a compelling glimpse into an essential type of artistic voice.
Text: Christine Kakaire
Tracklisting LP / CD / Digital: A1. Birds You Can Name
A2. Camelo
A3. Luis
A4. Busto
B1. A World Of Service B2. In Your Mouth
B3. Vapor Dentro
B4. Wish
All tracks written and produced by Silvia Jiménez Alvarez Additional production on “Wish” by Ziúr and James Ginzburg Published by OstGut Verlag
Mastering: Liam McLean | Mixing: James Ginzburg
Artwork: Matt Lambert | Layout: Yusuf Etiman Florals: Anatomie Fleur
Make-up: Christian Fritzenwanker and Mario Mendez Scent: Fum de Kyphi
A World Of Service 為持續探究和存在表達的廣泛個人項目提供了形式，標誌著西班牙製作人、DJ 和藝術家 JASSS aka Silvia Jiménez Alvarez 在 Ostgut Ton 首次亮相。
A World Of Service 的演變圍繞著流派的崩潰和意想不到的轉變。以前是在柏林主持的每月廣播節目 JASSS 的名稱，很快將成為她與 Ben Kreukniet 合作的廣泛的多感官巡演概念的名稱，這裡的服務世界強烈地集中在聲音形式上。在整張專輯中，JASSS 都在思考當前尤其是人類和技術對互聯的障礙；她在抒情和音樂上解構自我，揭開焦慮的面紗，並質疑語言在性別、身份和人際關係方面的不足。作為回應，JASSS 形成了她自己流暢、細緻入微的詞彙，尋求對她多重自我的更深入理解，通過肆無忌憚的青春期憤怒和成熟的智慧出現，用抽象的電子產品和巴洛克式的工業流行音樂穿越界限。從視覺上看，馬特·蘭伯特 (Matt Lambert) 不可思議的花卉封面肖像畫，以及梅里·博納斯特 (Meri Bonastre) 為專輯開發並應用於乙烯基內袖的唱片獨特的潮濕泥土、花卉和木材氣味，都強調了這一點。
繼 Weightless 富有想像力的懷舊之後，她 2017 年為 iDEAL Recordings 發行的首張專輯，以及她為 Whities/AD 93 創作的 12 英寸舞池系列，A World Of Service 將個人和社會概念融合到自己身上，而不是尋求答案，而是在問題所產生的獨特摩擦中盡情享受。 JASSS 非常專注，但在音樂上卻不受約束；這反映在 A World Of Service 的音調變化上。通過“路易斯”上心碎的電腦化渴望和傷痕，到“蒸汽登特羅”的鋸齒狀和無言苔原；溫暖、誘人的西班牙人聲與工業重音和低音研磨（“Camelo”）的剛性支柱的有趣並置，以及專輯更接近的“Wish”飆升的極簡主義工業流行音樂。
隨著專輯主打歌“A World of Service”在大流行時代的旅行跳躍中的強度上升，賈斯唱道：“在這個服務世界中找不到快樂/我稱之為我的生活。”快樂對她來說可能仍然難以捉摸，但在這個技術時代，為了與她的各種身份和平相處，JASSS 提供了對一種必不可少的藝術聲音類型的令人信服的一瞥。
— 文字：克里斯汀·卡凱爾
