Interview with an expat: Anett Kulcsar aka Dansor

About Anett Kulcsar aka Dansor
› Hungarian designer, DJ & music producer:
- DANSOTRON (design)
- DANSOR (music)
- Soundcloud.com/dansor (music)
- Comport Records (own label)

How did you fall in love with music?
I saw Kraftwerk - my first big concert - when I was 10 and wanted to know more.. to learn everything!

Your music background in Hungary?
There was a club called Black Hole, where they were playing Primus, Bad Religion.. I was too young to enter but I was hanging around with older guys, part of the local underground community.

Then, I attended a couple of acid parties - the first house parties in Hungary, organised by some friends in unexpected locations - and I wanted to play. However, I soon realised that I had to have my own equipment and in order to buy technics, mixer and records. Salaries (just like the political system) in Hungary were crap so I decided to move abroad.

First years in the Netherlands?
I moved to Holland in 1996 to replace an au pair for a few months. I thought it was a good opportunity to save some money and see a new country.

I took a bus full of girls, some of who were going to end up in the red light district, according to the travesty in the next seat who was responsible for bringing them over. Btw I am not sure if they were aware of that..

I spent three months with a crazy, wealthy family and then, an astronomer I met at a meeting organised by an Hungarian association offered me another job!

How did you end up with turntables?
I bought an Akai turnable for 1 gulden on Queen’s Day; really old-school so I had to practice a lot.

Georgio Schultz, who had sold me some vinyls when I was in Hungary, was playing in Zandvoort and I decided to attend. During the performance, I met one of his crew members, who told me a lot about their work and asked a friend if I could sleep over since the next train was hours away. Btw this friend became my boyfriend later and taught me a lot about the Dutch culture.

Anyway, I started playing in Haarlem and organising my own parties, the Womenwaves, at Stalker and later on at Patronaat. Then, I was invited to play at a party with an old schoolmate from Budapest, with whom we started a new concept, the Budapest Delight.

After working as a medical secretary for almost three years, I decided to study media technology. Georgio’s introduction to production and the Human Computer Interaction class (final semester) gave birth to my project: a live act where you could interact without standing behind a laptop.

Remixes | Dansor by DANSOR

My alter ego, DANSOR (dance + sensor) was born!

I graduated with this cum laude and started performing in clubs (Sugar Factory, Paradiso and many more), but not everyone "was getting it." The Wii was not launched yet :)

My aim is to combine and apply techniques used in experimental music / art scene in clubs with danceable music.

What are you working on lately?
I work as a Freelance Designer and just started a label called Comport Records together with local artists (Soundbalance, Von Smir and Mr. Minimalistic).

My music was also released on many different labels including Sensei (UK), We Are Live (UK), Whose Haus (Canada), Little Mountain / This Is (NL), Comport (NL) and Nervous (US).

I also switched to Wiimotes for shorter acts (15 minutes) and started discovering Kinect together with oneseconds. In fact, we recently had our first Kinect installation, "Avoid The Void" (Comport Records Showcase, Patronal).

For hourly performances I use the Akai APC-40 - Akai still rules ;) - and prefer to play live with other musicians like I did with Saskia Laroo (trumpet) the last time. I really loved that!

Agnese enjoys interviewing people with a story to tell, a project to unfold, a dream to share… always with an amazing bottle of wine selected for the occasion.

For Anett Kulcsar, Pignoletto Prima Edizione, Cuvee 09, Vallona’s farm, Castello Serravalle (BO), Italy was chosen.

A sweet and strong aromatic wine from Pignoletto grapes and age-old vines; white and gently fizzy.