There’s no need to introduce him anymore, Romain Reynaud aka Traumer has now his name stamped in our spirit. With his numerous releases, remixes, his recent work on his label Gettraum still in our headphones or his new label Tatum launched in early 2021, the artist is unstoppable. Clubs might be at a standstill since March but he is not.
With a first three-track EP that will be distributed by Yoyaku, he is launching a new project under the alias Jinger – a softer version of Traumer. Also known under the names of Roman Poncet or Marion Poncet in the past, he surely isn’t done surprising us. Trommel caught up with the artist to figure out what’s hidden behind this new name.
We know you’re quite familiar with aliases, is it for the freedom to switch musical styles from a moment to another?
Yes indeed. I like to move from one style to another by using different monikers in order not to confuse people, especially when the music differs quite a bit. I always tried to do as various music as possible essentially for keeping myself always inspired and ongoing regarding my creative process. In the end, all the projects feed themselves as I am learning while exploring new horizons. I am very often using new techniques I have discovered with one project to another one.
Could you tell us a bit more about your artistic approach to Jinger? What’s behind this new alias? And why this name by the way?
I guess the first trigger was the idea to produce music I could play as Traumer but not strictly close to the sound I was proposing with it. This project started during the lockdown, far from the dancefloors and their “needed efficiency”. I wanted to explore a deeper version of my main moniker, maybe softer.
I started to work that way: exploring classic minimal 4/4 beats at first and then moved to breakbeat a lot. Once I got a few songs, I needed to develop the concept and find a name for instance. I wanted something short and mnemonic. I have a redhead “ginger” skin and I am a pretty excited/agitated person (ahah), the kind of behaviour the root “ginger” can possibly get you. So here I was with this idea but the word “ginger” would not be easy to search and reference so I just swap the “g” by a “j”.
Now that I had a name, I needed a visual identity. Good timing: Benjamin from Yoyaku proposed me this idea of teaming up with a French painter based in Berlin, called Marc Majewski. I loved his work at first sight and decided to collaborate right away. He painted a triptych that will illustrate the first three releases: a story of a ginger cat who goes out at night through the forest to meet his friends for a late dance.
Music-wise, the funny thing is that the project naturally evolved since April when it was first initiated. Breakbeats became almost dominant in the recent productions, and the strictly deep side of it became again more going on. Somehow the mix I did for the occasion reflects this evolution and shows the different variations of what will be Jinger.
I am still not sure if this new alias will be like most of my other ones – is strictly limited to releases – or if I’ll develop it as a performance. I admit that the idea of doing a Jinger live set is somewhere in my mind.
You have always produced different types of electronic music. Your evolution is quite known as going from techno to house minimal sounds, could we talk about constant evolution finally? Where do you think you are at the moment and what are you tending to?
This “from techno to house” evolution is the Traumer’s one yes. But I’ve been navigating through A LOT of different genres since a few years, and even more the past 12 months. I don’t really give myself labels regarding music, I just do everything I am able to – I mean in general. What I’m trying to explore since a few years is the music for motion/video, scoring etc. That’s actually the main activity I’d love to see myself doing in 10 years or something when I’ll be older.
How did the past year influenced your way of both consuming and producing music?
Being far from the hectic club/touring life changed my perception and my approach of the music. I produced a lot of listening music or music for motion. But it also allowed me to step back on what I was doing on the club scene: what and how I was mixing, what and how I was producing. My vision of the club music changed as well, I realised that I was sometimes looking for ultimate efficiency, maybe despite elegance. The first months of lockdown I looked back on everything I was doing, trying to lift up.
Jinger 001 will be out soon, pre-order is available on Yoyaku’s website.
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