First solo album by South Africa´s great electronic sorcerer Alex van Heerden, recorded 2004-2005 in the Native Erection Studio in Tulbagh.

"Bushtech is my response to the 'clicks & cuts' and minimal tech house genres that I was exposed to during my stay in Sweden. I felt so close to this music, but for very personal reasons which reflected my 'home': the 'Karoo' in the rural Cape province of South Africa.
Here the aesthetic is also one of minimalism: the vast desert landscapes; the fine, sparse 'fynbos' flora...also the general world view, one of timelessness and non-linearity.

The word 'click' also means so much more to someone living in Southern Africa: The Xhosa language which can be heard everywhere resounds with percussive clicks, even more so the dying Khoisan languages.

We have a traditional rural dance music in the Cape called 'vastrap', and I wanted my music to be a kind of new 'vastrap', funky, rural, organic and techy at the same time...a dance music for the future Karoo!

The music was prepared with two audiences in mind: my friends and associates in Stockholm, where I would be releasing the music; as well as the people of the tiny community of Kamieskroon, a village in the desolate and very beautiful 'Namaqualand'. I had been booked to perform solo at a dance in the village, and Bushtech was a resounding success!
I think that this is partially because the music retains a rural African feel in the midst of the 'tech' style: I used only organic sounds which I recorded myself; I also used only 'just intonation', a tuning system which resonates at the natural frequencies of African music, as opposed to the European 'equal temperament'.

I am fascinated by dichotomy, the moment when opposites explode/implode to reveal their essential unity is the moment of ecstacy which inspires my music: past/future, digital/organic, smooth/rough, Stockholm/Kamieskroon... "