“It’s going to drop out of the blue” - Nicolas Jaar in Interview

January 2012 and the cold snap is trying to announce itself, while the warm remnants of last year's music is still ringing in our ears. Artrocker listens to the crackle and hiss of a gramophone sample married to carefully placed beats, as we reacquaint ourselves with one of the most lauded albums of 2011, Space Is Only Noise, by Nicolas Jaar.

“I guess the idea of pushing people’s expectations has always excited me a lot – but Space Is Only Noise’ is not that weird," says Jaar when we first meet, "so this only helps me be comfortable pushing things further, to tell you the truth.”

Artrocker finds the 22-year-old electro artist preparing himself to play in Berlin’s iconic Bergheim – a church venue specifically designed to accommodate electronic music and bass. Which begs the question: what will the worshippers on the continent be treated to live, in comparison to those in the abandoned train turntable of London’s Roundhouse?

“I always try to tailor what I’m doing to the space I’m in – also to the people and the culture. But most importantly is the space. I’m excited to seeing the Roundhouse lit up with all these visuals we’ve created.”

That desire to bush boundaries has seen him deliver a debut LP of graciously stripped sonic tinkering, spoken word snippets and over-arching saxophone solos. But additionally, he's worked on a track with vocalist and classmate at Brown Universtiy, Scout LaRue (Bruce Willis’ offspring) as well as a side project with his guitarist Dave Harrington. Called Darkside, on account of their live reincarnations of Pink Floyd’s chord doom, it’s a ‘rockier’ incarnation, yet still very much a Jaar product.

His collaborative talents haven’t rested there either: Jaar has also established his own label, Clown & Sunset, part of a larger production umbrella, CSA: “I’m just interested in creating a full aesthetic experience as opposed to just making a track and calling it a day. I like having this control over the whole thing because I think everything affects everything.”

An example of how his megalomaniac admission takes shape is in the teasing trailer for his latest endeavour – a product known simply as Prism.

“At CSA (Clown & Sunset Aesthetics) we’re also creating technology and little objects," he explains, "and I can’t really say much about it. I think that video says a lot in many ways. It’s something that’s going to drop out of the blue. It’s something we’ve been working on for a year, so I’m excited to put it out and see people’s reactions.”

If we were of a more daring nature, we would certainly place bets on those reactions making him the name on everyone’s lips in 2012.

Nicolas Jaar plays Roundhouse, London, 2 February 2012
with support from Acid Pauli and Soul Keita