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Mixtape #002: Music Vibes at the Five Elephant Roastery

Mixtape series have been started as a fun tool, bringing you music that allows you to get a feel of a coffee place or, in case you have already been, to re-live the atmosphere of it! We might agree that cafes are quite easy to get a music inspiration from. There is nothing easier than to come up to a barista and ask him what is the album that has been on the loop since the afternoon rush. It is the roasteries’ premises that remain mysterious in terms of music background.

Five Elephant’s Filip Makara is our pick this time, introducing you to the diverse vibes spinning around the roasting space in Kreuzberg, where Five Elephant is located.

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Filip Makara in the roastery. Photo by Petr Kvasnicka,The Apron

Filip’s music choices represent greatly how versatile one space can be. Roasteries are usually imagined as large and loud space filled with the smell of coffee. Filip roasted two music batches for us. One is the picture of his job in the morning, when the neighbourhood wakes up, followed up by a busy and hectic day, the roastery filled with employees and visitors. There is one constant in the set-up. The roaster always remains the centerpiece and the loudest of all.

Turn the speaker up and listen to his two mixtapes while you read on about his understanding of coffee’s uniqueness as well as physical work in assimilation with the dirty sounds of music. Have fun with it!

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1. AIR

“Mornings are the only moments when I’m all by myself at the roastery. That is when I dive in completely, almost falling into a state of meditation by work. Music I have selected for this playlist and I listen a lot to perfectly portrays prevailing ambience – pure, quiet and meditative. Particularly IDM and Ambient music of 1990s is so abundant in sounds alluding to nature, that they almost take me to those tropical places, where coffee is grown. I believe it helps me to understand even more the whole story of coffee, how unique is this plant, that I can translate it to such a tasty cup.”

Tracklist

1 – Pulse, Shigeto
2 – We Work Nights, Gold Panda
3 – Scriptures, B12
4 – Xtal, Aphex Twin
5 – Yung Lean, Hurt (Prod. Suicideyear)
6 – Ljoss, Forest Swords

2. FIRE

“When the rest of the crew comes to the roastery, everything is filled with life and talk. That is the right moment to change the accompanying music. Exactly when the roaster is getting really hot, the dirty sound of guitars, drums and strong vocals resonate from the speakers. That is when we enjoy good old blues and classic rock the most. It remains a mystery to me yet how those physical aspects of working in the roastery have changed my perception of instrumental music and how it let me look at it from an entirely different angle.”

Tracklist

1 – Ring of Fire, Johny Cash
2 – Hurricane, Bob Dylan
3 – Amidinine, Bombino
4 – Strange Brew, Cream
5 – Meet Ze Monsta, PJ Harvey
6 – Colossal, Wolfmather
7 – Spirit In The Sky, Norman Greenbaum