The Sound Of: POLAAR
That ‘Morphers’ remix arrived as part of the third edition of the label’s ‘Territories’ compilation series. A host of label regulars were invited to reimagine tracks from throughout POLAAR’s history as part of its 10th anniversary. The celebrations have also included parties across France. At La Machine du Moulin Rouge in Paris, POLAAR hosted Jensen Interceptor in association with Rinse France (POLAAR has a residency on the station), while the label crew were joined by Objekt in Lyon and Peder Mannerfelt at One O One in Clermont-Ferrand — a “very, very cool club” that POLAAR has a longstanding relationship with.
Events have always been a crucial part of POLAAR — in fact, the label began life as a party. “I think that we did at least 60 parties,” explains Flore. “We did lots of amazing artists and [it was] quite ahead of its time, to be honest.” Early bookings included the likes of DJ Earl, Mumdance and Scratcha DVA. “DJ Paypal, I think that maybe we booked him in 2015, when footwork was not a big thing in France… I don’t know if it is now,” she laughs, “but it was very niche music at that time, for real.” Flore explains that the idea behind the parties was to “invite artists who also have a very wide notion of what bass music is” — something that clearly applies to the imprint as well.
POLAAR the label was born from Flore’s own live show, RITUAL, a collaborative A/V project with visual artist WSK. Realising she wanted to put out some of the tracks from the show, but wanting to maintain control of the sound and look following a “very complicated” experience releasing her debut album with another label, she launched POLAAR with her best friend Marc Weistroff in May 2014. Her two ‘RITUAL’ EPs delivered cutting-edge tracks with the thump of warehouse techno and syncopated grooves of UK funky, peppered with eerie noises that wouldn’t go amiss on a ’Headz classic — think Hessle Audio and Livity Sound. (Flore returned to the project around 2018, reconfiguring the live show and dropping her second album, ‘RITUALS’, in 2020. She’s now working on a new project with WSK designed for “domes and planetariums” that explores “the relationship between maths and arts and music”, with plans to tour planetariums across Europe.)
