Be sure to read Interview with Emanuele Errante
Also, check out Emanuele Errante's Sound Postcard
maisound.com/errante | myspace.com/eerrante
karaokekalk.de | myspace.com/karaokekalk
Friday, June 17, 2011
Emanuele Errante - Time Elapsing Handheld (Karaoke Kalk)
Interview with Emanuele Errante
Your 2008 release Humus was an ambient masterpiece sprinkled with elements of electronica and IDM. In addition to synth soundscapes, your latest album features a lot more acoustic instruments. Tell us a bit about that progression.
In my works I have always tried to find the right balance between acoustic sounds and electronic sounds. The tracks of my previous album, "Migrations " and "Humus", consist of different themes played with acoustic instruments (piano, guitar, harmonica, flute, strings, sometimes even my voice), but each sound has been processed and loaded with effects. In "Time Elapsing Handheld" I choose to make my compositional approach clearer, by leaving the acoustic sounds mostly unchanged. Electronics give no limits to the creativity of a musician, but I think warmth and vibes of acoustic instruments are unique. That's why mine is a constant research for compromises between acoustic and electronic.
Where are some of the field recordings from? Is that windshield wipers I hear on "Later, Earlier"?
Most of the field recordings have been captured in rural contexts, in Central and Southern Italy. I'm glad you asked me this question about "Later, Earlier". I was in a little town near Terracina, at a friend's house on a hill. We were outside at night. Suddenly I hear a sound that repeats regularly, like a crafted loop. I asked my friend where that sound came from and he replied that it was a bug! I could not believe my ears. That sound had an incredible rhythm. I took my MicroTrack recorder and I captured it. I still do not know what kind of bug it is, but the sound you hear in "Later, Earlier " was not manipulated at all, it is exactly as is.
Tell us how you came upon collaborating with Simon Scott on "Made to Give".
With Simon we were in contact to explore the possibilities of live performances to propose together. The collaboration came about spontaneously. We started working on a draft that slowly took shape and became "Made to Give".
Let's talk about "time". First of all, what does the name behind the album "Time Elapsing Handheld" represent?
The concept behind it comes from a dream I had. In my dream I had a little time handheld that allowed me to make short time-jumps (10-15 minutes). When I woke up I thought that such an handheld would be precious for the human beings. Imagine you're stuck in the traffic: you just press a button and you're back home relaxing on your sopha. Imagine you're attending a very boring meeting: just press the button and you're suddenly in the bar drinking an after-work beer with your friends. Maybe people would be a little bit happier... And I thought that, after all, music is a sort of time elapsing handheld because while listening to it you get completely lost for the whole length of the album and when you "wake up" you realize that music gave you the capability to "freeze" a certain moment of your life and to "wake up" in a different situation, with a different mood and with different feelings.
What are your thoughts on passing time, and what are the proper tools for altering its perceived rate?
We all would like to stop time, but in certain situations we would pay to make it go faster. Both factors are obviously impossible to get so we use little tricks to cheat time and altering its rate according to our needs. I don't think it's the case to afford deep physical and philosophical concepts and their resulting paradox here but I can tell you that music is absolutely my "time machine", my main mean to cancel time. The hardest thing to talk about is the effect that canceling time might produce, because if I freeze a certain moment of my life by any means, when I get the clock to start running again my perception is that the clock hands run faster than before...
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Interview with Emanuele Errante by HC. Photography by Silvano Caiazzo.
maisound.com/errante | myspace.com/eerrante
Also on Headphone Commute
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky)
sunblind.net | kranky.net
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Review prepared by Caspar Menkman exclusively for Headphone Commute.
Also on Headphone Commute:
Interview with Tim Hecker
Editor's Note: In June of 2010, I attended MUTEK, an international festival of electronic music, taking place in Montreal, Canada. During my stay, I interviewed many artists in person (yes, I know, I've failed to share many of these gems). Among them, I had an opportunity to talk with Tim Hecker. The following is a transcription of our conversation.
Talk a little bit about your upcoming performance tonight, at MUTEK.
Well, I'm playing a concert... I'm trying to make it a special thing because I don't play here very often. It's about once a year lately - this is my hometown - and I played at MUTEK maybe five or six times, so it's kind of strange. I've been here so many times, it's almost a déjà vu, although in this case, the venue is a bit different.
And how has it evolved over the years?
Well it's grown in both, the organizational structure and the size of the audience... as well as in its curatorial aspect. It has definitely changed with music shifting a bit.
MUTEK represents a sort of marriage between Music and Technology. What does it represent to you?
I'm not so crazy about the "technology" being the most important thing. Every musician uses technology, so why do we need to talk about technology in electronic music? Is it more interesting than the guitar's wood resonance? That's technology also - a more organic form of amplification. Do you know what I mean?
What do you think about the state of electronic music today? Do you pay attention to the trends?
No. I don't even know what 'electronic music' really means. When one refers to aspects of traditional electronic music - what does one mean by that? Synthesizers? Computers? I can give you a million examples, and I can give you a million ways in which electronics have been integrated into what we call 'mainstream' music. And I don't even know if that word means anything anymore. I tend to think of my work, not as electronic music, but as something like fake church music, neo metal drone, satanic pagan sacrificial rights music... I'm joking about that, of course. But with electronic music... it's hard to say.
What are some of the challenges in doing a live show?
It's definitely a challenge for me. I'm honest about the fact that I'm first and foremost a studio artist. I work on crafting documents that are usually around 60 minutes long, designed for a CD or vinyl. And that's my main form of work, where I put my greatest labor and love into. And performing live is a great change, a refreshing way of putting works out there in a different sense - it's more physical, overbearing and loud. It gives me a chance to really push things, to almost the threshold of sometimes pain and sometimes pleasure.
When you put together music, is it meant to be conceptually from beginning to the end, and do you expect listeners to consume it as such?
Well I hope that they would. I'm kind of nostalgic about that. I hold on to the idea of works of longer duration, where an album is not just a collection of hit songs with eleven B-sides attached to it. I like a long flow that has repetition, cycles, returns, counter points and bridges. And I think of an album as a big song, and always constructed them in that way.
Do you think there's an ideal setting where someone should consume your music?
Absolutely not. I try not to set too much interpretive framework around the work, so it's not overly conceptual, so that it's a more of an open context, it's open to a million interpretations, and also makes it more possible to be enigmatic in certain ways, than when it's totally pinned down and has an attached meaning or structure.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
sunblind.net
Also on Headphone Commute
Sound Postcard : Taylor Deupree - Single Sound
Headphone Commute's Sound Postcards project was inspired by Taylor Deupree's One Sound Each Day project, where for a year, Deupree would record a sound, regardless of how 'mundane' it at first appeared. As the owner of the amazing 12k label, and one of the pioneers behind the ambient and minimal genres, it's only suitable for Deupree to enjoy every single sound produced by organic and inanimate objects. We are honored to host an installment from Deupree for today's Sound Postcard!
Listen to this Sound Postcard on Headphone Commute
Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere (130701)
Read also Headphone Commute's Interview with Dustin O’Halloran
dustinohalloran.com
Interview with Dustin O'Halloran
Talk about the moment when you discovered that you had synesthesia. How has this condition affected your composition?
I always had this condition, but never really understood it or knew there was so much information about it until I started to study painters with this same condition. It really opened up a whole new world that connected painting and music, sound and color. I really started to read a lot about this connection when I was asked to perform at the Guggenheim in NY for their 50th anniversary, it was also the opening of the Kandinsky exhibition at the same time. Walking through this retrospective it was incredible how musical these paintings were, and how his series of "compositions", which he felt were his musical interpretations, how they really FEEL orchestral.
In my own compositions it helped me to have more freedom expressing these ideas and perhaps also help me get ideas across to other musicians that I work with. It's a language I understand, and I suppose since I am not formally trained it gave me some grounding in what I believe is a really important part of music and composing.
Describe your process of composing solo piano pieces. Do you improvise by the piano for hours? Does a single melody simply come out of nowhere?
I think all pieces start from improvising, and slowly start to take form over time. I do like to get them to a place where there is an idea and structure… sometimes that can change at the last-minute in the recording process. But I like the idea of every note being important, and no note is treated as a throw away… I want them all to count and mean something to the piece. I guess that's also why I work in a minimal way... I think a lot of music has unnecessary notes that just seem to be there for the sake of making a piece more ornamental. I am interested in the core of what makes music work.
From your earlier solo works, I can hear a lot of classical influences in your sound. Who are your favorite classical composers and why?
Yeah I spent a lot of time listening to the classical composers, and of course it's found its way into my work. I love this deep sense of composition which I think really was unique to that time... no film, tv, radio, or all these external distractions we have now. Does anyone have years to develop a single piece of music anymore in this world where everything must happen so fast?
As for composers I love: Gavin Bryars, Chopin, Bach, John Cage, Steve Riech, Arvo Part, Morton Feldman, Stravinsky, Debussy, Erik Satie, Philip Glass to name a few...
Did you like studying the piano when you were a kid? Were the lessons something you looked forward to, or did it feel like a chore? What were the other kids doing in your neighborhood while you practiced for hours? And finally (I know this is a loaded question), how do you think this has affected your childhood, and inevitably your adult life?
An interesting question... I didn't really have serious piano studies, so it was really my choice to learn. Just simple lessons from our church organist, no conservatory or anything. I really loved to play... of course there were times when I didn't want to practice... I just wanted to be able to play instantly, and of course you have to put the time in. Most of time I was pretty happy to... but yeah, your friends are going out to play and I would stay in, that's always hard when you're a kid. But it was not a really rigid schedule I had, and perhaps now I wish I had so that I could have had a better training when I was young, as I am catching up to a lot of lost time now.
I had a long period where I didn't play piano as I was moving around a lot in my teenage years, and it was not until later when I started to get into playing guitar and playing in a band that I came back to it. Now in my adult life I am trying to learn all the things I wished I had done when I was younger, but I guess the positive thing about that is I really want to, and its a pleasure to stay in play.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Read Headphone Commute's review of Lumiere
dustinohalloran.com
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Two and a Half Questions with Asura
You have been producing music for well over a decade now. How has your sound evolved over the years?
I think my music has always been a mixture of numerous influences, styles. I love electronic music, space and trance, but too, world music, classical, even pop rock. I guess that, since 1996, when Asura was created, the evolution was natural, cause it's not commercial music, so it has no boundaries, no limits. I too tried many synths and gears, and for something like 5 or 6 years, many virtual ones. So my sound changed with my various experiments.
360 is an album in two parts. What do the chapters "Before" and "After" signify?
It's a very personal reason in fact. This album is a tribute to my father who passed away in 2009. He taught me love of music, and I share what I know in part thank to him with my listeners. You are born, you live, and you die. But you give a message. It's like a loop. A circle. Life in 360. "Before" is when he was there, and "after" is... you guess what!
And what about the name itself - are you referring to a full cycle, return to the origin, as well as the unity of beginning and an end?
I don't want to keep my music enclosed in a formatted style. "Code Eternity", for example, belongs to the past, with its almost exclusive 4/4 beats, acid and loud basslines. We are in 2010 now, no more in the 2000's. I changed and my music with me. I will keep making this kind of music of course, cause I love it, but essentially for compilations, live acts, for the dance floor too. So now I want to go deeper in a mix of World Music, Trance Ambient, Trip Hop, Classical, Glitch, everything that I think can fit with my soul. I would like it to be a panoramic vision of music, at 360 degrees. That's why my 2011 album will be very different too, a spacey one. I will come back to a rhythmic album, as it's the case in "360", in 2013.
Talk a little about your collaboration with Ayten on El-Hai.
It was a virtual meeting at first, cause we met via Myspace. I send here some drones and she sang (divinely) on it. So we decided to make a track together, and it gave "El Hai", which means "Living God" in hebrew. And it won't be the last time. She has a heavenly voice, polymorphic I would say, and i am eager to collaborate on several other tracks, and maybe to released an album with her in the future.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Be sure to read Headphone Commute review of Asura's 360
asura-music.com
Interview with Boy Is Fiction
What have been the greatest musical influences on your music?
For as long as I can remember I've been really easily distracted. My attention span is average at the best of times but music was always different. When I was growing up my folks had a huge collection of vinyl and discs that I'd disappear into and I guess because of that I've developed a fairly eclectic taste. I've never really given a shit who wrote the music or where it came from as long as it made me feel something. As a kid I remember listening to tracks over and over in an old pair of headphones for that reason alone.
I think the biggest shift for me was in my teens when I started to listen to bands like ministry. I was a die-hard metal fan so when I heard the mix of samples, synths and textures I was gone. I'd started playing guitar a few years earlier but from that point on I wanted to be able to do it all. My drumming sucked so I bought a drum machine / sampler and over time taught myself to play piano. As a guitarist I've gone downhill but spreading myself thinly over multiple instruments was the only way I could do what I wanted to do. These days I listen to everything from Godspeed to Leonard Cohen. There's so much good stuff out there, it's just a matter of filtering your way through it.
You seem to be a one man shop, doing all the writing, playing, and production yourself. Did anyone join you on Broadcasts in Colour? I hear a cello on "In" and a different voice on "Until Morning Comes." Is that all you? How many different instruments were employed to create the cinematic sweep of Broadcasts in Colour?
Boy is Fiction is just me. I've toyed with the idea of bringing in other musicians but it's such a personal project and so much of it comes from what I've seen and done. There are definitely people I'd love to work with and I wouldn't rule it out - but it's hard to do when you're in your own little world. In saying that I've spent some pretty late and messy nights with the people close to me picking their brains. It's a great way to sound out ideas but ultimately I'm stubborn and I tend to run with my heart.
To date the strings have been digital but that's definitely something I'd look at given the chance. Having started as a guitarist I still get a lot of textures from electrics, my keys are synth based and percussion is a mix of digital and acoustic. Over the years I've recorded a few kits and I still use them a lot when I'm after an open or live kit sound. The glitchy and broken beats come from a special place after a lot of hard liquor and shit talking.
Is your work drawn from your own life, or are they externally influenced?
Absolutely my own life, but music is a funny thing. I'm never really sure how a track will make someone feel so I just lay it all down emotionally. Why not? Once a piece is out there, people will interpret differently and I guess that's the beauty of music. Obviously adding vocals makes it easier to tell a story or whatever but I think if they're minimal enough the focus remains on the track as a whole. Everyone has moments and experiences they'll never forget. I have memories that I wish I could relive over and over, just as I have memories I wish I could outrun.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Interview prepared by Elizabeth Klisiewicz for Headphone Commute.
Check out Headphone Commute's review of Broadcasts In Colour
boyisfiction.com
Sound Bytes : Asura, Boxharp, Arc of Doves and Boy Is Fiction
Here, at Headphone Commute offices, our bins are overflowing with promos, our mailboxes are screaming with "listen to meeee!" subjects, and our hard-drives are constantly churning, fragmenting and archiving. We have given up a long time ago on listening to _ALL_ of the music out there, and complaining about its abundance is also a sin... Thankfully, Elizabeth Klisiewicz comes to the rescue once more, dusting off a few of the albums that truly deserve recognition among these pages. With this first Sound Bytes entry of the year, we tip our hats off to our favorites by Asura, Boxharp, Arc of Doves and Boy Is Fiction.
Asura - 360 (Ultimae)
Check out our Two and a Half Questions with Asura
Boxharp - The Green (Hidden Shoal Recordings)
Arc of Doves - Impressions (Quietus Recordings)
Boy Is Fiction - Broadcasts In Colour (Sun Sea Sky Productions)
Read also Elizabeth's Interview with Boy Is Fiction
Be sure to read this entry directly on Headphone Commute for audio track samples.
Cepia - Cepia (Cepia Music)
Read Two and a Half Questions with Cepia
cepiamusic.com
Two and a Half Questions with Cepia
What is the main theme behind the album, and why did you choose to go with a self-titled approach?
There isn't a main theme behind the album, but to me, it's an album in the classic sense where all the pieces are related and it's designed to be listened to all the way through. It's self-titled because it's very close to the core or essence of this music that I want to hear. Somewhere between the density of my first release and the minimalism of the last album.
Can you talk a bit about sound design? What software / hardware do you employ in your studio?
Everything is synthesized and sequenced in Max/MSP, bussed out to analog preamps, compressors and EQs, and then back in the computer for a more traditional mixing process with Logic. The album was not mastered for maximum level and because of that it retains a lot of punch, you want to turn it up when it comes on.
Describe your composition process. What are the inspirations? What is the approach at attacking a specific idea?
The harmonic stuff is written on a keyboard and the percussion in Max. Sometimes it's really hashing out a chord progression over a couple weeks, other times it's getting up in the middle of the night with something stuck in my head. The inspiration is all over the place from The Meters to Phillip Glass to The Band.
Besides Gin, what is your other choice of poison? :)
Whiskey.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Be sure to read Headphone Commute's review of Cepia.
cepiamusic.com
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Syndicated Posts
I just wanted to drop a quick line and apologize for not updating this mirror in a while. It's not exactly an automated process, so it takes a couple of hours to manually update individual posts. Since it fell off my radar, the reviews and interviews on here are lagging behind by about four months. I know many of you use this site to as your RSS source, so I'll do my best and attempt to catch up as soon as I can! Meanwhile, perhaps you'd consider adding our main site: reviews.headphonecommute.com to your portable RSS reader, so that you can stay up to date with the latest publications!
Tipper - Broken Soul Jamboree (Tippermusic)
Be sure to read our Two and a Half Questions with Tipper
tippermusic.net
Two and a Half Questions with Tipper
Last night I had a dream that I was checked into rehab for overdosing on music. I think you were there as well. What were you in for?
I'm the janitor there.
What would be a perfect musical performance for your funeral, and who should we book to perform?
I don't give a fuck 'cos i'll be dead, but for the purpose of your own entertainment, you may want to book this talent : manualist plays the bee gees
Seriously now, how Big is the Question, and how small is the head?
The question is about the size of a small wood pigeon and the head is about the size of a frustrated raisin.
On Broken Soul Jamboree I hear a few neat-sounding metallic percussion instruments. Who was your favorite Ninja Turtle and why?
Never watched it, but after some extensive research, probably Raphael, as he is purported to be both sullen and pissed off… these emotional traits stemming from an existential crisis that came about as a result of being one of only four anthropomorphic turtles in existence. Fair game.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview with Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Read Headphone Commute's review of Broken Soul Jamboree
tippermusic.net
Eskmo - Eskmo (Ninja Tune)
See also Headphone Commute's Interview with Eskmo.
eskmo.com | ninjatune.net
Interview with Eskmo
I noticed that you're using vocals on the album (your own voice, right?). How has the Eskmo sound evolved over the years?
Yep I'm singing. I've had tracks along the way since the beginning where I put my vocal in there as a hook, but this recent album was the first full on diving in to take it to another place. I know the sound right now in the electronic world (for the most part) is all on the r'n'b tip with vocals, but that's not what inspires me. The idea of 'characters' inspires me no matter what the sound, so I took that and ran with it. Ultimately the music has always stayed true to being a reflection and metaphor of an inner process that has been happening within me over 10 years. The ways in which it has changed would be, the most obvious, in terms of production levels / concepts. But more deep than that would be the way I approach the tracks. Whether from a place of 2005 or 2008 and trying to write something that sounded 'heavy' and could make the dance floor go wild, to the more recent material which explores some more emotional terrain. Lately I've really allowed the idea of storytelling and memes to come through no matter if that places the track into a gentle area or the opposite, an uncomfortable or challenging one. Either way, I feel more is being said than me still going down the route of dj oriented tracks. (Not like I would ever get that big in that world anyways cause my stuff was always a bit 'odd' for most of dj crowd).
The latest music video by Cyriak Harris for "We Got More" kicks Inception's butt... Tell us more about videos that are now featured with your album. How have these complimented your music?
The first was "Cloudlight" which was directed by my friend Dugan Oneal. The 2nd was the video you mention. I've been real blessed to have been able to work with these two directors. Each song definitely comes from its own little world and different intention was put into each. We (Ninja and I) wanted to show 2 very different sides to the Eskmo character. Cloudlight comes from a very personal subtle sorta place. There is lots of story behind that one. I knew before the album was even done Cloudlight needed a video, but Pete at Ninja convinced me to do one for We Got More. They knew Cyriak (I hadn't heard of him before), and I trusted his judgment that it would be a good fit. And luckily it definitely was. I feel he nailed the exact quirky vibe I was hoping to achieve in tune.
Your signing on to Ninja Tune has definitely brought more attention to your music. Talk about the new opportunities that have presented themselves since the signing.
Signing with them has been a great experience. Their presence is so well established already and the fact that they are putting in a whole new level of focus into the brand and label these past couple years is just exciting. Through this I've been able to travel to new spots in Europe and Japan as well as meet a whole new crew of musicians I may have not encountered otherwise. It has also has brought its own set of challenges, which I also try to see as opportunities to grow. Releasing the music to such a large audience and with this much force behind the release brings a lot of leering eyes. Your work just gets examined in a different way. Especially if you don't give critics what they were expecting. I look at all this as chances to expand my sound and view of what this all means to me and how I might grow from it.
Do you think we'll see more material from your other project, Welder? Also, how would you classify the separation of sound between Welder and Eskmo?
I'm currently diving into another full length Welder release right now. Welder is the gentle, inward, very organic sound in me. No attention paid (for the most part) to bass lines or anything that feels the need to make a track 'hit' on the dance floor, where sonically or to make people bug out. Once you enter than sort of territory, the whole game changes. Eskmo, is the more open, outward, big sound. He understands the dance world and intentionally messes with it, where as Welder doesn't even acknowledge a need for playing with the rules, cause there aren't any. At one point I thought to make them extreme opposites from each other, but I could never bring Eskmo to be an annoying dance anthem character and still be ok with myself. I'm curious to see the direction of this next Welder album.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
See also Headphone Commute's review of Eskmo
eskmo.com | ninjatune.net
Hauschka - Foreign Landscapes (130701)
hauschka-net.de | myspace.com/hauschka
fat-cat.co.uk | myspace.com/fatcat130701
Interview with Hauschka
Hey Volker. We last spoke after your release of Ferndorf, where you introduced a few stringed instruments into your music. On Foreign Landscapes you took on an entire orchestra! Tell us how this collaboration has evolved.
Oh i think with twelve people it is a small orchestra, and i am really happy that i could work on my ability to compose something out of my head. I always had the idea after doing so many improvised concerts and recordings, to work more on the parts that i don't know so well and arranging and composing for a big ensemble was something i never experienced. it is also a matter of having trust in yourself that you can transfer ideas into a group where it is out of your control when it is played... but it isn't as soon as you work with them. i was fortunate to be able record with the wonderful Magik*Magik Orchestra from San Francisco who helped me to get the best result in a very relaxed atmosphere.
Talk a bit about the process of composing for this orchestra. How different is your approach from working on solo piano compositions? How long did it take to put together this ambitious score?
It is different, as you must have everything ready when you go into the studio and the composition must be already perfect, once you press the record button. with my solo pieces i trust my intuition, which i think is a wonderful strength but different. my solo piano pieces are mainly based on improvisation and spontaneous output. with a composition, you have to shape it beforehand. i started in the spring of 2009 with the first piece and when i had all the drafts together, it took me about 6 weeks to finish the arrangements. the recording was done in 5 days.
Foreign Landscapes is influenced by the places you have visited during your past extensive touring, and I see that you're on tour once again. Talk a little about this aspect of your life, and how it affects your direction as a composer (as opposed to a bedroom musician with little interaction with audience).
I think traveling in general makes you wider in terms of your perspective on people, culture and a variety of thoughts. it creates an atmosphere that is hard to achieve in your bedroom and gives you an enormous amount of input through impressions, which doesn't mean that the bedroom is a worse place, quality wise. in my home, i can really focus on the essence because everything is sorted and familiar. so in my case i can say the nicest thing is the mixture of both.
How have your live shows changed, now that you're performing with an orchestra?
I am playing mainly with a smaller group then i recorded with out of cost reasons but my concerts are more planned as the running order is clear beforehand. during my solo concerts i can always spontaneously decide what i want to play.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview with Hauschka on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
hauschka-net.de | myspace.com/hauschka
Also on Headphone Commute
bvdub - The Art Of Dying Alone (Glacial Movements)
Be sure to read Interview with bvdub
bvdub.org | glacialmovements.com
Interview with bvdub
That topic of death and passing away is something that you have admittedly been obsessed with. Is it a fascination, phobia, acceptance or something else? Can you please shed more light on this?
What was once a nearly crippling fear turned to acceptance, and then to fascination.
It’s been something I’ve been obsessed with for a long time, nearly as long as I can remember. As a result, I tend to see things in a very retrospective way, like trying to imagine how people I know would maybe remember me or something I did after I’m gone. I’ve never been able to live in the now, I’m always stuck in the past, which is maybe why I gravitate naturally toward thinking about the end – because at that point, there’s only the past.
It used to be a phobia, a really bad one. The obsession I now have with the concept of death was once a nearly uncontrollable phobia and fear – that was until one day, probably about 15 years ago now, one of my best friends handed me a copy of The Stranger by Albert Camus, which then started me down the road to the full-fledged Existentialist I am now (yes I know Camus labeled himself a Humanist, but we’ll save that discussion for another time). Many people mistakenly think that Existentialists are these suicidal, miserable people, mostly due to misrepresentation and erroneous information in popular media, when in actuality the fact that you’ve accepted that you’re going to die someday and that it could be any minute makes you appreciate the small and beautiful things in this life that so many overlook when they’re only thinking about the next one. Anyway, let’s save all that for another day…
Honestly I have no idea where my obsession with death comes from. When I was young I wasn’t exposed to some traumatic encounter with it or anything, it’s just always been something I gravitated toward (much to the distress of my parents when I was young haha). Even when I was young, I spent all of my time stuck in the past, thinking about things that had happened, regrets, and things that might have been – so even from a young age, I began to look all the way to the end, and think back from there, imagining how others may reminisce about their lives someday, and how my own existence would, if at all, intersect in their thoughts. Needless to say, I was a hit at parties.
The concept very recently and horribly came to life when I suddenly and without warning lost my father, who though he would freely admit couldn’t for the life of him understand what was going on in my head, supported every step I’ve ever taken, including all the times everyone else said I was throwing my life away on music. Without him, I would never have made a single note of music that you hear today. I owe everything I am to him, and to suddenly wake up and have him disappear without being able to say goodbye is something words can never describe, though I am by no means unique in the experience – people all over the world have to face it every day.
Though the emptiness I felt was and still is heavier than ten oceans, I think my lifelong obsession with the concept of loss, and my ability to accept and even be fascinated by it in the later half of my life to date helped me to deal with it in a drastically different way than I would have when I was younger. When I would have ran in the face of it at one point, I was now able to stare it straight in the eye, and accept it for what it was. I don’t believe in souls, spirits, afterlife, or anybody looking down on anybody, but he will forever be a part of everything I do, because he was always the reason I was able to do it in the first place. And so I guess this is the definition of my obsession with death. I think that’s the most you can ask of life, to have that effect on someone, and to become part of the very fabric that makes up their being. I don’t think I’ll ever accomplish that, because I’m simply too cold and distant and frankly fucked up to love as he did, but here’s to hoping.
Can talk about the quote on your album, "We all die alone, but some make it their last work of art". What is its source and effect on your inspiration for this album?
Its source is actually me. I would say it very much relates to this idea of how after you’re gone, others’ memory of you in their lives will intertwine with the story of their own lives, no matter to what extent. For me personally, the most beautiful way this can be achieved, at least in my ideal, is to somehow know the end is near, and to silently disappear to spend those last moments completely alone, thinking back on the life you lived, and then just vanish as easily and suddenly as you appeared.
This has always been an obsession of mine, but it had lay dormant for a while until one day about a year ago I asked someone what their ideal way to die was, and they answered very matter-of-factly, showing they had thought about it many times, that they wanted to die alone in a place no one had ever been. I thought that was such a beautiful answer (coupled with the fact it came from the mouth of someone around 19 years old, which was extremely unexpected) I honestly shed a tear, and every time I even think of it, including now, I do the same. Quite frankly, to me, even the thought of such a concept is truly a work of art.
No matter how many friends you make, how much your family loves you, or anything else that we arbitrarily attach to the meaning of life, we were intrinsically born into this world alone, and we will leave it alone. So to me, embracing that fact, and seeking to make that a time of beauty, makes much more sense than this absurd idea of being surrounded by loved ones etc. What possible good does that do? To me it’s just another attempt to distract ourselves from the inevitable, even when it’s weeks, days, or minutes away. I’d rather spend that time finishing the last few sentences of my own story on my own, rather than making others fumble through them on my behalf.
Basically the idea for the album, its title, and that quote all came about during an extremely low point for me, during a pretty much crippling depression I experienced when first moving back to China, when I was experiencing a loneliness that was really beyond all description. My mind being the tortuous Moebius that it is, I began to obsess on the thought of not only how truly alone I was, but the fact that I could easily disappear or meet my end and no one around me would truly care – it was the closest I had ever come to that point of being alone I had previously dreamed of as the perfect way for it all to end. And the lowness I felt, quite honestly, made me care less by the day as to whether the next day was the last. In fact, I reached one day where I literally didn’t care at all.
I don’t know what happened, but I all of a sudden decided to take that crushing weight and put it into music. I think quite honestly, it was a sort of last-ditch effort to see if I could feel something again. It wasn’t even depression anymore. I had gone numb. So thought the only thing I could do was attempt to put the experience to music, to see if I could come out of the tailspin by talking about it then only way I know how – with myself. It was the first time I had touched music since moving across the Pacific, but it seemed like the perfect time to start, to try to make something constructive happen from what I was fairly certain was a depression that might consume me.
Though from the title of the album to those of the tracks themselves, I think it’s fairly obvious how I was feeling at the time, but what I wasn’t expecting was the beauty that ended up coming through in the tracks (at least I feel it, I can only hope others do too). I think it’s the most overtly sad album I’ve ever made, but as I progressed through it, it began to take on more and more beauty along with the sadness, and before I knew it, it became as much a statement about the beauty of life as much as its futility. And really, I think it’s embracing both that futility and beauty, irrevocably intertwined, that can bring about that one last work of art – one’s ability to make that last stroke on the canvas of their life, alone, just as they were when they made the first.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview in two parts, only on Headphone Commute:
Part One | Part Two
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Read also Headphone Commute's review of The Art Of Dying Alone
bvdub.org
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
20 Overlooked Albums of 2009
Editor's Note: Remember, the posts appearing on this Blogspot mirror are just a syndication of our original articles from headphonecommute.com, and may be lagging by a whole month! Be sure to stop by our main site, or subscribe to RSS Reviews Feed to keep up with the latest reviews and artist interviews!
Below is Headphone Commute's selection of 20 Overlooked Albums of 2009.
Check out Headphone Commute's Best of 2010!!!
(entries are listed in alphabetical order by artist. links point to album reviews on headphone commute)
Arc of Doves - Impressions (Quietus)
Asher - Miniatures (Sourdine) [ REVIEW ]
Cell - Hanging Masses (Ultimae) [ REVIEW ]
Christopher Hipgrave - Day (Home Normal)
Frank Riggio - Anamorphose (Spectraliquid) [ REVIEW ]
The Gaslamp Killer - My Troubled Mind (Brainfeeder)
Ian Hawgood - Snow Roads (Dragon's Eye)
Jamie Drouin - A Three Month Warm Up (Dragon's Eye)
Kelpe - Cambio Wechsel (D.C. Recordings) [ REVIEW ]
Max Richter - Henry May Long (OST) (Mute)
Onra - 1.0.8 (Favorite)
Paul Fiocco - Torsions And Drifts (Meupe)
Ruxpin - Where Do We Float From Here? (n5MD) [ REVIEW ]
The Seasons - Undone (City Centre Offices)
Sleeping Me - Lamenter (Phantom Channel) [ REVIEW ]
Svarte Greiner - Kappe (Type)
The Village Orchestra - I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again (Highpoint Lowlife)
Wes Willenbring - Close, But Not Too Close (Hidden Shoal)
William Basinski - Vivian & Ondine (2062)
World's End Girlfriend - 空気人形 [Air Doll OST] (Human Highway)
Pleq – My Life Begins Today (U-Cover CDr Limited)
See also Two and a Half Questions with Pleq
myspace.com/pleq | u-cover.com/cdr
Two and a Half Questions with Pleq
Where does your alias, "Pleq" come from, and what does it mean?
“Pleq” means nothing in particular. In fact, it is just a collection of letters submitted and matched entirely by accident. Secondly, I didn't want to duplicate existing names. So the creative process took me almost a week, then I started looking on the Internet to see if something like that exists. I found different words with unknown meaning for me, and the only thing that stuck in my head was the name of bulbs (hehe).
Please talk a little about your latest record, My Life Begins Today, and specifically its dedication to people suffering from multiple sclerosis.
This is one of the most important records in my life. For me, it is a continuation of the previous one, issued a year ago, also by U-Cover - "The Metamorphosis”. You can recognize the same melancholic-glitch like atmosphere. I came up with the idea to dedicate my album to people suffering from multiple sclerosis, and it was just after the fashion show at which I was invited to make music. Ewa Amroziak's Fashion Show "SOS communication" was combined with the charity auction; then I learned a lot about multiple sclerosis, I thought that I could actually help by making music. Some of these records will be put up for charity auction, which is being prepared for 2011.
Your work has been released by a handful of labels. Is there one specific label that you wish it to be signed to?
Yes, it is true. I try not to be limited to any specific label that is why I don't establish permanent contracts. You know, it's quite a difficult question. I don't want to jinx it as I carry on preliminary talks with some labels. Once I dreamed about labels, now I hold discussions with them about releasing albums in 2011.
It seems to me that your work would be a perfect fit for Mille Plateaux's "Clicks & Cuts" series. Who are some of your current musical influences?
Yes, one of my tracks was on the Click & Cuts 5.1 Paradigm Shift (The Bonus Package). I am very pleased by that, but on the other hand, it is just the bonus package. There are no particular artists after which I pattern myself. I listen to all kinds of music, not only electronic music. Recently, I’ve been delving into drone.
[ - s n i p - ]
Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute
- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
See also Headphone Commute's review of My Life Begins Today
myspace.com/pleq
Podcast : Clem Leek - Cold Air
Well, it's that time of the year... The crowds gather in shopping malls across the globe to drop some cash on their beloved. The cold air strips the branches off their dead leaves. The minds reflect on all of their accomplishments through the year. And the snow slowly falls... To help you gather your being into contemplative state of mind, we present you with our last Podcast of 2010 from Clem Leek. On this exclusive mix for Headphone Commute, Clem selects his favorite ambient and modern classical pieces from some of our all time favorite artists. We really enjoyed this one, and we hope you do as well!
See full track listing, plus stream or download the mix on Headphone Commute
Be sure to check out our Two and a Half Questions with Clem Leek.
Read also Headphone Commute review of Holly Lane.
Also, check out Clem Leek’s Sound Postcard!
clemleek.bandcamp.com | myspace.com/clemleekofficial
