EIC's 10Q's w/ Loscil

"..minimal arrangement, slow movements in tone, evocation of a particular environment and place..." 

Loscil

Pelagic Milieu

Loscil Bio:

Born in Canada, Scott Morgan apparently appropriated his Loscil alter ego from the operation code within the sound synthesis system Csound. Although he admits he rarely actually uses Csound to create his compelling minimalist recordings, he asserts that looping and oscillating are the basics of his music-making process. Loscil’s debut, Triple Point, was named after the scientific term for the temperature where a material can exist with its solid, liquid, and gas phases all in equilibrium. Based on a collection of demos entitled A New Demonstration of Thermodynamic Tendencies, the album takes the titles of its minimalist dub/techno/ambient-inspired tracks from the language of thermodynamics, the science that investigates the conversion of heat into mechanical force or energy and vice-versa. However, Morgan has confessed that track titles such as "Hydrogen," "Enthalpy," and "Discrete Entrophy" were lifted from a book bought in a second-hand store and "presented as a sort of false document on thermodynamics" rather than having an explicit correlation with the music. Morgan studied music at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, facilitating the musician’s exposure to 20th century experimental composers like John Cage and Stockhausen (while, incongruously, Morgan simultaneously played drums for a series of indie bands). Drawing stated influence from contemporary post-techno musicians such as Oval and Wolfgang Voigt’s Gas, as well as early electronic music pioneers such as Brian Eno and Raymond Scott, Triple Point’s fluctuating tones and pulses are explicitly intended to drift between the intuitive and the intellectual. Perhaps echoing descriptions of Loscil's music as deep and oceanic, the follow-up, Submers, looked to underwater craft for its emotional and thematic coherence. Each of the track titles was named after a submarine, such as "Argonaut I," "Nautilus," and "Le Plongeur." The release closed with a touching requiem for the crew of ill-fated Russian nuclear vessel Kursk. For 2004’s First Narrows, which was inspired in part by the first gap in the entrance to the Burrard Inlet, Morgan collaborated with other musicians, an approach he repeated for 2006’s Plume. Released in 2010, Endless Falls was another step forward, featuring vocals courtesy of his Destroyer bandmate Dan Bejar on its final track. 2012's Sketches from New Brighton took its name an oceanside park in Vancouver that was considered to be the city's birthplace. Under the moniker of Loscil Sound Design, Morgan creates interactive music and sound design for websites, CD-Rs, film and video projects, and "ambient environments."

Hello, how are you?

I'm well, thanks.

What are you currently listening to?

Simon Scott gave me his 'Navigare' CD when we met in Prague and I've been listening to that a lot. Really nice work.

Is there a story behind the band name?

"Loscil" is lifted from a computer music language called Csound.  It is a function that loosely means "looping oscillator" and can be used to loop sampled sound… I thought it was a nice, simple, abstract name that encapsulates all that I do with computer music.

Care to shed some light on your latest release 'Intervalo'; theme, favorite track, etc?

'Intervalo' came about through a live collaboration with Kelly Wyse (pianist) while playing Rafael Irisarri's Substrata Festival in Seattle in 2012. I retrofit a few pieces to included the piano ("Endless Falls", "Hastings" "Sunrise") and we also recorded some works that were specifically written with the piano in mind including the Harold Budd tribute, "Rye Fields" and the Lunar Caustic soundtrack, "City Hospital".  In the end, I was so happy with the results that I decided to record and release it myself as a special edition.

Is there a reason you didn't release this one through Kranky?

Partly because I just had a release come out on Kranky in the fall and wanted to get this out right away to bring on tour, but also because it's reworked material and something more suited to a limited edition which is not really something Kranky does.

Speaking of Kranky, whom/who is you favorite Kranky artist of all time?

Wow,  tough call but it's probably a close tie between Stars Of The Lid and Pan American.

Got any other projects we should know about?

I have a collaboration with bvdub in the can that will be coming out on Glacial Movements later this year. I also have a 7" single being pressed right now on my friend's label JAZ records. That should be available soon. I've commissioned a series of remixes of the track "Second Narrows", which was written as a soundtrack to an iPad game called 'Hundreds'. The collection of 100 minutes of remixes is currently being mastered and will be released very soon via bandcamp.

What movie would work best on mute while listening to you music?

Hmm. Perhaps 'Stalker'.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?

John Cage's 4'33" (OK, I'm cheating).

Are you living your dream?  I am living one of my dreams.

I still dream of owning a specialty farmhouse brewery one day.

Thanx Scott!

Loscil recently released 'Intervalo', you will go buy that now.

EIC's 10Q's w/ Aspidistrafly

"..something that is more gorgeous than gorgeous is about to reveal itself.."

Aspidistrafly

Quiescent Coppice Allegory

Aspidistrafly Bio:

From Singapore, ASPIDISTRAFLY consists of composer and vocalist April Lee (b.1984) and producer Ricks Ang (b.1980). The duo play a flickeringly filmic mixture of ambient folk with gossamer-like vocal harmonies and guitar-based drone wrapped in a delicate lo-fi haziness. April’s beguiling visions and lyrics form the backbone of ASPIDISTRAFLY‘s storytelling.

ASPIDISTRAFLY released their debut EP “The Ghost of Things” in 2004 in Singapore, followed by first full-length album “i hold a wish for you” (Kitchen. Label) in 2008 which gained much recognition and attention around Japan and Asia. In December 2011, they released their second album “A LITTLE FABLE” (Kitchen. Label). A track from the album “Landscape With A Fairy” was selected as NPR Music’s Song Of The Day in March 2012. April’s distinctly smoky and melancholic tone has often been compared to Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs by music publications worldwide.

In 2009, ASPIDISTRAFLY was invited to a 7-city tour around Asia which culminated in a headline show at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo. The duo has collaborated with artists including with Kyo Ichinose, Akira Kosemura, Honagayoko, Ironomi, Seigen Tokuzawa and others. April has most notably collaborated on a regular basis with and provided vocals for haruka nakamura. Their track “twilight” was selected as Japan iTunes Singles of the week in 2010. ASPIDISTRAFLY has also worked with renowned media artist Daito Manabe and Takayuki Fujimoto (dumbtype) on “Drift Net” by Singapore-based theatre group TheatreWorks.

Outside of ASPIDISTRAFLY, the duo also founded record label Kitchen. Label in 2008. As curator and producer, Ricks directs all Kitchen. Label releases and curates a repertory of sound and images that showcase a distinctive aesthetic vision, shared among ASPIDISTRAFLY and fellow label artists including haruka nakamura, FJORDNE, ironomi, Janis Crunch, Evade and others. Kitchen. Label has been widely recognized for their thoughtful approach to the design of their music releases, where visual storytelling and tactile sensitivity parallel with the music, garnering acclaim by publications such as Creative Review and The Wire. In Japan, the label’s music and vision has resonated greatly with their audience, leading to two sold-out label showcases at Sonorium and Waseda Scott Hall in 2010 and 2011.

Hello, how are you? 
Aspidistrafly chose to ignore this one, we'll assume they're doing awesome;]

What are you currently listening to?

I've been tuned into Bridget St John's 'Ask Me No Questions'.

What's the story with the band name?

There was a book by George Orwell which had an impact on me when I was about thirteen.. and the title of the book "Keep The Aspidistra Flying" stuck with me for a good long time. When we formed the band we didn't want a name that was tangible because has been done too many times, so we re-arranged the title and made our own word "aspidistrafly".

Who were/are your biggest influences when it came to sculpting your sound?

I get inspired and think in great detail about the treasures that I chance upon daily. It could be anything. History, heritage, patina on a ring, the noise on old films, the scent of aged leather and so on. At the time when I was making 'A Little Fable' I watched a lot of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky and I was breathing my collection of antique jewellery. These really played an important role in shaping the album.

What is the theme on your latest full length?

I loved fables and folklore as a child. This time wanted to create my own fables and song-poems.

If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing, whom would it be with and why?

I'd love to do runway music for Rodarte.

Got any strange/unusual talents?

I can lucid dream, which means I can control and direct what happens in my dreams, though I could do it a lot better when I was young. Also, I dream every night and can remember everything that happens. I like it that way because I'm not so fond of reality and my dreams serve as a form of escape. Sometimes I put them into ideas or a song.

What movie would work best on mute with your music as it's soundtrack?

I think "Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders" would go well with my album 'A Little Fable'.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?

It might be John Cage's 4'33". I love music but I need a lot of silence as well. I require complete silence when I write and ponder. Even a clock ticking might set me off tangent.

Are you living your dream?

I don't think I'll ever want to wake up from that dream.

Thanx Ricks & April!

Aspidistrafly seems to be slightly under the radar, let's change this strange fact and begin spreading the word shall we?

EIC's 10Q's w/ Matmos

"..delirious concepts.."

Matmos

Absurd Accent Analyzers

Matmos Bio:

Matmos is M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, aided and abetted by many others.  Currently based in Baltimore, the duo formed in San Francisco in the mid 1990s, and self-released their debut album in 1997. Marrying the conceptual tactics and noisy textures of object-based musique concrete to a rhythmic matrix rooted in electronic pop music, the two quickly became known for their highly unusual sound sources: amplified crayfish nerve tissue, the pages of bibles turning, water hitting copper plates, liposuction surgery, cameras and VCRs, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair, rat cages, tanks of helium, a cow uterus, human skulls, snails, cigarettes, cards shuffling, laser eye surgery, whoopee cushions, balloons, latex fetish clothing, rhinestones, Polish trains, insects, life support systems, inflatable blankets, rock salt, solid gold coins, the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, a five gallon bucket of oatmeal. These raw materials are manipulated into surprisingly accessible forms, and often supplemented by traditional musical instruments played by the group’s large circle of friends and collaborators. The result is a model of electronic composition as a relational network that connects sources and outcomes together; information about the process of creation activates the listening experience, providing the listener with entry points into sometimes densely allusive, baroque recordings.  Since their debut, Matmos have released over eight albums, including: Quasi-Objects (1998) , The West (1998), A Chance to Cut Is A Chance to Cure (2001), The Civil War (2003)  and The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of A Beast (2006) and Supreme Balloon (2008). In 2001 they were asked to collaborate with the Icelandic singer Bjork on her “Vespertine” album, and subsequently embarked on two world tours as part of her band. In addition to musical collaborations with Antony, So Percussion, David Tibet, the Rachel’s, Lesser, Wobbly, Zeena Parkins, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Matmos have also collaborated with a wide range of artists across disciplines, from the visual artist Daria Martin (on the soundtrack to her film “Minotaur”) to the playwright Young Jean Lee (for her play “The Appeal”) to Berlin-based choreographer Ayman Harper. Most recently, they have been part of the ensemble for the Robert Wilson production “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic”, featuring Marina Abramovic, Antony and Willem Dafoe. Their next album, The Marriage of True Minds, will be released in 2013 by Thrill Jockey Records

Hello, how are you?

Drew: I am feeling manic.

Martin: At ease, though there is much to do preparing for the public enjoyment of our new record...right now photo editing and making handmade cards to go into the special editions of our introductory EP/single (whatever it's formal format designation is!) "The Ganzfeld EP"

What are you currently listening to?

Drew: I'm currently listening to the steady purr of air conditioning in the attic of our house, and from downstairs I can still make out the record that's playing: the Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza album "The Feedback", which is an oddity for them, it's got these chunky funk drums and their skronky free music playing on top.

Martin: Helmut Lachenmann' "Mouvement" on YouTube as we have just returned from the Darmstadt Ferienkurse for New Music and apparently this fellow is very important for a lot of composers, and I had never listened to any, so... If you mean in general, the environment at Darmstadt is very dense, musically, so wow, we heard a lot of stuff...the two best things I heard were John Cage's "As Slow as Possible" and pieces that I can't remember the names of by a crazy cool young man/composer called Johannes Kreidler...look 'm up on You Tube, I tried to find a particular thing to recommend, but I fell down the rabbit hole...so I suggest you do the same!

(for Drew) I've always been curious, what sort of things do you speak about/shed light on in your lectures? Also, how did the idea of you writing the 33 1/3 book for Throbbing Gristle's '20 Jazz Funk Greats' come up?

I've taught two lecture courses in the English Department at Hopkins, one on Shakespeare and one on "British Literature I" (a survey course) that goes from Chaucer to Spenser to Milton to Pope. In the process of which I rant/talk about a vast range of things: renaissance literature first and foremost, but in and through that magic, colonialism, psychoanalysis, chivalry, poetic meter, queer sex, capitalism, rhetorical figures, pagan gods, Jesus Christ, suicide, friendship, slasher films, classical epic, venereal disease, feminism, currency policy, social hierarchies, monstrosity, ugly and beautiful bodies, literature as fetish etc. As Matmos we sometimes "lecture" (in a super loose way) about our own music, musique concrete, how to make recordings and why, the history of various mediums and media, records we love.

I wrote a book about Throbbing Gristle because I fell in love with their music at the age of 16 and haven't been able to let it go ever since, and I felt that they would do something odd and critical to the premise of the series as a whole by being inserted into that list. They seem to me to be usefully opposed to the "greatness" rhetoric that tends to accompany that kind of fandom. Their work is hard to read, self-contradicting in a way that felt like it was worth writing about, some art is very strong but it doesn't merit lots of unpacking. I think their work seems in certain ways "weaker" than the canonical albums in that series but that's is the source of its odd power.

What is the theme for your upcoming EP and will you be touring for it?

The EP is an introduction to the concerns that drive the album as well. The EP comes out in October and the album in early 2013. We won't be really touring that material until the spring because I will be on sabbatical then, but we will have a few select shows in Baltimore, New York and London in connection with the EP. The EP and the album have the same conceptual basis: telepathy. For the past four years we have been conducting parapsychological experiments based upon the classic Ganzfeld (“total field”) experiment, but with a twist: instead of sending and receiving simple graphic patterns, test subjects were put into a state of sensory > deprivation by covering their eyes and listening to white noise on headphones, and then I attempted to transmit “the concept of the new Matmos record” directly into their minds. During videotaped psychic experiments conducted at home in Baltimore and at Oxford University, test subjects were asked to describe out loud anything they saw or heard within their minds as Drew attempted transmission. The resulting transcripts became a kind of score that was then used to generate music. If a subject hummed something, that became a melody; passing visual images suggested arrangement ideas, instruments, or raw materials for a collage; if a subject described an action, then we had to act out that out and make music out of the noises generated in the process of the re-enactment. It was very labor intensive and very fun.

How do you guys come up with your sound concepts (such as a snail slithering past a light sensitive theremin)? I bet you have some interesting brain-storming sessions don't you?

Drew: There are lots of discussions, arguments, moods, temporary obsessions and long burning passions that move in and out focus. Deadlines and feelings of guilt and stress can be assets because they crystallize your vague sense that something might be worth exploring more, it helps when there is a gun to your head and you MUST choose something, you MUST decide if an idea is good or not, because that stops the endlessness of discussion. Sometimes there are blind alleys and one of the two of us has to point this out to the other, which is painful. I would like to think that the strongest sounds and concepts survive and that the weaker stuff drops out as it is subjected to scrutiny. One thing that happens quite often is that we'll get obsessed with something, make a piece, and then test it in front of audiences quite a bit before committing to it becoming a song for a record, in this case we're a bit more like a Rock band than an Electronic band, I suppose. But "brainstorming" sounds like a corporate marketing meeting, and I would hope that what we do is often driven more by intuition, stumbling, drift and free association.

What movie would work best on mute while listening to your music?

Drew: I often watch a film on mute while chopping up audio. Silent films are often flickering at me. I've been particularly enjoying the minimal presence provided by the Warhol screen test films, they're perfect for that situation. But so is trash cinema like "Beast With A Gun" or "Gymkata!". There are certain films I can just bask in over and over and over: "Laura", "Rebecca", "Mishima", "Barbarella", "Wild Reeds", "The Conversation", "Night of the Living Dead".

Martin:  Laguna Pacific's "Brothers Should Do It"?  "Buster goes to Laguna"?  I'm not sure I would recommend muting films and listening to our music? Maybe silent experimental animations of the 20's 30's 40's?

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?

Drew: Today the answer is Willie Nelson's, 'Stardust'; tomorrow the answer might be Morton Feldman's 'Crippled Symmetry'.

Martin: Terre Thaemlitz's new full length 'Soulnessless'? It's 32 hours long...

Are you living your dream?

Drew: This question prompts a memory of a friend who lived in a rough, crime-ridden building who stumbled onto a prostitute servicing a john in a stairwell. Annoyed at the intrusion, she looked up at him and yelled "Leave us alone, damn! Can't you see I'm just living my dream?"

Martin: I try to take things as they go, so as to avoid disappointment. I really enjoy a lot of things that happen to me, though! Also, most of my dreams are very repetitive work-dreams!

Thanx Drew & Martin!

Matmos are about to release "The Ganzfeld EP" and soon after that (early next year) they will release their next LP..!

EIC'S10Q'S w/Jonas Reinhardt

"..music pulsates from electronics that have more life in them than the man who programmed them. It was machine itself coming to existence and asking man for a reason. Man responds and says .."to create.".."


Jonas Reinhardt
Welcoming Specious Megacosm

Jonas Reinhardt Bio:
Jonas Reinhardt hails from San Francisco, CA. He has been writing, recording and performing music with analog synthesizers for more than a decade both as a solo artist and in groups. He was initially inspired to use synthesizers during a summer sabbatical in Houston's museum district and, in the late '90s, studied music synthesis at the Harvard Electronic Music Center.


Hello, how are you?
I'm good, never been better.

What are you currently listening to?
Lowill - Prune Slicker

Can you explain the band’s sound in 5 words or less?
Sure, the easiest way to describe....

Jonas Reinhardt started out as a one many operation and has since then grown, what was the deciding factor into this decision to become a full on band?
The hunger for fame and good company.

Your latest release is titled “Powers Of Audition”, what do you mean by that title?
Each of the songs is meant to engage the listener’s innate power of audition to fill in intentionally left blanks. These occur throughout the recording where there is either diminished narrative resolution or explicit sectional movement meant to provoke an auditory response. It comes from John Cage.

What is your favorite track off of “Powers..”?
They are all my children. Would you tell me which one of your children you like the best?

When it comes to “distortion” what is your favorite tool to use?
Hash

I would love to hear you guys do a movie score, which one would you choose (existing or non) if you had a choice?
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or maybe Manufactured Landscapes

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
J.D. Emmanuel - Solid Dawn

Are you living your dream?
Not sure, it's entirely possible...I suspect that depends on whether string theory, 10 flat space dimensions etc. is true or not.

Thanx Jesse & Brian!

Jonas Reinhardt is currently on tour make sure to buy lots of hash when go to see them...;p