Interview : Ariel Kalma

"Hello TheOfflinePeople, 
 I have chosen to answer your questions by mp3, i hope it’s ok for you. It’s much more convenient for me... I don’t have to type, thank you.

 Great, let’s start...

 I will only anwsers question i find relevent or interesting, thank you,

 So...
 



1. Your first musical memories?
I remember this old radio… tube radio, which we had in my family home... the one which use actually a cathode - EYE - It was looking like an eye... and, when you tune the station, the radio, this eye will lit up.

And i was fascinated by the radio... you could not listen very loud because we were a very large family, so... i will stay near the radio very near, my ear glued to the loudspeaker of the radio and looking at the eye and it was fascinating for me to see and to hear the music and change stations and go on short waves and hear all thoses far away places. That was amazing. I was very young
that was an amazing experience for me to listen very late to the station and of course late at night i had to glue my ear to the speakers to listen softly and that’s were i had my first musical experience


2. The best record you received as a present?
I thing it was “Ascenseur pour l'échafaud” the film music that Miles Davis recorded in... pfff
Why is it the best record? Because i use to know Miles Davis as a jazz player and with that film music he shows to me that music can have an direct evocation of images. And for me it was a discovery.

 Miles Davis became an important person for me, because he never stayed within his limits, he did have not limits... he would always look for the new. And i am always interested in the new also. What else? He shows me also with this record that  - i dont know if you know the story but he brokes his lips while recording this album - and therefore he found a way to play softly with a broken lips which for a trumpet player is very important - he play softly and from the inside i remember this welling sound... it was such a good feeling for me.


The worse one?
They was several, and i dont want to talk about them. I dont want to remember them.


3. The first record that you lost?
It's not important.


4. Is Drone the traditional music of the 21st century?
I find that it’s a strange question because drone is based on harmonic music versus melodic music, and it is basically the music of the all tribes... and the indian music is based on drone. You have a basic note and you keep that note, in India for example the tempura is based on one chord, not changed chords, so i dont think drone is the traditionnal music of the 21st century. I think it's a discovery maybe for westerners but if has been… i mean if you take the didgeridoo for example it's a drone, it's one key... there is no change of key… anyway.


5. In which environment do you like to record music?
I like to record music basically in any place but i like churches, i use to like churches - no i don't go so much in churches, but... - i used to record music... because of the acoustic... but i record some music in some cave and it was beautiful also, and now with the modern technologie you can recreate any environnements that you want so… it’s not so important where you record but  what i can say in a general meaning is: i like to record in a quiet environnement when i have plenty of time and it's beautiful and restful... so that's why i always have a home studio with some basic excellent equipment with which i can do decent recordings. Let's put it that way.


6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
I have no idea what it will sounds in 50 years, what music will sounds in 50 years... what kind of question…


7. Who changed your life?
I think many people change... i think... is about change and adaptation so for people who are ready to adapt and change, life can be change by anything... my life is... has always been changing but let's try to answer the question…

Who change my life? hum… ok.
My sister had a boyfriend and he was like a mentor, i was 9 years old, boys cart (?), he was playing the flute, i want to play the flute like him... then he was telling scary story about a campfire at night i found it extraordinary... then he went travelling around the world and i found that extraordinary and i think he changes my life in a sense that i decided... yeah, if he can do it, i can do it too… so whatever i did…
hum… Who has changed my life?

hum… So many people change my life because they influenced my life, because i take them has models... as role models, so... i think i will let that to this: life can be adaptable and change with the people we meet. They are so many people who are very important for me... and did my life change because of them, and did... and then i decide... and they came to show me a way… that’s a question i leave in the open.


8. According to Simon Reynolds, Brian Eno has opted for ‘word-images‘ in order to create a type of music that rouse emotions, rather than simply express a feeling through lyrics. Do you share this idea, or are you producing instrumental music for other reasons?
Ah ok, i see. I think before lyrics, was instrumental. Instrumental came with the emotion of the human being but before was the raw emotion without explaining what is happening in the life… it’s pure... instrumental music, instrumental music is more pure. Actually i was listening - thinking - about that when i was driving this morning while i was listening to the radio, and i was kept on looking for a channel which has music i could listen to without being invaded by those lyrics. So i think that we are invaded by lyrics about all kind of things and all kind of emotion and about all kind of life directions and… i dont think it's very interesting, i prefer to direct the emotion… i dont wanna use Brian Eno if he use 'word-images' okay that's his thing, fine… for me it's evocation ...directly from the instrument, so when i play my saxophone and i make a strong staccato attack tatatata ta tatatata this express certain type of energy and if wail with my saxophone wouimmm well that’s express something else so...

...and we dont need really the words to direct us, and to corner us, i would say… you know what we hear on the radio is absurd sometimes and this morning i could no find  a station until i find a classical music… so finally i was listening to classical music where skills and expression becomes the norm. But there is no, i mean... Opera is lyrics, and i can't bear the Opera, you know it’s so much vibrato and… anyway… let’s no go in Opera.

 I am producing instrumental music for other reasons. I am producing instrumental music because for me music is like… much of my music is like a meditation and meditation means possibly no mind... and no mind means no lyrics... (laughing)


9. Your favourite album to have a drink?
I dont drink.


10. Your dream collaboration?
Well i have some amazing collaborations already, and what will be my dream collaboration… hum
i have ideas about collaborations... but my dream collaboration… right now my… what i would like as a dream collaboration is to be with an internationnal DJ… i see a good, good, world music DJ and  i would come with my saxophone, my effects, my digeridoo and my flutes, and i would play live music with a DJ - but an intelligent DJ, not necesserarly the four on the floor, poom poom poom poom - that is what i would like to experiment now, because i love the didgeridoo now, and the saxophone is also my companion for many years, and i thing i could do a great energy dance creation.


11. The record that freaks you out?
Oh ok. Well… Einstein on the beach.
That freaks me out, because i cannot even begin to imagine how it’s played.
I know how it’s played because i have met philip glass and i have met the members of his orchestra in that time in the seventies, actually, and i know how it’s made, but it’s too abstract for me i cannot… and to see them play for so long, difficult pieces, which are articulation of the same sentence, that’s freak me out, yes. It does.


12. Is ambient music at the heart of an unstable state of equilibrium between structure and entropy?
hum that’s an interesting question… (read it again)

 Yes ambient music is at the heart of an unstable state of equilibrium, because that's what ambient means for me… beyond the structure and entropy is... yes… they are so many ambient music outside which produce, wich basically is smaltz (?) - it means basically nothing- so it has a tendancy to go to entropy … the beauty of Brian Eno and people like him, specially Laraaji for example which for me is provocative in a sense that he shows me what the possible are… so they evoque again, we are going back to the evocation, they evoque a quiet state of being... it is not entropy… entropy would be some smaltz new age music or elevator music that’s what entropy is for me... or some doom doom doom doom which means nothing, it’s just a beat, and a beat for nothing...  so: yes ambient music is very much at the limit, yes… you can say: the heart.


13. The film that tickles your creativity?
Every films tickles my creativity - i don't like horror movies - but except of this… (laugh)
because its triggers emotion because images are so powerful, so i think every film provoques something in me.


14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
In C by Terry Riley. I think it’s the track that’s everyone should have heard of.


15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
No, i will not answer that.


16. The cover version you would love to do?
Well i will tell you a little story: one day i was in paris, and it was... i dont know... the very early seventies, and i was playing the piano and i came up with a melody - and i remember very well to go through the creative process of finding a melody - and then came those words: your life is like a mirror reflecting all that harmony... so, that was the lyrics.

What was my surprise, some times after, maybe to month after or something like that, to hear a hit from the Beatles… hum… and the hit was Imagine all the people... (singing). Well now i can tell you my melody was the melody on those chords, exactly those chords, who came out of nowhere and it was Imagine... (singing again) - that was his version (laugh)... - so... your life is like a mirror… i couldnt believe it…  reflecting all that harmony so i think there is a synchronicity in life, i’ve seen that many times, when they are good ideas, it's pop out from many places… so i think Imagine would be interesting to imagine a cover version.


17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
ah, number 17 starts with "Imagine…"

I think, i will start playing with reed, grass reed, between my fingers... and make some sounds, and i think i will bang on pots and pans to make some rhytms... and i think i will listen to the wind in the trees, and find it, it makes music, and listen to the birds, and find it music, and … i don't think music will disappear.


18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
I think it will be between Tolkien - The crown less again shall be king or Tibet's Marpa - A man born from a flower in space.


19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Absolutely, constantly... (laughing)
What? I beg your pardon, of course i had auditory hallucination!

I think i hear music when there is no music, i think hear harmony when there is none. Its not voices that i hear, its all kind of sounds… sometimes it's an instant melody or symphony or... it's hard to describe but it's like an injection... and sometimes pieces are created out of just one fleeting moment of an auditory hallucination. Actually quite a lot...


(Lightning a cig)


20. How would you like to die?
I don't wanna die. (Long pause - Hearing the recorder sound)


Ok, folks. That's it!

This was for TheOfflinePeople, an interview from ariel kalma. I send you love and hugs from Australia and i hope you enjoy the music of the seventies... (An Evolutionary Music - Original Recordings: 1972 - 1979) which Revenge Intl will produce very soon...

Bye.


 


More on An Evolutionary Music (Original Recordings: 1972 - 1979) by Ariel Kalma on Igetrvng.

 Hear Ariel Kalma – Osmose (1978) and Ariel Kalma – Le Temps Des Moissons (1975)

Interview : A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Dustin O'Halloran)

1. Your first musical memories?
Listening to the church organist play Bach.

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
Best: Leonard Cohen Live 1968.  Worst: U2 (courtesy of Apple)

3.The first record that you lost?
Lost so many I cant keep track

4. Is Drone the traditional music of the 21st century?
Why not?

5. According to Simon Reynolds, Brian Eno has opted for “word-images” in order to create a type of music that rouse emotions, rather than simply express a feeling through lyrics. Do you share this idea, or are you producing instrumental music for other reasons?
Lyrics are so grounded to the human experience, and instrumental music is much more free to express that what cannot be expressed in words. As I get older I am more interested in these deeper and more universal languages.

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
In 50 years we will be singing hymns for the end of humanity as our glaciers melt. And in 5000 years the earth will once again enjoy the sound of only its spinning neutrons.

7. Did you choose ambient music for its refusal to engage with an accepted type of virtuosity?
Are we ambient music ? We just make music that please our ears.

8. Your favourite album to have a drink?
The Sinking of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars

9. Your dream collaboration?
David Lynch

10. The record that freaks you out?
Pink Floyd - The Wall always gave me the creeps even if its really great.

11. Is ambient music is at the heart of an unstable state of equilibrium between structure and entropy?
Our structures are very composed. We think a lot about this

12. The film that tickles your creativity?
The Color Of Pomegranetes by Sergei Parajanov

13. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
The Homeless Wanderer by Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou

14. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Enjoy the silence.

15. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
Kafka on The Shore by Murakami

16. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Yes. While on hallucinagens

17. How would you like to die?
Sleeping of course.



A Winged Victory for the Sullen will play live next thursday at La Fleche d'Or, Paris.

photo by Nick & Chloé

Interview : David McNeil

Assis sur un banc, sous la pluie entraîné par une jolie femme nue sous sa blouse me voici dans La Cave Saravah, autrefois fréquentée par Fontaine et Higelin. Posant "Les années saravah" de David McNeil, sur la platine vinyle, j'y entend "Maxie Madge et parfois Dicky Wagner". Fasciné, fonçant vers les disquaires des puces, je croise Quelques voyous yougoslaves, les yeux maquillés, probablement ceux de son deuxième album, mais passe en passant les épaves droit vers Gibert & Joseph. Sous le pont Saint Michel un Bateau-mouche glisse vers la pointe de l’île de la cité, à son bord, un couple enlacé.

Quelques heures de plus et la nuit tombe sur paris. Je vais sur abebooks.com et mon achat arrivé, j'effeuillette "Tangages et Roulis" (2006), suivant David de la dernière tournée imbibée avec Robert Charlebois à sa cure de désintoxication alcoolique d'ou il visite aussi la fille du bar d'en face, bientôt rejoint par Renard ou Renaud, c'est selon, qui expose aux pensionnaires sa technique toute personnelle pour ne pas devenir accro : "Lundi alcool, mardi cocaïne, mercredi haschich, jeudi amphétamines, vendredi héroïne, samedi ecstasy et dimanche LSD. Noël et jours de fête quartier libre, morphine, éther, mescaline, tout ce que vous voudrez, avec ce régime, pas d’accoutumance..."

158 pages plus tard, je m'aligne dans les "Quelques pas d'un ange" (2003) ou David parle de Marc Chagall, son père, et des bleus monochromes qu'il peint, petit, au fond de ses grands tableaux.
Puis de ces premiers bleus à celui de la couverture de "Quatre mots, trois dessins et quelques chansons" (2013) - son autobiographie articulée de chansons - il m'amène jusqu'à Hollywood avec Yves Montand ou jusqu'à la Rage de vivre de Mezz Mezzrow. De là, l'oreille alléchée par Mélissa, la métisse d'Ibiza, paroles David McNeil, je commence à entrevoir, un peu plus loin, la syntaxe éclatée d'un autre proche, Souchon, avant de découvrir Lady Pannonica, la lady des jazzmen au prénom de papillon qui va presque nue, 5e avenue, parmi les pianos et les violons.

Ailleurs, en 1999, David se pose en écrit/parlé la question de "La dernière phrase" : celle qu'un homme tente de parfaire, en haut débit ; la seule et unique phrase que l'on devra prononcer devant ce Cher Notre Père pour éviter l'Enfer.

Vêtu d'un pull over irlandais et d'un corsaire gris en faux serpent python, s'avance maintenant "Angie ou les douzes mesures d'un blues" (2007), mon livre préféré, ou McNeil tombe amoureux de la belle majestueuse - et ou cela les mènera t'ils ? - lors d'une ballade sixties à l'arrière de la limousine blanche de Memphis Slim. Angie, you can't say we never tried...

Hors de cette sélection, des travaux de Mr McNeil, on trouvera également plusieurs courts métrages dont "What Happened to Eva Braun?" (1971) et "Les aventures de Bernadette Soubirou" (1973), une compilation de ces albums introuvables "Les années RCA - Intégrale 1978-1982" et au moins quatre autres livres (si je ne compte pas ceux qu'il a écrit pour les enfants)... mais laissons la parole à David McNeil, "C'est si rare de pouvoir parler aux auteurs alors aujourd'hui j'en profite un peu".


1. Votre 1er souvenir musical ?
Le roulement de tambour d’une publicité vantant les mérites d’une brillantine en 195O, j’ai quatre ans. Elle illustrait le jingle de la marque : Brosse, peigne et Vitapointe, ra, ra, ratatata. Ça
m’a tellement marqué, qu’encore aujourd’hui je met des roulements de caisses claires un peu partout dans ma vie comme dans mes disques.

2. Le meilleur disque que l’on vous ait offert ? Le pire ?
Le meilleur, « Birth of de Blue » de Miles Davis, le pire, un des miens, trouvé par un copain au puces moins d’un mois après sa sortie. Sinon les chants de la Wehrmacht sortis en vinyle par les éditions qu’à l’époque, dirigeait Le Pen.


3. Le 1er livre que vous ayez perdu  ?
Je n’ai jamais perdu de livres, ils me sont trop précieux, mais on m’en a beaucoup volé, dont l’édition originale des « Liaisons dangereuses » et « J’irai cracher sur vos tombes » de Boris Vian.


4. Est ce que les souvenirs récurrents qui traversent vos livres peuvent être vus comme les thèmes musicaux d'une partition plus vaste, ou sont ils plutôt un art des variantes, comme celui que pratiquait les trouvères et les troubadours, adaptant leur repertoire au gré des chatelains rencontrés ?
Je pense que tous les artistes, qu’ils soient musiciens ou peintres tournent souvent autour d’eux même et de leur rapport avec la vie, l’amour et la mort, comme disait Freud et aussi ma boulangère, mais ce qui ressort chez tous ces gens, de Lascaux à Basquiat, c’est le « moi profond », qui ressort, et que parfois nous cachons sous le vernis fragile d’une fausse insou-ciance.


5. Jean-Luc Godard  a dit que «Tout ce dont vous avez besoin pour faire un film, c'est d'une fille et d'un flingue.».  Et vous qu’avez-vous besoin pour faire un livre ?
De l’envie d’écrire. Ça peut me prendre n’importe quand et n’importe où, j’écris même sans savoir où je vais, alors j’écris, j’écris, l’idée vient en marche et je jette les pages "d’amorce" pour avancer, bonne ou mauvaise, vers cette idée.


6. “Maxie madge et parfois Dicky Wagner”, pouvez vous nous parler de cette chanson, de son contexte, de comment elle est apparue... ?
Europe 1 m’avait demandé un conte de Noël, alors j’ai imaginé l’histoire de ce saxophoniste jouant sous la neige, entièrement recouvert de flocons, puis m’est venu l’image de cette fille de l’Armée du Salut, comme on voit chanter dans les rues de New York en Décembre, la suite s’en enchaînée logiquement.


7. Quelle a été la rencontre capitale de votre vie ?
Mezz Mezzrow, clarinettiste de Jazz et auteur d’un livre, « La rage de vivre », qui m’a tenu éloigné des poisons en poudre, et que je recommande fortement, une nouvelle édition vient de sortir chez Buchet-Chastel.


8. La plus belle adaptation en français d’une chanson anglophone ?
« Against the Wind » de Bob Seger, adaptée pour Sylvie Vartan par votre serviteur (1).


9. Quelques souvenirs de Donovan ?
Je vivais à Londres dans une immense maison qu’il avait louée pour tous ses copains. Un soir que je portais une chemise en tissu crétois que ma mère avait cousue pour moi, il me l’a demandée pour aller chanter en ville un soir, le salopard partait en tournée pour trois mois, je ne l’ai jamais revue.


10. Le morceau méconnu que tout le monde devrait connaître ?
Tout un album : « Such sweet thunder », de Duke Ellington, hommage à Shakespeare, si je ne dois choisir qu’un seul titre, le thème de « Puck », personnage du « Songe d’une nuit d’été ».


11. Le disque dont vous avez peur ?
Mon prochain.


12. Est-ce que « Le vrai est ce qu’il peut » (2) ? 
Place de Fürstenberg
       On attache son cheval
       Peut-être au réverbère
       Où s’en pendu Nerval...
Sans doute parce qu’il avait compris qu’en fait c’est l’homme qui fait ce qu’il peut pour trouver le «vrai».

13. Pouvez vous nous parler des titres que vous avez travaillé avec Jean Claude Vannier (3) ?
J’ai eu beaucoup de mal à travailler avec Vannier. Il est caractériel et m’a pourri la vie pendant deux mois. Et en plus je n’ai gardé qu’un titre arrangé par lui, les autres titres étaient sans intérêt. C’est «Gitane». J’ai refait tout le reste.


14. A quoi ressemblera la musique dans 50 ans ? dans 5000 ans ? 
La musique qu’on jouera dans cinquante ans est sans doute jouée déjà quelque part, Eric Satie avait cinquante ans d’avance sur son temps, Sun Ra et Steve Lacy aussi, on découvre aujourd’hui leur travail datant des années soixante. Dans cinq mille ans on rejouera certainement la musique qu’on jouait il y a cinquante mille ans, en tapant sur des troncs d’arbres évidés.


15. le livre que vous n’aimeriez pas être ? 
Celui qu’on jette sans même l’avoir terminé.


16. L’album idéal pour écrire ?
Un big band dirigé par Frank Zappa, avec Armstrong, Miles et Dizzy aux trompettes, Teagarden et Juan Tizol aux trombones, aux sax Coltrane, Parker et Mulligan, Monk à la basse, Baby Dodds, à la batterie, Billy Holliday et Ray Charles aux vocaux, Charlie Christian et Django aux guitare, jouant des compositions d’Ellington, partageant le piano avec Mozart, lyrics d’Ira Guerswin, tout ça enregistré à Abbey road par Phil Spector !


17. « Imaginez que vous vous réveillez demain, et la musique n’existe plus. Il n’y a plus aucun instrument, aucun enregistrement sur terre. » Que feriez vous ?
On fait, comme je l’ai dit, comme il y a cinquante mille ans, on réinvente tout !

18. Le film qui vous donne envie d’écrire ?  
La plus part des films qu’on voit à la télé, j’ai bien envie de leur écrire de vrais scénarios...


19. Avez vous déjà eu des hallucinations auditives ? 
Pas d’hallucinations, ni d’acouphènes, J’ai rêvé que je jouais avec Bob Dylan.


20. Comment aimeriez vous mourir ? 

Entraîné dans la mer par le chant des Sirènes.

(1) sous le titre "Cheveux au vent"

(2) Gérard de Nerval, Les nuits d’octobre
(3) l'arrangeur du Melody Nelson de Serge Gainsbourg

Interview : K Leimer

1. Your first sonic experience?
Cold War Air Raid Siren tests

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worst one?
Gavin Bryars - The Sinking of the Titanic / The Monkees - The Monkees

3. The first record that you lost?
The Stooges - Funhouse

4. The name of your imaginary band?
“Lick Response”

5. You once confided being lazy with technique. Did you choose ambient music for its refusal to engage with an accepted type of virtuosity?
Many forms of expression seem to begin and end with the notion of perfecting technique, often at the expense of what might be more rewarding approaches. Rather than mastering a technique, i tend to develop small scale techniques designed to generate the pieces, rather than simply articulate a piece already written for a specific instrument or performer; a sort of upside-down approach that fails at least as many times as it succeeds.

6. Who changed your life?
No-one more and in more ways than my wife Dorothy Cross

7. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
At a guess (not a prediction), in 50 years more than a few novelty songs about sea level change; in 5,000 years perhaps continuous, unorganized insect calls?

8. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
Cocktails: Alternative TV - Vibing Up the Senile Man or Wine: Michael Nyman - Decay Music

9. In a previous interview* you say that “the loop provided an instant structure—a sort of fatalism". In which way rhythmic loops differ from other loops? Do you think they are more fatalistic?
That comment concerned an open loop, a condition which persistently demands that you deal with the immediate past in adapting to, reacting to, participating with or changing the initial input while it decays: that stikes me as fatalistic because prior actions make determinations and set limits on what will follow. Closed loops simply repeat without any intrinsic modification: all you have is either additive, subtractive or steady-state.

10. Your dream collaboration?
Working with Alain Resnais to rescore Last Year at Mareinbad: its recursive structure seems ideal for developing a distinctive timbral approach to theme and variation.

11. The record that freaks you out?
Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Without Sinking is incredibly, almost unbelievably, wonderful. If you want a bad example let me know…

12. Is ambient music is at the heart of an unstable state of equilibrium between structure and entropy?
Ambient varies from pieces exhibiting some very structural concerns to those that represent seemingly arbitrary events, so the genre is apparently considered broad enough to span that range. But in the end, entropy wins.

13. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Of mine? I particularly like the series grouped as “Non-adaptive Layers” on Lesser Epitomes

14. Can you tell us more about your work with Greg Davis?
Greg and i have not really worked together: he’s been an editor on a few projects for his Autumn records and for this ReRVNG release, and he’s helped me with engineering and mastering, but we’ve not genuinely collaborated on a mutually developed work. And i do owe him a debt of gratitude for his attention to and interest in my music.

15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
Anything by Happy the Man?

16. The cover version you would love to do?
“Map Ref. 41ºn 93ºw” by Wire

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Enjoy the silence

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
Fata Morgana by André Breton

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Technically, a stereo image is, at best, an illusion, so, yes, maybe.

20. How would you like to die?
Outside of suicide i’m pretty sure i have no choice in this matter, so i’ve never developed a preference. But because you ask, i’ll say “while listening to the annoucement of a simple, inexpensive genetic fix to halt all disease and aging”.


Go to Palace of lights, Kerry Leimer's label, parse his discogs and buy A Period of Review on IGetRvng.

Interview : COH (Ivan Pavlov)

1. Your first musical memories?
Once upon a time, my parents bought a brand new piano. I was around 5, and I still remember the instrument's smell as it arrived – the scent of freshly lacquered wood mixed with something else. I also remember the feeling of opening the lid and touching the keys for the first time. This memory is not directly musical, but now that I think of it, there is this sense of discovery and curiosity that, I guess, attracts me in music to this day. Both as a listener and a musician.

Of course, I also remember my father playing the piano beautifully, and I remember my first music lessons which I've learned to hate very quickly. But the moment when the wooden machine first appeared in our home stays with me.


2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
I don't remember receiving music as a "present for an occasion". But I've met many musicians over the years who gave me their records. Either just kind people I briefly met at COH shows, or those who became close friends. I am not good at defining a "best record", but the strongest memory of receiving records as a gift comes from visiting John Balance at the Coil's house in London back in 1997. John took me to the "vaults" and said "grab anything you like". I know I should have taken much more than I did, but over the years he kept giving and sending records to me, some of them extremely rare – once I got one of the 23 canary yellow 7"s of their Jarman's Blue soundtrack!


3. The first record that you lost?
If I ever lost one, I never noticed – which probably means the record wasn't very exciting. In fact, that might help to answer the second half of your previous question :)


4. The name of your imaginary band?
I find it more difficult to choose a name for a band, than to start one. Maybe because I don't have an "imaginary band" altogether. There are at least two new projects with other people that I am currently involved in, which will require names at some point, but none of us has even started to think about that.


5.  When did you first meet Peter Christopherson? What memory do you keep of your work with Coil?
I met Peter and John in May 1997 – that's when I first visited their house. A little later I met Drew McDowall, who also was in the band. Somehow we quickly became good friends. I remember them all as being very attentive, open and genuinely curious in life. Which made working together very exciting and easy. Up until the very last Soisong recordings we made with Peter, I was always surprised at how quickly an idea would be perceived, even before it's formulated, and how it would be transformed, given a different angle, and enriched. In and out of the studio, a lot of communication was happening at the level of intuition, a "vibe", regardless of how technical or even mathematical our tools would be.


6. Who changed your life?
It would be impossible to pick a particular person. From the day the piano arrived, the world around, and my life have been changing quite dynamically. Back in the USSR, I listened to forbidden music someone introduced me to. Then we used to run from the police with these records. I also secretly played forbidden music in a band [the band never had a name!]. I was DJ-ing at school parties, supplying fake play-lists to school's director to sign. I spent two years in the Soviet army, back at home the perestroika was offering food by coupons – having friends was essential to live. I studied sound and wave theory at university. Later I moved to live in Sweden, studied more. I became a father, I traveled different countries... In all of this, many different people have been involved, helpful and influential in different ways, not to mention the “virtual” encounters through music, art, cinema, and literature. I guess, everyone's life is like that - many contribute to this "continuous change" which, I believe, is what life is.


7. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
I'd like to know that, too... Last year I made a record called RETRO-2038, with an expiry date in 25 years stated on the cover. Obviously it's a joke, but I would very much like to hope that in the year 2038 this COH album will be considered "retro".


8. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
That depends on what and where you're drinking, and in which company. For example, I used to have large Singha beers on ice, on hot late afternoons, in a little pool next to Sleazy's studio in Bangkok, listening in a loop to an unfinished version of "Ti-Di-Ti Naoo" by Soisong, and it worked fine. Take the same song with vodka on a snowy New Year’s party here in Stockholm, I doubt it will make any sense!


9.  After your work with Cosey on COH Plays Cosey, do you think music needs a human voice to sound erotic?
Not at all. Human voice does have the components that can be utilized in creating or amplifying erotic imagery, mostly due to the associative context. However, I believe non-human sounds can be equally powerful in stimulating desire. Where it comes to the record with Cosey's voice, the intention was not to make music sound erotic with the help of a voice, but rather the opposite – to try and make the erotic, or what can be identified as erotic in a voice, to sound like music.


10. Your dream collaboration?
 COH means "a dream" in Russian so I'm living that "collaboration" on a daily basis! And I am not only joking, because looking back at where it all started, I feel I'm certainly living a dream in music.

I am very lucky to be able to make music the way I want, to release it, to have worked and to be working in projects I couldn't even dream about. There is some notion of "active dreaming" in it, I guess, rather than just wishing for something unrealistic to happen one day, which I don't usually do.


11. The record that freaks you out?
A lot of pop records probably would, which is why I never buy them.


12.  You once mentioned "[being] used to thinking of sound in the graphical terms of wave profiles". Is the graphic quality of wavelengths at the forefront of your musical production?
No, but I always feel somehow re-assured when a waveform doesn't only sound good, but also looks beautiful. After a while, one can know that it will sound interesting by just looking at the shape. Altogether, when creating sounds "from scratch", it feels satisfying to know that these new creations that have just entered the world, these sounds that never existed in nature before, are also of somewhat refined graphical shape... This could take us to a discussion about fashion trends in "graphic sound design", which can easily be a possible direction for music to expand into in 50 or 5000 years, assured we responsibly adopt the visual approach to waveforms! ;)


13. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Certainly, any COH track would do!


14. Could you tell us more about you label Wavetrap and your collaboration with Mika Vainio?
Wavetrap was a record label that me and John Everall [of Tactile/Sentrax fame] started back in the late 90s. At the time, Mika and Ilpo [Panasonic] were living in a squat in London, where I used to visit them once in a while. We were all good friends, as we still are, and it seemed only natural to welcome Mika's album to launch the new label. When the album ["Ydin"] was ready, John had entered a peculiar state of mind, losing most contact with the world. I had to face the challenge of releasing Mika's work alone, without having any experience in “record-labelling”. That's how it started, and I had friends helping me out. Then there were a few more releases on Wavetrap, including COH's IRON, Ost's [of farmersmanual] pxp project. Eventually, the album by John Everall, which he recorded while being "away", and one more record by Mika Vainio.


15. An album you wouldn't want to be?
Why not?


16. The cover version you would love to do?
In the wake of TO BEAT, I have just finished one that tempted me for a long time. It must be my all-time most ambitious effort at making a cover: Giorgio's "I Feel Love". A great [the greatest?] challenge, but it also gave me lots of fun. Hope it makes sense to others when it's out.


17. "Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music". What will you do?
It depends. If you do not view a computer as a musical instrument, i.e. if computers will remain there "tomorrow morning", the first thing would be to email you with an answer to question 3, about the records I would have just lost. After that, I will definitely proceed making sound as beautiful waveforms on my screen, sharing with the curious people their beauty, possibly starting the first waveform fashion label.

But if all computers are also gone by tomorrow, then... I can not imagine that world!


18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
I've always wanted to score a few short stories by Julio Cortazar. I would try and make the music match the average reading pace, so that the soundtrack enhances the actual experience.


19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Hopefully not.


20. How would you like to die?
I do not understand the question. Or, rather, I do not understand the idea of investing time into thinking about such things – myself, I am too busy living.


Read Ivan Pavlov's COH biography from allmusic, go to his website, discogs and facebook profile. Buy his records on raster-noton and editions mego.

Interview : Craig Louis Higgins Jr (Save!, Mutado Pintado, Black daniel, Paranoïd London)

1. Your first musical memories?
My earliest musical memories are listening to old 45’s on an all in one record player that my great grandmother gave me. I would listen to The Lion Sleeps Tonight and Purple People Eater over and over again, as well as a lot of what I would call Golden Oldies and sort of Rock A Billy stuff. I also have to say that my sister would play music to me in her room, which I never would have found, like Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Vanity 6, B-52’s, and Devo, so it was quit an education. Also I have to mention that the most groundbreaking musical experience was my mom taking me to see James Brown when I was probably 10.

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
The most recent that I can remember would be a toss up between Scatman John “I'm A Scatman” and Trancesetters “Secrets of Meditation” and the worse Vanilla Ice “Ice Ice Baby” 12” .

3. The first record that you lost?
This hurts bad. A split 12” LP of Tenor Saw on one side and Nitty Gritty on the other that I bought in Jamaica. Whoever stole that from me can definitely suffer for eternity if it’s possible.

4. The name of your imaginary band?
Lady Anus

5. On your EP “Blue”, you present three radical versions of the same song: from the shoegaze pop of “Blue (radio edit)” to the electronic orchestral pop of “Blue (Gluid remix)” to the acid house of “Blue (Johnny Aux Mix)”. Would you define eclecticism as a characteristic of your sound?
Yes definitely. I am fully into trying to express whatever I am feeling and without worrying about sticking to any kind of format or direction unless it happens naturally. As it goes, right now is such a great time to make music for someone like me. I am surrounded by so many talented friends and people making waves in music that it’s inspiring and also overwhelming. I want to do everything and anything without worrying about it. My only stipulation is that I like what it is I am putting out. That probably sounds silly or cliché, but it’s the selfish truth.

6. Who changed your life?
Albert Hoffman, my family, James Brown, New York City

7. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
I hope that there is some revolutionary change in the way we hear music, but I am sure it wont sound too different, much the way we compare the new music to what we have heard in the past now. It would be nice if the way we hear it was somehow changed dramatically though. Some kind of Dune type compression chambers blasting music through heart valves would be wonderful.

8. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
I suppose it depends on where I want to go mentally but I think for this particular moment I am going to choose Moebius & Plank “Rastakraut Pasta” because the first track makes me feel like I'm riding a horse through the desert like some kind of Roman army leader on mushrooms, some kind of king of some kind of world.

9. Can you tell us a few words about your work with Paranoid London ?
It all started from Quinn asking me if I could try some vocals out before I went to work, and then Eating Glue happened. I figured I totally blew it and that he would have to sit around editing it, and when it was done without editing at all, (it was a one take shot off the top of my head while we sat there), I thought he was out of his mind. He is really. He is one of the best people I know in music and an amazing hard working person, and so talented and really does not give a fuck about what people say or think. I just figured he was being polite to me, but that record went off the meter, people pay over £100 on discogs for it, crazy. I don’t even have one though, typical artist rape tactics. Anyhow now we are a band of misfits travelling around the world playing live, and it’s a lot of fun and an honour. They stick to what they believe in, no press, no digital downloads, nothing but analogue and what they like. Its great to see something work and also be a small part of it. Quinn and Del make a great dynamic duo in terms of wanting to piss everyone off and do exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it by literally putting all focus on the music alone. Long live it. An album is coming out soon which should be pretty amazing.

10. Your dream collaboration?
Gibby Haynes, Prince, Steve Albini or Little Richard

11. The record that freaks you out? 
Good freak out: Prince Around The World In A Day bad freak out: This : Wade Denning ‎– Sounds To Make You Shiver, I used to listen to it as a kid and get really scared. Actually that could go as another record that I am sad to have lost.

12. Monsters & Fairies – the new album from SAVE! your side project with the australian singer/composer Saskia Sansom and the french electronic music composer Marc Nguyen Tan (Colder) – was produced without you ever meeting once in the same room.

Was this method of production more relevant to the way you usually record music  (i.e. remixes, etc.) or was it simply the result of practical constraints : time/space/money?
It was literally due to being in different countries, but at that time I was going through a period of only wanting to do stuff by myself so it totally worked out. We, or at least I could fully express myself without worrying about anything at all, so I would totally let go and hit send and let Mark be the genius that he is. It is all going to change soon though as we will finally be meeting and putting more stuff together and getting a live act ready. It was a very lucky meeting and an even luckier result, we really get each other which is amazing but never meeting wasn’t something that was planned, it was just what happened. Now I look forward to collaborating together to see what happens.

13. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Mutado Pintado & Jonathan Dryden present Patience The Wheel, yes a shameless self promotion, but worth it I promise. I put it out on a very limited 7” earlier this year, but we have a whole album to release either the end of this year or beginning of next.

14. In a recent Guardian Review article about the future of the novel, the British author Will Self suggested that Modernism did not die out when Postmodernism started, and that contrary to this, “we are still solidly within the modernist era, and that the crisis registered in the novel form in the early 1900s by the inception of new and more powerful media technologies continues apace.” For him his observation also extends to Music and Fine Art.

Considering the music of Black Daniel – which seem to tap into different styles, notably acid house and a rock’n’roll revival, as in “Get me my cane” and “Gimme what you got” (on Soderbergh’s Magic Mike soundtrack) – would you agree with his remark, or do you think we are entering a new era for the way we listen/produce music?
Maybe

15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
Pretty much anything on the Radio at the moment.

16. The cover version you would love to do?
Prince - The Beautiful Ones

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Start painting again.

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
I would love to make a movie and soundtrack out of the text from the book Durango Street by Frank Bonham.

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Naturally once, it was at a Brian Jonestown Massacre show in New York City, they played Whoever You Are and my eyes literally rolled in my head, it was unbelievable and never happened again.

20. How would you like to die?
Loved and respected or at the very least something comparable to this http://youtu.be/-_DC0P9yPBo.

Here's our selection of Craig Louis Higgins Jr's works and an extract of SAVE! below. Plus : watch Rainy Monday video and listen to Peasant Vitality mixtapes. Go to SAVE! tumblr, to Mutado Pintado soundcloud, to his facebook, bandcamp, twitter and to his youtube channel.

Paranoïd London sera en concert avec Mutado Pintado à la Villette Sonique 2014, le dimanche 8 juin au Cabaret Sauvage.

Interview : Lasse Passage

Lasse Passage by Jørgen Werner

1. Your first musical memories?
When I was maybe 5 years old, my dad took me to the concert hall in Bergen to listen to the symphonic orchestra. After the concert he asked me what I have liked the most, upon which I referred to the part when they where tuning their instruments..


2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
As a present, let me think – no-one ever gives me records… Hang on that’s not true. No-one buys me records. But I keep getting them for friends that play in bands. The best I got recently must be the DBL 12” from the band Splashgirl called “Field Day Rituals”.

The worst one most definitely comes from some sympathy swap with someone from a open-mic session…


3. The first record that you lost? 
In hi-school I borrowed a record from a friend, which one I don’t remember – but anyway I lost it. In return he took Jim O´Rourkes Eureka from me – to get even. So that record feels like the first one I lost…


4. The name of your imaginary band?
Betty Hardmann


5. On Stop Making Sense And Start Making Success you use different styles of music - orchestrated pop and experimental electronic music - which at first could seem at opposite ends of an artist's musical repertoire. How important is eclecticism for you, and where do you find the balance between noise and melody?
For me it’s all the same. I’ve studied composition and electroacoustics – yet I feel very comfortable expressing myself with just guitar and voice. Listening to music, I am into contemporary classical and pop-music, so naturally I have an interest in both also then I write music. I hope that the mixing of the styles is what could make my music interesting.


6. Who changed your life?
New people keep changing it all the time.


7. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
in 50 years I presume we’ll have better ways of harnessing the computer to work creatively with us. So it will sound like this: 00110111001001001. And with lots of color and splash! no man – no idea.

And in 5000 years, maybe we’ll go be to the roots – and it will be extremely fashionable with acoustic music. Good musicianship, no editing etc. Hope so.


8. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
Depends what drink my friend. Darkthrones "Panzerfaust" and moonshine go well together. So does Gin&Tonic with "Clube de Esquina" by Minton Nascimento.


9. Are success and sense really incompatible?
In most cases, probably not.


10. Your dream collaboration?
Music video by Wes Anderson


11. The record that freaks you out? 
Gabber music in general. DJ Paul probably.


12. When you choose a morbid video for the love song Say say say, or do a sensitive cover version of 99 problems, you seem to try to bring opposites together. What is the part of irony in your work?
The combination of elements is what makes both of them uncomfortable. And I guess uncomfortable is good. 99 problems has a sense of irony, but that’s not something I aim for. I try to sing that one from the heart. Else it would just be a funny gag. It’s a delicate balance.


13. The film that tickles your creativity?
Last it was the documentary on George Harrison – that sparkled me to do something creatively. However in general I watch very little movies….


14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Robert Ashley’s: “The Doctor (Sc. 14)” – Amazing stuff!


15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
Ibiza Lounge Compilation (1999 DBL CD) – “Happy Chilling”


16. The cover version you would love to do?
I like doing covers. I am thinking of doing an album actually. But not sure how it would be with all the clearance and stuff. Anyway – “Untill the End of Time” by Justin Timberlake. But how do you contact him to check if that’s alright?


17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Sit in the sun.

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
I would not like to do a soundtrack, but I would love to do a hörspiel. With text and electroacoustic sounds. Which text..not sure though. A collaboration with a new text could be interesting.


19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
I have that with my phone all the time. I hear something in the same frequency rage and I think it’s my ring tone..


20. How would you like to die?
With a smile on my face.


Go to Lasse Passage's website, facebook, twitter, bandcamp and discogs. Hear "Stop making sense and start making success vol.1" below, and buy it on Eat Concrete records.

Interview : Mika Vainio (Ø, Pan Sonic, Vainio / Väisänen / Vega...)

1. Your first musical memories?
My father coming home late in the evening with the new Beatles album 'Revolver', and then listening to it together. I was little over 3.

Another one from the same time is me banging the strings of a broken acoustic guitar with spoons. I told my mother that the 'piece' was called "Night of the bats".

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
The best: 'Gold is the metal' by Coil, in a limited special edition of 55. This was not on public sale. They agreed to arrange one for me.

The worst: The Muppet show soundtrack.

3. The first record that you lost? 
'Rife' by Foetus.

4. The name of your imaginary band?
Proboscis Moose.

5. What was your main inspiration when you recorded 'Konstellaatio', your latest album for Ø?
What equipment did you use?

Memories of my childhood before going to school. I spent a big part of it with my grandmother in a small town in the south of Finland.

As usual I used mainly analog synths / sounds. A sampler, with most of the samples taken from my analog instruments. Analog and digital fx. An electric guitar.

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
In 50 years, most of it will be the same idiotic crap that it has always been since the beginning of the 20th century.

In the year 5014, the number one hit will be Prince Harry vs Miley Cyrus - in a 7 dimensional special edition.

7. Who changed your life?
Alex Harvey.

8. Can you tell us more about Sähkö Recordings and your relationship with Jimi Tenor?
Me and Tommi Grönlund put up Sähkö to release my two first 12' inch releases. Tommi then continued to run the label as I wanted to concentrate on making music. Jimi is a good old friend of mine, though I see him only occasionally nowadays.

9. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
'Drift' by Scott Walker.

10. Your dream collaboration?
To make a soundtrack to a new Andrej Tarkovski movie (he is not really dead...? ) with György Ligeti - contributing telepathically from parallel worlds.

11. The record that freaks you out? 
A compilation of movie soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu, it being such an odd and unexpected combination of styles in the most wonderful way.

12. We can really hear the influence of Alan Vega and Suicide on your sound but, more surprisingly - we recently read in an interview that you are also a fan of Johnny Cash and Reggae music. In which way do all those influences affect your music?
They sure influence me, but it is hard to say how. It is happening quite indirectly.

13. The film that tickles your creativity?
There would be so many to mention. Let's say, 'Exotica' by Atom Egoyan.

14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
'Les Cloches - part 4 of 48 Esquisses' by Charles Valentin Alkan, played by Steven Osborne.

15. An album you wouldn't want to be?
Best of Goa trance vol. 178.

16. The cover version you would love to do?
King Crimson's 'Larks tongues in aspic' - the whole album.

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
I would move to some place where nightingales live all-year-round.

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
'Flowers of Evil' by Charles Baudelaire.

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Yes, several. For example hearing symphonic music all night, created by an air ventilation system, while having a high fever.

20. How would you like to die?

By being hit by a million ton freight train.


Hear 'Konstellaatio', Mika Vainio's new album for Ø. Go to Mika Vainio or Sähkö Recordings websites, and read his wikipedia and his discogs.

A selection of our favourites tracks by Vainio & Sähkö Recordings :




pix : Joséphine Michel

Interview : Jan St Werner (Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, Lithops)

Jan St Werner is a german musician who since the early nineties has been a member of Mouse on Mars (with  Andi Toma), Microstoria (with Markus Popp from Oval), Von Südenfed (with Andi Toma and Mark E. Smith from The Fall) and Lithops. Under is own name he recently released Blaze Colour Burn, available now on ThrillJockey.

1. Your first musical memories?
Making sound myself? Playing the church organ. My grandfather was the church organist of the village.

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
Best: Bernard Parmegiani - De Natura Sonorum
Worst: Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles

3. The first record that you lost?
Blondie - Heart of Glass

4. The name of your imaginary band?
The Expulsions

5. In which environment do you like to record music?
Everywhere where I can sit comfortably

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
That depends on technology, political systems and the physical and mental condition we'll be in. We'll mostly want the same from music: challenge, adventure, emotion, life style, distraction

7. Who changed your life?
No one fortunately

8. ‘Spizzacorale’ was recorded in 2009 during an eight hour live performance in a public square in Umbria, Italy. After spending an intense and significant time there, how would you describe the genius loci of the place?
The striking thing was no one really bothered. It was as exciting to the people who listened as it was indifferent to them. Italians are mostly very relaxed people and they can deal with chaos perfectly well

9. The perfect record to listen to when having a drink?
Edit the Dragon by Colourbox

10. Your dream collaboration?
Ghedalia Tazartes

11. The record that freaks you out?
On the Way to the Peak of Normal by Holger Czukay

12. You described your six pieces on Blaze Colour Burn as a reflection on location, structure, time, aesthetic, and the resulting stories that overlap and interact with each other. What is the part of chaos and randomness in the construction of their sound?
Every composer deals with chaos and randomness. I'm just trying to make it explicit in a casual way

13. The film that tickles your creativity?
Der Golem by Paul Wegener

14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
Sud Afternoon by Franco Battiato

15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

16. The cover version you would love to do?
Rhythm Modulator by Raymond Scott

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music”. What will you do ?
Finally really listen to the birds I guess

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Are you joking?

20. How would you like to die?
Without snoring

Interview : Laurence Romance

1991. Encore. The Year That Music Broke. Enfin pour moi, à chacun sa date... KLF, NTM, Nirvana, Sonic Youth et le documentaire The Year That Punk Broke - Public Enemy, De la Soul, Digital Undergound, et à la TV, il y a Métal Express : 30 min de clip dans les univers métalliques soutenu au départ par une simple voix off. Puis une jeune femme au corset noir et aux cheveux rouges s'insère dans notre petit écran : notre Marilyn Punk nous est apparue.

De 1993 à 1997, Laurence Romance et Nick Kent (co-réalisateurs), élargissent le concept  de l'émission au rock indépendant et la renomment "Rock Express". Ça sera pour nous l'occasion de nous initier à une autre musique que celle du Multitop de Laurent Petitguillaume...

De son côté Laurence écrit pour Best, Libération, Jalouse, Les Inrockuptibles - une série sur les raves party émergentes -, le magazine Rolling Stones, et traduit de nombreux ouvrages. En 1996, elle met en place la collection X-Trême chez Austral avec au départ quatre livres : celui de Nick Kent, baptisé en vf "l'Envers du Rock" (The Dark Stuff) ; la première bio officielle de Nirvana (approuvé par Cobain de son vivant) Nirvana, L'Ultime Biographie de Michael Azzerad ; un ouvrage sur l'internet ; et enfin le "Generation X" des années grunge : "Prozac nation : Avoir vingt ans dans la dépression" une autobiographie d'Elizabeth Wurzel qui sera adaptée en film avec Christina Ricci dans le rôle principal.

A partir de 2000, Laurence traduit Le journal de Kurt Cobain, signe la préface du roman de Hubert Selby Junior - Waiting Period, écrit deux chapitres de Goth: le romantisme noir de Baudelaire à Marilyn Manson (ouvrage collectif présenté par Patrick Eudeline), s'insert dans le livre collectif Rock Critics, et joue dans le court métrage de Marcia Romano, Quand j'étais Gothique (2011) aux cotés de Roxane Mesquida.

Trêve de présentation, il est maintenant temps de vérifier si l’originale est, comme le suggère Borges, infidèle à ses traductions :

1. Votre 1er souvenir musical ?
Les chants avinés des clients du bar de mes parents dans le Pas-de-Calais, ça compte ?

2. Le meilleur disque que l’on vous ait offert ? Le pire ?
Meilleur : Led Zeppelin IV quand j’étais petite. Le pire : il y en a vraiment trop…

3. Le 1er livre que vous ayez perdu ?
Quatre pas dans les champs. C’étaient les aventures de Murinette et Gros-Raton, une souris et un rat trop mignons … J’étais inconsolable.

4. Quelle rencontre a changé votre vie ?
Celle de mon fils, il y a vingt ans. Depuis, James, aka Perturbator, aka The Lord of Dark Synth ou James Carpenter pour les aficionados, ne cesse de m’étonner.

5. A quoi ressemblera la musique dans 50 ans ? dans 5000 ans ?
Who knows ? Et surtout : who cares ?

6. Quel album ignoré ouvrira un nouveau genre musical ?
Ce serait top si c’étaient ceux de Perturbator ! (eh oui, je ne rate pas une occase de faire la pub de mon fiston chéri)

7. Yann Kerninon dans Vers une libération amoureuse propose de réinventer l’amour. Si ce projet venait à aboutir, quel serait pour vous l’hymne de cette révolution ?
Dream On par Aerosmith

8. Le disque dont vous avez peur ?
Delìrium Còrdia de Fantômas, l’un des groupes de Mike Patton (Faith No More). C’est un concept-album sur la chirurgie sans anesthésie.

9. Est-ce que la traduction est une imagination dépendante ?
Joli, mais je préfère « l’original est infidèle à la traduction » de Borges, plus flatteur pour le traducteur, cet éternel homme de l’ombre. Ou femme parfois.

10. Baudelaire : « Savez-vous pourquoi j’ai si patiemment traduit Edgar Poe ? Parce qu’il me ressemblait. » Et vous, pourquoi avez-vous si patiemment traduit Kurt Cobain ?
Parce que je n’avais pas bien mesuré la tannée qui m’attendait quand j’ai signé le contrat ! Pour commencer, je ne m’attendais pas à ce que le « Journal » soit manuscrit…

Sinon, sur Baudelaire : il s’est bien gardé de dire qu’il n’a traduit de Poe que ce qui les faisait se ressembler…

11. Le film qui vous donne envie d’écrire ?
Aucun, je n’aime pas spécialement l’acte d’écrire, éventuellement le résultat.

12. Après le Summer of Love en 68, le Summer of rave en 88, quel genre d’été peut on encore espérer ?
Euh, le « Summer of Hate » ? Ah non, y’a eu déjà, avec le punk… Je donne ma langue au chat.

13. Votre meilleure interview pour Rock Express ? La pire ?
En télé, les pires sont souvent les meilleures : David Lee Roth qui nous sermonne, l’équipe et moi–même, sur le mode instit’ « bon, maintenant vous m’écoutez attentivement », Tricky qui me traite d’idiote et arrête net l’interview, les black métalleux norvégiens de Mayhem qui veulent nous casser la figure… Suffit ensuite de démarrer le sujet par « l’incident » : effet anti-zapping garanti !

14. Le morceau méconnu que tout le monde devrait connaître ?
J’hésite entre Paintwork de The Fall et Tu peins ton visage, la reprise de Warpaint, par Vic Laurens et les Vautours, hein, pas la version des Chats Sauvages. Que des histoires de peinture, par des mecs qui n’hésitent pas à en rajouter une couche.

15. L’album que vous n’aimeriez pas être ?
Delìrium Còrdia de Fantômas.

16. Quel auteur rêvez-vous d’inclure dans votre collection X-Trême pour Denoel?
En fait, j’avais crée X-Trême chez un autre éditeur qui a mis la clef sous la porte [Austral, ndlr], et Olivier Rubinstein m’a piqué le nom pour Denoel… Mais tout est pardonné, car il a publié depuis Le dernier verre par le Dr Ameisen, le découvreur du baclofène. Un best-seller et un livre d’utilité publique, ça m’aurait convenu.

17. “Imaginez que vous vous réveillez demain, et que la musique n’existe plus. Il n’y a plus aucun instrument, aucune trace d’enregistrement sur terre. » Que ferez vous ? 
Comme il me resterait la mémoire de la musique, et que le ryhtme, le beat, est à la base de tout, je commencerais par bidouiller une batterie avec les moyens du bord.

18. L’album idéal pour écrire ?
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas écrire en écoutant de la musique.

19. Avez-vous déjà eu des hallucinations auditives ?
Des quoi ? Ah oui, ça m’est arrivé, ce genre de trucs. A jeun en plus.

20. Comment aimeriez-vous mourir ?
Rapidement.

pix : Laurence Romance © Renaud Monfourny

Interview : Nick Kent

Je regarde mon mobile : 17h30. Pile. Je suis à la librairie Parallèles et j'attends en regardant les livres sur les étals. J'écoute aussi un peu les conversations des autres personnes venues pour la dédicace de Apathy For The Devil, le nouveau livre de Nick Kent. Deux personnes à coté de moi : "Ah t'étais au Trabendo pour les Stones ! Et alors c'était comment ? - Ils sont arrivés, ils sont montés sur scène sans se parler... je crois que ça fait longtemps qu'ils ne se parlent plus Mick et Keith... et ils ont joué - y'avait pleins de pains partout, comme dans tous leurs derniers concerts - et pas grand chose d'autre. Mais j'étais heureux de les voir...". Puis Nick Kent arrive, s'installe à la petite table que l'on a dressé pour lui, une nappe blanche en papier et une petite pile de livres, et il commence à discuter avec tout le monde, en français, en anglais, souriant.

Une brève introduction : Nick Kent a côtoyé Lester Bangs, a été un des piliers du New Musical Express, a traîné avec les Stones et Led Zeppelin en tournée au début 70, avec Malcom McLaren peu après, a fait partie d'une formation pré-Sex Pistols et est toujours fasciné par le Paradis Perdu de John Milton.
Il a écrit deux livres traduits en français, le premier est : L'Envers du rock - préface d'Iggy Pop, et présentation par lui même : "Un beau jour, je me suis frotté à des zozos du genre Syd Barrett, et j'ai réalisé que si ces gens-là avaient bien obtenu ce qu'ils désiraient, ce n'était surtout pas de cela (l'adulation des foules, le "décollage" créatif) dont ils avaient besoin pour préserver leur équilibre mental. Dès lors tout a pris un sens. Et j'ai vite réalisé qu'entre toutes, ces histoires-là valaient d'être contées. Fouiller les recoins obscurs et crépusculaires des icônes du rock, voilà l'objectif de The Dark Stuff."

Et son deuxième, une autobiographie des années 1970 : Apathy For The Devil, sous titrée "les seventies, voyage au cœur des ténèbres".
"Pas de cravates, pas de Gomina pour faire ressortir un front de jeune mâle. D'ailleurs les Rolling Stones n'ont pas de front. Juste des cheveux, de grosses lèvres et une aura collective d'insolence dévastatrice.
Ils entrent nonchalamment sur scène et jettent un regard méprisant au public en empoignant leurs instruments. Le présentateur se dépêche de les annoncer, mais ses mots sont couverts par des hurlements. Puis ils commencent à jouer. Peut être "Not Fade Away", la chanson de Buddy Holly qu'ils sortiront une semaine plus tard et qui leur vaudra leur première entrée dans le Top Ten et la confirmation de leur ascension vers le statut de princes rebelles de la jeunesse."

De son premier livre, je me rappelle ses descriptions de Brian Wilson, reclus dans une sorte de cabane de jardin installée sur la pelouse de sa villa mangeant une salade arrosée de sel, ou l'air un peu benêt de Dizzy des Guns N'Roses ou l'attitude toute en tension d'un Jerry Lee Lewis plus tout jeune mais qui gardera toujours son couteau papillon, dans une poche intérieure, jamais loin du cœur.

Dans son dernier livre, au travers de portraits incisifs, il raconte ses années 70 - ses 20 à 30 ans - passées entre Iggy Pop, ses histoires avec Keith Richards ou Peter Grant, ses rencontres avec Bowie ou Eno, les New York Dolls, l'ascension et l'autodestruction des Sex Pistols, les combines de Malcom McLaren, les soirées avec Richard Hell ou Martin Hannett, ses histoires de dope et comment il s'en sort pas tout à fait indemne...

Dans la petite librairie, je me glisse dans la file d'attente vers la petite table blanche. Nick Kent est en face de moi - sa phrase "Il fût un temps ou je n'étais qu'un figurant de la nuit des morts élégants" me revient en tête. Ce soir de novembre, c'est son sourire et sa conversation affable qui sont les marques de sa vraie élégance.


(vous trouverez les questions et les réponses traduites en français par Laurence Romance après la photo de Nick Kent avec Keith Richards et Mick Jagger)

1. Your first musical memories?
Hearing my father playing his Debussy records when I was a baby

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
Best ? With The Beatles, which an aunt bought me when I was 11. Worst ? Too many to mention.

3. The first book that you lost?
I honestly can’t remember.

4. «"I'm a poet," I tell him. "A poet?" he asks. "What's your name?" "Dylan Thomas," I say. »
And you Nick, what is your name? (1)
Nicholas Benedict Kent – for better or worse.

5. Who changed your life?
My parents, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Nik Cohn, the Rolling Stones, the Stooges and many others.

6. Youth culture was at the heart of the 60s, is youth culture still relevant today ?
Hard for me to say as I’m 61 years old. But my 20-year old son James seems to be soaking up and contributing to the current state of ‘youth culture’ so something good must be still going on.

7. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
I dread to think.

8. After swapping the crown of King of Punk for the trophies of King of Advert, has Iggy Pop become more punk than ever before?  
No. But he’s made himself a lot richer.

9. You demanded from Lester Bangs to tell you how to write. What advice did he give you and what advice can you give us?
That losers were/are more interesting subjects than winners.

10. The record that freaks you out?
As in “scares me”? Randy Newman’s “In Germany Before the War”

11. Shortly after you moved to Paris in 1989, you got involved in the French house/techno/rave scene which was taking off at the time, even going as far as to record and release a couple of tracks with your girlfriend Laurence and Italian & English DJ's (2). What are your best memories of those days: the sex, the drugs, the music ?
The late 80's-early 90's acid house scene in Paris was great -one of the most enjoyable musical movements-scenes I've been exposed to. It was like psychedelic London in 1967 with clubs like the U.F.O. and Middle Earth, but with the pre-recorded synthesizer music and MDMA instead of actual live groups and hallucinogenics. Laurence and I even made some recordings in that acid-house style, two of which actually ended up on compilations at the time. The best years were inevitably the early ones before 'techno' and bad drugs started polluting the once blissed-out atmosphere.

12. The film that tickles your creativity?
Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch certainly influenced my approach to story-telling in literature. It’s action-packed but the character interaction runs deep, as does the film’s basic philosophy.

13. Are Pissed Jeans (the band from Sub Pop) creating something new?
Never heard of them.

14. The little-known track that everyone should have heard of?
“Holy River” by Space Opera (1973)

15. An album you wouldn’t want to be?
Lou Reed’s Berlin, Clash’s Sandinista and anything by Sham 69.

16. You have written at length about the 70s, stated that you had no interest in the 80s but that you would enjoy writing about the 90s. Which band(s) in particular were you thinking about when you made this comment?
Jeff Buckley, Bjork, Beck, Kurt Cobain, Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead were all major talents that could have stood out in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as well, had they been born earlier.

17. “Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. All musical instruments and all forms of recorded music, gone. A world without music.”. What will you do ?
Feel very depressed.

18. What’s on your mind? 
Whatever happens by. I try to stay in the moment.

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Probably, though not since I gave up the bad drugs.

20. Does "Your fear itself of death removes the fear" (John Milton)?
I have no particular fear of dying. I’m just more interested in living through the time I have left.

Nick Kent (au fond à gauche), Mick Taylor et Keith Richards en face et Mick Jagger sur la banquette derrière eux.


Lire aussi les interview de Nick Kent : Le Survivant Du Rock, Nick, Laurence & Rock'nRoll et l'hommage de Nick Kent à Lester Bangs : Pills and thrills. Ecouter l'interview de Nick Kent et Laurence Romance sur France Inter.



--
Les réponses de Nick Kent,
traduites par Laurence Romance

1. Premiers souvenirs musicaux ?
Mon père écoutant ses disques de Debussy, quand j’étais bébé.

2. Le meilleur disque qu’on vous ait offert ? Le pire ? 
Le meilleur ? With The Beatles, qu’une de mes tantes m’a offert pour mes 11 ans. Le pire ? Il y en a tellement…

3. Le 1er livre que vous ayez perdu  ?
Je ne me souviens vraiment pas.

4. « - Poète ? il demande. Comment vous appelez vous ? - Dylan Thomas » je dis. (1)
 Et vous, Nick, quel est votre nom ? 
Nicholas Benedict Kent – pour le meilleur et pour le pire.

5. Qui a changé votre vie ?
Mes parents, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Nik Cohn, les Rolling Stones, les Stooges et beaucoup d’autres.

6. La « culture jeunes », primordiale dans les 60’s, conserve-t-elle une quelconque pertinence de nos jours ? 
Je n’en sais trop rien, vu que j’ai 61 ans. Mais James, mon fils de 20 ans, qui baigne dedans et y apporte sa contribution (comme musicien sous l’alias Perturbator, NDLR), me donne l’impression qu’il s’y passe toujours des trucs intéressants.

7. A quoi ressemblera la musique dans 50 ans/5000 ans ? 
Rien que d’y penser, ça fait peur.

8. Avoir échangé sa couronne de King du Punk pour celle de King de la Pub a-t-il rendu Iggy Pop plus punk que jamais ? 
Non. Mais beaucoup plus riche.

9. Vous avez demandé à Lester Bangs de vous apprendre à écrire. Quel conseil vous a-t-il donné que vous pourriez maintenant nous transmettre ? 
Comme sujets d’écriture, les losers sont plus intéressants que les winners.

10. Un disque qui vous fait flipper ? 
Qui me fout les jetons ? “In Germany Before the War” de Randy Newman.

11.  Peu après votre arrivée à Paris en 1989, vous avez participé à la scène house/techno/rave émergente, en enregistrant notamment deux morceaux avec votre compagne Laurence Romance et des DJ italiens et anglais (2). Quels sont vos meilleurs souvenirs de cette époque : le sexe, la drogue ou la musique ?
La scène acid house parisienne de la fin 80's/début 90's était géniale, l'une des plus excitantes auxquelles il m'a été donné de participer. C'était comme le Londres psychédélique de 1967 avec des clubs comme l'U.F.O. et le Middle Earth, sauf qu'en lieu et place des groupes live et des hallucinogènes, il y avait des synthés pré-enregistrés et du MDMA. Et, oui, Laurence et moi avons même commis quelques enregistrements acid-house, dont deux figurent sur des compilations sorties à l'époque. Evidemment, les meilleures années ont été les premières, avant que la mauvaise 'techno' et les drogues pourries ne viennent saboter l'ambiance idyllique.

12. Un film qui  vous a inspiré ?
La Horde sauvage de Sam Peckinpah,  a pas mal influencé ma façon de raconter une histoire. Beaucoup d’action, mais les personnages sont profonds, tout comme le message du film.

13. Pissed Jeans, le groupe de Sub Pop, invente-t-il une nouvelle musique ?
Jamais entendu parler.

14. Un titre peu connu que tout le monde devrait avoir entendu ? 
“Holy River” de Space Opera (1973)

15. Un album que vous ne voudriez surtout pas être ? 
Le Berlin de Lou Reed, le Sandinista des Clash et aucun de Sham 69.

16. Vous avez beaucoup écrit sur les 70’s et déclaré que les 80’s ne vous intéressaient pas, mais qu’en revanche, vous pourriez très bien écrire sur les 90’s. A quels groupes pensiez vous en disant ça ? 
Jeff Buckley, Bjork, Beck, Kurt Cobain, Rufus Wainwright et Radiohead auraient fait parler d’eux dans les 60’s, les 70’s ou les 80’s.

17. “Imaginez que vous vous réveillez demain, et que la musique n’existe plus. Il n’y a plus aucun instrument, aucune trace d’enregistrement sur terre. » Que ferez vous ? 
Je vais me sentir très déprimé.

18. A quoi pensez vous ? 
Ce qui me passe par la tête. J’essaie de vivre le moment présent.

19. Vous avez déjà eu des hallucinations auditives ? 
Sans doute, mais pas depuis que j’ai arrêté les drogues frelatées.

20. Est-ce que, comme pour l’immortel John Milton “Your fear itself of death removes the fear »?
Je n’ai pas spécialement peur de mourir. Vivre ce qui me reste à vivre m’intéresse davantage.

Nick Kent (en chemise à pois) et Laurence Romance (de dos) lors d'une rave party parisienne en 1990.


(1) Charles Bukowski - South of No North / Au sud de nulle part
(2) Sous les alias : Spectral Evidence - Out there et Euphoria - Virtual Reality

Portrait de Nick Kent ©UlfAndersen