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)