Name: Raphaël Bureau-Mirat aka Berzingue
Occupation: Producer
Nationality: French
Recent release: The new Berzingue EP Road Trip is out May 31st 2024 via Pont Neuf.
Recommendations on the topic of sound:
R. Murray Schafer – Le paysage sonore
Laurent de Wilde – Les fous du sons
S. Horowitz – The Universal Sense – How hearing shapes the mind
Willa Horowitz and Wendy Cheng - Making Music with a Hearing Loss: Strategies and Stories

If you enjoyed this Berzingue interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.  
 


When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I always had strong mental images of the tracks I was listening to, most often architectural or liminal spaces. Some dub techno tracks would make me picture dark and empty highways at night for instance. But this keeps evolving over time because your memories and mental associations evolve.

In fact, as an architect, I had long discussions on  the concepts of  “mental scapes” and “heterotopias” while at school, where I met Calmos. We did two EPs as ALVA, Mental Scapes, and Heterotopies, that had these concepts as titles because we were exploring it.



How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

Obviously the loudness sensation and tonal balance can’t be the same, as well as the stereo field.

I’d like to take this question from a beatmaker point of view as in: what does changing the listening set-up imply? I’d say that a stereo system will give you sensation, while headphones will give you information. What I mean by saying this, is that I will focus on the overall tonal balance and attitude while listening on speakers but I could miss some information. However, when listening on headphones I will hear better/more precisely, but could forget about the big picture and be too deep in details.

You have to make some checks on both frequently in my opinion, because if you only work on speakers you might lose some precision in some decisions, and if you only work on headphones you may lose the vibe through overprocessing.

That’s typically what happened to my track “Delhi”: I’m really proud of the arrangement but I feel like I got the low-end a bit too dry at the end.



Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

It’s so hard to chose a few! I just did my personal top 10 for DMC World and I felt like I was still missing most of my favorite tracks …

Anyway to answer I’d like to tell you about 2 CDs that I've had in my life since I was born. The first is Sade – Stronger Than Pride.



I just love their vibe and their sound, especially on this album which somehow is not as famous as the others. It never leaves the car and I never got bored of it.

The second is Saint-Germain – Tourist. I recall dancing to “So Flute” in the living room when I was 5 years old and playing it on repeat.



Then I’d fell in love with “Sure Thing” and its warm vibe, few years later.



“Pont des Arts” for the iconic underground deep house groove.



And now I just play the whole album without skipping any track because they all still sound so fresh to me. The more I listen to it, the more I like it.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

Now that’s a really interesting question. I always experienced emotional responses towards some chords while being quite insensitive to others.

Although chords are always part of a progression that you have to embrace as a whole, I know for sure that the minor 9 chords triggers something in me. I think it has something to do with music that was either played or listened to by my parents / grandparents when I was a child, lots of jazz and classical music.

I always loved the transverse flute (see above comment on Saint Germain) mostly because my dad is really good at playing it. The blowy sound is just amazing. I used to jam with him and my brother at home, and now I am so glad because I recorded him playing and chopped the recording, adding some fx, and voilà!

The track is called “Roscoff” and is out now on Pont Neuf Records.



There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

There are two categories of sounds I really enjoy and can listen to for very long: lush ambient pads, and ASMR sounds (non talking).

I love the singing bowls, they are very soothing. I am planning on doing an ambient piece combining both worlds one day.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

A lot of them actually! I am used to going to construction sites as an architect, and there will always be some weird or uncommon sounds and noises. For daily objects, the Renault Zoe has got that kind of chord sound I really enjoy.



It was implemented so that people around would still hear it coming (it makes no noise otherwise) as well as animals.

Animals also play a part in our daily soundtrack – my cat Carbone for instance.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

That is what is so cool about current devices: just grab the MPC Live, go outside and with its 4 hours battery you can do a full track.

Personnally I enjoy doing it on the balcony a lot. Most oft the times I am just planning to smoke a cigarette while listening to an old project, and very often one hour later I’m still working outside.


Berzingue Interview Image by Niels H. Brault

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

Yes, and as a full-time architect the analogies between both time, space and material seems obvious to me. Music is architecture in time. Moreover, when you play with some analog devices you physically connect to the sound by tweaking knobs with your hands.

I did a few tracks on Pont Neuf compilations that were not what I typically do “vibewise” but in which sculpting the sound with hardware equipment was the main focus: “With The Brizious” (starring the 303) and  “Splendor Box” (starring the moog DFAM).



[Read our feature on the moog DFAM]

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?  

I feel like my cat and I understand each other, and sound plays a big part in that. Depending on the tone and sustain of the meows you can pretty much know if it’s about food, water, going outside, or if she’s going to give back her meal.

Moreover, I’d say interspecies communication happens pretty much all the time, but not necessarily with the communications means we are familiar with. Especially when talking about associations betweens vegetation and animals, or animals and minerals.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I think Debussy said “Music is silence between the notes“ and that is where lays the importance of silence in composition.

But in everyday life, I have to admit I need to have a constant background noise because of my tinnitus which is quite heavy. You know when an AC unit stops and everyone feels relieved? Well, I‘m the only one who would like it to restart. It was hard to admit it when it began (16 years old), I had tough nights ... but now I learned to live with it and it’s OK.

I am more cautious when I go into places where loud noise can happen – particularly transportation and construction sites. The perspective of silence is very threatening to me.