Part 1
Names: Emil Friis, Patricio Fraile
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: (Film) composer, musician
Current release: Emil Friis and Patricio Fraile join forces for The Expected Sounds Of Minor Music, out December 8th via 130701. The single "Copenhagen, February" is now available to stream.
Recommendations:
Emil: Sometimes I like to get out of the studio and go see a movie or an exhibition or something like that. Just to free my mind a little bit and open up my horizon in a way that composing and producing doesn’t always allow. When you’re doing this kind of solitary work you can become so consumed with what you’re doing, disappearing into the farthest corners of what you’re working on, that it makes wonderful sense to get out a bit.
This spring I saw a beautiful showing of Nan Goldin’s work that really touched me. Especially her video installation Memory Lost left me speechless. Mica Levi’s score made the experience of sitting uncomfortably on wooden chairs, with people walking in and out, in a dark room in an art museum feel wholesome.
For music I would recommend 12 Ensemble’s recording of John Tavener’s “The Lamb.” It’s such a pristine performance of a piece that both incompasses beauty and haunting ugliness.
Patricio: I agree. It’s so important to get out of the studio! So much inspiring art to see, listen and read if you can find the time for it. As much as I like contemporary art and music, I also like to go back in time to catch up with some of the things I never had the time to explore.
Hikaru Hayashi’s music for the film The Naked Island from 1960 is a good example of that. The music transcends time, so peaceful and emotional at the same time.
I’ve been through a very stressful period in my life so at the moment I tend to soothe myself with music that has a spiritual core. Brendan Eders Ensemble latest album Therapy is a great example of that. The repetitive and ambient Aphex Twin cover #3 (Rhubarb) on the album is a great example on how electronic, ambient and ‘performed’ music coexist in the same musical landscape.
On a whole other note, I just came back to Copenhagen from Madrid where I finally decided to visit The Prado Museum. Even though I know the city very well I have always stirred away from it, as I found it very ‘touristic’. I don’t know if this is even a recommendation, but the amount of old beautiful, disturbing, religious and historic art that they have in that museum is completely overwhelming.
The whole experience watching these paintings reminded me of the constant struggle of humanity, the wars, clash of views between religions and the dark political and financial interests now and then.
If you enjoyed this interview with Emil Friis and Patricio Fraile and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit their respective homepages: Emil Friis; Patricio Fraile
What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?
Patricio: I’m very used to doing collaborations. Not just as a composer, but in different aspects of my career in music.
I remember a project early on when I had just finished my studies, that I naively agreed to be in charge of. The project was titled The Sounds of the Savannah. It was about bringing three musicians to Denmark from the Niassa Nature Reserve in Mozambique, to write music together, teach in Danish high schools and at the Conservatory, finishing off with a bunch of concerts through Denmark. All this in a very limited amount of time of course.
This was collaboration and musical project management at a very high level to begin with. Every collaboration seemed easy after this …
There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?
Emil: I prefer to be in the same room with the person I’m collaborating with.
Something happens when you’re in a room with a person, reacting to the other person's ideas and what they are doing or playing and vice versa. In my experience you don’t get that when you’re sharing files across the internet. I get creative energy out of working face to face with someone, and I think that’s what worked so well with the way Patricio and I made the Expected Sounds of Minor Music.
Personally I’m more interested in the compositional process and production as opposed to jamming. That said, for me a big part of composing is also improvising until you reach something that you can connect to intuitively, something you can relate to not only as a composer but also as a listener. Something that touches something inside of you.
How did this particular collaboration come about?
Emil: Patricio and I first met at a dinner at The Harpa Awards in Berlin in 2018, I believe it was. Being a film composer can be a lonesome grind at times and I think we shared an interest in collaborating with someone. Maybe wanting to find someone with whom we could push our individual boundaries musically.
When we got back to Copenhagen we started meeting for coffee. That slowly but gradually led to us working on different projects together, which eventually culminated in the making of The Expected Sounds of Minor Music.
What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.
Patricio: As Emil explained, we met each other through the film music community in Berlin. I think more often that we are willing to admit, we follow people professionally in social media, especially our colleagues aka ‘frenemies’. How is it going for that composer, what has he/she done lately? It’s not healthy for your self esteem but it’s very human.
After we met I remember that I looked Emil up, and thought that he had a very clear and good taste in music and also the visual things. It intrigued me to know more about him.
What do you generally look for in a collaborator in general and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?
Patricio: For me a good collaborator is one that brings something to the table that you are not able to achieve by yourself in that particular period of time. One that you trust on, and that trusts you equally for your skills. That was what made us work together in the first place on a couple of projects.
I made some string arrangements for a couple of Emil’s TV scores that we recorded with musicians from the Estonian National Symphony in Tallinn that I had worked with before. Emil has been in the film scoring business a bit longer than I have, and I also found it very inspiring to see him handle some of the things around music making.
Being in the film and music business is about so much more than making great music.
Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way Do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?
Emil: I use my computer as an instrument extensively to process and manipulate sounds. This was also the case during the making of The Expected Sounds of Minor Music and it was definitely great to have that as a tool during our collaboration.
Another tool of mine we used quite a bit is a Korg Delta synth played through an Ampex 601 preamp. It adds a lot of character and warmth and when applying the filter it brings out a very unique bass sound. Having a hardware instrument like that that you can tweak and play while collaborating is a ton of fun and also very rewarding. The Delta is really a great little instrument that I’m glad to have in my toolbox.
Lately I’ve been writing a lot for smaller string ensembles on my own and I tend to improvise the different parts on the piano, hence making that instrument another tool of mine. One that never really gets old.
Patricio: Even though I have played music and different instruments since I was 7, because of the nature of being a professional media composer I have found myself behind a computer and midi keyboard for years now doing big projects with sample mockups, a lot of sound design and mixing etc. Initially this was a lot of fun and inspiring in terms of the tools, amazing samples, effects and the endless possibilities.
But recently I feel a strong need to take a step back from the DAW, to compose on the instruments I know best, which are the viola, clarinet and piano. Play the parts on the instruments as I used to and see if the music moves me, instead of thinking too much about it or getting lost in all the technical stuff. This to me also means a deeper connection to the musicians that will play the music in the end.
It’s as Emil says about creating music together in the same room, there is something about the physical expression, perception and human imperfection that is an essential part of what music is, that is much harder to archive working only with files and samples.
