Part 2

With more and more musicians creating than ever and more and more of these creations being released, what does this mean for you as an artist in terms of originality? What are some of the areas where you currently see the greatest potential for originality and who are some of the artists and communities that you find inspiring in this regard? 

I don't really know what “originality” is - it's so subjective. I don't even know if it's so important, or so relevant. When I read a book, when I listen to a record, when I watch a movie, I want especially to feel that I'm entering into the world of a being who has meditated and internalised specific thoughts about what he or she is doing. That's all I'm looking for really and I can find it equally in the past while listening to Bach, Miles Davis … or in the present with electronic and pop music. The form, the surface is different, but the rest, the essence, is the same I guess ...

How strictly do you separate improvising and composing?

I don't. Sometimes even when I'm mixing a track I can have the feeling that I'm improvising while giving particular positions, colours and tones to sounds.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them? 

Once again it depends on the project, the people you're working with … it's impossible to answer to such a broad question like this one. In the particular case of my last record, the initial intention was to create a sound or musical space driven by a strong sense of contrast.  

The instrumentals are thus split between an electronic side leaning almost toward some lo-fi textures with a darker vibe, and then some much brighter and cleaner piano chords and parts, with the vocals standing in the middle of these two worlds.

What's your perspective on the relationship between music  and other forms of art – painting, video art and cinema, for example – and for you and your work, how does music relate to other senses than hearing alone? 

Music can live by itself perfectly. This said, as I've been also working for a very long time in graphic design and animation, since my first record - “Again” - I've always paid a lot of attention to the visual side of “Colder” and especially to its video side. “Again” had been released as a DVD version in 2003 and until now, I directed most of the videos that came with the project, which is still the case with the new material I'm releasing at the moment. Let's say it's a way to expand the musical universe on other platforms.

What's your view on the role and function of music as well as the (e.g. political/social/creative) tasks of artists today - and how do you try to meet these goals in your work?

I don't have too many views about that. When I go to concerts and festivals I see thousands of different people, call them artists, musicians, performers, entertainers – whatever - with different wishes, different sounds, different approaches, playing different instruments and just doing different things because they are simply different. I don't feel any sense of homogeneity and I think things are great this way.

Listening is also an active, rather than just a passive process. How do you see the role of the listener in the musical communication process?

I don't know if the listener should have what you call “a role” of some sort. I personally dislike considering or judging things under a “utilitarian” point of view, human interactions are far more complex. 

Reaching audiences usually involves reaching out to the press and possibly working with a PR company. What's your perspective on the promo system? In which way do music journalism and PR companies  change the way music is perceived by the public? 

There's nothing really new there. It's been decades, centuries, that people who wish to enter the public sphere with a particular proposal whether it's a novel, an essay, a musical piece, or an architectural project for instance – need to find some relays, some vectors through media, circles of influences and sometimes a certain work of lobbying in order to push their ideas and get them more exposure. And anyone today knows or can feel, as it's almost written in our genes – that this promotion work has not the slightest thing to do with the quality of the work itself. It's just a necessity in a time where most of our actions and moves are related to the media we use daily.

Do you have a musical vision that you haven't been able to realise for technical or financial reasons – or an idea of what music itself could be beyond its current form? 

No.

Find Colder online at www.colder.tv