Part 2
How important, relatively speaking, are factors like mood, ergonomics, haptics and technology for you?
Mood does make a difference. Brancussi once said something like “Making art is easy, it’s getting in the right mood that is hard”. It helps to be relatively comfortable - but not essential. I’ve done plenty of work in not so comfortable situations, but was inspired nonetheless. With technology, it helps to be familiar with whatever program one is using. I’m trying to understand more about Ableton for an upcoming project. Also, deadlines are what makes things happen.
Tell me about your instrument, please. What was your first instrument like and how did you progress to your current one? How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results, including your own performance?
My first clarinet was a French student model - I can’t remember the make. At least it was wood - not plastic. It definitely had its limitations and was useful for the 5 or 6 or so years that I played it. Eventually, I got a Buffet - which is a beautiful instrument that I still continue to play. However, what I play on “From Water” are Albert System clarinets - with the exception of the bass clarinet. The Albert System is a more primitive fingering system than the Boehm System (which is more prevalent today). It is a little more primitive in that it has less keys. The shape of the bore is also different. I think it is a purer vibrating system as the air is not being routed to so many places. It is closer to a recorder, in a sense. It is what the New Orleans and Gypsy as well as Greek and Turkish musicians play. I got my Eb Albert from a record collector friend who got it at an estate sale. I was taken by the sound and also fascinated by the history. This was a particularly old one, from before the first World War. As I learned how to play it, I wanted to find the Bb version by the same maker - Kohlert - made in Graslitz - originally part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire - now part of the Czech Republic. I found a “hi pitch” Kohlert Bb clarinet that belonged to a friend’s grand uncle. Because it was “hi pitch” - I could not play with other people - so I developed the solo repertoire. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, there were wind bands that wanted a more brilliant sound - so whole sets of wind instruments were “hi pitch”. It says h.p. on the clarinet. Eventually I found a “low pitch” (normal) Bb Kohlert clarinet in Tuscon, Arizona - a good place to find old instruments and cars. It’s in instrument that I play a lot in many different contexts. I play all three of the Albert System clarinets on “From Water”. In addition, I also play a Kohlert Bass Clarinet on that album. It was made in West Germany. Kohlert moved there after WW II. Something about the wood - maybe it’s source and how it is cured, gives these instruments a great sound.
I found the Alberts to be kind of liberating - and enjoy improvising on them. They have intonation problems, but have a particular sound that I love. It’s a sound that has the potential to really vibrate fully.
Could you take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work?
After waking - if I have the time - I’ll do a 20 minute meditation or some Chi Gong - sometimes both. Then either running or yoga. Then I’ll have breakfast. After that, I like to spend some time working a Bach Prelude or Fugue from the Well Tempered Clavier on the piano. I’m not much of a piano player, but going through these pieces give me great pleasure - and a chance to develop my piano playing. Then, I’ll spend some computer time - emails, etc. and then I’ll get into the tasks at hand - usually working on other people’s music. Sometimes, if I have given myself a deadline or if I have my own performance coming up, I’ll work on my own music or projects. Eventually, I like to try and find time practice on an instrument with which I’ll be working for that week or stretch of time.
Do you have a fixed schedule?
I don’t have a fixed schedule, as my work/life is always changing.
How do music and other aspects of your life feed back into each other - do you separate them or instead try to make them blend seamlessly?
I find that I’m listening to what is around me. I’m not so aware of separation or blending of other aspects of my life and music. I think they are always intersecting and feeding each other.
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece or album that's particularly dear to you, please?
On “From Water” - there is a piece called Moonhaw - which is based on a melody I heard from a stream behind a friend of mine’s house in upstate New York. First, I transcribed what I was hearing. Then, back home I played it on my clarinet and looped it with my PDS - 8000. I then played along with the loop and found some counter melodies that would go with it - having a tape recorder nearby to document what I was playing. The next thing was to figure out a form for the piece- a shape for introducing the melody and the counter melodies as well as leaving room for improvisation. It can come out a little different each time I perform it, but has a basic structure which I follow. I think the recording combines two takes which occasionally overlap.
Where did the ideas come from, how were they transformed in your mind, what did you start with and how do you refine these beginnings into the finished work of art?
The ideas - besides the initial melody which comes from my perception of the natural world - come from “playing” in all senses of the word. This piece is not so refined, but as I described above, I found a form that I liked and that works.
There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you?
Somehow not being distracted by the quotidian things that can fill up the mind. Whatever you need to get there can help. For me it can just be a resolve to not engage with other things. A stimulant can help - coffee, tea, a joint, or sipping some wine - but, as always, you need to be careful if you do these things.
How do you make use of technology?
I use recording devices - in the old days they were cassettes. Now, there are digital devices. These are very important for capturing ideas as they happen. I use a laptop computer for notation (Sibelius) and recording (Protools) editing and playback (Soundforge) and sound processing (Abelton).
In terms of the feedback mechanism between technology and creativity, what do humans excel at, what do machines excel at?
What’s interesting to me about technology and human creativity is that sometimes something unexpected comes up when working with technology - basically the “happy accident”. You press the wrong button, but it opens up something else that can really help the creative process and whatever it is that you happen to be working on. Humans excel at the creative ideas - machines excel at documenting and manipulating these ideas.
Collaborations can take on many forms. What role do they play in your approach and what are your preferred ways of engaging with other creatives through playing together or just talking about ideas?
I enjoy collaborating with other artists. I’m often brought in to help people realize their vision. I like to explore their planet and then offer ideas from my planet and see how they work together. We both learn from each other. This comes from both playing, and talking and studying the material.
How is preparing music, playing it live and recording it for an album connected?
They are all connected in that they all involve choices. Preparing music involves making choices about how you are presenting the material as well as giving structure to things. It helps to clarify things. Playing live, you often can make choices for the moment of performance - depending on what is happening - which may alter things from what was prepared. Recording tends to be a more focussed approach to choices - but again, something may happen in performance while recording, that my alter things - but give it an aliveness - which is always the thing to look for when assessing takes for an album.
What do you achieve and draw from each experience personally?
Hopefully I’ll have found something new - either in myself, or in connecting with others.
How do you see the relationship between improvisation and composition in this regard?
Improvisation is discovery in the moment. Composition is discovery and morphology over a larger moment - which could last years.
How do you see the relationship between the 'sound' aspects of music and the 'composition' aspects?
I try and think of the sound of whatever I’m writing for - but sometimes an idea is more abstract - and then I think about orchestration - what would be the best instrument or sound to serve the idea.
How do you work with sound and timbre to meet certain production ideas and in which way can certain sounds already take on compositional qualities?
I'm always looking for the best realization of all the frequencies in production - particularly frequencies that I find pleasing to me - as well I try and preserve as many of the overtones and difference tones that are going on, particularly in mixing, mastering and test pressings. Sometimes - as in Kepler - 22b on “From Water”, a good deal of the piece is about the difference tones - so in that sense it is compositional.
Our sense of hearing shares intriguing connections to other senses. From your experience, what are some of the most inspiring overlaps between different senses - and what do they tell us about the way our senses work?
It’s all about vibrations - frequencies. I don’t really have a strong sense of the overlap say between the aural and the visual - though I know that colors have vibrations. I experienced something along those lines once standing in front of a large Mark Rothko painting.
What happens to sound at its outermost borders?
I don’t know the answer to that. Just that sounds eventually decay.
Art can be a purpose in its own right, but it can also directly feed back into everyday life, take on a social and political role and lead to more engagement.
Can you describe your approach to art and being an artist?
As an artist, and being a musician, I’ve tried to get people to listen. In my work, which draws a lot from the natural world, I’ve tried to bring the listener closer to the natural world which is currently in so much peril.
It is remarkable, in a way, that we have arrived in the 21st century with the basic concept of music and performance still intact. Do you have a vision of music and performance, an idea of what they could be beyond their current form?
Fortunately, live performance of music continues to be the main thing - the main form or forum. I love recording and making records, but the landscape for that has changed.
But there is nothing like what happens in live performance - the connection of the artist to the audience and, if playing with others, the connection between performers - and ultimately the aliveness of the room where it is happening.
