Name: Eric Angelo Bessel
Nationality: American-German
Current release: Eric Angelo Bessel's solo debut Visitation is out via Lore City Music, the label he runs with his wife Laura Mariposa Williams.
Recommendations: The abstract photographs of Kim Keever; The fiber/found objects sculptures of Judith Scott.

If you enjoyed this Eric Angelo Bessel interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit the official website of Lore City, his duo with Laura Mariposa Williams.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started making music in a purposeful way in late 2011, when I formed Lore City with my wife Laura Mariposa Williams. That’s when the real writing / producing started.

Going back to my earliest influences, I played guitar in high school and also took photographs of hardcore bands when they played concerts in nearby towns. The bands would let me backstage to photograph from the musician’s point of view, which established connections for me between music and visual art. The music I make doesn’t really sound like the hardcore music that I listened to back then but those were my earliest passions – playing guitar and taking photographs.

I think what drew me to that scene was the overall energising effect of the driving guitar chords and the fervor of the crowd.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

I hope that my music will conjure such visuals, however I create sound from a more emotional, rather than visual place.

My compositions are layered with many instruments playing simultaneously and modulating rhythmically, so as I’m composing, I’ll listen for the spaces where the next instrument reveals itself and feels right in the way it affects everything else.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

Over the years, I’ve arrived at trusting my intuition. It’s about not thinking so hard about creating, but just letting it happen organically.

When I arrive at a stopping point, I’ll take a very subjective look at what I’ve created and then glimpse for clues. I’ll use those themes to influence the artwork moving forward.

I try not to get in my own way and not to overthink at the onset and let the artwork – as it emerges – dictate where it wants to go. I believe that artwork will flow through the artist as its conduit. I don’t know whether it works the other way around.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I’m influenced by the things around me, and I believe there’s fluidity to identity. When I think of my visual artwork, as a lens-based artist with a film camera, I need things happening in my immediate environment to create. There always needs to be a subject. Similarly, with musical work I take from my present environment and that informs the artwork.

In a way, the identity of an artist can be an accumulation of their choices. I value critical distance; for example, when you separate yourself from the work for a while before making edits and further developments.

Time is such an elusive and powerful variable as it introduces hindsight, which reveals our own meandering sense of subjectivity.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I believe that art is a means for deep communication and emotional transformation. As such, I strive to make sounds and imagery that do not simply exist in the background, but that demand attention.

However, my approach is not intended to provoke or sensationalize but to enthral. I’m speaking to the repeat visitor.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Music of the future over continuing a tradition – and I think originality / innovation can live alongside perfection / timelessness, though nothing is ever really, truly perfect. But sometimes to move into the future, we have to recognize and appreciate the right tools for us, which could include things relegated to the past, such as film cameras.

I’m highly selective about which musical tools and processes I use, as the right tools impart unique characteristics upon the sound. It’s the same reason I still photograph with medium format film cameras; there’s an honesty to the film grain. I also value and respect following through with the classic, production protocols of mixing and mastering. Therein lies the “perfection”.

So much of my process is intuitive and I look to other professionals to bring their seasoned ears, and help the music to sound as good as it can.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Everything changed in 2017 when I upgraded to a Mellotron. I haven't looked back since, and consequently, I play the guitar less and less.

[Read our feature on the Mellotron]

The availability of sounds, their realness, and to work with them on a keyboard provides all sorts of advantages over the guitar. The guitar always sounds like a guitar; you can add effects to it, but a guitar has a very recognizable sound. The Mellotron can be many different instruments, sometimes indiscernible, including two completely different sounds at onc e… like a vibraphone and a bassoon.

Selecting the right blend of instruments for the music has been crucial for me to not only create my songs, but to also to make something totally new out of this sound library of instruments.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

On weekdays, I get up in the morning and typically go to the gym, come home, do breakfast (coffee / oatmeal / banana) and begin my workday. Most days I work from the field performing energy efficiency outreach in the state of Oregon.

I try to get into the music studio for a little while after work, though weekends are the best time for music making because I’m able to dedicate a sizable block of time to it. I’ve also been known to use my vacation time to work on creative projects, especially when it comes time to mix.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Visitation is particularly dear to me since it’s my first solo album.

I was just writing and recording and writing and re-recording for almost entire days at a time. This went on for over a year, so when the moment of realization came that I had a solo album – not a Lore City album – that was a very new experience for me.

From there I loved shaping up the album, listening to and reviewing all the song contenders and deciding which to finesse or build upon, and which ones would fit into the context of an album. This part became a collaborative process with my musical partner, Laura. She also listened to the songs and offered her guidance and suggestions of which pieces were finished works or belonged on the album.

As we chose the songs for the album we also named them intuitively by the images that they conjured up as we listened.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Music is always going to be collaborative, even with a solo album, and I think that’s a good thing. When I’m creating my solo work, it's often by myself in the music studio, but when a piece is feeling close to completion, I’ll share it with Laura to get her feedback and often do some edits from there.

Collaboration continues into mixing and mastering songs. I rely on the guidance of sound engineers to take my recordings and make them as high fidelity as possible.

How does your work and your creativity relate to the world, and what is the role of music in society?

When you send artwork out into the void and the void responds, it’s one of the most rewarding things. I share my music with the world in hopes that it finds the people who will appreciate it, so making connections with listeners and other artists is extremely encouraging and endearing.

The role of music in society is whatever the listener dictates it to be. It can be a political rallying cry. It can be songs to pass the time on a morning commute, or a form of entertainment, especially with regards to stadium concerts that more closely resemble Broadway shows. Music can be something playing in the background at a store to gloss over things; it can bring comfort or catharsis to something you’re going through.

Most people have their favorite songs that help them feel better or less alone. Music is really anything the listener makes of it.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music can give listeners the space to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually process their experiences. Music is capable of acting as a conduit to access the things that we don’t necessarily let ourselves feel or think about in daily life. So as music makers, I think we’re doing something very important.

Artwork is a reflection of our world, so by translating my observations and experiences into sound, it makes them widely accessible, and hopefully, personal to the listener.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

In the studio, I’m grateful for the science that goes into the transistors, the capacitors, the integrated circuits – all of that. I’m an artist that uses technological tools that others create rather than building them myself. In that way I lean more on the musical side than the scientific side, yet I tend to not see things so divided.

I think there is always science in music and conversely, music in science. For anyone who is curious about that idea, you can read about neuroscience and its mystifying connections to music in Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I’ll often say, my relationship with artmaking is a huge part of my life and feeling whole as a person. Doing all the other things in my life becomes exponentially more difficult without making space for artmaking.

I have to create because everything is mundane. Even artmaking can be mundane but you have more chances at creating something bigger than yourself.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our eardrums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it is able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I believe in magic.