Part 2

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

My method allows me to introduce new ideas throughout the process.

But I’m always sticking with the structure created by the APB models, so I always know where I am.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Because my work is so focused on how our brains and nervous systems are the center of our existence, the nature of creative states of mind is important.

Currently I’m working on a piece that explores the relationship of conscious and subconscious activity while composing and performing music. Perhaps from this work I will learn more about my own creative states.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I don’t generally plan to change things once I’ve made them. But often I do want to change things after I’ve heard the results.

Sometimes I do make changes, but this process is often interrupted by the need to work on the next thing.

When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?”

I think this is a super important question, which will become even more critical with the advent of AI tools.

I always struggled with the recording process, finding studio environments very difficult places in which to perform, listen and analyze the music. Then there are all the questions of mixing, editing and mastering, which I learned so much about in the process of making my compositions “KATA” and “Across Time”. That’s because all the parts had to be recorded individually, which is not normal for the type of music I make.

As I mentioned above, another concept behind some of my works is what I call Transcultural Music, which I define as an area of research and composition based on the integration of music from different cultures and traditions. In my works the emphasis is often on timbre (sound colour) and noise to control or dissolve boundaries between different forms of music.

In 2003, the Transonic festival was initiated at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (the House of World Cultures) in Berlin. I was very fortunate to be asked by the HKW Director Hans-Georg Knopp to act as the artistic director and composer in residence for this festival. It was an unprecedented opportunity to explore how musical styles and traditions might meet and combine in new ways.

This experience, along with my 9-month residence in Japan in 2001, created the conditions for my Transcultural compositions, which have involved collaborations with musicians from Japan, Taiwan, Lebanon, Brazil, China, Europe and North America. The compositions “Vidrone” (2017) and “Across Time (Transonic Symphony #1)” (2023) are examples on the Exploratorium album.
 


“Across Time” also introduces a new series of works called “The Transonic Symphonies”. Using highly unique formations of instruments and media, along with my models of Neuro and Transcultural Musics, these works explore new possibilities for what a symphony can be in the 21st century. My main vehicle for the performance of these symphonies is the Transonic Orchestra, a group I started in 2019, which features musicians from many different places and traditions.

This new symphonic approach redefines some concepts of diversity, as it’s not about placing people into existing western hierarchies, like orchestras in the USA and Europe. This form of symphonic music goes deep into different cultures, exploring many traditions, sound and media, using a wide range of instruments from different cultures combined with electronic sounds to create a symphonic, Neuro Music experience.

One aspect of this new kind of symphony involves separately recording individual musicians and using modern popular music and video techniques to mix them together. While in classical, contemporary and jazz music the norm is to record everyone together and capture the sound made by the musicians in real time, to go into new realms it is necessary to move beyond this way of working, especially regarding large ensemble music, where the logistics and economics make many new ideas impossible to realize.

I fully intend to present these works live in concert, but these recording and mixing approaches are central to the ideas around Transcultural Music. The ways in which virtual representations and live performers are combined in live concerts is another possibility, as well as electronic media versions for broadcast, etc.

The current politics and economics of the orchestra stifles creativity. Composers fight for small commissions and have very little support to compete with the museum culture of classical music. The composers selected are very limited by what they can compose, which is detrimental for creativity.

I recognize that others might not feel limited, I’m speaking of what I see as serious limitations, such as not being allowed to use various new sounds and playing techniques.
 


Even recording a solo song is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.

In 2021 I worked on the recording of my composition “KATA”, which is scored for a mixed ensemble of Japanese and Western instruments with video and electronics.

Due to Covid-19, it was not possible to bring together all the musicians to record the piece. This was a problem, which lead to recording various individual musicians in Tokyo, Philadelphia, Frankfurt and Montreal. That also meant working with recording engineers in each location and then mixing it all together.

This was the most complicated recording process I have been involved with and only worked because I have such a long history of working with all the performers who were involved.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?

Now I will continue the story about “KATA” in the context of mixing, etc. Having all these individual recordings that had to be mixed was a new experience for me. Of course, people working in popular music do this all the time, but it is quite unusual for contemporary music or jazz. I learned so much in the process, because I had to deal with the aesthetic qualities of each recording, which involves its overall sound compared to the others.

This led me to a much deeper understanding of what kind of sound I like in a recording. It also led to the realization that listening to various mixes of a work can be very interesting and very frustrating, because it can be hard to settle on one final version.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I have avoided this kind of experience because I’m typically forced to jump into the next project.

For this reason, it takes me longer to reflect on past works and whether I would want to change something about it.

Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?

My current work is focused on what I call Neuro Music and I have experienced people who don’t understand what that is, because it is a new idea. It seems especially hard for established composers, musicians, conductors, music directors, journalists, etc. to understand and/or accept it.

In other words, most of the people who run my sector of the music universe don’t get it. The sensation that I’m on a new path of exploration is what keeps me from feeling depressed about that.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing 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?

A great question, to which I can only say that music is the most direct expression of the way our nervous system and brains actually work, which I find endlessly inspiring!