Part 2

What role do electronic tools and instruments play for your creative process? What does your creative space / studio look like and what tools does it contain?

MP: I like to keep most of my composition process in a digital form. Trying to write music on instruments feels limiting to me, because then I rely much more on muscle memory and tend to repeat the same patterns, while entering the pitches and sounds manually feels a lot more like having a blank page where anything is possible.

However, at the same time we really like to work with live musicians at any stage. Even before composing, we have recording sessions to gather sounds and ideas through improvisations or established concepts. So even if the composition process itself happens mostly on the computer, the element of human performance is incredibly important.

And finally, I love my tape machine and it has become an essential part of the workflow. It adds a beautiful but subtle warmth to whatever goes through it.

It is my impression that adding a conceptual, non-musical dimension to one's work is almost a prerequisite for commissions and grants. How do you view this tendency and how “conceptual” is your own approach to writing?

MP+MK: Our home is mostly in film music, where the conceptual aspect is defined by the music’s function to serve a certain story or image. So centring our work around a concept feels intuitive. But it also expands the experience that music alone can offer and allows to tell a more complete story.

While the core of DIMENSIONS lies in the exploration of musical techniques and experimentation, the theme of travel and memories, as well as the book that comes with the album, really invites the audience into a journey that goes beyond sound.

Working with long forms, complex concepts or new vocabulary is potentially more challenging today because they require us to remember things that happened perhaps minutes ago – while most of us are finding it hard to focus even on what's happening right now. Both as a composer and as a listener yourself, how do you deal with this?

MP: I admit that I find myself drawn to shorter forms and find them genuinely fascinating. For example, one aspect that we often experience when working on adverts: How can we tell an interesting story in 30 seconds?

And even for my personal composition work – can an idea be expressed with fewer words/ notes? That doesn’t necessarily lead to short forms, but it focuses on keeping the message concise and precise. I like to make sure that every note is written intentionally.

MK: I’m not sure I would agree that what you mentioned feels more challenging today than it used to be.

I would argue that a dramatically well-crafted piece — be it long, complex or with new vocabulary — catches the listeners attention in every second of the piece, because of the handling of timing and emotion. Similarly to how a great speaker in today’s world is still able to catch the attention of thousands of people.

For many artists, life-changing musical experiences take place live. Few works these days, however, are performed beyond their premiere. What, do you feel, does this mean for composers, and the music they write, and how does this reality influence your own work?

MK: Personally, I find great pleasure in writing music for speakers. There are things that you can do which wouldn’t be possible live. However, vice-versa it’s also true that you can create an experience live which wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

I think in today’s world it’s important to organise and play your own concerts. Something we definitely want to explore more.

MP: We would love to perform our works live more often, but at the same time the process of creating a recording that feels final and polishing every detail (or consciously allowing mistakes to stay) is incredibly satisfying.

The downside is maybe that it diminishes the role of performers. Even in a recording session, if one doesn’t like a take, it’s so easy to do another one. On stage, the players are fully in control of the performance.

How, would you say are live performances of your music and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?

MK: For me both formats provide a learning experience opportunity that influence each other. Essentially it’s about learning what works in a live context and what possibilities a recording offers.

Even in recording there is a huge difference in sound when recording an orchestra “live“, meaning all players play together or “stemmed“, meaning the music is recorded in sections. Both have their pros and cons and essentially it’s a decision of sound that you want to make.

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

MK: Since AI music appeared on the radar it really sharpened my sense of where the value in my own work lies. And I think collaboration and personalisation counts more than ever. The fear obviously is that too many production houses in music and film rely on AI created music.

The hope is that the drop in quality and lack of human connection is so obvious that handcrafted music becomes more valuable than ever.

MP: My hope is that it will push human music creators even harder to create something new that AI can’t do. Ideally it will lead to a new wave of creativity and experimentation.

At the same time, the whole AI discussion might be a little overhyped and there are still so many unknown variables about its future and its actual long term impact on the music industry.

The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feels it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?

MK: As a composer and musician I feel it’s extremely valuable to preserve these recordings. This is the type of material we want to transcribe and study.

And even though I completely agree that these extraordinary moments in time cannot be recreated by any medium and instead are part of the ones who experienced them, I would say that it’s of most important value as a society to preserve the art of our times in all its facets.