Part 1

Names: Henrik Frendin, Sebastian Mullaert
Nationality: Swedish
Occupations: Violist, composer, professor (Henrik), producer, composer, improviser (Sebastian)
Current release: Henrik Frendin and Sebastian Mullaert team up for Hind, out May 24th 2024 via Lamour.
Recommendations:
Henrik: Wow, a bit difficult to choose ... Jack Pransky 's book Somebody should have told us about the three priniciples – Mind, Thought and Consciousness is a thoughtful one.
I will also choose a great piece of music for viola: “Wom Winde beveint” by the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli

Sebastian: Hilma of Klint ”the ten largest” (painting); Anouar Brahem ”Conte de L’Incroyable Amour” (song)

If you enjoyed this interview with Sebastian Mullaert and Henrik Frendin and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit Henrik Frendin's page on the website of the Malmö Academy of Music, and Sebastian Mullaert's official homepage.

For the thoughts of two other Sebastian Mullaert collaborators, read our Johanna Knutsson interview, and our Mathew Jonson interview.



What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

Henrik: Speaking about myself, I set an early inner goal about my musicianship in my 20's when my professional career took off. This was simply to explore every aspect of viola playing no matter what genre.

My debut recital after seven years at the Royal Conservatory of Copenhagen was the actual starting point. Having played in various jazz groups as a teenager before I went classical, turned me back to develop my personal approach of improvisation later in the '90s.

At the same time I joined the leading Swedish contemporary music ensemble. A fruitful challenge that expanded my sound palette and playing technique. I discovered the beauty of extremely complex scores by great composers like Ligeti, where the form could also be used as a framework for improvisation. Going electro-acoustical with this ideas was a mind blower.

I guess this started the process of developing my music vocabulary which I still work on. Doing this together with other musicians is the ultimate creative environment when you can share ideas, especially if you are exploring new sonic domaines. I like this situation so well explained in the famous quote by Stanley Kubrick: - I don’t know what I want, but I know what I don’t want.

Sebastian: I have worked with so many people over the years, but the earliest collaborations that actually led to more substantial expression were with a string quartet I played Viola in called Ansema, and a pop band I formed (DIM) with some friends in my late teens.

In both of these projects, I played Viola. In the first one, we performed clear classical ensemble music, while in the latter, I brought in a lot of stompboxes, leading into the electronic universe of music creation.

I think what has always accompanied me in my work with music is my dedication and work ethic, combined with a deep wish to invite people to co-create. These two factors have always been so important and are still very important to me.

There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?

Sebastian: First, I would like to share something. I feel that creativity is the constant allowing of life; it is a journey of change filled with sensorial experiences. To allow this creativity is an adventure and exploration, and it’s about sensing when we are allowing the opening or triggering the narrowing.

For me, this journey has also included an exploration of my introvert and extrovert aspects. I love collaborations, but at the same time, I love and need my individual time in my creative process. For me, it’s been very important to find balance in this to allow my creativity.

After deepening and allowing my own individual process in the studio, I've spent the last 8 years exploring different forms of collaborations, and I feel very curious about how to invite myself and others to a space of creativity and potential. This has led me to a wide range of collaborations in the studio, on stage, within education, with other electronic artists, with different ensembles, with different art forms, and of course, with different solo vocalists and instrumentalists like with Henrik on the HIND album.

For me, it’s been clear that the actual form of the collaboration matters little and the attitude, acceptance, and honoring of creativity between the creators are essential.

Henrik: It depends on the context, and the purpose of the collaboration. Flexibility and understanding of the people I work with is the keyword. Making general agreements when starting a new collaboration could be of great help later on in the process. This is something I also teach in my chamber music classes at the Music Academy.

During the time working on HIND with Sebastian it turned out that we share so many values about music making. This made it so easy to go deeper at an early stage of the collaboration.

How did this particular collaboration come about?

Henrik: It all started with a phone call from Sebastian almost 20 years ago.

He was already an established performing artist in his genre and wanted to get back to the roots, i e taking up his viola playing and taking lesson again. At that time he didn't know that I also had a great interest in the electro-acoustical field although from another angle. Namely exploring it from commissioning pieces by composers of contemporary western music.
This was the planting of a seed.

Fifteen years later I suddenly came across Sebastian's music on Youtube. Shortly after I woke up one morning and got a clear vision in my mind that our different worlds of sound could create an exciting musical synergy that just had to be explored. Filled with enthusiasm, I picked up the phone and called him right away. The first words he said to me after not being in touch for so many years were: - I thought about you yesterday …

Whether this was a coincidence or not, guided by synchronicity, we started to draw up the framework for creating the album HIND.  

What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.

Henrik: When I got to know Sebastian through his viola lessons, he was touring around the globe with his duo “Minilogue”. Difficult to find time to meet because he was away almost all the time. I could see immideately that his devotion for music and curiosity brought him success.

When we later started to work together creating the album HIND, we also found out quite early in the process that we have a lot of human and musical values in common. For instance the interest and practice of meditation. This has certainly made the collaboration even more inspiring.

Sebastian: I had rather limited knowledge of Henrik before the Hind journey began, but I knew enough to become curious when Henrik called me and asked if we should record some music together.

I think what piqued my curiosity were Henrik's interests in improvisation, meditation, and nature, which are key elements of my own creative process, and obviously, his amazing skill as a viola player :)

Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?

Henrik: My two custom made electric violas are just an extraordinary set of tools. It has been a 15 year long journey of trial and error since I first asked the innovative instrument maker Richard Rolf to construct an electric amplified viola that has the same sound qualities as an ordinary one and can be electronically moderated.

The first 5-string one was first used in public in a premiere of a solo concerto in Wiener Konzerthaus in 2002. The second one was my instrument in another EBU-broadcasted concerto premiere with the Swedish Radio Orchestra in 2011. This really shows the potential of these instruments and why their unique sound palette is so exciting when writing music for solo viola and orchestra.

When making music together with Sebastian's sound scapes the sky has no limit. The refined use of multi looping from his side just wipes out the borders between man, instrument and machine. The multidimensional experience becomes one.

Sebastian: My main tool is the actual process in the studio, which I will describe next. In this process, I utilize my studio, both hardware and software, to create sounds in a very meditative way. My way of working is very hands-on, and my most used instruments are faders on mixers and controllers—a rather simple and dubby approach.

For recording the actual song, I use my live setup where I arrange and play the sketches and loop/mix the sounds from Henrik.

Before you started making music together, did you in any form exchange concrete ideas, goals, or strategies? Generally speaking, what are your preferences when it comes to planning vs spontaneity in a collaboration?

Henrik: We didn't start to play right away. Our first musical meeting started with a several hours long walk in the breathtaking nature of Söderåsens National Park near Sebastian's studio ending with a meditation in the woods. Something that we both practiced for years. This was the initial way to get into the mood of spontaneous music making. Experiencing the ecology of nature immediately transformed into the ecology of sounds.

A source of inspiration was also using different geometrical forms emerged from nature, into the shaping of musical phrases and motives.