Interviews

Violent Magic Orchestra promises to be one of the most powerful acts set to explode at MUTEK MTL. The Osaka-based group presents itself as a flesh-and-blood manga/anime, an absolutely unique form of immersive hardcore ripe for explosive moments.

VMO is embodied by Zastar (vocals, Darkthrone, electronics, and “agitation”), Gorgoroth (guitars, Mayhem, dance, and choreography), and Kezzardrix (visuals). Hidden behind their stage names and black metal-inspired costumes, these Osaka artists infuse their music with an energy that is simply mind-blowing. Get ready to be bombarded with a plethora of frenetically interlinked musical styles, somewhere between gabber and black metal.

When you attend several concerts in Japan and listen closely to the backing tracks of pop artists, you immediately notice the eclectic range of influences in the virtuoso performances of their musicians. You can hear this very clearly here with Violent Magic Orchestra: they master techniques specific to various forms of metal (black, speed, doom, etc.), as well as mathcore, electronic hardcore, hard techno, dark ambient, jungle/drum ’n’ bass, footwork, trance, and even jazz-fusion—all with an almost innocent melodic touch when the contrast calls for it.

Phew!

Violent Magic Orchestra performed for the first time in Montreal last March (Ritz PDB); the Japanese band’s reputation is spreading like wildfire, and now they’re set to take the stage at the prestigious MUTEK – Nocturne 4 event at the SAT on Saturday, August 29. VMO also will perform at Abitibi’s FME, Friday (Thursday night in fact) at 1:30AM.

PAN M 360 a fait parvenir ses questions à VMO avant la grande traversée du Pacifique, voici les réponses d’un membre du groupe qui n’a pas voulu s’identifier, vu l’anonymat prévalant au sein du groupe. Une fois de plus!

PAN M 360: What are the foundations of what makes you unique?

VMO: We don’t see ourselves simply as a musical project, but rather as a comprehensive artistic project. We want to go beyond the visual and auditory senses to engage all the senses and offer a supernatural experience.

PAN M 360: Can you briefly describe the role of each band member?

VMO: The members—whose names are inspired by legendary black metal bands written in katakana—each strive to explore all forms of expression.

PAN M 360: Tell us about your musical eclecticism. How did you incorporate so many musical styles to become the excellent musicians you are today?

VMO: We consider ourselves still inexperienced musicians, but we hope to play musical combinations that no one has ever heard before and that perhaps still linger a little in this world. It’s all about balance and musical sensibility.

PAN M 360: How did you learn to play? Through training at a music school? Are you self-taught? Or both?

VMO: We’re self-taught, with no formal training. For example, for the singer Zastar, this project is her very first band.

PAN M 360: Beyond the framework of the language you use, tell us more about your explosive mix.

VMO: I think our ability to blend genres while maintaining our own balance is what makes us unique. But perhaps it’s mainly because we construct scenes—much like a film director—taking into account the scenery, the “actors,” the movements, and the audience’s emotions, and then translate them into music.

PAN M 360: What influence does manga and anime culture have on your work? Even if it’s a bit of a cliché question, try to explain how pop or traditional culture is reflected in your music, whether consciously or unconsciously.

VMO: Anime and manga are very important to some members of the group. This is perhaps what the Japanese can be most proud of today. I think that from a very young age, this has been a significant part of Japanese identity, and I’m so influenced by this culture that I’d like to create interesting collaborations with the world of animation in the future.

PAN M 360: From tragedy to humor, the full spectrum of emotions is present in your work. What are you trying to express?

VMO: Thank you. That is precisely where the source of our expression lies.

PAN M 360: Do you collaborate on audiovisual productions? In film? On television? In video games? In any case, your own music videos are amazingly crafted!

VMO: I think this aspect of our work will grow in the future. I can’t talk about it yet, but we’re planning to release a very large-scale multidisciplinary artwork next January.

PAN M 360: We assume that the name Violent Magic Orchestra is linked in some way to the legendary Yellow Magic Orchestra. Could you comment that connection to us?

VMO: We realized it without even realizing it. We can’t say there’s no influence, nor that it’s huge, but for any Japanese person who’s had even the slightest exposure to electronic music, YMO is a bit like an anime or a manga.

PAN M 360: We’ve heard you were big fans of Aphex Twin. At first glance, his IDM music seems very different from yours, but how does Aphex Twin’s influence show up in your work?

VMO: We’re really impressed by the way he presents his work—that is, as a total work of art. Staying a star without losing his dignity in a genre where it’s hard to become a star. It’s completely different from us, but oh well, haha.

PAN M 360: Could you name other musicians who have influenced the members of Violent Magic Orchestra?

VMO: There are many, but they’re all the ones who dare to take on challenges.

PAN M 360: How do you present your music on stage compared to your studio recordings?

VMO: Both are still evolving, but we create our music with the goal of showcasing the best of ourselves and presenting the kind of show we want to put on.

PAN M 360: Does the music scene in Osaka, where you’re based, have any distinctive characteristics?

VMO: I’d say its uniqueness lies in its originality.

PAN M 360: What will the lineup be for the concert in Montreal? Who will play which instrument? What will the visual staging look like?

VMO: The four regular members of the tour—The Star on vocals, Dark Throne, the manipulator and agitator, Gorgos on guitar, and Mayhem, the dancer and backup singer—will be joined by Kezzardrix on visuals to deliver an explosive audiovisual concert.

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The Istanbul Ghetto Clab stuff is considered as an absurdist blend of acid bass,  techno, punk attitude, modular synthesis and traditional instrumentation, Berlin’s masked duet have captured global attention after being active in the urban  underground with their vibrant live performances based on modular synths, also saz playing and a whole lot of live energy. Their debut album, SOME TALES TO BOOST YOUR UNNECESSARY MIND ACTIVITY  Istanbul Ghetto Club are  having a super impact on the global dancefloor, and Montreal didn’t make an exception on Thursday at Esplanade Tranquille, Experience 3 Series. Before the MTL live set, Julius Cesaratto could talk with the duet, who (obviously) remains anonymous as does Angine de Poitrine, a band that you may know…

PAN M 360: This will be your Canadian premiere. What does it mean for your group to bring your live show to MUTEK, and what can Montreal audiences expect

that they haven’t seen from you before?

IGC: MUTEK is a brilliant festival we’ve been following for a very lengthy period. While being invited here is a source of joy for us, it’s a huge loss for MUTEK. We already feel sorry for the poor people of Montreal. They’ll never be the same again.

PAN M 360: Your sound fuses acid techno, modular synths, and the Turkish saz. How

did that combination first come together ?

IGC: People ask this question a lot, and when we give an honest answer, no one believes us, so let me say this right off the start: it wasn’t our idea. It was October 2012. There were twelve of us in the studio. I remember the number because I asked everyone individually afterward. In the afternoon, a bright shape appeared on the wall above the modular synthesizer. It was somewhat round, with a single line on it.  The interesting thing was, the curtains were closed. All twelve of us saw it, and that’s important, because if I’d been alone, I would have doubted myself too. We didn’t understand what it was. We stared at it for hours. Someone said, “It’s a reflection,” so we turned off the light, but it remained. Someone took a photo, but it didn’t show up in the picture. As evening approached, everyone went home, and I stayed behind. When I fell asleep that night, I saw someone in my dream, a person with a round yellow face who was constantly smiling. He showed me the same shape. Then he reached out, grabbed the filter knob, and turned it, turned it, turned it… The knob began to melt. A few words came out

of his mouth: “If you do this, you will win” I ask ‘win what?’ He said ‘I don’t know’.

In the morning, I went to the studio and set all the knobs on the synthesizer to that position. None of the twelve people argued, because they’d seen it too. The saz was already there, sitting in the corner; no one was playing it. We played it that day.  I’ve never touched that knob again. On tour, the technicians ask every time, “Should we calibrate it?” I say, “No.” People think this is a stylistic choice. It’s not. It was given to us, we just added the saz to it.

PAN M 360: You perform masked and remain anonymous as a collective. What does

that anonymity give you creatively that performing under your own names

wouldn’t?

IGC: It is difficult enough for a person to step away from everything that has been piled upon them since birth, their family, their language, the knowledge accumulated over generations, and create something new. We haven’t overcome this challenge. It had simply been overcome before us, and we are following the rule. In the tradition of the “aşık”, the poet does not write his own name; he leaves his pen name in the final verse. It has been this way for centuries. Whether Pir Sultan Abdal was a single person or several is still debated in academic circles; the poems attributed to him span different periods, and the language is inconsistent. The debate

continues because no one knows the answer. We somehow know, but it’s not our place to intervene in the debate. As for the question of what it adds to us: nothing. The mask doesn’t add anything. It simply removes what was added before us. Whatever remains is what plays out.

PAN M 360: Your live sets have been described as mischievous, at times absurdist,

or even satirical. How do theatrics play into your storytelling when you’re building a set? Does story come first, or does it emerge from the musical improv itself?

IGC: A bird knows how to fly; a fish knows how to swim. People know how to act spontaneous but they have forgotten how.Is it a play ? Not sure. Things can go very wrong on stage, and we don’t fix them, that’s all there is to it. It’s up to others to figure out what leads to what. The story isn’t the first thing. The story is what the people in the room say happened afterward.

PAN M 360: Your bio talks about improvisation and instinct leading the way. How much of an Istanbul Ghetto Club set is composed in advance, and how much is genuinely being  invented in the room?

IGC:  Seven things are predetermined before you step inside. We don’t say what those seven things are, because then the engineers would try to fix them as well. Everything else happens inside the room. A sentence works the same way: Before you speak, you know the words, but you don’t know the sentence. The machine reacts, the person next to you reacts, and  ometimes the reaction is silence in the middle of a flood. We know many languages. They’re all just variations of the same sound.

PAN M 360:  You’ve played for a very wide range of crowds (Berlin Atonal, Nuits Sonores, Fusion Festival, VENT Tokyo). How does the show change from one context to the next, and what are you curious to test in front of a MUTEK crowd specifically?

IGC: The show experience doesn’t change from city to city. We can’t change it on purpose. It changes on its own anyway, and we usually don’t notice it until later. No matter what we’re testing, we’d test it in an empty room as well.

PAN M 360: Your name nods to both Istanbul and the ghetto/club lineage of underground electronic music. How do you see your work engaging with cultural identity without being pushed into the “exotic, foreign music” silo, something you’ve pushed back on with the track title : Top 10 Oriental Ideas to Make Your Music Sound Really Culturally Appropriate.

IGC:  The saz was in the room, nobody was playing it, we played it. Being from somewhere isn’t   technique. The track title was a joke we made once. That’s how we finish with a subject.

PAN M 360: Looking beyond MUTEK, what’s next for Istanbul Ghetto Club? New material,   new format for the live show, or new collaborators being brought into the fold?

IGC: There are some things we’re working on. If we were to explain them now, they’d only become explanations, and then we’d have to settle for the explanation instead of the actual  thing. There’s one more knob. That’s all.

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A few curious jazz aficionados knew Isis Paola Giraldo before she became known as Chiquita Magic. The Colombiab musician was then studying at McGill University in MTL and was very active in the emerging jazz scene – remember Resonance Cafe on Park Avenue where she was a true leader. And then the Bogota born musician settled in Toronto, but always keeped in touch with the Montreal scene, while working in TO and Los Angeles.

Very active as a composer, producer, player, performer and mother.  Her craft includes today all kinds of music and instrumentation, from contemporary jazz to electro-cumbia or old school techno from Detroit.

More recently, Chiquita Magic played at the Montreal Jazzfest with her own duet with American drummer Justin Brown, also with this superb MTL quartet called George and led by drummer John Hollenbeck. For a few years, she also  performs as a singer and keyboard player with the Louis Cole Big Band, from Los Angeles.  Now this very busy and very inspired woman is back in Montréal for a live set at MUTEK.  

Because of her intense artistic profile and her more than obvious Montreal connection, PAN M 360 is presenting this interview with Chiquita Magic by Alain Brunet.

PAN M 360 : He didn’t  have the chance to chat with you in your  many  shows performed in Montreal this year and also  last year, your coming at MUTEK is an excellent reason to finally  do this interview! You do so much!

Isis Paola Giraldo :  Too many things probably. I actually had a little breakdown because I felt like I was doing a little bit too much.

PAN M 360 : Well you have a lot of energy! The breakdown has been short because you’re back in Montréal for an electronic contribution this time.

Isis Paola Giraldo : Yes, probably. For MUTEK, I’m going to be doing this kind of new project called Techno Hardware. And it’s basically that, it’s a hardware set. So I’m playing all the drum machines and synthesizers.

PAN M 360 : What kind of sounds are you seeking this time?

Isis Paola Giraldo : It’s very much inspired by the old Jeff Mills’s, Terrence Dixon, Detroit techno underground in the  90s early 2000s. So, yeah, it’s a project that was born out of some friends in LA when I saw some young techno kids  in their early 20s throwing these raves and doing these underground parties. I had never seen that. I’d never seen people play drum machines and make a dance party happen.I was like, what is happening? And I was like, I need to do this. I need to explore this world. Before I had my baby, I just went in the last two months of my pregnancy and just did that for every day.And I released this EP called Hardware Techno.  And now this will be my first time performing it in Canada. And after I’m going to perform it in Cologne next fall.So I’m excited to launch this project into the world, and  it’s going to start in Montreal in a way. Yeah, I’ve done a few sets in the LA underground, but never on a big stage.

PAN M 360 : So your laboratory was presented  in more private spaces. 

Isis Paola Giraldo : Exactly, exactly. So I’ve been working really hard all summer, kind of like when I put the baby to sleep, going to my little office and just practicing every night and trying to build a longer set. And it’s been really fun, I’m really excited about presenting it. Also a little nervous because it feels like I’ve never done something like this… But I love that ! I love throwing myself into stuff I don’t know how to do, kind of.

PAN M 360 : Well, you’re always exploring in a way. We knew you as a jazz pianist. And afterwards you started your electronic experiments, and then you became Chiquita Magic.  

Isis Paola Giraldo : Exactly. I mean, I haven’t gone into the software re world but  I like machines. I like it when it’s physical and touching. So I haven’t used Ableton, for example. Like I know everybody uses Ableton and maybe one day, but I like to work with sound synthesis,  I like moving the knobs and stuff. That’s kind of my world. And this time , this is a sort of coming back to the roots of electronic music.

PAN M 360 :  Yes, roots of electronic music as a club culture.

Isis Paola Giraldo : Exactly. The culture of the dance world where it’s just like, people can just go and kind of like go and it’s very informal. I love that. And so this is kind of like me trying to do that, but also keeping the harmonic world.

I mean, I think this project is really fun because, you know, being a part of the jazz experimental world for so long, I love that electronic world. And I love exploration sonically, especially in the harmonic sense.

PAN M 360 : And you do it as a performer, not only a producer.

Isis Paola Girlado : Yes. I still have my synthesizers and stuff, but I’m trying to incorporate things like juke house, footwork, jungle, techno, all of these rhythms into that world.  

PAN M 360 :  So this is a real advantage for you because harmonically, you’re much more advanced than most of the electronic artists.  

Isis Paola Giraldo : Yeah, maybe. There is something to be said about it that’s interesting, actually. Rhythmically for example, it’s been so challenging to like, think about it, how they think about it. A lot of these guys don’t even think of themselves as musicians necessarily.

They’re like DJs mostly, but even talking to them about the way that they think about time and the way they think about ideas, it’s completely different. And it makes so much sense because they’re really coming at it from like, how do you dance to this? And  instead of counting like specific bars, they’re thinking in a bigger picture, they’re thinking longer. So even if they’re not harmonically coming from the same…

PAN M 360 : They have other qualities that many instrumentalists don’t have. 

Isis Paola Giraldo : Exactly, they know when to drop the hi-hat, when to put in the kick,  when to put in the snare,  when to drop this… so they think about it in such a different way. For me, it’s been a learning curve to learn how to make it sound cohesive, not chopped up.

You know, to create a set that’s  just like a trance is really difficult. 

PAN M 360 :  And your generation  of jazz musicians is the first to blend it really. Jazz includes synths and stuff since Miles Davis in the late sixties but electronic was always a complement,  always surrounding the instrumental proposal without being central in the aesthetics.

Isis Paola Giraldo :  Miles Davis is king, but I do appreciate what you say. It’s just the way that social media is and technology is now. It’s so much easier for us to always listen to other worlds. I’m always listening to DJs. I’m always listening to what producers are putting out every day. I’m on Bandcamp Daily,  checking out who’s putting out what, who’s getting influenced by what. It’s something that really inspires me : not just being like what my community of jazz musicians is doing, but also just these communities that I don’t know and that don’t know me.

PAN M 360 : This is a huge difference now. We can access everything, but it depends how we do it.  Most of the people don’t do the real work,  they just stick on the big names, but curious musicians learn differently today.

Isis Paola Giraldo : Yeah, exactly. But I think it’s really fun to kind of search for those underground people because I think the underground is always what’s pushing the mainstream. The mainstream is always behind.

Being tapped in with the underground means you’re always kind of on the edge of what’s actually provocative and like what young people are doing. Obviously there’s a lot of older people that check stuff out, but it’s when you get comfortable, you don’t necessarily see the merit and  you may be not keeping on evolving with what you’re listening to. 

PAN M 360 : This project  must be quite different to the work you achieve with great drummer Justin Brown. 

Isis Paola Giraldo : Yeah, I guess Justin and I played together for around four years, something like that. We did it the first time in this illegal space in LA, it was just so magical, man. We just improvised. 

PAN M 360 : And he’s such a drummer, playing with Thundercat and Vijay Iyer among others! I mean, really one of the world’s best.

Isis Paola Giraldo : I wouldn’t argue! And I think Justin is just always listening.  He’s one of those musicians that’s always going to make whoever he’s playing with sound better. He definitely makes me feel confident because I know that he’s listening to what I’m doing. And there’s just a lot of trust there, you know we listen to similar things, even though it may be different sometimes, but I’m always sending him stuff that I’m listening to. And I’m like, check this out. And I’m just like, all right, we’re going to drop some jungle rhythm. Or some footwork, or anything else. We’re going to jump and then we just go. And so there’s a lot of trust between us, which makes it really fun. And I think when there’s friendship, it just, things just flow in a really natural way.

PAN  M 360 : Also you’re involved with percussionist John Hollenbeck and his band called George project. Very cool.

Isis Paola Girado :  John is such an amazing composer. And I feel like playing his music has definitely made me a better musician, because it’s challenging. For me, it was the first time playing another person’s music with such a distinct role in it. In the sound of the composition.. So, yeah, it’s been a learning curve and it’s been really fun to explore that with that band.

PAN M 360 :  Also you’re a member of the excellent Louis Cole Big Band. You sing, you play a little keyboard and machines, but, and also you wear funny clothes like a knight’s armor.

Isis Paola Giraldo : That’s all Louis, man. Louis is a freak, you know, he’s just a weirdo. And he  texted us (the singers),  like would you guys be down to wear this? And we were like, of course. Those armors were so big on us!  But that’s been huge for me.  We’ve been a musical family for over 10 years now.  So that’s been a huge part of my musical development,  such inspiration for me, very important.

PAN M 360 : My last question is about mothership. Because we see you often as a mother with your little child in your own video posts. It’s a statement in a way, isn’t it? 

Isis Paola Giraldo : Yeah. It’s very intentional. Everything I put out there is pretty intentional, even though it might not look like it is. But yeah, I think it’s important to see that part of women’s lives, because they’re just so often hidden. And I always felt like if I had a baby, I didn’t want to hide, you know. So many women don’t even talk about it because they’re afraid to lose gigs. They think no one will book them. And that was something that I just really went in being like, no we can, it’s hard but we can.  

PAN M 360 : So it’s important because your posts with your child make other women feel like they can also do it.

Isis Paola Giraldo : Exactly.

PAN M 360 : So for all those reasons, we love your craft and your visionary persona!  Since we know you, you’ve changed a lot and I of course it’s not over. 

Isis Paola Giraldo : It’s interesting… You know,  I often feel like it’s over. And then I talk to my partner and he reminds me that that’s always what happens:  I always get to a phase  where  I think I’m done, man. I don’t know where else this can go. And then he’s like, that means something else is hot coming. 

PAN M 360 : You’re loving partner is absolutely right!  Until we’re dead, we can remain creative. So thank you so much Chiquita Magic for being what you are!

Isis Paola Giraldo : Thanks for the questions!

PAN M 360 :  looking forward to attend your performance at Esplanade Tranquille, on Saturday August 29th,  7pm.

Isis  Paola  Giraldo : Yes, see you there !

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Matthew Herbert always responds to our world through the sounds he creates. In his own unique way, he advocates against the inequalities in our Western societies, and it is in this spirit that he composes, arranges, and produces electronic (and/or instrumental) music, drawing his sounds from the real world to transform them into art.

The British musician was a standout figure at the first edition of Mutek, but he had stopped coming to Montreal more than a decade ago, for reasons he’ll explain in the following interview.

Exceptionally, he has agreed to present the material from his upcoming album, The UK Has More Food Banks Than Branches of McDonald’s, in its North American premiere—for which he recorded sounds of food and provisions found in food banks.

The idea is to denounce the marked decline in empathy shown by wealthy societies toward the poor and migrants.

Connoisseurs of electronic music are well aware of his immense contribution to the genre; indeed, first-generation Mutek attendees surely remember his artistic significance. Over the course of his career, Herbert has recorded more than thirty solo albums, soundtracks for Oscar-winning films, as well as music for theater, musicals, television, video games, and radio. He has performed solo in concerts and as a DJ, as well as with various ensembles, including a 21-piece big band and a 100-member choir.

In addition to his North American premiere of *theukhasmorefoodbanksthanbranchesofmcdonalds.com* at the SAT on Wednesday (Nocturne Series 1), Matthew Herbert will be spinning records outdoors this week—on Friday at the Esplanade Tranquille (Expérience Series 4)—and will improvise with percussionist Julian Sartorius on Sunday (Nocturne Series 5).

For PAN M 360, Alain Brunet met with him at his Montreal hotel between rehearsal sessions. Here is that rather substantial conversation.

PAN M 360: You haven’t been to North America in a long time. Why is that?

Matthew Herbert: Yes. There was a long period when I tried to stop flying, for environmental reasons. So, for any shows I can do in Europe, I travel by train, car, or other means. I avoid flying, that’s true, but I’ve also had some bad experiences on this continent—not in Canada but in the United States, because of the extremely difficult financial conditions for artists. I remember a big show in New York where I had to pay for the posters, the promotion, and the equipment rental. There’s no support for the arts in the United States.

PAN M 360: So that ended up putting you off.

Matthew Herbert: Yes. It doesn’t make you feel welcome—that’s the problem. I know the American audience is great and has nothing to do with it. I’ve played some fantastic shows south of your border, but you just don’t feel welcome there. And then, of course, there’s Trump….

PAN M 360: You’re surely aware of what’s going on between the U.S. and Canada these days… welcome to Europe!

Matthew Herbert: Yeah, haha, welcome to Europe. I’ve always had great experiences in Canada. I have a lot of friends here and fond memories, and I loved playing at Mutek.

PAN M 360: Let’s start by talking about your new project, titled The UK Has More Food Banks Than Branches of McDonald’s. This Wednesday, August 27, at the SAT, you’ll be presenting the world premiere of your new album, which is set to be released this coming October. The first single, “Pasta is Not A Luxury,” is already available online.

Matthew Herbert: Yes, the album is finished. I finished it last week. So I’ll be playing the entire album at MUTEK.

PAN M 360: So can we understand how it was conceived, and of course your commitment in the face of the decline of empathy in our affluent Western societies?

Matthew Herbert: Every day, we’re confronted with a new horror, whether it’s in Gaza, Sudan, or whether it involves Trump, Iran, the climate crisis, or transphobia. The list of horrors is long… When it comes to Western nationalism and ethno-nationalism, we always think “us first”—that is, us first and immigrants second, or other countries and their needs second. That’s how things have evolved over the past 15 years or so. Trump and Musk, for example, have cut off all foreign aid intended for people in need.

PAN M 360: Even before the Trump era, this right-wing populism was simmering in our wealthy countries.

Matthew Herbert: Yeah, of course. To gain political capital, they said, “We’re not going to give money to others; we’re going to keep it for ourselves and our country.” But in reality, we realize that our elites couldn’t care less about the poor in their own country. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. So I think there’s a really interesting angle here with music—an interesting way to approach the political dimension of the issue.

PAN M 360: Very few countries really care about this today. In Canada, it’s also declined substantially—less than elsewhere, but still…

Matthew Herbert: Canada also has more food banks than McDonald’s locations.

PAN M 360: True. Not just for the poor, as we already know, but also for young college students, for example.

Matthew Herbert: In the United Kingdom, it’s the same for foreign students. They have to pay four or five times the price to come here, and yet, once they’re here, they can’t afford to feed themselves. The world has gone completely mad. But that will change because this form of capitalism is unsustainable in the medium term. Such inequalities are unsustainable; the economy no longer works for the vast majority of the population.

PAN M 360: So, all of this will eventually collapse.

Matthew Herbert: Of course, not to mention climate change, which is already causing terrible problems. All of that.

PAN M 360: So, this commitment has always been a part of you.

Matthew Herbert: Always, yes. And I like to explore that commitment through sound, because it allows me to tell these stories and be a part of them.

PAN M 360: What I know about your new album is that you sampled sounds related to food and basic necessities, and that you built your tracks from this collection of sounds.

Matthew Herbert: Yes, the album is a compilation of the 10 most requested items at food banks: personal hygiene products, tampons and sanitary pads, canned fruit, canned meat, cereal, etc. Each track is composed around one of these items; the music is created exclusively from them.

PAN M 360: But how can you compose coherent pieces, even if it makes perfect sense to do so in theory?

Matthew Herbert: What do you mean?

PAN M 360: Well, I’m talking about the final musical forms inspired by this idea. If, for example, you shake a package of pasta to generate sounds, you have to turn it into a piece that holds together!

Matthew Herbert: I think there are lots of different ways. I mean, one of them—I’ll give you the titles—is the titles you can give the pieces. They say things like… For example, one of the pieces is called *People Donating Tins of Soup*. Another one says that the consumption of canned vegetables shouldn’t be excessive in a rich country. Another track is titled “If Men Had Periods, Tampons Would Be Free.” What am I trying to describe? I’m trying to describe a flawed system. So I try to create music that’s a bit mechanical and make sure there’s a malfunction or a glitch along the way, and then we return to normal.On other tracks, I try to create a seductive dance track using this material.

PAN M 360: So it becomes both activism and entertainment.

Matthew Herbert: People say to themselves, “Oh yeah, great track. ” They do some research, try to find it. And they think, “Wait, it’s made from tampons! Why is it made from tampons?” And then they have to figure out the answer for themselves. So for me, it’s about a variety of different approaches, but it’s difficult because it’s instrumental music. And there aren’t any pieces of music composed with toilet paper in the world! So we have nothing to compare it to.

PAN M 360: Okay. If we try to get a little more specific about the recording process, what equipment did you use? How did you go about it?

Matthew Herbert: Here’s how I do it: I ask my assistant to collect samples, create a multitude of them, gather all kinds of objects, sample them, and cut them up so I can play them. Then I simply push the sounds to their extremes. So I use granular synthesis a lot, and I stretch the sound—I slow it down a lot or speed it up.

And that’s when something starts to take shape. I can then get something I like, and it might have a little bass note, like a “woo,” or something like that. So I process the result with the equalizer, then record it back into the computer. I can then readjust the EQ and add more bass. Once I have a sound I like, I sample it again, and so on. Sometimes, the sounds you hear may turn out to be the 30th generation of the original recorded sound.

PAN M 360: Is it a long process?

Matthew Herbert: Yes. It took about a year; it’s very conceptually intense. You must never lose sight of this question: what’s the story you want to tell? You have to establish a connection with the sound; you have to create a link to the story—not just make something exciting or fun.

PAN M 360: It’s very difficult to imbue music with meaning, but when you sample very specific objects, you can achieve that.

Matthew Herbert: Yes. So canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned meat, canned fish, canned fruit. Actually, it really is an album of canned goods! But it’s also about figuring out how to make each of these tracks sound a little different from the others.

PAN M 360: So you’ll be on stage alone to present what you’ve created. Will you improvise or add anything else live?

Matthew Herbert: Yes, I also asked them to get me all these objects. So I’ll be doing a bit of live sampling from the tracks. It’s kind of like a DJ set with a few extra elements.

PAN M 360: Yes, you can interpret it differently, as you’ve done before.

Matthew Herbert: Yes. When I was making that kind of music—it was probably the first time I came to your place—I just used a tin can and a microphone to produce sounds. But today, I can’t just settle for doing the same thing anymore, because technology is now better suited to this practice. So I can integrate these sounds into machines, process them, and transform them.

PAN M 360: And what equipment do you use?

Matthew Herbert: I still use the Akai 612, which is the very first sampler Akai ever made, and I always take it with me when I travel. And then I had a new sampler custom-built, called the Herbert. It was designed for me by a company called Fieldtone, a very good British company. So I have two samplers there. I also use Ableton, live sampling, and other tools of that sort. Everything I generate, in fact, goes back into the computer—it’s a recycling process.

PAN M 360: You’ve always used this kind of equipment, but also acoustic and electric instruments. You’ve explored orchestration, as well as jazz, classical music, and contemporary music. How did you evolve in this way, through these different approaches?

Matthew Herbert: I don’t like to repeat myself. So I’m always looking for new ways to tell my stories. And sometimes I want to make really aggressive records, and other times I want to make something softer that you can listen to calmly at home. I simply want to respond a little to the world around us. And when the world seems gentle, we have to remember that it has become harsh. In the West, our way of life is subsidized by other people who are suffering and enduring hardship.

PAN M 360: Two-thirds of the world’s population.

Matthew Herbert: Yes, all our clothes are made in India and China, and all our food comes from all corners of the world. We don’t see how it’s harvested. So we have to respond artistically to this situation.

PAN M 360: And illustrate it through your own filters.

Matthew Herbert: It’s simply a matter of being present, in a way. And of not viewing music as something separate from reality.

PAN M 360: What are you listening to these days?

Matthew Herbert: I don’t listen to music. I stopped several years ago. I work on music every day, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. So after that, I’m a little…

PAN M 360: Since you’ve composed songs and even music for large ensembles, you must have learned harmony. What training did you have in that area?

Matthew Herbert: I didn’t really have any formal training; I learned on the job. But I’ve collaborated extensively with lots of people over the years, so I’ve learned something from each of them. For example, the first arrangements of my music for big band were done by my friend Pete Wraight. Whereas for the latest album with a large ensemble, I did most of them myself, though Pete helped me fine-tune everything at the end.

PAN M 360: You’ll also be DJing at Mutek, as part of the Experience 4 series, on Friday, August 28. Do you DJ often?

Matthew Herbert: I still do it, about once a month. I think DJing is a meritocracy. People don’t know what music you’re mixing, but you have a mission: to hook an audience that doesn’t really know what’s being played in front of them. So I think being a successful DJ is a meritocracy. It has to work. And that’s what I love about DJing, because it forces you to immerse yourself in a crowd, in a room full of strangers. You play your music, you meet people, and you try to convince them to dance to your music. You always have to be creative—or curious.

PAN M 360: Curious and lively.

Matthew Herbert: Something like that.

PAN M 360: And also, on Sunday the 30th, during the final night of the Nocturne series, you’ll be performing with percussionist Julian Sartorius.

Matthew Herbert: It’s hard to say for sure without avoiding this cliché, but for me, it’s truly music in its purest form, because it’s really just the two of us creating it on the spot. So it’s free and pure improvisation. All my sounds come from percussion, so in a way it’s a dialogue between Julian and himself, with my input—it’s him as he was 10 seconds before I throw his sounds back at him.

PAN M 360: Have you ever done this with Sartorius?

Matthew Herbert: Yes, we’ve played a few shows. But I have so many projects on the go that every time we do it again, I really have to rack my brain and figure out how I should go about it.

PAN M 360: No worries on our end. Thanks, it was a pleasure!

Matthew Herbert: Yeah, nice meeting you!

Publicité panam

London based artists Tom Holland (UK)  and Wawa (Taiwan/Canada)  make a pair behind the audio-visual project Super Galaxy Meow Meow. On the 30th of August, as part of the electronic music festival Mutek, they will be presenting the North American premiere of their performance “Reciprocity”, which uses laser-generated sounds to create an experience where visuals and sounds become fully intertwined. They give us an insight into the technical nitty-gritty of the project and its creative challenges to be presented at MUTEK Montréal, Play2 series,  Sunday August 30th, 2PM. 

PAN M 360:  Hi guys, nice to meet you today.

Tom and Wawa: Nice to meet you too. Thanks for having us.

PAN M 360: It’s a pleasure.  Let’s just start by introducing you: What is Super Galaxy Meow Meow as a project and how did it come to life?

Tom: It started because Wawa and I work together. We’ve been involved in lots of creative show design for other people. And then, the two of us decided that, rather than doing creative work for other people, we’d like to do it for ourselves and have our own creative project to nurture. And so, we joined up together to start a duo.

Wawa:  I’ve been DJing and playing music for a while, and I think our collaboration started when one of Tom’s friends organized this rave event in London, and asked us if we were interested in playing together.

Tom asked me: do you want to do a dual thing? It was at this art space, and we had lasers and multi-layer projection designs. It was really fun.

And so we thought: Oh, this could be a really cool project for us, to combine fun with an experimental approach, to create our own experimental playground with this project.

PAN M 360: Is “Reciprocity”, the performance you’ll be presenting at MUTEK, your first project as Super Galaxy Meow Meow or were there previous collaborations between you two?

Tom: I guess we’ve had previous collaborations. But kind of more in a club scene setting. “Reciprocity” is going to be our first dedicated experimental A/V (Audio-Visual) setting rather than us putting on a show. 

PAN M 360: “Reciprocity” will be an audiovisual performance where the sound will be informed by the visual component of the performance. I was wondering about where did the idea come from? Mixing of visuals and audio makes me think of early visual sound experiments, such as the soundtracks of some of Norman McLaren’s films being created through drawing on the optical track.

Did the idea come about from historical inspirations, unrelated technical exploration, something else? Please expand on that.

Wawa: It came from being very curious, from a place of curiosity. We basically asked ourselves: what does a laser sound like?

Tom: Yeah. A lot of the work that Wawa and I do, outside of Super Galaxy Meow Meow, is visuals that react to the audio. And it was kind of about flipping that on its head and trying to have a sound driven by a visual starting point rather than the usual way around.

A nice avenue we found is that, when you send data to a laser to tell it to do laser things, the information that the laser receives is kind of like a sound wave. And so, if you want to draw on like a big laser sheet, what you’re actually doing is telling the laser: “I want you to draw a dot, and I want you to move it from side to side really, really quickly”.

It’s like moving across a big sheet, and that movement from side to side is basically a sine wave. And you can use that sine wave and convert it directly into audio.

We wondered about all this information that we are sending all the time to a laser, which is kind of like a silent sound. And we thought: in a big stage show, you have loads of lasers and they’re all sitting there, listening to this whole “song” that’s happening, outside of the show, and which nobody gets to hear except for all these little laser boxes. So, we’re kind of trying to get that sound out from inside the box and hear what it sounds like.

PAN M 360: OK, so that’s the way in which you code the lasers that is then directly converted to sound?

Tom: Yeah. When we’re sending the information to the lasers, we split it off right before it gets to the lasers. So, one set of information goes directly to the laser and then we take a copy of that information and send that information straight to Wawa.

And it becomes this kind of interplay where we make these laser patterns and that generates a sound. Wawa then takes that sound and she samples it and plays with it, adding reverb, beat repeating it, and manipulating it in all these weird and wonderful ways. But then she also sends that sound back to the lasers.

It becomes this loop where, suddenly, I’m sending out some audio to the lasers as I am getting that audio from Wawa. It also affects the lasers, and it becomes this continuous feedback loop.

PAN M 360: And for you, Wawa, how do you work with that generated sound? Do you simply take what the lasers’ information generates and then transform it? Do you bring in other sounds, other sonorities? How does it work from your side?

Wawa: So initially it will just be the laser sound. And how I do it is that I use Ableton and I have it always listening to the lasers. I’m not going to resample the laser sound. I’m just having it come to live all the time.

And then I will use effects to mold it and tame it. And I will also add my own sound, which is very minimal, more like rhythmic sounds, because like Tom said, it’s a back-and-forth thing. So the percussion and the things I add will affect the visual.

It’s almost like we’re conversing with each other. I will add my own elements, and he will respond to that. But the main sound, all of the external sound that is added, is here to support the laser sound.

I also use Granulator 3 in Ableton, which you can use for live capture. If I really like a segment generated by the laser I would further sample that segment into a granulator and then generate melodies with that. I would say that only the rhythmic element is external sounds, but like the drone, the melody, the bass, it’s all done through effects and live granulator capture.

PAN M 360: Could you explain a little bit how the granulator works? I’m not familiar with that tool specifically. And the audience might not be either.

Wawa: Granulator 3 is basically taking like a piece of audio and then chopping it into little pieces. Then, you can play back the little pieces differently. You can scroll through the sample and play a bunch of small pieces or grab a small piece from the audio sample and then use that one sound.

So, it’s chopping up audio into a bunch of pieces. And what I like about that is that it has a function where you can capture live recordings. That’s the main reason I use this specific version. A granulator is super cool.

PAN M 360 : I’m curious about how this collaborative performance furthers your artistic practices. How does it expand on your previous experiences? 

Tom: I’ve done a bit of work in laser design for different artists. I’ve done work on visuals designs for artists too. And there’ve been a couple of cases where I’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of both for the same artists, where we’ve had a visual and a laser tracing the visual, which is quite a quite popular technique at the moment.

This project goes a lot further in that the entire setup is built in TouchDesigner and using the new family POPs (Point Operators), which has been really, really cool. That has opened up a whole new world, particularly for this kind of laser visual combo where I can now have a fairly big TouchDesigner patch that’s running lots of different visuals, all of them with a straight up visual element, a laser element and a laser tracing element.

It’s been pushing me in a lot of different ways, particularly building this live patch. Along the way, since it’s all kind of fairly new, particularly with POPs, there’ve been lots of unforeseen stumbling blocks and hurdles that we’ve come through. There’s been a lot of conversations with TouchDesigner and also with the guys who make the end laser part of this setup, debugging little problems that have come up.

And, you know, it’s been really exciting for me to explore all of that, especially since a lot of this stuff is quite new. 

Wawa: I think for me, the raw laser sound basically challenged me because it sounds horrible. And it’s a challenge finding ways to make it sound cool and sound nice, because it can sound harsh a lot of times. And to be doing that live. In the past, I’ve always performed in a more controlled environment, where I know the music and the songs that I’m playing. But here, I’m basically composing based on what I have on the spot, it’s quite exciting.

And the laser sound that Tom sends in isn’t always the same. It’s different every time because it depends on the visual and laser visual that he creates. Even a slight movement will change the pitch or change the tone.

You have to react to it in real time. It’s almost like improvising. Using this limited source to make something that is musical, in a live environment, that’s something that challenged me.

I learned how to build systems in Ableton that can control chaos and react to unpredictability, to be able to respond to that. That is a new way of performing that is quite exciting for me.

Tom: It was super funny the first time that we tried it out, wondering what a laser is going to sound like? We turn it on and we’re like, oh, my goodness, it sounds so horrible! Wawa has done an amazing job, sculpting and crafting the pretty rough sound that comes out into something that people would actually want to listen to.

PAN M 360: What is the part of improvisation versus preparation in the performance? What are the elements that you know will be there in advance, the methodology you have built, and the parts where you go with the flow of the moment?

Tom: Effectively, the whole set is improvised to some degree. Obviously, all the work that Wawa is doing is live sampling and audio manipulation and all the visuals that we make are all live generative visuals. While there’s a framework, and while we have a number of visual styles that we will move through throughout the performance, effectively anything could happen. And anything that Wawa does sonically affects the visuals in real time as well, and we always have this, like a feedback loop going on.

I think we’ve now worked out a little bit of a structure and the more that we play and perform together a vibe and a structure, a kind of trajectory, starts to form between us. We know that there’s visuals that we want to end on and sounds that will trigger other visuals. 

There’s a kind of a structure to the madness, but there’s still like a lot of madness.

Wawa: It’s improvised, but because of so much practice, I can kind of predict what kind of laser sound is going to come through. And I feel like, at least for me, how I understand, and approach sound design is always down to the pitch, timbre and volume. I have tools like a filter or a pitch shifter and reverb, and I can alter those three elements.

It is improvised, but I strategically have tools. When I’m sculpting the sound, I know what I’m doing. And if it gets too chaotic, I just hit repeat, and the sound will stay the same. So there will be elements of control that I can use, so I can have a little bit of breather. 

But, I have three channels in total of laser sound coming in. So while I repeat one, there will still be another channel for Tom, because he’s still responding to me. He might introduce a new laser sound and that process will repeat. 

Also, because it is a performance, we did plan out the intensity throughout, we don’t want it just to be chaos, we did structure a bit.  I will introduce sounds that will increase the intensity of stuff.

Tom: Also, while both of us are there, twiddling parameters that are sculpting our parts and keeping them together, and moving through the set, we’ve also got one shot that we can play at each other, in improvisation. While we have this big picture element, we also got these more playful improvisations, working as a call and response to each other.

PAN M 360: Last question: an open-ended one: Is there anything we didn’t touch upon, that we didn’t talk about during this interview that matters to you and that you would like to bring in?

Tom: One thing that matters for me, and that has been really cool, is just this big appreciation for MUTEK. For the opportunity, for their attitude and their help with all of this, their willingness to get us all the way from the UK to Canada. Setting up things like talking to you, I think it is really special. The kind of support and passion that those guys have shown to us throughout this whole process has been super inspiring. I think they’ve been awesome.

Wawa: I guess I will touch a bit upon the name of the performance, “Reciprocity”.

For me that name came before everything else. I think “Reciprocity”, as a concept, is that whatever we do, there’s always a back and forth with each other, especially with art.

I feel that art is like a community, and it’s built from people. Whatever we do in art, it’s going to go back into the culture. And I wish that people realized more that it’s all back and forth. It’s never a one-way thing.

PAN M 360: Thank you two for those answers, and thank you for being here today. It was a pleasure. Tom, Wawa, thank you.

Tom and Wawa: Thank you, Ariel. It was really nice talking to you.

Publicité panam

A master and visionary of experimental ambient music, Christian Fennesz will perform his famous album Endless Summer, which earned him international recognition in 2001. With its almost cinematic quality, this soundscape will naturally evolve into an immersive multimedia event, live at the Maison symphonique as part of the X/Visions series on Saturday, August 29.

Fennesz will be joined by his friend and colleague Lillevan, an internationally renowned multimedia artist. For 25 years, Fennesz’s “summer” has truly been endless; its magic and sensuality continue in Montreal through new forms, without straying from the very essence of this seminal recording.

Since the early 1990s, the Austrian musician has devoted himself to the guitar, drawing on a deep understanding of harmony and melody, combined with a wide range of effects pedals. Indeed, Fennesz has created a unique fusion between his guitar playing and electronic sound processing, whether analog or digital. He has explored far beyond ambient music as we typically imagine it; his soundscape has also been enriched with noise and drones, making it utterly unique.

Fennesz has reimagined the electric guitar through electronic processing, yet guitar-based melody and harmony have remained the foundation of his soundscape, surrounded by distortion, noise, and drones.

PAN M 360: So you’re going to present this reinterpretation of Endless Summer with Lillevan, who is a renowned director and videographer. And I’m sure you won’t be performing it the same way you did 25 years ago. Am I right?

Christian Fennesz: Yes, that’s correct. I did try to preserve the heart of the work, the very essence of the album. But the problem is that many elements of this work were no longer available—they had been lost, and some sessions had disappeared. So I had to recreate them in one way or another. Not everything, but certain parts. And as I was making the changes, I tried to preserve the original sound while adding something that sounds a bit more “2026,” without altering it, without changing the atmosphere or the overall style. And it simply sounded better on my new systems when I used modern tools, new plugins, and that sort of thing.

PAN M 360: Yes, it’s interesting to revisit an album that was such a huge success. Endless Summer brought you international recognition back then, and since then, you’ve been evolving across many musical scenes, all while building on the same foundation.

Christian Fennesz: Yes. Of course, things have changed. Back then, I started exploring computer-assisted music with my guitar, combining digital tools with my guitar and the effects pedals I use. Since then, hardware and equipment have evolved tremendously, and electronic music has evolved tremendously. There are so many possibilities today that it can even become a problem at times! So I have hundreds of plugins, but… sometimes I only use the same four or five, because there’s too much choice. It’s therefore very important to find a few tools that you feel completely comfortable with, and that can really help you develop your music. Otherwise, you end up getting lost. And I think that’s the main problem today. And of course, it was the same for me. I mean, I could have gone in so many different directions.

PAN M 360: More specifically, what has changed since Endless Summer?

Christian Fennesz: Ultimately, it’s stayed more or less the same—it’s just become more refined over time. There’s more bass, for example. And yes, for this reinterpretation, the new tools have been very useful to me. But deep down, it hasn’t really changed that much. Basically, we are who we are, and we try to improve.

PAN M 360: No artist can change the foundations of their artistic personality, that’s true. It comes from the unconscious; everyone has their own way of expressing that unique personality. That said, can you pinpoint certain elements of your evolution as an artist?

Christian Fennesz: I can also cite other examples. I’ve been using synthesizers a lot more lately, because I find them to be very interesting tools. Of course, there’s the modular synthesizer scene, but there’s also a lot going on in the world of digital synthesizers.

PAN M 360: So you’re not a purist—you explore both worlds of electronics, digital and analog, right?

Christian Fennesz: Yes, I use both. But I try to keep it simple—almost minimalist, in a way. You see, I always want to be able to travel with a studio, or at least some kind of studio, so I can produce music while on tour. That’s very important to me. I’ve scaled back my gear a lot over the years; I used to have so much stuff—I had a huge recording studio, a traditional one. Today, all I have left is a console with a few essential components, and I feel much more comfortable that way. Yes, for now, I’m mainly looking to pare down my equipment rather than expand it.

PAN M 360: It’s also a sign of maturity. As an artist gains age and experience, the next step is to try to give their work an air of simplicity.

Christian Fennesz: Yes, it seems simple, that’s true. I think I’ve developed a kind of musical language that’s unique to me. And what I do is make it more… I don’t know… in any case, for me, to make it more perfect, more… striking, more interesting to my eyes. And what I do is get rid of everything that isn’t necessary. I’ve been using synthesizers a lot more lately, because they’re very interesting tools. Of course, there’s the modular synthesizer scene, but there’s also a lot going on with digital synthesizers right now.

PAN M 360: So, what’s going to happen in Montreal? We know, of course, that it will be an immersive audiovisual experience at MUTEK. Tell us about the history of your collaboration with Lillevan and how it’s transforming Endless Summer.

Christian Fennesz: I’ve been working with Lillevan, on and off, for many years. But I received an offer from Bozar in Brussels to perform the entire Endless Summer score last June. We performed it there for the first time; this will be the second time in Montreal. Lillevan, who is based in Berlin, has a huge screen to work with. He’s prepared certain sections, but he’s also an excellent improviser. So the show won’t be exactly the same as the previous one. You have to imagine that Lillevan works like a musician with his visual material. And I think he offers us an excellent combination. He’s very flexible; he can react very quickly.

PAN M 360: Can you tell us a little about the visual aspects of this immersive concert? How do they fit into your work?

Christian Fennesz: Well, it often comes down to colors. He likes the same kinds of colors as I do for this music: there’s a lot of orange, a lot of green, for example. And what’s wonderful about Lillevan is that he can be incredibly rich in imagery and, at the same time, very minimalist. I love the shifts he’s able to create in a matter of seconds, which can radically transform the atmosphere. Just as music can do that, so can the visuals.

So it’s a kind of continuous collaborative interplay. It’s like playing with a musician.

PAN M 360: From the late Ryuichi Sakamoto to David Sylvian and Lillevan, to name just a few—from soothing ambient music to intense sounds—you’ve always engaged with a wide range of interpretations and approaches.

Christian Fennesz: Yes, it still interests me, because I find a kind of melancholy and beauty amid all that chaos and noise. And I always hear a melody or a sequence of melodies; I always hear the chords in one way or another within a piece of noise. And once I’ve grasped that, I can create a composition.

PAN M 360: Why does the guitar remain so important? Today, you could produce sounds comparable to yours without a guitar, without a pedalboard, but solely with synthesizers or other digital software. So why do you stick with the guitar?

Christian Fennesz: Because it’s my first instrument. And it’s the instrument I always feel most comfortable with—the one that gives me a sense of grounding, so to speak. It’s something in my hands that connects me to the earth! At least, that’s how I feel about it. But of course, I could do everything just as well with digital tools or synthesizers. But I sincerely believe that, in terms of sound, there’s always a slight difference with the guitar, because it isn’t as precise as electronics. At least, when I play the guitar, it’s never as precise as when you record a synthesizer. There’s always a slight gap between the notes. It’s not played in a very rigid way, nor is it super precise. It’s that little touch—I don’t know—almost punk-rock or blues; call it what you will.

PAN M 360: Of course, when you started playing guitar, you were interested in blues, rock, and jazz, weren’t you?

Christian Fennesz: Yes. And I’m still a guitarist. That’s the simplest answer to your question.

PAN M 360: What you’re saying is absolutely true: it’s still guitar playing. Even if you’re somewhere else, it’s still guitar.

Christian Fennesz: Yes, that’s true. At the same time, I’m very, very interested in electronic music. I continue to do what I’ve always done: try to bring these two worlds together—electronic music and the guitar.

PAN M 360: Are you still collaborating with Peter Rehberg and Jim O’Rourke on that amazing Van O’Berg project, which has resulted in the release of four albums?

Christian Fennesz: Well, recently, I hit the road again with Jim O’Rourke. Yes, we played in Belgium, then did a short tour in Italy, which was really nice—just the two of us. We also played two shows with his partner, Eiko Ishibashi. I don’t have any other collaborations planned at the moment.

PAN M 360: Would it be fair to say that you’re primarily a solo artist?

Christian Fennesz: Yes, but I do like to collaborate from time to time because I simply feel too lonely as a solo artist. I need to meet people and other musicians, and exchange ideas with them.

PAN M 360: A close friend saw you in concert in Venice last spring. You played through your album Venice (2014) again, as expected…

Christian Fennesz: Exactly. It was another invitation to play another album in its entirety. It was great.

PAN M 360: You’ve been one of the pioneers of this melodic approach blending ambient, drone, and noise, alongside artists like Richard Pinhas and Julien Desprez, for example.

Christian Fennesz: Probably… I don’t really think about it… I actually just saw Oren Ambarchi again after a long time; we played together. We shared the same bill in Italy. The whole ambient, noise, and drone music community crosses paths at various venues on the international circuit. More recently, I’ve been really impressed by Caterina Barbieri’s music; I run into her sometimes. I won’t list all the names of my esteemed colleagues—I’d surely forget some. Anyway… I’m always listening to my colleagues’ music when I’m on tour, and I try to meet up with them as much as possible.

PAN M 360: Do you listen to a lot of music in the same genre as yours?

Christian Fennesz: Not really, to be honest. I’d rather listen to a Miles Davis album or attend a Johann Sebastian Bach concert.

PAN M 360: That makes perfect sense, given that you live in Vienna, the true capital of classical music.

Christian Fennez: Exactly. You know, listening intensively to music in my own field makes me a little nervous, haha! So I try to avoid it as much as possible, unless I’m playing at a festival and someone I know is also performing; it’s always fascinating to see them on stage, you know. Because sometimes I think to myself, “Oh my God, this person has a much better grasp of this software than I do!”

PAN M 360: What’s also interesting about your music is that you always return to melodies and tonal/modal chords, and you incorporate them into atonal music, noise, or drone. So there’s a connection between your past and your present.

Christian Fennesz: Yes, because I love both of those worlds. Again, the answer is very simple!

PAN M 360: Your latest album, Mosaic, was released in 2024. So are you working on a new album?

Christian Fennesz: Yes. That’s why I’m not doing any collaborations right now—I really want to focus on my new music after this.

PAN M 360: When you compose, do you seek to reinvent yourself, or do you simply let things come to you, hoping that something will happen?

Christian Fennesz: I let things come naturally. I’m very happy when something happens. I haven’t thought about a concept beforehand, so I’m happy when a concept emerges. Then I can start building something. It’s more a matter of finding the rhythm, the “flow.” That’s what matters most.

Publicité panam

On August 22nd, the closing concert of the Festival international du Domaine Forget in Charlevoix will be held. On the program, a journey through several centuries of French music performed by the Chamber Orchestra of the Academy, Pentaedre and Les Violons du Roy. We talked about it with Mathieu Lussier, artistic director of the festival and conductor in this concert.

PANM360: You are the artistic director of Domaine Forget. How do you feel about taking part in it also as an artist?

Mathieu Lussier: The programming of Domaine Forget is very extensive, given the duration of the festival and the courses, and through it we try to leave an impact on an artistic level. For this reason, being part of it as an artist is an embodiment of what we try to convey both to the invited artists and to the students who come here to grow.

PANM360: Tell us more about the program you will propose on August 22nd. Is there a specific aesthetic idea behind the choices you made?

Mathieu Lussier: This program was conceived together with Alexandre Dratwicki, artistic director of the Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, and Benoit Dratwicki, artistic director of the Baroque Music Center in Versailles. The idea is to offer an overview of French music through several centuries of repertoire, from the early era to the 20th-century. There are also pedagogical reasons behind this choice, since these pieces effectively exemplify the technical and stylistic evolution of French music. Of course, this program also follows a personal interest of mine in this very significant repertoire, which I am glad to share with the audience.

PANM360: This concert will bring together the Chamber Orchestra of the Academy, Pentaèdre and Les Violons du Roy. How do you think these realities can contribute to each other by virtue of the specificities of each?

Mathieu Lussier: Bringing together talented young people and established professionals aims to create a spirit of emulation, which is the fundamental stimulus for continuous improvement in music and in life. Young musicians have the power to play every concert as if it was the most important of their life, while growing older, we tend to play safer. The idea behind this choice is to bring the best out of everyone on stage, in order to deliver a memorable concert.

PANM360: You have a diverse career and have various prestigious roles. Do you find that there is a complementarity between these? 

Mathieu Lussier: In the past, for many instrumentalists there were two possibilities: either becoming a soloist or entering an orchestra. Thirty years ago, I decided to create my own unique path, and while I don’t think I can call myself an example, I think I can prove that it is possible to develop a career by following personal beliefs. For me there is also the aspect of love for music, which is the engine of all my activity and which I want to preserve with conviction. These aspects push me to explore the different opportunities of musical activity without preconceptions, and I believe that my interest in early music plays a role in all this. At the time, in fact, the figure of the musician was considered in a broad sense and not s a hyperspecialized figure as today, and I therefore like to be inspired by this idea of a musician. 

PANM360: Given your pedagogical role, what would you like to recommend to young musicians?

Mathieu Lussier: I would advise young people to be curious and to be open to experiences and knowledge. I think it is important to take advantage of the young age to absorb as much as possible and to learn to listen, both in the musical field and in the personal sphere. These are aspects that will be fundamental for a future career in music.

PANM360: Tell us more about your present and future projects.

Mathieu Lussier: Next year I will still be the conductor of the Orchestra of the University of Montreal, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in this adventure. I will then be recording Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Arion Ensemble and Elisabeth Pion as soloist and giving the premiere of Cendrillon by the 17th-century Franco-Maltese composer Nicolò Isouard, with other musicians of great caliber. I will then have the opportunity to go to Paris and Venice: I have a rather intense year ahead of me.

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On Saturday, August 22 at 7:30 PM, Domaine Forget will resonate with the sounds of a French repertoire ranging from Baroque to Romantic, under the baton of Mathieu Lussier. Offenbach, Gounod, Rameau, Lully, and even a composition by King Louis XIII (in addition to two universals like Mozart and Gluck) will be, among others, on the program, along with a few discoveries by Hervé, Clérembault, Halévy, etc. Lussier will conduct the Violons du Roy, to which will be added the Singers and Chamber Orchestra of the Academy, the Pentaèdre quintet, and the soloists Magali Simard-Galdès (soprano) and Pierre Derhet (tenor). So, a lot of people, for a program entitled Flowers and Crowns, in homage to a poem by Jacques Prévert. I talked about all this with conductor Mathieu Lussier.

DETAILS AND TICKETS FOR THE CONCERT

This Saturday, August 15, at the Quai de l’Horloge in the Old Port, Orientalys festivalgoers will get to see the Veils of Bollywood dance troupe perform. Focused on the musical, choreographic, and cinematic pop culture produced in Mumbai, as we all know, this Bollywood program features a dance workshop and two shows, followed by a DJ set to wrap up the evening in style. For PAN M 360, Jeremy Fortin sat down with Rameez Karim, the troupe’s founder, to discuss Veils, Bollywood, and this Saturday’s event.

PAN M 360: Hello, Rameez. On Saturday night, you’ll be hosting an entire evening dedicated to Bollywood culture. Could you tell me a little more about your dance troupe, Les Voiles de Bollywood, and the mission you’re pursuing as an organization?

Rameez Karim : Veils of Bollywood is a dance troupe based in Montreal. Our mission is to make Bollywood dance as accessible as possible to as many people as possible by promoting Bollywood and Indian dance, as well as through immersive experiences and workshops that we present around the world.

It was important to me to create a space for understanding interculturality—an exchange that can educate the public about this culture, but also to create a space where people can come together to appreciate other cultures and traditions. Personally, I believe that dance is a tool for social change that can be used to bring about change on multiple levels and to bring people together in today’s highly polarized and challenging world.

PAN M 360: The evening consists of several segments. The first is a participatory dance workshop. Could you tell me how it works and why passing on Bollywood culture is important to you in your practice?

Rameez Karim : We are very grateful to everyone who comes to this event and who may not know much about dance, Bollywood in general, or Indian culture. So, instead of just putting on a show, I think it’s also quite important to get the audience involved and encourage them to try things out.

A participatory workshop is a way to educate people through physical experience. What does this commitment entail? Where does this vocabulary—which comes from elsewhere—come from? The workshop format is still accessible. I’ll demonstrate some movements and explain them. We’ll also dance to music; it’s accessible in the sense that everyone can participate. It’s for beginners—even if you’ve never danced before, even if you dance every day, and even if you have physical limitations. It’s accessible to everyone, and I mention this constantly while I’m teaching.

Because when it comes to accessibility, it’s not just about making programs available to different audiences—it’s also about how we can create a more physical experience. For me, demonstrating something is one way to teach, just like engaging participants in physical activity. I always try to create a non-judgmental space where everyone can feel comfortable.

We’re all together—it’s a space for community, and the energy is focused on the community. And doing it in a place like Orientalys, outdoors, where it’s accessible and open, with everyone together—the vibe is really strong. It leaves its mark on the experience, on the nights, on the artists involved, and it leaves its mark on the festival as well.

PAN M 360: The evening continues with two performances—one focused on dance and the other on singing. Can you tell me what people can expect from these performances?

Rameez Karim :So, for the dance portion, I really wanted to showcase India’s cultural mosaic, which is so rich in history. We’re bringing India to Montreal to showcase six different regions of the country, taking the audience on a journey through dance and music. The goal is to highlight the various influences that have significantly shaped Bollywood dance, because people don’t always realize that Bollywood dance is a blend of classical, tribal, and folk dance styles originating in India.

There are more than 200 different dances in India; there are many communities, and there are many regions, each with its own traditions, music, and dance. So I really wanted to showcase that to educate the audience.

Sometimes, the audience feels like they know Bollywood culture, but that’s not always the case. There’s a lot of diversity! So, the goal with the dance segment is really to showcase these different regions.

Only six regions are represented, but we have enough time to explore them in depth and discover what they have to offer in terms of beauty, dance, and costumes.

And when it comes to music, people can hear the various influences of Bollywood music. The musicians are also very experienced and capable of performing music from different eras of Bollywood—a culture that has evolved significantly over time. So, they’ll also highlight the various historical influences on Bollywood in some of the songs.

PANM 360: One last quick question: What would you like the audience to take away from this immersion in Bollywood culture, as well as Indian culture in general?

Rameez Karim : I really want the audience to have fun. It’s so important to have fun at the event. We try so hard to educate the audience through art. It’s not just about coming and putting on a show. There are so many other things involved. We do this with all our hearts, with so much hope, and so much joy.

We’re together, outdoors in the summer. Everyone comes from a different place. Everyone has a different experience. But that’s what makes us so beautiful. So, coming together, appreciating our culture, living together, dancing together, building collective energy—that’s what we really want the evening to be.

We also want the public to remember the Orientalys Festival—this magnificent festival with a diverse lineup and artists who want to share the interculturalism and multiculturalism that exist in Montreal, in Quebec, and throughout Canada. And we want everyone to realize the importance of community. We need to realize the importance of community, of being together, of being united. Because the world today is so, so divided. There’s a lot of polarization, and we want to move in the opposite direction.

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They came together in early 2025, after meeting at school, and had the desire to cultivate their shared musical passions in a quartet of vocals, guitars, keyboards, and percussion. They revisit a musical heritage of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) such as Sufi fusion, bhangra, Bollywood music, and pop in general. Together, they call themselves Le Qalifa, which means journey in Arabic. Discover this festive group with me.

Le Qalifa will give a concert at the Sherbrooke World Traditions Festival on August 15.

SHERBROOKE WORLD TRADITIONS FESTIVAL

Le Qafila:

• Gulzar Saini – Vocals, Guitar

• Sarvpreet Singh – Vocals, Songwriter

• Kaivalya Dutta – Keys, Synthesizer

• Gurvinder Singh (Guree) – Percussion

Presented on Saturday, August 15, at Club Soda as part of the Orientalys Festival, the Kabyle Nuit Blanche is described as “a sensory journey through Amazigh memory, poetry, and creativity.” This triple concert features three headliners rather than one—three Kabyle artists with distinct styles and from different regions, whether from Amazigh Algeria or the diaspora.

A singer who is very active in Algeria, North Africa, and wherever there is interest in Kabyle/Amazigh culture, Noria has gained widespread recognition, particularly for her tributes to Amazigh icons such as Matoub Lounès. Her powerful voice has a slight roughness to it, giving her the authority of a popular diva. Without a doubt, Noria has real presence; her commanding presence is evident from the very first notes.

Djaffar Aït Menguellet is the son of the legendary poet and singer Lounis Aït Menguellet; he has always been immersed in Kabyle poetry, having been introduced to the flute and synthesizer by his father from childhood onward. He literally grew up with it! Today, he plays about ten instruments and incorporates the lyrics of his father and Si Moh into his own compositions.

Menad Harkat, who moved to New York about ten years ago, was a guitarist and later a singer in the band Debza after founding Iskra. He is said to have “forged a musical signature deeply rooted in Amazigh culture.” Today, his music draws on Amazigh and Mediterranean cultures, while also evolving within a New York and North American context, constantly adapting to the daily life of the diaspora.

Speaking from New York on the eve of this Kabyle All-Night Event, Menad Harkat introduces and explains this extensive and generous program to us.

WATCH THIS INTERVIEW!

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The 2026 edition of the Domaine Forget International Festival is entering its final stretch with three concerts on August 16, 20, and 22. Each concert will showcase the trainee musicians of the Domaine Chamber Orchestra, the Pentaèdre ensemble, and Les Violons du Roy. This musical overview spans a wide range, from the birth of the symphony through the emergence of the classical style to the great works of French Baroque opera. It is an ambitious and stylistically diverse marathon that provides a fertile learning ground for the young trainees.

Conductor Bernard Labadie will be responsible for guiding and leading the musicians in the program on Thursday, August 20, titled “Immortal Vienna,” which pays tribute to this exceptional legacy from the cradle of the great classical tradition through three of its most iconic figures: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Alexandre Villemaire of PAN M 360 spoke with Bernard Labadie about this program, which bridges the grace of Mozart’s opera arias and the grandeur of the early symphonies, highlighting the forms used, the legacy, and the influence these composers had on one another.

PAN M 360: This concert could practically have been called “The Lyrical Generation” or “The Classical Style”—a reference to Charles Rosen’s book—precisely because Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven were featured in the program. What do these three composers have in common, or what is the connection between them?

Bernard Labadie : The connection between Haydn and Beethoven is very clear, since we begin with one of Haydn’s last symphonies and conclude the concert with Beethoven’s First Symphony. So, chronologically, they aren’t particularly close, nor are they in terms of compositional style. It’s clear that Beethoven learned his craft from Haydn—not only by studying with him but also by studying his works. There are many similarities in the structure of both.

Then, in Beethoven’s symphony, the opening comes as a huge surprise, since it begins in a different key. His symphony is in C major, but he begins on the dominant of F major. And that was the first time anyone had ever done that. It was like a way of heralding a new era.

For audiences of the time—and those who were somewhat familiar with the musical language—it was a real mystery. Once that initial surprise had passed, Beethoven’s First Symphony could almost be mistaken for a Haydn symphony, in the sense that the compositional techniques and orchestration are very similar. Toward the end of his life, Haydn finally began using clarinets, giving them a bit more to play, whereas Beethoven did so from the very beginning of his symphonic writing, although he used them less than the other woodwinds. This is typical of Haydn’s late works and Beethoven’s early ones.

They are clearly two branches of the same tree. The pairing of the two in this program is something else entirely, featuring two Mozart opera arias, including a magnificent scene: Fiordiligi’s aria from the second act of Così fan tutte. Certainly, in terms of form, we’re in a different world. But the foundations of the language are the same.

This dramatic aspect is one that we also find in orchestral music. Even without a story, even without words, the surprises and plot twists found in an opera are also present in orchestral music.

PAN M 360: Haydn lived a very long life and influenced many composers, such as Beethoven. What was his influence on Mozart?

Bernard Labadie : She was truly remarkable. They were even friends. Mozart paid her the greatest compliment by dedicating works to her, notably the six string quartets, which are immense masterpieces and carry on the legacy of the latter—who is truly one of the founding fathers of the string quartet and who elevated the genre to prominence. Mozart took that legacy and elevated it even further.

Haydn, for his part, was fully aware of the truly exceptional quality of Mozart’s music. There is that famous quote in which he told Leopold, Mozart’s father, that his son was the greatest living composer.

I wouldn’t call it a symbiotic relationship, but it’s clear that Mozart absorbed all aspects of Haydn’s compositional style, and, conversely, in his later symphonies, Haydn borrowed musical phrases from Mozart. In the case of Haydn and Beethoven, the relationship is more akin to that of a teacher and student. But in that relationship, Beethoven drew even more from Haydn than Mozart did. There are compositional techniques and foundational principles—not only of form but also of a very detailed musical language and approach to structure—that Beethoven learned from Haydn and that helped him grow, even blossoming in his late symphonies. His compositional style resembles Haydn’s much more closely than Mozart’s. Beethoven, like Haydn, is a master of working with short motifs, exploiting their full potential. Mozart, on the other hand, had such a highly developed sense of lyricism that the lyrical material in his orchestral works is absolutely exceptional. In both Beethoven and Haydn, an entire movement is often built around a single motif, with entire movements based on it. Of course, there are the famous four repeated notes in the Fifth Symphony, but all of Beethoven’s music is like that.

With this program, we’re really in a very tight-knit circle—a world of composers who know each other and socialize with one another, in which Haydn is the guiding figure. At the time he composed Symphony No. 99, which we’re going to perform, he was on his second trip to London, and he was a megastar.

PAN M 360: This was truly a time of stylistic change in music as we moved away from the Baroque period. A sense of drama and the element of surprise began to develop. Is this one of the characteristics we could attribute to the Classical style?

Bernard Labadie : Surprising the listener—I think every era does it in its own way. No, really, for me, what characterizes the Classical period is the establishment of major forms—in particular, the sonata form—which would become the structural model applied to almost all music, including vocal music. Because when you analyze Mozart’s great opera scenes, for example, even if they aren’t in sonata form, you can find elements of it throughout the entire repertoire.

And this dates back to Carl-Philipp Emanuel, Bach’s son, to whom we owe the first sonata form, which began in his time. When Haydn adopted it at the start of his career, it was a monothematic sonata form—that is, one based more on the contrast of keys than on the contrast of different themes. But as it developed, the number of themes increased, and even in concertos, we see the principle of the double exposition, which, in Mozart’s concertos, features a profusion of themes—to the point where it can sometimes be a bit difficult to follow the form.

This gives rise to extremely sophisticated compositions, yet they are underpinned by this form, which is very simple and based on a contrast of tones that clash and ultimately come together.

PAN M 360: In your opinion, what is the most memorable work from that era in this “immortal Vienna”?

Bernard Labadie : Oh, that’s almost impossible to say! It’s a bit like asking me which of my 250 children is my favorite! I think what we need to focus on is what each composer contributed. In Mozart’s case, it’s clear that he was the one who advanced the opera genre. After Handel, he was the one who took the genre to the next level.

And the significant leap forward he brought to opera is far greater than the one Handel made in his time. With Haydn, it was his mastery of instrumental forms that would become standards throughout the Classical period—and indeed the Romantic period as well. The string quartet, the string trio, the piano trio, and the symphony, of course. He is often called the father of the symphony, but he is the father of many things. And the fact that he lived a very long life allowed him to cultivate these genres consistently. The result is a very rich body of work that reflects the evolution of his style and becomes extremely varied and whimsical toward the end of his life.

Haydn’s musical forms toward the end of his career—they’re all, in one way or another, turned upside down. There’s always a surprise—things that aren’t where they’re supposed to be, that aren’t done the way you’d expect. He plays with the patterns he himself created. In the end, he takes his own models and turns them upside down—literally. And for me, when I work on this music, that’s always a great source of joy. It’s like a child playing with a giant set of Legos!

PAN M 360: Haydn had a great sense of humor, too, didn’t he?

Bernard Labadie : Yes, that’s clear! And he really emphasizes that in his music. However, he isn’t a great melodist, like Mozart, for example. His appeal and strength lie elsewhere. As for Beethoven, he’s the one who will break away from these forms and lead them toward the Romantic style. Each of these three composers makes an exceptional contribution to this repertoire.

To that we could also add the young Schubert. Because he, too, was influenced by—and drew inspiration from—the same sources and learned from the same masters. For example, his last symphony, the “Great” Symphony, is a monumental work. He truly follows the model of the Haydn symphony, but stretches it out over a much longer duration. It is one of the longest works in the repertoire of that era.

He really felt drawn to those forms as well. Obviously, as far as I’m concerned, he’s more romantic than classical. But in his instrumental music, he’s still heavily influenced by classical composers.

PAN M 360: You’ll have a rather limited amount of rehearsal time with the Academy orchestra. What will you focus on during these rehearsals, and what do you hope the trainees will learn from this repertoire—in terms of interpretation, style, and how to play it?

Bernard Labadie :  It’s a little hard for me to make any grand statements, since this is the first time I’ve been there myself since 1986! I can’t wait!

The program is very ambitious, and we’ll certainly be pressed for rehearsal time. But the approach is different from that of a professional orchestra. Even though we expect the trainees to meet the same standards and requirements, the journey is more important here than the destination. For young musicians like these, our goal is above all to help them journey with us for a while, to see how we work, how we approach these works, and how to create—especially on modern instruments—a style that’s closer to what can be achieved on period instruments. There aren’t many modern orchestras that do this. It has truly been the hallmark of Les Violons du Roy from the very beginning. We hope to inspire these young musicians to delve deeper into this repertoire, to explore it in new ways, and to seek out and discover its incredible riches.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 99—I’m sure many of these young musicians will be playing it for the first time. Even for Les Violons du Roy, I think it will be a first. It’s not a piece we perform often in our repertoire. So, to discover pieces like this at that age—I envy them, and I’m even a little jealous. I really like these young musicians we’ll be working with. You have to look at the workshop as a whole. This is just one of three components. Over the course of two weeks, these musicians will be completely immersed—if I may say so—in new musical experiences.

We’re going to work hard, but it has to be fun. It’s still a short camp, and we can’t cover everything in that time. The idea is to give them as many tools as possible to add to their toolkit and take home with them afterward. We’ll put on a performance that showcases the work we’ve done. And ultimately, it’s not that concert that matters. What matters is what these young musicians will take home with them. They might not absorb everything, but it’ll be up to them to make sense of it all. I think they’ll leave here with a suitcase full of ideas—and, I hope, projects.

Academy Chamber Orchestra

Les Violons du Roy

Pentaèdre

Bernard Labadie, conductor

PROGRAM

HAYDN

Symphony No. 99 in E-flat major, Hob.I:99

MOZART
The Marriage of Figaro: “Porgi amor”
Così fan tutte : « Ei parte… Per pietà »

BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21

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