Reached in the hip 17th arrondissement of Paris, Ben Shemie didn\u2019t return to Montreal when the pandemic broke out and the borders closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI left Montreal in January,\u201d he says \u201cThen, in Paris, I started an artist residency, I\u2019m there since, I decided to stay after the residence was cancelled. My girlfriend is here, so we are staying cozy in her apartment and waiting out the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before crossing the ocean, the musician had finished recording his second solo album in as many years. Like A Skeleton<\/em>, released in the winter of 2019, A Single Point of Light<\/em> is another poetic journey into the land of synthetic minimalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI recorded this material in Montreal at the beginning of the winter, so it\u2019s been a few months that it\u2019s been done. I mastered it here, and generally organized the whole thing from Paris, but the actual creation and performance of the record was done at home in Montreal. I\u2019ve been working on other stuff here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What, exactly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m doing a collaboration with Chlo\u00e9, the producer-DJ that\u2019s here. I\u2019m also involved in organizing a radio installation project, and in production with Suuns for an EP that will come out this fall \u2013 and we have a new full length coming out next year. Most of this stuff was supposed to happen now, but it’s all been pushed off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since that\u2019s the case, focus returns to the solo project. With A Single Point of Light<\/em>, Shemie believes that he has strengthened his song structures, that he\u2019s become more invested in this aspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe songwriting is more involved. the actual ‘songs’ are more developed. I’ve spent more time on lyric writing, to be honest, than on the actual composition. I didn\u2019t change my setup at all because I still want it to be mostly improvised and raw. However, it\u2019s less lo-fi, and sonically deeper. I also tried new techniques on the vocals, the melodies. it’s more ambitious.. but not a lot more. I still tried to keep it simple, like the last record. It\u2019s all done in one take \u2013 live off the floor, no overdubs. In a sense, the development in this record is actually the development of my live set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How was the composition considered, then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think I put more time into writing the lyrics. Okay, but at the same time, the musical aspect is very important, you also have only instrumental parts. Of course, all the instrumental parts are made by feedback. So it\u2019s entirely improvised in the moment. It\u2019s a feel thing. I\u2019ve spent a lot of time learning how to control the elements of the feedback, and getting interesting sounds. But it\u2019s not actual composition, it’s improvisation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n