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Terra Incognita is an interview (in French) by Patrice Bardot originally published Mar. 2002 in Trax magazine Number 50, pp. 60-62.
Difference between revisions of "Terra Incognita"
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Preferring to express themselves through grace, melody, and the mystery emanating from their compositions, the two partners mostly refuse to meet with journalists. Hence the significance of this rare, sometimes cryptic interview, which in itself is a bit of an obstacle course: no photo sessions, questions sent by email, a label that loses their trace... But only the result matters, and after recently letting legions of imitators express themselves in an overcrowded electronica scene, it is now time for the originals. | Preferring to express themselves through grace, melody, and the mystery emanating from their compositions, the two partners mostly refuse to meet with journalists. Hence the significance of this rare, sometimes cryptic interview, which in itself is a bit of an obstacle course: no photo sessions, questions sent by email, a label that loses their trace... But only the result matters, and after recently letting legions of imitators express themselves in an overcrowded electronica scene, it is now time for the originals. | ||
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{{question|Why so much mystery around your personalities?}} | {{question|Why so much mystery around your personalities?}} | ||
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{{question|[[Boards Of Canada]] is often described as the best electronica group...}} | {{question|[[Boards Of Canada]] is often described as the best electronica group...}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: What a great compliment! I don't know if we deserve it. It's a bit strange because we have trouble imagining that there are people who listen to our music. We are locked into our own little world and we thought we were the only ones listening to our music.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: What a great compliment! I don't know if we deserve it. It's a bit strange because we have trouble imagining that there are people who listen to our music. We are locked into our own little world and we thought we were the only ones listening to our music.}} | ||
{{question|What do you think of your imitators?}} | {{question|What do you think of your imitators?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: Sometimes I hear compositions from other groups and feel like our sound has influenced them. But where I see the most similarity is with the music used in advertising in cinema or on television. It's funny because one of our major sources of inspiration was precisely the sound of jingles and TV ads. So the loop is complete, if in turn, we influence those who currently compose for TV.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: Sometimes I hear compositions from other groups and feel like our sound has influenced them. But where I see the most similarity is with the music used in advertising in cinema or on television. It's funny because one of our major sources of inspiration was precisely the sound of jingles and TV ads. So the loop is complete, if in turn, we influence those who currently compose for TV.}} | ||
{{question|"Classic" is certainly the most used adjective when referring to your music...}} | {{question|"Classic" is certainly the most used adjective when referring to your music...}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: We indeed try to compose music that can stand the test of time. That's why we avoid assembling pieces that belong to a specific musical style. We would like people who listen to our records in twenty years to still find something special beyond the music.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: We indeed try to compose music that can stand the test of time. That's why we avoid assembling pieces that belong to a specific musical style. We would like people who listen to our records in twenty years to still find something special beyond the music.}} | ||
{{question|What was your state of mind during the creation of ''[[Geogaddi]]''?}} | {{question|What was your state of mind during the creation of ''[[Geogaddi]]''?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: We created it over a long period, almost two years. Our state of mind was therefore very fluctuating. We experienced highs and lows in our personal lives, which probably reflected in the rises and falls of our music.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: We created it over a long period, almost two years. Our state of mind was therefore very fluctuating. We experienced highs and lows in our personal lives, which probably reflected in the rises and falls of our music.}} | ||
{{question|Is ''[[Geogaddi]]'' a conceptual album?}} | {{question|Is ''[[Geogaddi]]'' a conceptual album?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: It's a collection of ideas that we wanted to put into practice. We didn't plan anything, we were in a certain mindset, and we tried to write as many tracks as possible. In the end, we could make another album completely different with all the tracks we left out. ''[[Geogaddi]]'' still has a sort of theme around brainwashing and memory loss that comes back in bits and pieces.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: It's a collection of ideas that we wanted to put into practice. We didn't plan anything, we were in a certain mindset, and we tried to write as many tracks as possible. In the end, we could make another album completely different with all the tracks we left out. ''[[Geogaddi]]'' still has a sort of theme around brainwashing and memory loss that comes back in bits and pieces.}} | ||
{{question|What is the meaning of ''[[Geogaddi]]''?}} | {{question|What is the meaning of ''[[Geogaddi]]''?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: It's up to the listener to find out! For us, it's a combination of words hiding all the influences at the base of the album. If the listener can detect these influences, they will then understand what ''[[Geogaddi]]'' means.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: It's up to the listener to find out! For us, it's a combination of words hiding all the influences at the base of the album. If the listener can detect these influences, they will then understand what ''[[Geogaddi]]'' means.}} | ||
{{question|Naïve, psychedelic, and melancholic: do these adjectives correspond to this album?}} | {{question|Naïve, psychedelic, and melancholic: do these adjectives correspond to this album?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: Yes, but it's even more than that. Some words can be too cliché when describing our music. If some tracks sound very naive or simple, it's because we know what we are doing; we produced them to sound like that.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: Yes, but it's even more than that. Some words can be too cliché when describing our music. If some tracks sound very naive or simple, it's because we know what we are doing; we produced them to sound like that.}} | ||
{{question|Which word best describes how you feel when composing: suffering, joy, or liberation?}} | {{question|Which word best describes how you feel when composing: suffering, joy, or liberation?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: All three at once. The suffering, due to the amount of work we put into each song and the time we give from our own lives just to create music. The joy of creating a work that ultimately satisfies us and goes beyond just the assembly of several sounds together. And the liberation, because once you've finished a track or an album, the process completely escapes you and you can start making new plans.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: All three at once. The suffering, due to the amount of work we put into each song and the time we give from our own lives just to create music. The joy of creating a work that ultimately satisfies us and goes beyond just the assembly of several sounds together. And the liberation, because once you've finished a track or an album, the process completely escapes you and you can start making new plans.}} | ||
{{question|''[[Geogaddi]]'' uses a lot of voices...}} | {{question|''[[Geogaddi]]'' uses a lot of voices...}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: We like the sound of voices. You don't need to understand the meaning of the words, sometimes just hearing a voice or a certain word is enough. We like the idea of suggesting certain words or phrases. In the future, we would like to create something entirely vocal. In fact, we have already recorded tracks in this style.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: We like the sound of voices. You don't need to understand the meaning of the words, sometimes just hearing a voice or a certain word is enough. We like the idea of suggesting certain words or phrases. In the future, we would like to create something entirely vocal. In fact, we have already recorded tracks in this style.}} | ||
{{question|The last track is completely silent; is it the album's fifteen-minute joke?}} | {{question|The last track is completely silent; is it the album's fifteen-minute joke?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: It all depends on whether you think it's silence or not... We included it because it seemed to us that the previous track, "[[Corsair]]", is so beautiful that it could only be followed by silence, a sort of meditative parenthesis. We didn't want the ambiance of this last track to be spoiled by the noise of the CD ending or the player making clink-clank sounds.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: It all depends on whether you think it's silence or not... We included it because it seemed to us that the previous track, "[[Corsair]]", is so beautiful that it could only be followed by silence, a sort of meditative parenthesis. We didn't want the ambiance of this last track to be spoiled by the noise of the CD ending or the player making clink-clank sounds.}} | ||
{{question|What is your secret to making technological music sound so organic?}} | {{question|What is your secret to making technological music sound so organic?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Marcus]]: I don't think there's a secret. Just the use of a certain number of technical possibilities to find warm sounds. We prefer the sound of the sixties and seventies because it was analog, and that's what is missing in many current productions. Since we released ''[[Twoism (release)|Twoism]]'' in 1994, the electronic scene has become huge. It's inevitable because with the development of technology, it has become easy to compose with minimal equipment, a computer, and software. The electronic artists I respect remember that music is more than just complex beats programmed with software. [[wikipedia:Cornelius (musician)|Cornelius]], for example, uses a lot of technology but makes it very warm and human. Today, it's very easy to make something clean, very well produced, perfectly "in tone". But it's easy to forget that it's the imperfections of old recordings that give them their character. By working hard, it is possible to recreate these flaws. In any case, we don't often listen to electronic music.}} | {{boc|[[Marcus]]: I don't think there's a secret. Just the use of a certain number of technical possibilities to find warm sounds. We prefer the sound of the sixties and seventies because it was analog, and that's what is missing in many current productions. Since we released ''[[Twoism (release)|Twoism]]'' in 1994, the electronic scene has become huge. It's inevitable because with the development of technology, it has become easy to compose with minimal equipment, a computer, and software. The electronic artists I respect remember that music is more than just complex beats programmed with software. [[wikipedia:Cornelius (musician)|Cornelius]], for example, uses a lot of technology but makes it very warm and human. Today, it's very easy to make something clean, very well produced, perfectly "in tone". But it's easy to forget that it's the imperfections of old recordings that give them their character. By working hard, it is possible to recreate these flaws. In any case, we don't often listen to electronic music.}} | ||
{{question|You attach great importance to visuals...}} | {{question|You attach great importance to visuals...}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: Regarding the cover, we try to create a graphic style that complements the sound. We are always working on the visual aspect: for example, we create Super 8 short films to accompany our concerts. We don't consider this as secondary because when we compose, we often imagine a soundtrack for a film or visual work. Then when we perform a concert or when we have to decide on the graphics for a cover, we like these ideas to be underlying.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: Regarding the cover, we try to create a graphic style that complements the sound. We are always working on the visual aspect: for example, we create Super 8 short films to accompany our concerts. We don't consider this as secondary because when we compose, we often imagine a soundtrack for a film or visual work. Then when we perform a concert or when we have to decide on the graphics for a cover, we like these ideas to be underlying.}} | ||
{{question|How do you relax?}} | {{question|How do you relax?}} | ||
| + | |||
{{boc|[[Mike]]: We go out with friends, have parties, and campfires. We try to be outside often, spending time at the beach with our friends. I drive my car a lot, sometimes taking my girlfriend to France. And we spend days listening to the records people send us. [[Marcus]] spends all his free time snowboarding in France. We also do survival courses.}} | {{boc|[[Mike]]: We go out with friends, have parties, and campfires. We try to be outside often, spending time at the beach with our friends. I drive my car a lot, sometimes taking my girlfriend to France. And we spend days listening to the records people send us. [[Marcus]] spends all his free time snowboarding in France. We also do survival courses.}} | ||
Latest revision as of 16:51, 23 July 2024
| title | Terra Incognita |
|---|---|
| author | Patrice Bardot |
| publication | Trax |
| date | 2002/03 |
| issue | 50 |
| pages | 60-62 |
Original Text[edit]
This is an original text copied verbatim from the original source. Do not edit this text to correct errors or misspellings. Aside from added wikilinks, this text is exactly as it originally appeared.
Interview Par Mail
Texte: Patrice Bardot
Photos: Peter Iain Campbell
Le splendide Geogaddi maroue le grand retour du cultissime Boards of Canada groupe le plus mystérieux de toute la sphère électronique et maître incontesté d'une électronica chaleureuse et nostalgique.
Enfin. Pratiquement 4 ans que nous attendions ce moment. Depuis la sortie en avril 1998 du sublime album Music Has The Right To Children, l'électronica à facettes du duo écossais Boards Of Canada n'a cessé de hanter notre platine et d'accompagner nos états d'âmes. Certes, il y a un an et demi, les quatre titres du EP A Beautiful Place Out ln The Country composèrent un intermède de choix, histoire de tromper l'attente de la tribu croissante des amoureux des compositions naïves et nostalgiques de Michael Sandison et Marcus Eoin. Et puis subitement la sortie de Geogaddi, sans cesse repoussée, fut annoncée alors que nous n'y croyions plus. Pas de disque promo envoyé à la presse, nulles déclarations fracassantes: pratiquement une stratégie de l'absence, finalement sans surprise pour un groupe qui a toujours cultivé sinon le goût du secret, au moins celui de la discrétion absolue.
Préférant s'exprimer à travers la grâce, la mélodie, et le mystère émanant de leurs compositions, les deux complices refusent la plupart du temps de rencontrer les journalistes. D'où l'intérêt de cette rare interview, parfois cryptique, dont la concrétisation s'apparente quand même à un parcours du combattant: pas de séances photos, questions transmises par e-mail, un label qui perd leur trace ... Mais seul le résultat compte et après avoir laissé ces derniers temps les légions d'imitateurs s'exprimer sur une scène électronica bien encombrée, place maintenant aux originaux.
Pourquoi tant de mystère autour de vos personnalités?
Mike: J'aime croire que la musique parle pour nous. Nous n'avons jamais eu l'intention de devenir des pop stars. Nous ne sommes pas intéressés par le fait de devenir des personnes connues. Nous pensons que ce genre de souhait affecte la musique. Or, c'est la musique qui doit être importante. Nous n'avons jamais voulu devenir un groupe culte.Nous essayons juste de rester nous-mêmes, mais parfois les choses échappent à notre contrôle. En l'absence d'information sur nos personnalités, les gens ont commencé à délirer. Dès le début, nous avers décidé de rester en retrait et de ne pas avoir nos têtes sur la couverture des magazines. Mais nous n'avions pas prévu que cette attitude rendrait les gens encore plus curieux!
Boards Of Canada est souvent qualifié de meilleur groupe électronica ...
Marcus: Quel grand compliment! Je ne sais pas si nous le méritons. C'est un peu étrange car nous avons du mal à imaginer qu'il y a des personnes qui écoutent notre musique. Nous sommes verrouillés sur nous-mêmes, dans notre petit monde et nous pensions être les seuls à écouter notre musique.
Que pensez-vous de vos imitateurs?
Marcus: Parfois, j'entends des compositions d'autres groupes et j'a l'impression que notre son les a influencés. Mais là où je vois le plus de similitude, c'est avec la musique utilisée par la publicité au cinéma ou à la télévision. C'est marrant parce qu'une de nos grosses sources d'inspiration a été justement le son des jingles et des pubs télé. Alors la boucle est bouclée, si à notre tour nous influençons ceux qui composent actuellement pour la télé.
Classique est certainement l'adjectif le plus utilisé lorsque l'on évoque votre musique ...
Mike: Nous essayons effectivement de composer une musique susceptible de résister à l'épreuve du temps. C'est pour cela que nous évitons de rassembler des morceaux qui se rattachent à un style musical précis. Nous voudrions que les gens qui écouteront nos disques dans vingt ans y trouvent toujours quelque chose de spécial en dehors de la musique.
Quel était votre état d'esprit pendant l'élaboration de Geogaddi?
Marcus: Nous l'avons réalisé sur une longue période, presque deux ans. Notre état d'esprit était donc très fluctuant. Nous avons connu des hauts et des bas dans nos vies personnelles, qui se sont probablement reflétés dans les montées et les descentes de notre musique.
Geogaddi est-il un album conceptuel?
Mike: C'est une collection d'idées que nous voulions mettre en pratique. Nous n'avions rien planifié, nous étions dans un certain d'esprit et nous avons essayé d'écrire le plus de morceaux possibles. Au final nous pourrions réaliser un autre album qui serait totalement différent avec tous les morceaux que nous avons mis de côté. Geogaddi possède tout de même une sorte de thématique autour du lavage de cerveau et de la perte de mémoire qui revient par bribes.
Quelle est la signification de Geogaddi?
Marcus: C'est à l'auditeur de trouver! Pour nous c'est une combinaison de mots cachant toutes les influences à la base de l'album. Si l'auditeur peut détecter ces influences, il comprendra alors ce que signifie ce Geogaddi.
Naïf, psychédélique et mélancolique: ces qualificatifs correspondent-ils à cet album?
Marcus: Oui, mais c'est encore plus que cela. Certains mots peuvent être trop clichés lorsque l'on décrit notre musique. Si certains titres sonnent très naïfs ou simples, c'est parce que nous savons ce que nous faisons, nous les avons produits pour sonner comme cela.
Quel mot correspond le mieux à ce que vous ressentez lorsque vous composez: souffrance, joie, libération?
Mike: Les trois à la fois. La souffrance, en raison de la quantité de travail que nous mettons dans chaque chanson et du temps que nous donnons de notre propre vie juste pour créer de la musique. La joie de créer une œuvre qui au final nous satisfait, et qui va au-delà de la réunion de plusieurs sons ensemble. Et la libération, parce qu'une fois que tu as fini un morceau ou un album, le processus t'échappe complètement et tu peux tracer de nouveaux plans.
Geogaddi utilise beaucoup de voix ...
Mike: Nous aimons le son des voix. Tu n'as pas besoin de comprendre le sens des mots, parfois cela suffit d'entendre une voix ou un certain mot. Nous aimons cette idée de suggérer certains mots ou phrases. Dans le futur, nous aimerions réaliser quelque chose d'entièrement vocal. D'ailleurs nous avons déjà enregistré des morceaux dans ce style.
Le dernier titre est complètement silencieux, c'est le quart d'heure d'humour de l'album?
Mike: Tout dépend si tu penses que c'est du silence ou pas .. Nous l'avons mis parce qu'il nous semblait que le titre précédent, "Corsair", est tellement beau qu'il ne pouvait être suivi que par du silence, une sorte de parenthèse méditative. Nous ne voulions pas que l'ambiance de ce dernier titre soit gâchée par le bruit du CD qui se termine ou du lecteur qui fait cling-clang.
Quel est votre secret pour rendre si organique une musique technologique?
Marcus: Je ne crois pas qu'il y ait un secret. Juste l'utilisation d'un certain nombre de possibilités techniques pour trouver des sonorités chaleureuses. Nous préférons le son des sixties et des seventies car c'etait analogique, et c'est ce qui manque à nombre de productions actuelles. Depuis que nous avons sorti Twoism en 1994, la scène électronique est devenue énorme. C'est inévitable car avec le développement de la technologie, il est devenu facile de composer avec un équipement minimum, un ordinateur et un logiciel. Les artistes électroniques que je respecte se souviennent que la musique c'est autre chose que des beats complexes programmés avec un logiciel. Cornelius par exemple utilise énormément la technologie mais il la rend très chaleureuse, humaine. Aujourd'hui, il est très facile de faire quelque chose de propre, de très bien produit, parfaitement "dans le ton". Mais c'est oublier un peu vite que ce sont les imperfections des anciens enregistrements qui leur donnent leur caractère. En travaillant dur, il est possible de recréer ces défauts. De toute façon, nous n'écoutons pas souvent de musique électronique.
Vous attachez beaucoup d'importance aux visuels ...
Mike: Concernant la pochette, nous essayons de créer un style graphique qui complète le son. Nous travaillons tout le temps sur l'aspect visuel: par exemple nous créons des courts-métrages en super 8 pour accompagner nos concerts. Nous ne considérons pas cela comme accessoire car lorsque nous composons, nous imaginons souvent une bande-son pour un film ou un travail visuel. Ensuite lorsque nous donnons un concert ou lorsque nous devons décider du graphisme d'une pochette, nous aimons que ces idées soient sous-jacentes.
Comment vous relaxez-vous?
Mike: Nous sortons avec des amis, nous faisons des fêtes, des feux de camp. Nous essayons d'être souvent dehors, de passer du temps à la plage avec nos amis. Je conduis beaucoup ma voiture, parfois j'emmène ma copine en France. Et nous passons des journées à écouter les disques que l'on nous envoie. Marcus emploie tout son temps libre a faire du snowboard en France. Nous effectuons aussi des stages de survie.
Translated text[edit]
Note: translation provided by ChatGPT-4o
Email Interview
Text: Patrice Bardot
Photos: Peter Iain Campbell
The splendid Geogaddi marks the grand return of the cult-favorite Boards of Canada, the most mysterious group in the entire electronic sphere and the uncontested master of warm and nostalgic electronica.
Finally. We have been waiting for this moment for almost 4 years. Since the release of the sublime album Music Has The Right To Children in April 1998, the multifaceted electronica of the Scottish duo Boards of Canada has been haunting our turntables and accompanying our moods. Certainly, a year and a half ago, the four tracks of the EP A Beautiful Place Out In The Country provided a quality interlude, helping to ease the wait for the growing tribe of fans of Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin's naive and nostalgic compositions. And then suddenly, the release of Geogaddi, constantly postponed, was announced when we no longer believed it. No promo records sent to the press, no sensational statements: practically a strategy of absence, ultimately unsurprising for a group that has always cultivated, if not a taste for secrecy, at least one for absolute discretion.
Preferring to express themselves through grace, melody, and the mystery emanating from their compositions, the two partners mostly refuse to meet with journalists. Hence the significance of this rare, sometimes cryptic interview, which in itself is a bit of an obstacle course: no photo sessions, questions sent by email, a label that loses their trace... But only the result matters, and after recently letting legions of imitators express themselves in an overcrowded electronica scene, it is now time for the originals.
Why so much mystery around your personalities?
Mike: I like to believe that the music speaks for us. We never intended to become pop stars. We are not interested in becoming known personalities. We think such a wish affects the music. Music should be the important thing. We never wanted to become a cult band. We are just trying to stay true to ourselves, but sometimes things get out of our control. In the absence of information about our personalities, people started to fantasise. From the beginning, we decided to stay in the background and not have our faces on magazine covers. But we didn't foresee that this attitude would make people even more curious!
Boards Of Canada is often described as the best electronica group...
Marcus: What a great compliment! I don't know if we deserve it. It's a bit strange because we have trouble imagining that there are people who listen to our music. We are locked into our own little world and we thought we were the only ones listening to our music.
What do you think of your imitators?
Marcus: Sometimes I hear compositions from other groups and feel like our sound has influenced them. But where I see the most similarity is with the music used in advertising in cinema or on television. It's funny because one of our major sources of inspiration was precisely the sound of jingles and TV ads. So the loop is complete, if in turn, we influence those who currently compose for TV.
"Classic" is certainly the most used adjective when referring to your music...
Mike: We indeed try to compose music that can stand the test of time. That's why we avoid assembling pieces that belong to a specific musical style. We would like people who listen to our records in twenty years to still find something special beyond the music.
What was your state of mind during the creation of Geogaddi?
Marcus: We created it over a long period, almost two years. Our state of mind was therefore very fluctuating. We experienced highs and lows in our personal lives, which probably reflected in the rises and falls of our music.
Is Geogaddi a conceptual album?
Mike: It's a collection of ideas that we wanted to put into practice. We didn't plan anything, we were in a certain mindset, and we tried to write as many tracks as possible. In the end, we could make another album completely different with all the tracks we left out. Geogaddi still has a sort of theme around brainwashing and memory loss that comes back in bits and pieces.
What is the meaning of Geogaddi?
Marcus: It's up to the listener to find out! For us, it's a combination of words hiding all the influences at the base of the album. If the listener can detect these influences, they will then understand what Geogaddi means.
Naïve, psychedelic, and melancholic: do these adjectives correspond to this album?
Marcus: Yes, but it's even more than that. Some words can be too cliché when describing our music. If some tracks sound very naive or simple, it's because we know what we are doing; we produced them to sound like that.
Which word best describes how you feel when composing: suffering, joy, or liberation?
Mike: All three at once. The suffering, due to the amount of work we put into each song and the time we give from our own lives just to create music. The joy of creating a work that ultimately satisfies us and goes beyond just the assembly of several sounds together. And the liberation, because once you've finished a track or an album, the process completely escapes you and you can start making new plans.
Geogaddi uses a lot of voices...
Mike: We like the sound of voices. You don't need to understand the meaning of the words, sometimes just hearing a voice or a certain word is enough. We like the idea of suggesting certain words or phrases. In the future, we would like to create something entirely vocal. In fact, we have already recorded tracks in this style.
The last track is completely silent; is it the album's fifteen-minute joke?
Mike: It all depends on whether you think it's silence or not... We included it because it seemed to us that the previous track, "Corsair", is so beautiful that it could only be followed by silence, a sort of meditative parenthesis. We didn't want the ambiance of this last track to be spoiled by the noise of the CD ending or the player making clink-clank sounds.
What is your secret to making technological music sound so organic?
Marcus: I don't think there's a secret. Just the use of a certain number of technical possibilities to find warm sounds. We prefer the sound of the sixties and seventies because it was analog, and that's what is missing in many current productions. Since we released Twoism in 1994, the electronic scene has become huge. It's inevitable because with the development of technology, it has become easy to compose with minimal equipment, a computer, and software. The electronic artists I respect remember that music is more than just complex beats programmed with software. Cornelius, for example, uses a lot of technology but makes it very warm and human. Today, it's very easy to make something clean, very well produced, perfectly "in tone". But it's easy to forget that it's the imperfections of old recordings that give them their character. By working hard, it is possible to recreate these flaws. In any case, we don't often listen to electronic music.
You attach great importance to visuals...
Mike: Regarding the cover, we try to create a graphic style that complements the sound. We are always working on the visual aspect: for example, we create Super 8 short films to accompany our concerts. We don't consider this as secondary because when we compose, we often imagine a soundtrack for a film or visual work. Then when we perform a concert or when we have to decide on the graphics for a cover, we like these ideas to be underlying.
How do you relax?
Mike: We go out with friends, have parties, and campfires. We try to be outside often, spending time at the beach with our friends. I drive my car a lot, sometimes taking my girlfriend to France. And we spend days listening to the records people send us. Marcus spends all his free time snowboarding in France. We also do survival courses.
Scans[edit]
Highlights[edit]
- Mike said they added the silent "Magic Window" at the end so as not to spoil the beauty of "Corsair".
External Links[edit]