angel/berlin©hairentertainment.com
Angel Interview - Berlin. 12/12.08
- Ilpo Väisänen (IV) (Pan Sonic)
- Dirk Dresselhaus (DD) (Schneider TM)
- Interview by (SH) Simon Harris/HE.
Photos taken @ Synch Festival/Athens & Festsaal Kreuzberg Berlin, 2008.
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SH: So, actually this is the first time I interviewed anyone.
DD: That’s ok. This is only our second interview this year. We don’t talk very much. We did an artist talk in Canada.
SH: What was that for?
IV: It was for Send & Receive Festival. It’s quite a nice Festival. The people there do very good work and I respect that a lot.
DD: We had to talk about things. We never really talk about what we do.
IV: Well actually we talk a lot. But it’s just not talking about the music, its more talking about the spirituality of the music, which is actually as important as the playing itself.
DD: It’s why you do it. Why are you doing this stuff?
IV: This is always forgotten with musicians. Why are you actually doing it?
SH: That’s a bit of a tough question to answer though right?
angel©HEDD: Yeah but it’s the most important question because it’s the driving force. I think I know why we do this. It’s meeting at the most minimal point of musical conversation. It’s to do something that doesn’t lead to misunderstandings because it’s too preconceived. You start from the most minimal point of whatever you can do and you take it from there and it spreads in different directions. Also because its fun. Its fun to do it and that’s it basically.
IV: It’s a pure conversation basically. Sound is more direct. Actually its more exact than words if you want to mean something or if you want to say something. Plus sound is universal which language is not.
angel©HESH: I was wondering about your approach to live work and to what extent the sets are composed or improvised?
IV: It’s all improvised but its pre-planned.
DD: For recording we improvise first. We listen back to the recordings and take these things as a basic structure and take it from there. The composing happens when we improvise. We pick up certain things but at the same time we never repeat it live. It’s just to have a basic set structure. For example, the 2 sets we played at Festsaal (10th Oct, Berlin) are based on 2 different records so we have a basic structure for the set.
angel©HEIV: So it’s not like experimenting. It’s improvising which is very different. People call our kind of music experimental music. But I’m thinking it’s not really. Experimenting is more like making a science test and we are not making that.
DD: We just play like children in the sand.
SH: I remember seeing you play last year at the Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and the set the other night was very similar. Do you have very concrete plan for how you will start and end for example?
IV: It was the same set. We have a plan but it’s really open always. It’s much easier to have a starting point if you have some sort of plan to be honest. It makes things much easier for us. It always ends up very different though and it can always change inbetween. With this system and the set there has to be some challenge. It’s always a little bit open. You can fuck it up really easily. There has to be something you can do immediately.
SH: So where did the idea for doing 2 sets come from?
DD: We’ve been recording the album that just came out for the last 5 years before Hildur (Gudnadóttir) joined in. We want to be able to do duo shows as well. Angel is an open concept. Angel is the 3 of us, sometime friends join in but we started as a duo. During the last 4 years we’ve been playing as a trio but we started as a duo 10 years ago. The 2 sets were quite different I think and it’s interesting because of that.
SH: Can you tell me a bit more about the new album? It sounds quite different from Kalmukkia. There are a lot more implulsive sounds.
DD: Yeah it’s quite different. There are also a lot of shorter tracks on the new one. It was a totally different situation when it happened. The situation makes the shape of the music it seems.
SH: How often do you meet to work?
mika©HEDD: The idea isn’t to do this big project and do as much as we can and be really successful. Its more like getting together, playing and spending time together and it happens really when it wants to happen. Maybe it helps that we don’t live in the same city because when you meet you really use the time.
IV: I had a place in Berlin a year ago but I live in Finland now. This contrast of the countryside place and the big city is quite amazing. It’s good to have both.
DD: We spent quite a lot of time recording at Ilpo’s place in Finland. The last record is a combination of these different atmospheres, the urban city sound and this droney field recording stuff where you almost feel like you can’t make sound because your disturbing the environment. The music almost fades to nothing in the end.
IV: I think the city environment can take it. It’s a little bit like a John Cage thing. Like a grinder sound in the middle of silence for example. Or a fighter.
SH: Yeah I have to say the fighter sound on the new record was a total surprise!
DD: Yeah but it’s the same thing in the end. That’s the interesting point. I never hear this kind of silence and the tiny sounds in the city because there are always cars and people talking. When I’m at the cottage Its really interesting to listen to this kind of stuff as music. This is nothing new of course but when you play this kind of music which is very free there are very similar structures happening. That’s where it seems to come from basically. The roots of the music is whatever sounds in whatever environment.
IV: In that sense its totally like musique concrete.
DD: Also the city stuff. The tracks are like the stress of the city. The real recordings and what you do as a human get in sync and things happen exactly at the right point. It’s about getting in sync with everything basically. That’s the spiritual thing about it.
SH: I wanted to ask if you approach volume differently when you record and when you play live. In the live scenario its obviously important your music is pretty loud for the physical experience and I was wondering if you try to recreate that kind of effect when you record?
DD: We record on headphones normally.
IV: In the cottage we made a small acoustic system. We put speakers inside the cabin and outside we hung 2 Neumann microphones. There is a yard there and some water, you cant hear it very much but its there just to give a different acoustic feeling.
DD: There is never really a space for us to be loud to record in. We record a lot at home and it’s really good to hear very clearly what happens. Live its very different because most of the places have rock P.A’s like at Festsall where they have this rock sound so you automatically do different things. That’s also cool because what happens is very much influenced by the conditions and of the sound set up you have. It’s never the same.
IV: That also goes for different rooms and spaces.
SH: Do you have any current plans for the project?
DD: We want to tour a little bit more. The last 2 or 3 years we were playing one show a year. This year we played 10 shows already. We also already made some recording for the next record. So I guess things will just continue!
IV: It will continue as long as it wants.
DD: It wants what it wants. There is stuff happening naturally. We always do it on our off time. When we do this it’s always a bit like hobby and holidays.
IV: Not like touring which is hard work!
SH: Do you practice much for shows?
IV: We practiced for the duo shows.
DD: We had to because we didn’t play for 5 years! But then it completely changed. Yesterday was totally different to the 5 concerts before. We have to find a structure to play a set so were not totally lost. When we play and for recordings it’s a different situation. It’s just good to make sound. It’s the most comfortable situation live I think.
SH: Since it’s the end of the year I wanted to ask if there were any releases you particularly enjoyed?
DD: The financial crisis. Humanity is coming down slowly to a basic point again which is a very important thing. Its good to see this process happening. Its part of this global economy crisis. It’s just a virtual thing. It’s not real. It’s just a fucked up system that’s dying and that’s quite good to see I think.
IV: It refreshes thing. People get closer to reality in general I think.
DD: What’s there is there anyway. Everything else is just numbers and virtual power systems which are totally unnecessary in the end. People should realize what’s actually there.
IV: I think its natural for this to happen. This growing cannot carry on like this. It’s not possible.
SH: Um, actually I meant what music have you guys been listening to this year?
IV: I don’t even remember what came out.
DD: The last Neil Young record.
IV: I’ve been listening to more old music. Kostas is quite good. It’s an Armanian singer from the 20’s. It’s a bit like spiritual folk music. It’s really nice.
SH: I’ll have to check it out.
DD: I really enjoyed Oren Ambarchi’s last record. We played with him in Montreal.
IV: Schwarz! Schwarz is this deli in Montreal where you can get these amazing smoked meats.
DD: Heart attack meats.
IV: We went there with Oren actually.
DD: Celine Dion also goes to this place. Angel, Oren Ambarchi and Celine Dion!
SH: That could be a nice collaboration. I was thinking you could use some killer vocals…
DD: (Laughs) Actually were planning a vocal piece. The vocals are rather detuned I guess. It’s not going to the pop section.
SH: So Celine doesn’t quite fit the bill then…
IV: Shes totally perfect!
SH: You guys would probably go up the charts a bit that’s for sure.
IV: Finally we’ll get into the money world!
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Angel’s new album ‘Hedonism’ is out now on Emego/editionsmego.com/a-musik.
angel2008©antonis katrakazis
