Name: Christian Kobi
Nationality: Swiss
Occupation: Composer, improviser, label founder at Cubus, festival organiser at zoom in
Current release: As part of In Situ Ens., Christian Kobi has just released Same Place via Cubus. The ensemble is made up of Liz Allbee (trumpet), Rhodri Davies (harp, electronic harp), Enrico Malatesta (percussion), Magda Mayas (piano) and Christian Müller (electronics)

[Read our Magda Mayas interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Christian Kobi and would like to know more about his music, visit his official website. He is also on Soundcloud, and Facebook.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?  

In the beginning it was contemporary music.

I bought a record by Koch / Schuetz / Studer (one of the first free improvising groups in Switzerland). The liner notes included indications of the samples used, such as Ligeti, Stockhausen, music by Nono, etc. That's how I started listening to new music and improvising with my instrument.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances involving prominent use of improvisation captured your imagination in the beginning?

Definitely Cecil Taylor's solo concert in the Summer of 2000 at the Willisau Jazz Festival. It opened my ears to all that I am still trying to learn and create until now.

Focusing on improvisation can be an incisive transition. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in which way?

For me, there is no alternative. I have no alternative to my own attitude.

When I improvise, I decide and create out of the moment. When I compose, I take time out so that I can delete, add, shift and plan my musical progressions.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to improvisation? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage?

Of course we are all influenced by a certain tradition and what has already been played. But I try to distance myself from that.

It took me more than ten years after my studies to forget what I had learned and to concentrate on my own approach.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

Immediately after graduating in 2002, I spent a year in Paris at the Cité des Arts. That was kind of a way of finding my own place. Then I founded my own festival and was able to invite my favourite groups.

Since then, there have been two strands in my development. Solo playing and the various formations. With solo playing there is a development, with the groups it is about constant change and transitioning into each other.

With the newly founded group In Situ Ens.  the search continues. But in my eyes it could rise to become something stronger, a veritable force.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?  

I have a difficult relationship with my instrument.

My aspiration is to sound authentic and that isn't always easy. After all, several ideoms are generally associated with the saxophone by default.

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

Let's take CANTO, my first solo work, released on Cubus Records.



The work was created more than ten years ago and accompanies me constantly. It is a half-hour continuum, a drone with sounds rich in overtones, which never seems to break off. After ten years of performing it, I play the piece better and it still keeps evolving.

I am strongly motivated to keep this going.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

The solo mode is always more personal and direct, I find. Both modes encourage my work and the other way round. It is always profit - if the cooperation works naturally.

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

I immediately subscribe to this statement.

CANTO is an apt example of transformation. Sometimes the material suits me the way it is, sometimes I change it to make it more interesting.

When you're improvising, does it actually feel like you're inventing something on the spot – or are you inventively re-arranging patterns from preparations, practise or previous performances?

I rarely have completely new material to fall back on. The interesting thing is that the really new things come to me in concert. It's usually the material that I keep reinventing and transforming every time I play.

From time to time, I'll swap materials for others or discard them altogether.

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?
 
There are basic musical rules for me, such as putting something into a form, experiencing whether there is an awareness of tension or relaxation, and so on. What I or we play must be authentic and I have to like it.

I always recommend the “15 simple statements on free improvisation” by John Butcher.

In a live situation, decisions between creatives often work without words. How does this process work – and how does it change your performance compared to a solo performance?

We need to listen to each other. That is the most central thing for me.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? In which way is it different between your solo work and collaborations?

I find it interesting that when I'm tired, I always have the highest concentration during the concert. Maybe I need to be in this tired state before a gig?

Of course, the context also plays a part.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

Alvin Lucier is a good example for me.

What I find fascinating about Lucier is the way that he thinks about sound and how it relates to the environment in which you hear it. He has said that he really doesn’t care about people’s opinions, only their perceptions. Whether or not they like what they hear isn’t interesting, what parts of the sound they hear, is. You can apply this to different parameters. I think that's interesting.

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

I improvise every day - whether I can make it to the bus stop in ten steps, or whether it will only be eight?

It's part of life, let others talk about death.