Part 1

Name: Elia Aregger
Occupation: Guitarist, composer, improviser
Nationality: Swiss
Current release: The Elia Aregger Trio's debut album Live is out via Unit. It features Marius Sommer (double bass) and Alessandro Alarcon (drums, cymbals). Stream the album here. Support the artist by buying a physical copy on CD or vinyl from his official webstore.
Recommendation for Switzerland: If you're in Altdorf, grab yourself a beer, walk up to the (now cultural) monastery, sit on the stone wall, enjoy the view of the whole valley and look into the distance.
If you're in Zurich in summer, stroll through districts 4 and 5 and then take a dip in the Limmat. In the evening you can be outside in the parks or on Bullingerplatz or float into the morning at Langstrasse.
Anyway, give me a holler, when you're around!
Topics I am passionate about but rarely talk about: I’m a real synth-head and love taking nightlong deep-dives in my studio as my “technoid” alter ego. I also love fly fishing, being outside with my friends at a river or mountainous lake … it brings another form of flow state to me. I could go on about fly tying and shit for hours.

If you enjoyed this Elia Aregger interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram.



When it comes to experiencing the sensation of “energy” as as a listener, which albums, performances, and artists come to mind?

There are loads of musicians, albums, songs and performances that come to my mind.

I'm really drawn to and attracted by the term “energy” and can really relate to it on a human level. For me it means everything ... it's what keeps us going and what makes all the interpersonal levels, layers, interactions and experiences possible, exciting, interesting, worth seeking and finding - and therefore often beautiful.

It's about the impulse and drive, that one spark that triggers something in you and drives you forward ... in whatever way that may be. I often experience this moment when it's really all about the music, the momentum and the present moment.  It's about a flow state, where all egocentric ideas, roles and perspectives can be discarded and it's all about the here and now ... Where it's all about this energy.

Swiss guitarist Dave Gisler often achieves this for me with his trio when I hear and experience him live.



I would have loved to experience the John Coltrane Quartet in person ... Live at Showboat, Philadelphia, June 1963 is such an experience for me.

But I also find this outside of jazz, for example the album Curtains by John Frusciante has accompanied me since my youth.



It's all about the raw, genuine and authentic.

There can be many different kinds of energy in art – soft, harsh, healing, aggressive, uplifting and many more. Which do you tend to feel drawn to most?

I think I am a person who perceives and experiences these “energies” or sensations very strongly.

I often feel a whole range of them, usually in high, amplified doses, so I can't decide on just one thing. It drives and pushes me on, lifts me up and sometimes also makes me fall very low. The mixture of all these “colors” is what makes it for me, and I believe that one cannot and must not be without the other, they mutually drive each other on.

I believe that, for example, the sweet, beautiful, and gentle allows you to enter somewhat “harsher” realms, to completely shed and discard the safety net and thus try to lose yourself. And vice versa.

The higher the mountains, the deeper the valleys.

I have had a hard time explaining that listening to death metal calms me down. When you listen to a song with a particular energy, does it tend to fill you with the same energy – or are there “paradoxical” effects?
 
For me, music very often has these paradoxical effects, which I can also strongly influence through my susceptibility, sensitivity or my mood. In electronic music, for example, I encounter both in fast, hard beats, I find myself between a big push and something soothing ... or perhaps rather something where I can immerse myself and find peace. I experience this in various genres and types of music.

If music or pieces of music have enough depth, we can probably all project our own experiences and states into them, which is also the beauty of it. That's how I feel about our music.

What I or we feel on stage at the moment doesn't have to be the same for everyone and doesn't carry a “single truth”. It can be understood and received differently so that everyone can participate and immerse themselves in it.

In as far as it plays a role for the music you like listening to or making, what role do words and the voice of a vocalist play for the transmission of energy?

Difficult question. At the moment I mainly play music that doesn't contain words in the traditional sense or music that is almost exclusively instrumental. Nevertheless, one often tries to convey “messages”, which probably resemble or correspond to the human voice or verbal statements.

The voice is one of the most natural instruments and flows in the most natural way. Just listen to conversations and how much is being said in-between, seemingly just as an aside. Words have an incredible power and precision, think of written poetry and all thoughts captured in words in literature. This opens up incredible expanses and dimensions.

For me and my voice through the guitar, I often manage to say things that my voice "alone" could not.

When it comes to experiencing the sensation of “energy” as as a creator, how would you describe the physical sensation of experiencing this energy? [Where do you feel it, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or a build-up of tension etc …]

For me, it is a very intense physical and mental ride on different waves.

I think the term “flow state” sums it up very well. Being deeply immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of what you're doing. The intrinsic motivation in there is key for me. It's about the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time.

I feel this in my head, in my chest, in my stomach, in my shoulders and actually in my whole body. When I close my eyes, it goes on nonetheless and things are still visible. You can feel each other on stage and have complete trust in each other - no matter where you go, I come with you and will follow - always together in this moment. It's about discovering new realms and blazing trails, making quick but natural and intuitive decisions, which lead to a big build-up of tension until you find the release again. It happens over and over again and is what I or we strive for.

This process affects me so deeply and is not always easy or “nice” (in the colloquial sense) to experience. It takes a lot from me, to being able to give it my all. It also shakes me up, throws me around, messes with me and upsets me, but at the same time lets me sort everything out again.

An endless journey, I believe there is nothing more beautiful in life than being able to experience this.

When it comes to composing / songwriting, are you finding that spontaneity and just a few takes tend to capture energy best? Or does honing a piece bring you closer to that goal?

Spontaneity is very important to me and therefore many ideas for my pieces arise from moods or feelings that are often shaped by everyday life. I searched for, found and ultimately wrote the musical ideas for the compositions on the album between Paris, Altdorf and Zurich.

Inspired by long days and even longer nights that stretched into the morning, the compositions capture the pulse of those places: roaring, barely coming to rest or yet completely quiet and sensually at peace. These are places and moments where the energy boils just beneath the surface. I am inspired by different settings and environments which, just like the music, can be rediscovered and explored by me personally.

What exactly I'm looking for is often not clear to me until it reveals itself to me as what I have been searching for. The pieces have a simple structure so that they can be quickly explored and developed together. The independence and autonomy of my two fellow musicians Marius Sommer (bass) and Alessandro Alarcon (drums, cymbals) is very important to me.

So anything can and may happen. Compositions merely serve as a starting point or as building blocks that can be spontaneously re-explored, re-arranged or re-interpreted in the moment.

How much of the energy of your own music, would you say, is already part of the composition, how much of it is the result of the recording process?

My musical ideas serve as a basis. But it is only through and with Marius Sommer (bass), Alessandro Alarcon (drums, cymbals) and the live momentum that the snapshots are created which ultimately form a concert or, here, our album.

Generally, the compositions already have a certain “vibe” or “style”, which is also exciting to disrupt or break in a live context. So a large part of this energy is created through interaction, collective exploration and shared search in the now.