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Sound and vision

What are currently your main compositional- and production-challenges?

It can be difficult to keep track of spontaneous compositions. There could be a sudden spark of inspiration on a train or bus journey and I’d want to sing out loud but that's difficult when it's crowded and when the next person's ear is in front of my face. I may sometimes invite curious stares when humming publicly into my recording device.
 
What do you usually start with when working on a new piece?

As before, it could arrive from spontaneous hums and I’d dash home to pick up my instruments to further develop the story… Apart from music, the mood and the lyrics are influenced by treasures that I chance upon daily - they could be anything. History and heritage, patina on a ring, the scent of aged leather, a paisley pattern, or even the iridescent colours of a gemstone. At the time when I was making "A Little Fable" I was watching a lot of Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky and I was interested in antique jewellery. These small but valuable experiences were important during the making of the album.
 
How strictly do you separate improvising and composing?

I am happy for the line to be blurred. When I let them intuitively and spontaneously intersperse, they give a human and lyrical quality to the flow of tracks.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition?

They are all elements unfolding within an invisible emptiness, but it is the perceiver who gives them a sense of life and substantial existence by reciprocating and discovering his own senses and spatiality within that environment.
 
Do you feel it important that an audience is able to deduct the processes and ideas behind a work purely on the basis of the music? If so, how do you make them transparent?

Not at all. It is perfectly fine if a listener wants to decipher how I arrived at the story of nocturnal animals migrating and witches flying across the night sky when listening to "Homeward Waltz".
 
In how much, do you feel, are creative decisions shaped by cultural differences – and in how much, vice versa, is the perception of sound influenced by cultural differences?

There are artists who hold proud and dearly their background and how it influences their art, and I deeply respect that. Then there are also artists who transcend these boundaries… I love it when I hear a melody and cannot put a finger on what kind of environment or where it had been composed.
 
The relationship between music and other forms of art – painting, video art and cinema most importantly - has become increasingly important. How do you see this relationship yourself and in how far, do you feel, does music relate to other senses than hearing alone?

They are all intertwined and co-related. Like the rain cycle. I could not have finished making "A Little Fable" without the visions I had and they are definitely not complete as sound alone… so when I composed "Landscape With A Fairy" I wanted to make a short film for it. The five senses are important. The paper used in my artbook had to emanate the right scent. Similarly, when I put together an outfit a scent completes it.
 


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