Name: Jelena Glazova
Occupation: Sound artist, visual artist
Nationality: Latvian
Recent release: Jelena Glazova's The Dream of Hans Castorp is out via HEM.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: John Cage Silence: Lectures and Writings; Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead); An Anthology of Noise and Electronic music compilation in 7 albums (2001-2011); Vedas and Upanishads; A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Deleuze and Guattari; film on Eliane Radigue A Portrait of Eliane Radigue

If you enjoyed these thoughts by Jelena Glazova and would like to find out more about her work, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



Can you talk a bit about your interest in or fascination for sound? What were early experiences which sparked it?

I guess my early interest was in music itself – I was dissatisfied with melodicism and looked for something “more” when I was taking piano lessons as a kid.

I started asking myself that question “what else could music be?” This is how it all started.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances using sound in an unusual or remarkable way captured your imagination in the beginning?

I was fascinated by Haswell and Hecker performance at Skaņu Mežs festival (Sound Forest festival) in May 2008 – that was my first experience of live sound art probably.

My head exploded immediately and I think I still haven’t recovered after that gig.

What's your take on how your upbringing and cultural surrounding have influenced your sonic preferences?

I had a wonderful course on the history of music at the Latvian Academy of Culture, taught by professor Pauls Dambis. Dambis is a composer himself, so he was able to explain main theoretical aspects of each composer's technique. This was very inspiring and encouraged me to explore history of experimental music as well.

Working predominantly with field recordings and sound can be an incisive step / 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?

Not really. I've been creating sound art pieces for more than 10 years now, and if I want to do something else – there are other mediums I am working with, such as poetry, performance art, visual art - there is a rich palette of artistic expressions available to me.

How would you describe the shift of moving towards music which places the focus foremost on sound, both from your perspective as a listener and a creator?

I guess it is a good meditational practice both for a listener and a creator. A good answer would be this piece by Eliane Radigue’s:



What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and working with sound? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage when it comes to your way of working with sound?

Yes, I see myself as a post-minimalist, post-conceptual sound artist.

I work mostly with samples of my voice - formally, my technique is inspired by the sound poetry tradition of using the human voice, which has its roots in Dadaism and Futurism. The drone / noise form (drone as an archaic form, ancient Near East etc.) is a metaphor for an eternally-flowing development of “primary” matter versus human body development (at the macrocosmic/ microcosmic levels).

I combine my interest in postmodernism with its collage aesthetics and deconstruction practices and my interest in Eastern philosophy with the concepts of nothingness and eternal development; for example – deconstruction / fragmentation practice (methodologically – granular synthesis as digital processing) as one of the metaphors reflecting the concept of unsustainability of elements, as a non-existence of the individual as an indivisible substance, but as a chain of perceptive phenomena (David Hume – buddhism connection).

What are the sounds that you find yourself most drawn to?  Are there sounds you reject – if so, for what reasons?

I am an adept of sonic paganism (all sounds are equal, all sounds are god).



As creative goals and technical abilities change, so does the need for different tools of expression, from instruments via software tools and recording equipment. Can you describe this path for you personally starting from your first studio/first instruments and equipment? What motivated some of the choices you made in terms of instruments/tools/equipment over the years?

I don’t think equipment dictates creation. Music is written in your head.

Where do you find the sounds you're working with? How do you collect and organise them?  

I work mostly with recordings of my voice. As a conceptual artist I primarily work with filtered recordings – usually my own voice (as a generator) or other conceptually-justified material (voice as a material is justified due to my practice as a poet), heavily altering it and manipulating it with the help of digital processing.

Considering voice processing to be a kind of deconstruction of vocal elements – a form of expressing unpronounced speech (as a metaphor for the individual’s sub-consciousness) – connecting it with poetic practice and the issue of physicality (not only am I preoccupied with it in my practice as an artist, physicality also serves as the main basis for my sound art practice).

From the point of view of your creative process, how do you work with sounds? Can you take me through your process on the basis of a project or album that's particularly dear to you?

I read Bardo Thodol few times and imagined I am dying:



The possibilities of modern production tools have allowed artists to realise ever more refined or extreme sounds. Is there a sound you would personally like to create but haven't been able to yet?

I’d like to create a piece of sound art as torturing erotic massage as seen in Barbarella (1968) (joke)

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

I think Eliane Radigue has a great answer for that:



The idea of acoustic ecology has drawn a lot of attention to the question of how much we are affected by the sound surrounding us. What's your take on this and on acoustic ecology as a movement in general?  

I would like to reply with a song from art project “Songs from the compost: mutating bodies, imploding stars” by Lithuanian artist Eglė Budvytytė.

We can listen to a pop song or open our window and simply take in the noises of the environment. Without going into the semantics of 'music vs field recordings', in which way are these experiences different and / or connected, do you feel?

I will reply with John Cage’s Rozart Mix:



From the concept of Nada Brahma to "In the Beginning was the Word", many spiritual traditions have regarded sound as the basis of the world. Regardless of whether you're taking a scientific or spiritual angle, what is your own take on the idea of a harmony of the spheres and sound as the foundational element of existence?

I like to quote Atharvaveda 1st book – incantation for the Lord of Speech to appear and to keep the sacred.

Harmony of the spheres is what I am permanently trying to achieve in my work.