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Talks with vidnaObmana |
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Talks with vidnaObmana |
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vidnaObmana
Spore
Tremor
Subterranean Collective
Innerzone W/Steve Roach
The Trilogy
Well of Souls
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Spore: AV: Tell me about when music first became an important expression of who you were and how it was that you chose to let these impulses come out. VO: As a young kid I got extremely fascinated by movie soundtracks and this is probably what pushed me towards instrumental music in general and since in the late 70’s and early 80’s a lot of the soundtracks were composed on electronic instruments, my interest for electronic music got accentuated. I do remember that my first experiments were simple and in fact quite silly manipulations of existing records on the turntable, using sound effect records and bits from soundtracks and classical music. Creating a lockgroove was my favorite habit back then. But the philosophy and my dedication to create sound became more serious when I bought myself a couple of basic effect-processors and a Korg MS-20. This is how I slowly moved into the terrain of industrial music and confirmed my early passion for music and generating sound in general.
I do remember a very funny situation
when I went to a mastering studio to finalize my debut
Cd album ‘Passage in This went on for the complete 70 minutes of the album. It was funny but quite striking as it pointed out the difference between an autodidact and classical-trained musician. But now, I do realize that perhaps the basic training would have helped me over the years to realize some of the aspects I wanted to achieve in my music as well. For instance, I do regret it now that I can’t read or write a single note and hardly comprehend the theory of tuning. Luckily, I’ve been able to swirl around these basics when working together with more classical-trained musicians like Joris De Backer and church organist Willem Tanke. Somehow you do discover your own form of notating, especially when you start to play more conventional instruments like the guitar. But I’ll never know if it would have made a huge difference whether I started off as a classical-trained musician or not. AV: Who are some of the earliest musical influences that you recall on the music that you create today? VO: Since I moved through various phases in my almost 20 years as vidnaObmana, naturally the inspiration varied as well but I guess early influences were SPK, Throbbing Gristle and Brian Eno, along with a variety of soundtrack music. AV: Tell me about what your working name vidnaObmana means and why you chose to use it instead of your proper name for releasing your music? VO: I never liked the idea of using my real name since it would link my own personality immediately and automatically to the music I was going to make. I always felt that the music was independent enough to stand on its own, apart from how I personally live my life or what my concept of life is, and I’m still convinced it has been the best way to portray my music. I like it when people refer to vidnaObmana as an entity rather than a person. Translated from the former Serbo-Croation language, vidnaObmana means ‘optical illusion’. A definition I continue to support as I firmly believe music is such a universal expression. I avoid any kind of pre-consumed philosophy in regards to my music in order to give the listener’s own perception complete freedom and as far as possible I publicly avoid attaching a personal agenda to every new work. AV: When was it that you discovered ambient music and realized that this was the kind of music that you were being drawn to create? VO: At a certain point I felt that industrial music, in which by then I had been working for a couple of years and had released several cassette works, became limited in regards to what I wanted to accomplish. More and more I tried with the limited tools available to create more expansive atmospheres in my music but the MS-20 at that time sounded too harsh and raw for the sound I heard in my mind. Again here I was drawn to a more eerie and soothing quality of soundtrack music until I discovered the music of Brian Eno by accident. That was around 1986 at which time I had neverr heard of ambient music before as I was completely absorbed in the subculture of harsh power electronics and dissonant music. It’s thanks to my parents I was able to buy myself a better synthesizer and a bit more advanced recording equipment. A new world opened up and for the first time I was able to bring a new phase to my life. AV: Who were some of the ambient musicians that influenced the style of music that you make today? Why were they so influential? VO: Definitely Brian Eno in my early stage of becoming vidnaObmana who most listeners know me as. Eno’s music was really essential to me in terms of creating an expansive soundstructure with a limited amount of elements. One major example and influence back then was his fantastic Discreet Music album. And although loops always fascinated me (like the vinyl lockgrooves and later on the old-fashioned tapeloops), Discreet Music taught me a lot about electronic looping and using longer delays as a loopeffect. Over the years I’ve been listening to a lot of music but more and more I realize it’s music of the opposite genre that affects me and influences the music of vidnaObmana to a greater extent. Currently I hardly listen to any ambient music at all as much of my music becomes ever harder to label as ambient.
VO: The techniques definitely expanded over the years but the main element of composing behind my music still remains the use of loops, in whatever format I'm working. It’s also the technique of looping I started to alter and re-use according to the concept of the album I was making at that time. I still use loops extensively but they definitely changed in form and the way that I use them now is less obvious and more transparent than on albums like The River of Appearance. Today I do combine the technique of looping together with more lively interaction on various instruments, like the fujara or the electric guitar. Even the loops themselves are utilized in a less pre-determined fashion so that the structure sounds less tight and more open than before. Let us say that over the course of recording an album the mode I’m in to compose the tracks is much more spontaneous and lively than years earlier. AV: Do you see yourself growing as a musician as you finish up each new project? What kinds of musical progressions have you been through up to this point in your career? VO: Oh absolutely or at least I do hope so. Otherwise I don’t have the motivation to continue. Sometimes the progression takes a longer time to get established, like in the early years when I was recording ambient music, but now I do feel very comfortable with how everything solidifies and the way my music continues to grow and change. Never liked the idea of compromise and although just prior to the initiation of the Dante trilogy (recording Tremor) I had a difficult time in order to see and understand which path to take after years of comfort but also stagnation in the ambient scene, looking back at the inner conflict I’m proud I followed my instinct to step away from the ambient approach and incorporate new elements. Tremor and Spore are the prime examples of what I’m referring to and the new trilogy injected me with fresh blood and a re-focused spirit. AV: How do you feel about working with others on collaborative projects? Is there a big difference in working with others to complete a project as opposed to relying on yourself? VO: For sure, and I truly feel a collaboration can only be succesful if there’s a distinctive difference. It’s just the motivation and influence by the colleague you’re working with on an album that makes you stand out as a musician in terms of developing new sounds and performing differently on specific instruments. I really love it when a collaboration is much more than just a fusion of both personalities behind the work but that the collaboration generates a new and not so familiar blend.
The bonding with Asmus is as qualitative and rewarding as my work with Steve but it’s on a more intellectual level. Asmus and I clearly know from each other by discussing the possible collaboration upfront which way to turn and what to avoid. Asmus, like I do, has a very specific and willful vision he wants to stay faithful to and this means that there are certain aspects to our collaborations which are again unique to those only. I share with Asmus a great passion for the experimental and more dissonant, and it was the recycling technique which brought us together in the first place. I’m definitely looking forward to working with him again sometime next year. More real-time and improvisational is my work together with jazz musician Joris De Backer. Never before have I had the pleasure of working so intensely and with so much detail together with a classical-trained musician, who originates from a completely different world of music. A funny thing about the collaboration with Joris is that no matter how hard we tried in the past couple of years to record our studio album, each time we were dissatisfied with the result since it gets overshadowed by the power and intensity of our live performances. Also different was that with Joris I actually started to collaborate after exploring each other's boundaries and interests live in concert. Most of the time it’s the opposite but with Joris the sense of performing live gets so accentuated and powerful, it becomes really difficult to return afterwards to a solo mode of playing live. The fusion of his craftmanship on the double bass and piano with my more experimental approach on guitar and fujara is very productive and inspiring for both of us so more and more we’re convinced that our debut album together should be a live one. Naturally I do look forward to some new live performances as well. AV: During the normal course of creating your music what are some of the instruments and electronics you use to achieve the sound that you are seeking? VO: I have never have been a gear collector and I’ve kept my studio as minimal but focused as possible in order to squeeze out the best and most from the tools I use. Synthesizer-like I work with a couple of Korg workstations and the first edition of the Nordlead, a Emu sampler, lots of effect- processors (rackunits, pedals, etc.) which remain the backbone and most essential part of sculpting the sound, electric and bass guitar, a fairly large collection of fujara’s and a diverse selection of ethnic instruments. For recording I’ve a Mackie mixing board, an ADAT recorder, Pro-Tools and a Tascam DAT and CD recorder for mastering. So like I said pretty minimal but so far I’ve been able to utilize and enjoy the studio’ set-up in a most effective way and maintain a diversity in sound and tonality. AV: There are quite a few names that apply to your music, when you are describing your music to someone in the media or to someone who may not be familiar with what it is that you create, how do you describe your music? VO: Oh, that’s a difficult one and I’m not sure how to answer this one. I still like the label ‘atmospheric music’ but it doesn’t say much. Most of the times when I do need to explain things or describe my music to somebody new I talk about a universal fusion of elements, derived from specific genres like ambient, world, industrial and even jazz music. I do think it’s fair to state the current music of vidnaObmana can’t be labelled as purely one style of music but now that I reached a certain level of expertise, the fusion of all elements from the different regions give it a texture all its own. It definitely becomes more complex to actually categorize my music now so the best way to describe it is to actually listen to an album. AV: You've been doing some touring in support of your latest offering called Spore, tell me about the making of Spore and what listeners can expect when they pick up a copy. When you embark on a new project like Spore, how do you approach the creative aspects of the task? Do you set aside time to work on it or do you work when the “muse” prompts you to? VO: The complexity of change started when I got stuck with a sort of a writer’s block after working extensively on The Surreal Sanctuary and The Contemporary Nocturne. I absolutely didn’t know which way to turn musically and somehow after about operating in the field of pure atmospheric and ambient music for more over a decade, I felt burned out on the subculture. Despite my infinite passion for pure atmosphere and expansive soundscapes, I really felt I needed to look somehow beyond the ‘limitations’ of ambient music. A personal feeling of limitation as I didn’t feel comfortable with the sort of conservatism in the ambient scenery. An example, if I would record only what the scene predicted, I would still be recording follow-up versions to The River of Appearance. At this stage I experienced this as claustrophobic and somehow it started to blur my vision in what I wanted to achieve. My apologies if this sounds a bit rude, though I’ve got to be honest here and relate the change of style and profile with the complexity of finding your own voice and following the path you want to explore. Somehow I got the urge to pick up the experience from way before I initially started to record ambient music. The pre-ambient days I consider to be my industrial period with a series of cassette releases ranging from pure power and noise electronics to more groove electro music. The Release and Relapse Records’ connection made my return to more experimental and more daring work possible and I value my past in industrial music significantly. A past experience and phase I have been ignoring for a long time as it is currently not even part of my official discography. Looking back at a bit of my history as a young musician motivated me to step forward and shift gear with the style and overall identity of vidnaObmana. Tremor, the first part of the Dante trilogy, was the essential album for me that unites my fascination for the avantgarde (as recently explored on albums for Hypnos) and my longing for broadening my horizon in terms of music, communication and philosophy. It really initiated what I call the rebirth of vidnaObmana. The concept was similar to another story. Again over the past 10 years I never felt comfortable in using Dante's Inferno as part of my inspiraton for a specific work up till now, although I’ve been fascinated by the complexity and simultaneous beauty of this work, far beyond the cliché of blood and gore it quite often is personalized with. Somehow its obscure and macabre and a strong character was in sync with the way I felt during my composer’s block. Musically, I found a strange relationship between the inner-battle explored in Dante's Inferno and my fascination for more bold and experimental elements in my music. It's all part of that continuing conflict, evaluation and progress in my personal life and how I want to score my musical presence in the near future. I’m glad I did and from the moment Tremor was completed, I knew exactly where to go with Spore. While Tremor was still quite vidna-orientated towards the end of the album it slowly shifted gear in terms of tonality and the use of elements as part of creating the mood and atmosphere of the music. Spore is naturally the logic continuation and incorporates much more the experimental element which makes the overall album less smooth, more straightforward and probably not so relaxing than some of my older works. It’s surely a risk but one I had to take in order to see what the future holds for me as a musician and a human being. The last couple of years I was approaching the end of the tunnel, so to speak, in terms of creating music in a specific genre and realized that remaining in this area would diminish my personal quality as a musician and most essential my personal life as the music is a primal part of my living world. I’m very proud of what I achieved with Spore and Tremor, and although I’m still touring with Spore-related music, I do look forward to my return to the studio for recording the closing chapter in this trilogy. The creative juice is flowing. AV: Do you share an in progress work with anyone else to get feedback about your creative processes? VO: Not really, especially when I’m recording a solo work. I like to present a new work in its entity to my listeners and some of my friends who have an objective ear. I’ll intend to work around the concept of a complete album so giving somebody a preview of what they can expect takes it out of its original context and what I want to achieve as a whole.
AV: When you are out on the road and talking to the listeners of your music, do they ever offer you insights into your music that you hadn't noticed before? VO: Oh absolutely, this is definitely one of the reasons why I go on tour. Aside from promoting the music, it gives me as an artist the best opportunity to share the music with the ‘fans’ and immediately get the purest form of feedback. I've always liked this and since music in general is quite subjective, it’s just fascinating to experience how different people react to my music in a live setting. Especially now when my music has become edgier and more dynamic, the contrast with the older vidna music is quite clear and it’s just really interesting to see how people respond to such a change, whether it’s positive or negative. Not that I would take the commentary into account for future works but it definitely broadens my perception as a human being and an artist as to how my music is actually experienced by the listener. AV: You seem to have quite a few irons in the fire at any given time, what should we be looking for from you in the coming months? VO: Naturally, I’m still in the flow of promoting Spore and this will continue for the next 2 months. Also recently released is a more experimental but pretty floating album with American musician David Lee Myers (formerly known as Arcane Device) on Klanggalerie and scheduled in the studio are recordings for the 2nd act of my Opera for Four Fusion Works, titled Phrasing the Air, and Legacy, the 3rd part in my Dante trilogy. Meanwhile I’m still developing a plan for finally setting up my own personal label for new and archive recordings but this is still far from completed. AV: What role has MP3's and the internet played in getting your music heard and helping you to promote your career? VO: Don’t know exactly what to think of MP3’s as I never experienced any advantage to having them online but you never know. I can confirm that the Internet itself helps me tremendously with the task of spreading the news and making my music available to customers worldwide. Way back in the early 80’s, when operating in the cassette network, I was used to doing the exchange through regular mail and that proved to be a long-term transaction. Now with email and having a webspace online, you can do your correspondence fast and quite punctual. The flipside is that you’re obliged to keep your service as a mail- order outlet up to the same level as well while news of last week is considered old news. Nevertheless, I really consider the Internet to be a perfect haven for all alternative musicians out there as it gives us the ability to set up an independent strength, away from the label commitments and legal agreements. AV: Do you feel that ambient music will ever grow beyond the marketshare that it currently holds or will it always be a small niche in the overall music industry? Why? VO: I don’t know really. Sometimes I do think it’s steadily growing but other times I believe the opposite. The most frustrating element is that the ambient music we know unfortunately has no commercial link with what they call ambient music in the DJ and techno-orientated scene. I truly feel that our kind of ambient music is much more true to its original concept than what for instance Aphex Twin has been labelling as ambient. I’m sure our scene would definitely get a serious boost if it was recognized by the other scene and commercially by the major distribution companies and press, who have been raving about the works by Aphex Twin and others. Unfortunately it currently remains separate. AV: Tell me about some of your upcoming concert appearances as you head out on the road to promote your latest release, Spore. VO: Well, I just did the US part of my tour promoting Spore and I really enjoyed that one. On Friday I’m leaving for the European tour so naturally the US experience will work to my advantage as it gives me more confidence in performing live and sculpting the sound I want to achieve. It’s definitely much heavier and dynamic than any of my previous concerts as the live music is completely related to the Spore concept. The music performed live is edgier and less spacey and in combination with the minimal but abstract photography projections by my wife Martina Verhoeven it gets a bleak and has a less than smooth character. After building up my performances for years, I finally feel comfortable with the current set-up and look forward to continuing the promotional tour a bit longer. AV: Any final words for vidnaObmana listeners here in the states and around the world? VO: Just
how fortunate I’ve been with following my own voice
and realizing the music I always wanted to score. This
Something I can’t take for granted and which I enjoy every moment. AV: Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule and talking to Ambient Visions. Good luck on your upcoming projects and may your own inner voice always be your guide. |
