Interview: Vestigial
TobiasYou just released your split „Of Earth and Fire“ on Loki Foundation. To me, Vinyl seems like the perfect medium for your music. What are your own thoughts on this?
Well, I agree with you totally; Vinyl still is and will remain forever the medium for those who still LISTEN to music, compared to all those digital mass audio consumer formats, which allow people to only HEAR music with a kind of “fast and furious” attitude, so superficial and soulless. Behind every record, there is a work which embraces different points of view of the artist, both visually and conceptually. This mass production of music will lead to a complete saturation (it is what is already happening right now, I guess) and people will have even more difficoulties to find and take the time to listen music carefully so as an Ouroboros, maybe the Vinyl will come back again into everydaylife listening approach, the last chance before the black abyss, who know.
How did the Split come about? Did you establish contact with Penjaga Insaf yourself?
I sent the debut mcd “Aeon” to Renè/Loki Foundation/Inade and he showed interest in my project and offered me a deal for a split vinyl with Penjaga Insaf. Personally, I know Frank from Herbst9, but only Henry (the H9 mastermind) is involved in Penjaga together with Ingo, the percussionist.
„Of Earth and Fire“ is the follow-up to your self-produced 3' „Aeon”...
...exactly, I replaced most part of my studio equipment and the vinyl tracks are the first results from it!
...which was another extremely luxuriously packaged item. How important is the visual side of your albums to you?
The visual side is the main focus of my project. With my music, I try to describe “images” and of course the visual side maintains an important role in the whole concept. I’m working hard on improving and enhancing this side of Vestigial and in the near future, there will be more related visuals, like motion graphics and short clip designed with music as ONE whole soundscape expression, You can check one little experiment here:
Your music uses processed vocals to an important degree. Where do they come from? How important is the actual text for the appreciation of the music?
Samples I use are choosen in reference to the track’s subject. Regarding “Aeon”, many of the voice samples I used were taken from psychological and physics-related discussions and spoken word recordings. By the way, I will mainly use my own processed vocals in the future, so as to avoid the use of too many sampled ones. Too many cliches in it…ehe!
The next big event for you is your upcoming album on ColdMeat. What can you tell us about it?
I’m really happy about it!!! CMI is one of the very very few labels I have appreciated and I considered important in these musical fields since I was a teenager. I know their main artists and I think most of them traced the main guidelines of a certain way to do experimental and ambient/industrial music, so what could possibly be better than to release my music with Roger!!!
Up intil now, you have mainly released in smaller and short-form formats. How did you take on the challenge of building a larger tension arch?
The full lenght is completely different matter than the recordings I did before; the main deal was to let shape the listening experience into a coherent and cohesive experience. I tried to let the album sound like a single, fluent piece, but divided into different chapters. Eeach tracks differs in atmosphere from the others, but remains chained into the basic focus of the record, I tried to give a unique dimension to each track without loosing the real theme of the complete work. At least , that’s what I hope to have achieved!
What's up for the rest of 2008? Any live gigs or collaborations ahead of you?
Mmmh, I will develop Vestigial into new and mixed media, work on new stuff and experiment with new sounds and recording methods. I’m exploring new way and concepts, never stagnate by the way! There are also some deals to play live. That’s something I really hope feel materialise, because it is my big desire to perform Vestigial live!
Collaborations? Well, there are a few projects I really aim to do something with, but time will tell!
By Tobias Fischer
Discography:
Aeon (self-released) 2007
Of Earth and of Fire/ with Penjaga Insaf (Loki Foundation) 2008
Homepage:
Vestigial
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2008-02-18