[Moshe]

http://thomasmoronic.blogspot.com/20...s-giffoni.html


01 April 2007

Thomas Moronic talks to Carlos Giffoni


I had a fairly hectic March, mainly due to starting a new job, but I'm back on top of things now. So expect new stuff soon. In the meantime, here's a break from the fiction for a while: Near the end of last year, I interviewed New York based musician Carlos Giffoni. The interview originally appeared in Issue Two of Feral Debris, which has now sold out. Enjoy. TM x

Thomas Moronic Talks to Carlos Giffoni

 

In the years since he uprooted from his home in Venezuela and landed in America, Carlos Giffoni has been busy laying down an impressively varied and prolific body of work. Originally known for his work with the Miami based three piece Monotract; in recent years (since the group decamped to New York) he has also been producing some pretty staggering solo records, as well as a never-ending list of collaborations with everyone from Gert-Jan Prins to Kid 606. Giffoni manages all this, as well as being the man behind New York’s highly respected annual No Fun Fest, which each year sees him curate a line-up of some of the most exciting names in experimental music.

I wanted to talk to you about improvisation, as you've been pretty heavily involved with that scene for a while now. I like a lot of improvised music, but my problem with some of it, is that I can pretty much tell what some of the music is going to sound like before I've listened to the record – which to me, defeats the point of performing an improvised set. Bizarrely, it seems like certain conventions and playing techniques have formed in certain areas of improvised music. I wanted to know your opinions about what constitutes a successful improvisation: how do you personally gage good improv' music from bad?

I think when i listen to improvised music I have the same standards that I do with a non improvised piece, I like to hear parts, and an overall structure, even if its really loose. for me improvised music works the best when it remains abstract but it also has a cohesive structure with different parts you can pick out that work well together. There are definitely standard techniques and conventions that are part of a certain type of improvised music (for example EAI or Jazz all have lots of these) but you can also twist it around to use it in a new way. for example with Death Unit (a group I have with two drummers, Chris Corsano and Trevor Tremain and Brian Sullivan on guitar) I like to pull the jazz move where everything pulls out except drums and it becomes a drum solo and then instruments kick back in after a bit, but in death unit there is two drummers so there is still communication an interesting interaction between two killer drummers going on, and when the instruments kick in is not a horn doing a melody, is a wall of electronics and guitar destruction.

Tell me about your recent tour of Japan, and in particular your collaborations with Merzbow and Jim O'Rourke. I was quite excited to hear about Jim doing new music as I'd read that he was taking a break to concentrate on film work. Was it just live performances you did with those two, or did you do some studio work as well? Are there going to be any releases? How did your association with those two artists come about?

I love going to Japan, this trip was specially good ‘cause I only did 6 gigs in two weeks in two cities so I got to do a lot of tourist stuff and hanging out, instead of running around to make a show every day like its usually the case with a tour. I was very very excited to play with Masami (Merzbow), I’ve been into his music for many years and was even more surprised when we set up and his gear was all analog, no computer, that was really interesting for me because I also pulled the computer out of my setup about 6 or 7 months ago and been doing all analog performances with synths since. And apparently this was the first time he has done all analog since the mid 90's, and then to top it off got to play with him and Jim at the last date of the tour too, both sets were really intense and will be released, currently the plan is to do the Merzbow/Giffoni duo on Important records and the trio set on No Fun Productions. These are both great quality recordings of the live set, we didn't do any studio work this time. I met Jim when he started working with Sonic Youth a number of years ago, I am friends with them and I was very interested in what Jim was doing with his label and the variety and intensity of his music so I was really happy when I moved to New York and he was playing out a lot for a period of time, I was probably at every single performance he did in New York for a couple of years unless I was on tour, so I saw him do a wide variety/range of styles live, laptop, synth, acoustic, drone, Jim can do anything and do it really good, and he got started when was very young. We became friends on that recent period of time in New York. The first time we played together it was Lee Ranaldo's suggestion for that North Six live gig that was later a release on Antiopic, originally it was going to be Lee/Carlos duo and then Lee suggested adding Jim and I was of course totally into it. I talked in person to Masami for the first time September of 2005 when me and Jim did a duo opening for him in New York and we talked a bit and he was very much into what me and Jim did live, we kept in touch since, trading records and exchanging emails here and there so it was natural to do this collaborations when I decided to go to Japan. I think Jim and him have known each other for over 20 years.

The majority of your records seem to be collaborations – the only solo stuff I've heard is Assassins Faith, and Welcome Home – is there any reason for this? Do you just feel more comfortable working as part of a group?

Hmm well that’s not exactly true, if you look at my discography you'll see that I’ve always done limited solo releases along with everything else I do, there is a few tapes, CDRs and some vinyl too. The thing with the more official solo releases is that I like to spend a lot of time working on them (sometimes years like is the case with Welcome Home) and I usually record lots and lots before I ever star choosing what’s going to go on a record and how I am going to structure it and then it takes months and months of work to narrow it down so that it fits on the media, and it has to sound and make me feel a certain way before I decide to release it. For example I’ve been putting the finishing touches to my next solo CD which I am going to be releasing on no fun productions in the next few months, I recorded 31 different things all ranging between 6 and 30 minutes trough a period of 7 months, that is hours and hours of material, and at the end the CD is only going to have 5 pieces non longer that 12 minutes each or so. It’s all analog modular synth recordings and I am quite happy with the final result. Besides this full length here are 2 other new solo releases coming in the next few months, a follow up to Assassins Faiths 3" CD on Choncdritic Sound, entitled 'Catholic Plague', and a one sided LP that is part of the Melted Mailbox LP series. Also I am going to be recording a second modular synth solo CD for Important for 2007. Indeed I do a lot of collaboration releases, and I think collaboration records are easier for me because I always play with people I trust and who's music I really like, so good things usually happen and I feel confident about the release faster than with the solo stuff because there is someone else involved in the project that I respect who is feeling positive about the recording. A studio CD with Fe-Mail we did in January just came out and before the year ends there will be things with Sudden Infant and Lasse Marhaug out, and the sets with Masami and Jim should be out early next year. And there is two death unit releases planned too. Also, a collaboration with Prurient should be out by the time this interview is up, probably one of the most intense recordings I’ve done.

Which collaborations are you most proud of? Are there certain records you feel have worked better than others. I think my personal favourite is probably the North Six CD that Antiopic put out.

I like the North six CD too, it was a very intense set and we got good recordings of it, but I think I am really proud of all of the collaborations that have come out and that are on the way, they are all special to me for different reasons, they are all very different from each other in both instrumentation and style and in a weird way a lot of them are parallel with very important moments in my personal life too. I feel very lucky to have been able to work with such an amazing group of musicians and hope the trend continues!

[Moshe]

You've been busy curating the annual No Fun Fest for a while now. What have been your own personal highlights of the event so far? Are there any performers that you would like to get for the event that you haven't managed so far? I guess I'm asking you about your dream line-up for a festival.

Every year is really my dream line-up for a festival when is all put together and confirmed I can't complain at all. Other people I would like to have that I haven't managed so far for a reason or another include Incapacitants (my favourite live band!),Merzbow, Hijokaidan, Corrupted, Oren Ambarchi, Masonna and Kevin Drumm, just to name a few; there are really lots of bands/people that I would love to see live so every year is a struggle to fit everything within a few days and to not totally loose my ass financially. At least two of those I mentioned will be performing on the next one though, so I am very excited already, as I think will be many others that enjoy the type of music the fest presents when they see the final line-up.

It seems as though recently noise music has been getting a much higher profile. Are there any reasons why you think this is? Do you feel that the No Fun Fest has been a helping hand in this?

I definitely think No Fun has helped a little as a central event were a tremendous amount of good and challenging music is presented and a place where a good amount of us meet once a year, interchange ideas and plan other things, but what has really pushed forward noise music is the new blood, all the young people that are now really active and pushing forward as musicians, organizers, labels, etc it has really been a big group effort world wide, there is still a lot of room for improvement and a lot more things that I think could happen, but I am also confident things are still changing for the better, and that we will continue to push forward.

It seems in a way noise music is a democratizing from of art, like when punk originally started – it seems to be a scene that encourages participation, rather than traditional rock scenes in which the audience play a very passive roll. What are your personal opinions about noise music – what is it that excites you about it etc?

It’s something I just enjoy doing myself: promoting and helping out people that are into it too, probably what I like is the freedom to structure sound without specific rules, to have infinite possibilities and options and to make good choices to create a sound piece that ultimately is moving, makes sense and has a place in our time is what excites me and what I am after every day, whether is me or someone else creating it.

What's happening with Monotract at the moment?

We recently released a full length on Ecstatic Peace titled 'Xprmntl Lvrs' it took a while for it to come out so in the meantime we were working on new material and recently finished a new studio album for Load Records which we are in the process of mixing and I think will probably be out early next year or even before, is the most challenging and exciting rock record we've done yet, totally dark and totally rocking songs. We are also playing ATP in December and will be doing a one week tour of the UK with prurient + Aaron Dilloway and Sudden Infant on a lot of the dates. So lots of exciting stuff.

With the Magik File application you created and put on the internet, you've started experimenting with audio-visual work as opposed to just music. How long have these experiments been going on? What other areas of art are you involved in?

I've been working on that kind of stuff for about 3 or 4 years now parallel to the music only output. I did a really noisy motion tracking installation for a show at the new school a few years ago, and also did an audiovisual performance that involved visualization and reactive audio manipulated by brain waves. I also occasionally teach people that want to get into that kind of stuff at Parsons School of Design. It’s slowed down recently but I hope to have time in the next couple of years to work on other ideas I have in the audiovisual medium.

Finally – what records have caught your ear recently? Any recommendations?

Stuff Ive been listening to a lot recently (new and not so new):Incapacitants Pariah Tapes 5xcd set from freak animal Hijokaidan 'Romance'Corrupted 'Mundo Frio'Fushishutsa live double cdPekka Streng 'kesamaa' (nice relaxing old psych music from Finland)Wolf Eyes 'Human Animal'Bilskinir (sick black metal from Germany) Jazkmer 'Metal Music Machine'
Merzbow 'Sea of Blood'Masonna 'Ejaculator Generator'Smegma Plays MerzbowRunzelstirn & Gurgelstock 23 Brutal Humoroid Dramas by Rudolf Eb.erZaimph 'Sexual Infinity'

[sonicl]

I assume this must be Thomas Moronic who posts on here occasionally. If it is: well done, young man, that's a good little interview.

[A Thousand Threads]

Interesting interview.
thanks for posting

[jon boy]

bookmarked to read later. thanks