Crushing the Mold: An Interview with JG Thirlwell

Posted in Art, Interviews, Music, Underground/Cult |

Workstation from freq_out 4 2006
Vault under the Schlossplatz in Berlin
Photo © Frank Bode

You seem to jump around different artistic mediums, but what do you feel the most “at home” or “confident” indulging in?
There are a few things I feel at home or confident in but I like to challenge myself. This is an idea I had and I realized it and had a couple of people help me fabricate it. It’s very difficult to document, and un-downloadable! I am planning to continue with sculptural works.

Will you be doing freq-out or Lyrics in Libraries again?
We hope to do at least six more freq-outs so everyone has hit each frequency once. It is most eloquently explained at its own website. It looks like the next freq-out will be in Belgium in September 2008.

[freq_out is a sound installation comprised of 12 individual sound works each utilizing a specific frequency range, made on-site, and amplified to act as a single, generative sound-space.—Ed.]

As for Lyrics in Libraries, that was a project where they invited musicians to read their lyrics. I read lyrics and other writings backed by tapes and Angharad Davies improvising on violin.

I since did another spoken word show with Angharad at a spoken word series in Brussels.

I currently have no plans to do it again.

On to DJ Otesfu. . . how does Otesfu differ from all the other DJs out there? For those who’ve not been to an Otesfu event, is there any signature to your style, or does it depend on your mood?
It depends on the venue, the vibe and the audience, and what I feel like trying. Actually I don’t use then name Otefsu any more, haven’t for some years.

It used to be more crime-spy sounding, now it’s more beat-tastic free form.

Do you plan on doing any more work under Baby Zizanie?
Baby Zizanie started a piece for a Jodorowsky tribute album, but that project seemed to fizzle before it got started. We made the piece, though. I’d like to do some more BZ works with Mr. [Jim] Coleman, but under a different working scheme. The initial model for BZ was using electronics and creating a framework and improvising live over it, with live visuals. It was all about transitions rather than destinations. We did the latest piece via email exchange and it uses more acoustic sound sources, so I d like to try more works in this method with Coleman as it flips the BZ model around.

Who are Christian Marclay and Chloé Delaume? What was your musical involvement with them?
Christian Marclay is an artist whose work refers to sound and music culture. He is also a “record player” (as opposed to a DJ) and is quite brilliant.

I have known him for some years. Recently I was lucky enough to perform his Screen Play piece, once in Lyon with FM Einheit and Frédéric Le Junter, and once in London with Blevin Blechtum.

The Screen Play piece is a film Christian edited together from found footage, which has also occasionally has graphic elements added on top. This forms the “score” which cues and inspires the performance to create the live “soundtrack.”

Chloé Delaume is a French author with whom I collaborated on a performance project some years ago.

You can look them both up on the Internet and get a more rounded picture than what I am going to tell you here.

Foetus, VEIN, 2007

If you had to pick a favorite remix on VEIN, which one would were you the most pleased with overall? (My picks were yours and Trztn’s).
I don’t have a favorite child. I am very happy with how mine turned out.

I think it’s a great album. I may have browbeat some of the artists a bit which some may say is a no-no in the remix world, but ultimately my name’s going on there.

Is Wiseblood a project that has been abandoned for good? Do you feel that you’ve eclipsed that part of your many guises?
It is indefinitely on ice. I haven’t been in touch with Roli [Mosimann] for a while.

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Click to read more from JG Thirlwell on. . .

LEMUR, Strings of Consciousness, Elysian Fields
Current favorites, Der Kastanienball, “Narcissum Escenda”
freq_out, Baby Zizanie, Christian Marclay, Chloé Delaume
Afflictions, shoes, and sunglasses

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