[Interview by Jacopo Vigezzi, originally published in Prog Rock Journal, July 10; republished with permission. Link ]
You’ve mentioned that your intellectual life is a “memory palace” full of books. Besides “Mallarmé” and “Borges,” what other authors inhabit the "rooms" of your current musical thinking?
It would certainly surpass the framework of this interview to take you on a full tour. And if I worked in advertising, I would say you need to check out the next few projects to find out.
But in expanding on my original statement, I would say that this personal memory palace is not only filled with books, but also with a vast catalogue of things my mind has bookmarked for one reason or another.
I believe that memories often drive creation, especially when, as in my collaboration with Christian, someone else’s catalogue of thoughts comes into play.
The original ceremonial function of music was often to support the recitation of poetry or religious texts. So the connection between story and sound has been with us for a very long time.
The knowledge of a vast catalogue of ideas creates the potential for new readings. No story is the same, and every story is the same. I think Borges would agree.
You handled the mixing and mastering for both releases. What was the greatest challenge in balancing the unhurried pace of these works with the meticulous precision required for such deep listening?
I think of this process as the ultimate treat for any composer: you are conducting the orchestra, you can fine-tune any detail down to a microscopic level, and you can alter the space and the relationships within that space at will.
As such, engineering and mastering this type of project requires the same degree of concentration that a conducting performance would.
In my mastering approach, I try to alternate between deep technical adjustments and general listening sessions away from the studio. It is a curious fact that in order to evaluate the flow of music, you have to alter your field of experience.
Many engineers do this by listening at extremely low volume, but I feel it is mainly a question of mindset. The absence of analysis while you listen.
What you feel often defies analysis.
You were classically trained in Vienna before joining Tangerine Dream at age 23. How much of that academic discipline still survives in the way you "sculpt" Electronic sound today?
While I certainly studied and always appreciated classical music, my real love was always in the studio and with the bands I was playing in. I also studied musicology, so in many ways I am simply a music geek, endlessly obsessing over this or that thing I have just discovered.
The question brings us back to something I mentioned earlier: it is now possible to create and realize a piece similar to Varèse on a laptop with a collection of software tools. So even if you don’t have the resources or the training, many of the things you heard and admired are suddenly within reach.
I do think of music as an act of sculpting. And the aesthetic frame you use for that process ultimately consists of all the music you have heard before—and the quality of that music.
When I listen to strings, the fact that I grew up in Austria within a certain symphonic tradition will always influence how I evaluate string sound. A great deal of this simply becomes part of your system. It becomes part of your musical personality.
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