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Son of Rose: Documenting Tactile Times

  Tobias

In which way do you see installations, visual arts and site-specific work as complementary to your audio work?
All of my creative directions rely heavily on my interest and explorations in sound and music. I see it less as complementary, or a simple accompaniment but as a way of re-imagining the medium and my process. I like the idea of completely exhausting the potential of a medium, allowing for it to inform itself rather than having to search for some meaning to attach to it in order for it to have integrity.


Would it be correct to say that „All In“ constitutes a sort of retrospective of your work as a Sound Artist?
You could see it that way. All In consists of at least four years worth of recordings made in my old studio. I spent a lot of time there, actually I practically lived there... We had all kinds of instruments and a very fun "live room" for multi track recording. Microphones were taped to the walls, hanging from the ceiling, under blankets, you name it! All In captures this time when I was able to be extremely tactile with composing and recording.



Five years is a long time. What, to you, are constant themes running through your work?
The years seem to be flying by, but yes, 5 "recording years" is a long time! This is a really hard question for me... I guess the obvious ones would be resonance, texture, timbre, experimentation, patterns, technology, reduction, abstraction, minimalism and maximalism.

In which way have your technique and aesthetics changed over these years?
I don't think they've changed necessarily, for better or worse. I am torn between being a creature of habit and never wanting to do the same thing twice! This being said, I do feel that I am maturing as an artist and composer and in constant refinement of my technique. I hope this never ends! What I did 10 years ago is very different from what I do now but this could be the result of the process...


Have there been artists that you worked for as an engineer or producer influenced your own work on „All In“?
Not specifically, maybe in a very indirect way. Actually, I can say that Zachary Watkins sparked my initial interest with the piano and various resonating techniques. Furthermore It's crucial for me to maintain a steady flow of work regardless of who and what I am work with. It's an act of exercising my skills, it keeps the blood flowing. I recently mastered a beautiful record for Ryonkt and I used a lot of the same techniques I used for All In.


„Falling Forward“ is one of my favorite tracks this year. How did it come about?
Thank you, that makes me smile! Falling Forward was actually a track that I've been working on for some time. The title came first - I was thinking of weightlessness, I wanted to interpret this feeling of weightlessness with sound. It sounds like an Organ but it's actually just the resonant frequencies of a Grand Piano processed in real-time. I actually had an entire record under this title, it never got picked up.


Your press releases freely admits that the original source of a lot of your instruments is no longer recognizable after the transformation process – why are you nonetheless relying on them in the first place, then?
Ah... good one! It's the tactile nature of drawing sound from an acoustic instrument that I was attracted to (less so know). I also like drawing parallels with synthetic sounds and acoustic sounds. I have had my hands in all sorts of instruments over the years, I was collecting them like someone would collect records or books. My first instrument was a Trumpet, the person I bought it from asked if I knew how to play or if I was going to take a class, they were a bit shocked when I told them " I just want to use it to resonate a room and record it". I laugh now, but I was dead serious then!

 
Son of Rose seems a very personal project. How do you decide, what material is released under your own name and what as Son of Rose?
Son of Rose is a very personal project and I am glad you sense that. Although I only have recordings dating from 2004 I have been developing this project since 1999. The work I release under Son of Rose is, in my opinion, more musical and deals with more musical theories and techniques, explorations with a dash of how I may be resonating at that moment in time. What I am doing under my own name can go any direction at anytime and has no limitations what so ever. Very liberating actually!

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