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 | Michael Bentley: "Greater than Zero" Interview (AmbiEntrance© - 1998) The AmbiEntrance has enjoyed the distinct pleasure of interviewing Michael Bentley, who under the musical moniker of eM, has just released the experimental, computeristic sound journey Greater than zero, less than one, or numerically speaking, 0<eM<1. Read on to hear the story behind the release as well as more about Bentley's label, the Foundry, as well as his other creative personas. (Photo contributed by Michael Bentley) |
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Link: For introductions, can you briefly describe the person who is eM?
Bentley: That would be me, Michael Bentley (eM=electromagnetic=electronic music=electric Michael - haha!). I work with pseudonyms mostly because I want to do different kinds of music and thought that calling this one eM and that one The Apiary etc. would be a way of designating different approaches and different styles, seems like a fairly common practice in this genre. I also hope (optimistically) that people will increasingly feel, "oh, it's from The Foundry, it'll be interesting, even if it's not exactly my cup of tea," and try different things. Link: So you *are* eM, The Apiary and half of Rhomb... how would you personally differentiate between the styles/personas of each of these projects? Bentley: The simplest definitions...eM is the experimental stuff (difficult listening is my favourite term)...The Apiary is more in the ethno-ambient area, using a fair amount of acoustically recorded sound and instruments in addition to the electronics...and rhomb is a collaboration between Nathan Kreisberg and myself, and so has elements of both of our interests and styles, as well as a shared past of listening to Kraftwerk, La Dusseldorf, Klaus Schulze, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, etc. Link: You've just released 0<eM<1 ; what were the circumstances of its creation? Bentley: There were many wonderful circumstances! I conceptualized this album over a year ago, during the time when I was recording Djinn, but I didn't have the means to make it happen. Time passes. This summer I was hired to play music for a Scottish Dance troupe on a tour of Norway. Other circumstances led to my acquiring a G3 Macintosh PowerBook, so I thought it would be fun to take it along, especially since I was going to be traveling for about five weeks! This gave me an opportunity to make the leap to hard disk recording and learn Digital Performer in a non-studio context, which seemed like it would be less frustrating. A friend of mine had also discovered some software that allows one to play any file as sound, so between the powerbook and this, suddenly I had the means to realize my concept for 0<eM<1! I recorded about two-thirds of the album while traveling. I was able to work in a variety of environments, from the lounge of a cruise ship to the front porch of a rustic cabin. It was very interesting, and stimulating. The Scottish music I was playing there, and most all of the Norwegian music I was exposed to, was traditional and acoustic. The people I was traveling with, though not uninterested, were not really into electronic music, so I had this dichotomy between, the very acoustic and the very electronic. I think it really affected what I ended up with on 0<eM<1. Link: I'm imagining your Scottish Dance Troupe work is very different from your own electronic compositions. What traditional instruments did you play on this tour? Bentley: Different, but still all about music and sound. On our Norwegian excursion I played bodhran, penny whistle, cedar flute and I also sang a little. My trick is to play a lot of instruments, but not play any of them well (haha)... Link: Can you share with us the name of the software that plays any file as sound? You mean you can open a SimpleText file, or a Photoshop TIFF and "hear" it? What does this usually sound like, and how much of this is worked into "0<eM<1"? Bentley: I can play any file of a certain size, a small file like a simple text file probably wouldn't have enough data in it. There are several programs that do this, but I can only remember one right now (the others are on a disk far away), and that is Sound Machine. Usually the results are quite harsh, often little more than white noise. I used other methods for extracting sound from these results, but sometimes you get lucky and something comes out that is just perfect. The way I worked these results into the album has to do with the overall structure of 0<eM<1, which is a journey from zero to one. The first track is 10 seconds of silence and the last track is 10 seconds of a single tone. The early cuts are the most "documentary," more or less presenting sounds as I found them, juxtaposing two tracks that are only slightly manipulated (other than choosing a certain segment of the sound). Twinned or Interleaved are examples of this. As the disc progresses the tracks become more and more arranged and manipulated, like collage, until Tangle is mostly short soundbites sequenced, looped, cut and pasted into a form of my design rather than the form of the original material. However, even in the more arranged stuff I drew melodic and rhythmic content from what I found, and the character of the pieces is totally dependent on the sounds I discovered along the way, rather than engineered, typical synthesizer output. Link: Tell us about Blábók and its role in 0<eM<1. Bentley: Blábók (Old Norse for blackbook..ok, I'm a medievalist nerd...it seemed appropriate for a trip to Norway) is the name of my laptop. Simply put, without this amazing tool, I would not have been able to create 0<eM<1. I'm very impressed with its usability and power. As I mentioned before, it was exceptional to be able to work in a totally different context, to watch incredible scenery drift by my window, and then to sit down and be able to create sounds on the spot. I had no keyboard controller or other "standard" equipment. I did use a minidisc player to bounce stuff off and onto my laptop when necessary. It was a very easy technique that allowed me to explore the converted sounds, both in a purely documentary fashion ("look what I found!") and also in terms of rearranging, manipulating and trying to give a shape to the raw material (something like collage, both abstract and specific). A good Blábók story - a few days ago, while on this latest round of travel, I was working in Digital Performer and needed to do a bounce down, three tracks to one. Blábók performed the operation and I imported the result into the file and went on with my work. Later I noticed that there were two mix-down files, the file I had used and another mystery file with a slightly different name. I opened this file and found a strangely rearranged version of the track Occasional off of 0<eM<1! There are many odd things about this, foremost in my mind being the fact that I had removed all the 0<eM<1 files from the hard disk before leaving home. I have no idea how it was able to reconstruct this material (I don't know of any hidden cache), or why it performed this seemingly random act - very mysterious and intriguing. I'm hanging onto that remix for some future use, it's wild! Link: You looked at (by listening to) the outer world with Djinn, and now have delved into the inner computerized world with 0<eM<1; what inspired this more "microscopic" viewpoint? Bentley: I'm not sure I'd describe it as microscopic, though I understand what you mean. One answer would be that I like the idea of holding a magnifying glass up to things and finding all the interesting detail that we usually miss. Another answer would be that as eM I am trying to find ways of describing our world through electronic music; and both computers and digital information, while seeming small of stature, are large in their role in our day to day activities, just as electromagnetic radiation is omnipresent. Does this make sense? Link: Definitely... that's what makes it (0<eM<1) interesting. But, do you call it "music", or what? Bentley: Well, that's for the listener to decide, really...it doesn't matter what I call it. I *will* say that I hear music and rhythm in so many sounds, from machine noise, like refrigerator hum, to water moving through pipes, from airplane engines to crickets. The world is rich with music, if we choose to perceive it that way. Link: Sounds like you're really merging your medieval sensibilities with your technological side, straddling two eras as it were... how does all the techy/electro stuff affect your standing in medievalist/acoustic circles, and vice versa? Bentley: My medieval sensibilities...medievalist/acoustic circles...hmmm...you're making me feel like some sort of techno-monk...haha! In any case, I see technology, whether a flute, drum or computer as a tool. You can get different results with different tools, but ultimately it is up to the person using them to hold it together, whether composing or choosing to use randomly generated sounds or rhythms. As for my folk/acoustic circle, I work with people who know me and know my abilities, and until recently they probably weren't aware of the electronic side. As for vice versa, who knows. So far the people I've dealt with have reacted pretty enthusiastically to the Foundry music, and part of where it came from, even though it may not sound like it, is from my time spent doing or listening to other kinds of music, like traditional folk...so I guess it's OK. Link: I've been checking out the Foundrysite; the chapbooks seem quite interesting. Can you tell us about them? Which came first, your writing/art, or your music? Bentley: The chapbooks were, on the whole, inspired by my fascination with the dadaists, particularly Max Ernst's work, as well as Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, and others. I think that the dadaists captured an amazing energy with their techniques and aesthetic - and HUMOUR. Art so often takes itself too seriously, and I liked the fact that the dadaists make you laugh while they're making a point. One of my favourite reviews of Djinn was one that pointed out how much humour there is there, and it's true, I think it's fairly funny as well as being serious (think of Go Back to Sleep, The Haze in Tropojope's Caff*, or Ravelero Driver (on)). The chapbooks vary in content, some are text based, others graphically oriented. I have several other publishing projects in the works now, but publishing is not really very affordable on a small scale, so I'm trying to come up with alternative means - we shall see how that goes. I suppose I started off as a graphic artist, something I still do quite a bit. I have also been writing for a long time, though not prolifically (I find it the most difficult of the media I have worked in). All along I have been interested in music, and spent time in high school and college working on electronic music with my friend and rhomb collaborator, Nathan Kreisberg. That was many years ago, and when Nathan went away to grad school, I kind of headed off in other directions. I spent time performing as part of a Scottish folk duo, played for Scottish and Irish dance classes, parties and performances, but mostly concentrated on graphics and writing. More recently, after I was well ensconced in the world of computers, I got a newer keyboard and MIDI interface and started the projects which led to the Foundry CDs. Nathan moved back to the area after that and things really started cooking. Link: At what point, and why, did you decide to create the Foundry? Bentley: The Foundry has been around in various forms for about 15 years, created to serve as an umbrella for my creative endeavours, mostly chapbooks at that point. Now we have a small collective exchanging ideas, doing some different kinds of work. The recording projects all have had my hand in them so far, but that may change in time; and I hope to be able to present some other kinds of endeavours, such as installations, or combination music/art performances, using a variety of artists. Link: Anything specific in mind, conceptually or otherwise, as far as installations or performances? Bentley: Oh yes, lots of plans...hopefully 1999 will see a live show incorporating various graphics and some other musicians. In addition Charles Browning (whose installation inspired most of the music on Descent) and I have talked about doing a bigger version of What are you afraid of? though we haven't gotten a space yet (it would likely be in Pennsylvania or New York). Link: How influential have you found the Web to be to the Foundry, and to you personally? Bentley: Well - hmm - it's nice to have a place to put up audio samples, summaries of the chapbooks, colour art and other information where people can get at it easily. I certainly could not afford to print and distribute all the things that the Foundrysite has presented so far! I think the web is successful as a source of information, providing people can find it. On the other hand (I'm sure you could hear this coming), I have real questions about the viability of the web as medium for business, at least at this time, and like it or not, this is something that I have to consider. Even a monster entity like amazon.com is continuing to lose money... I can only guess that they're hoping that some kind of web-market will kick in before they run out of capital, perhaps there are other dynamics involved. I believe that there are still a lot of people, on the consumer end, that like to see, touch and carry the CD before they buy, which I readily understand. I do plan to continue to use the web as a resource, and hope to increase its exposure. I can wholeheartedly say that email has had an enormous impact on the growth and development of The Foundry. I love being able to be in touch (and stay in touch!) with people from Sweden and Macedonia, Australia and Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. For instance, I'm answering these first questions from my father's house in Syracuse, NY (while visiting family), but I will be answering any further questions from home in Berkeley, since I'm heading home tomorrow. I think that's pretty damn cool as well as being pretty useful! Link: Who (generally speaking) are you finding to be most attracted to the sounds and sights produced by the Foundry? Bentley: Well, there's no one answer to that. The airplay, for instance, has come from different places, in fact different continents, in Europe (Croatia, Macedonia, France, Belgium and Spain), Australia, as well as the US and Canada. Programs which emphasize space music, ambient or even more new age, have played Hidden Topographies, Eclectronica and Descent, while other programs with a more ambient/electronica/experimental bent have found the eM CDs, along with bits of Descent and Hidden Topographies, to their liking. I think most listeners are finding us via these shows and magazine reviews. One thing I'm sort of perversely proud of is that few people seem to like all the Foundry discs, though they usually find them interesting. To me that says that they don't all sound alike, and that is definitely one of my goals. Link: What should we be expecting in the future from the Foundry? Bentley: Lots of music. New CDs from The Apiary and eM are in the works right now, and after that a new rhomb. There are several other projects, an album of songs, a series of "fictitious" soundtracks and one or two other things, that are lurking in the shadows. Several publishing type projects might happen, but they are less certain right now. And hopefully live shows next year. Link: I want to thank you for your time and input Michael. Best wishes in your various endeavors. Bentley: Thank you, and thanks for your time and interest, David, I'm happy to have a chance to talk about these projects and ideas!
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Link: I want to close by posting a long-delayed article which overviews
the Foundry's first four releases... eM's Djinn, the Eclectronica
compilation, The Apiary's "Descent", and Rhomb's Hidden Topographies.
Is there anything you'd like to add?
Bentley: Oh, how about a crass commercial plug? I'd like to mention that you can
order Foundry CDs from Backroads Music (http://www.backroadsmusic.com/),
from EAR/Rational (http://www.xmission.com/~ear/index.html) or directly
from The Foundry (http://www.foundrysite.com/orderform.html), where
there are RealAudio samples from each album
(http://www.foundrysite.com/sounds1.html). And, also, thanks for reading
this!
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Label Review: The Foundry (by Stephen Fruitman)
The Foundry is a new and particularly interesting label out of Berkeley, CA., the brainchild of Michael Bentley, himself an accomplished and multifacetted composer, as these records reveal. Each of the four CDs thus far released are exquisitely packaged in dark, glossy cardboard sleeves, and sealed with a label identifying the release, artist, and tracks; artwork which brings to mind that which graced the covers of Brian Eno«s classic Obscure series. The listener must break the seals to gain access to the music, but rather than ruin the aesthetic effect, it adds to it - one recalls the books of yore, whose pages one had to cut with a paper knife as one read. The first release, by eM (Michael Bentley himself) and entitled Djinnestablishes a beachhead on the shores of unconquered sonic territories. Here we enter the realm of electronic minimalism explored by the Finnish artist Mika Vainio under his various pseudonyms. These are "songs from under the floorboards", as Howard Devoto once sang, where through the fissures in our normal audio range, a shadowier world insinuates itself upon us. At times, a full-fledged assault is launched, as in the death-throes of a strangled guitar on the track Moorish Heroes of the Spanish Main. At others times, the static glitches of Oval and the subterranean moans of Alio Die or Robert Rich are heard in turn. If these sounds filter into the listener«s consciousness through the cracks in the floor, the music on Eclectronica, the second in the series, groans like the wheezy pipe-organ music echoing from behind the radiator in David Lynch«s Eraserhead (a movie whose aural and visual aesthetic has had an undeniable influence on the ambient genre). Here, the listener has the chance to meet both new minimal compositions and classical pieces by Schubert and Edvard Grieg in a new context. This is a compilation featuring contributions by N. Kreisberg, Melec and Michael Bentley (a pair of tracks are also borrowed from other Foundry releases). As compilations go, this one can easily withstand comparisons with some of the best em:t releases, while displaying a sound and vision all its own. Third in the series is the most successful. Descent, by The Apiary (the ubiquitous Bentley again) is a long ambient piece commissioned to accompany an installation. The dialogue between visual and audio artists is allowed to develop on the CD itself, as texture is laid upon texture and new full-rounded forms emerge out of the initial sketches. Echoes of Gavin Bryars, Eno and Harold Budd can be heard reverberating, though in the compositional idea rather than in the actual musical result. A restrained yet deeply textured minor ambient masterpiece. Just out is the fourth in the series, Hidden Topographies by Rhomb, and the circle closes within itself. The beachhead from Djinn having now been secured, the troops spread out over the land and begin mapping its hidden topographical secrets, but much more discreetly than on the first release. As far as investigations of nearly-imperceptible sonic landscapes are concerned, I must admit that I find it rather unengaging, with the delightful exception of the sixth track, Ice Fields, featuring a simple music-box melody played over a murmur of glacial enormity. However, for those inclined toward the releases of a label like Ash or artists like Morphogenesis and Social Interiors, this is a territory they should definitely explore. On the strength of these four CDs released in just over a year«s time, The Foundry label has quickly established itself as a label worth keeping a very close eye on. This can be done by checking out its website regularly. | |
This interview posted July 26, 1998 on the AmbiEntrance website