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This interview with Foundry founder M. Bentley was conducted by Isabel Garcia Pallarol of the program La Rebelion de los Antioxidantes via e-mail, and will be broadcast Wednesday 7 June 2000 at 11.10 PM on Radio Ciutat Vella (100.4 FM) out of Barcelona, accompanied by unreleased recordings. For further info, contact Isabel via e-mail Isabel Garcia Pallarol: The eM records and The Apiary you carry out them alone, while in Rhomb Nathan Kreisberg accompanies you. What in this project and not in the previous ones?
M. Bentley: Well, I have a lot of different kinds of musical ideas, and I want to pursue them in different ways. It's handy to be able to label them differently. Nathan and I play off each other well, and tend to go different places than he or I would go alone. We've known each other for a long time and have both common interests and experiences, which contribute to our musical communication.
Isabel Garcia Pallarol: Your works, Are they require a long creation work, or on the contrary, are they born easily? Do you have a preconceived idea of what you want, or do you improvise? M. Bentley: Some projects come together in a short time, and others take much longer. In general I like to work quickly, to try to capture the spark of an idea. The Djinn project was quick, it took about a month from start to finish. Mote, on the other hand, took quite a bit longer than that, about 8 months, to reach a finished form. I always start off with a concept in mind, sometimes very specific and sometimes more abstract, but I also enjoy improvising and seeing what happens. I like to cultivate the "happy accident," sometimes by injecting randomness into the process, using some other technique or approach to stir things up. Of course, in the end it is about aesthetic judgement and making decisions about what sounds right to me, but I like to try to get there in different ways. Isabel Garcia Pallarol: What importance do you give to the natural sounds when you create your music?
M. Bentley: Quite a bit. Descent uses a fair amount of acoustic sounds and instruments, besides the electronics. I've spent some time over the last few years doing environmental recordings using my minidisc player, and that has encouraged me to think differently about sounds, natural and otherwise.
Isabel Garcia Pallarol: I know that you participate in a group of Scottish traditional music. With your personal experience, do you think that the traditional music and the electronic music they can have points in common? M. Bentley: Yes, I think there are points in common in all musics... music is always expressing something, emotions and/or ideas. I think that sometimes Folk music is more narrative (at least lyrically), and sometimes more melody oriented than electronic music. However, both can exploit repetition to good effect, creating atmosphere or a hypnotic state by repeating rhythms, text or melody. Beyond that I think that some of the dynamics of creating/playing music are similar between the two. Often electronic musicians are not classically trained and may or may not read music, and this can be true (it used to be more true in the past) for traditional musicians. Both musics come (at least potentially) from a musically illiterate portion of the music world This is less common, in my experience, with other genres of music, such as jazz, classical or even rock. Isabel Garcia Pallarol: Let us speak about your lasts works. In " Mote " do you mixtures your artistic personalities and the result is tremendously interesting. M. Bentley: Thank you! My hope for Mote was that it would be a deep listening experience, but one that could pass for ambient music as well. Isabel Garcia Pallarol: In some compositions it is very dark, in others you paint calm sound landscapes and you include rhythm in one of your compositions. What do you see the presence of the rhythm in the music that you carry out? M. Bentley: Rhythm is very important to me. I do not use standard percussion as much as some composers do, but I think that many of the Mote tracks have important rhythmic elements (Reverie, In the Drift and Filaments come to mind). I hear rhythm and syncopation in my compositions even when there may not be an up front percussion track. I think that rhythm is more obvious on many eM tracks. Oddly enough, the instrument I play best is a drum (the celtic frame drum called the bodhran). Isabel Garcia Pallarol: In "The Bridge" Susan Worland accompanys you with her violin. Do you think to continue collaborating with other musicians that they have similar form as you to seeing the music? Is The Foundry a label open to other artists?
M. Bentley: I enjoy musical collaboration very much. As I said before Nathan and I have collaborated on and off for many years, and when I play folk music it is almost always as a collaboration. Susan and I will continue to work together (we were married last September!), and I look forward to collaborating with several friends, mostly electronic musicians, in the next year. I have also observed that it can be interesting to collaborate with someone who sees music differently than I, as long as they are open to other perspectives... this is the case to some degree with Susan.
Isabel Garcia Pallarol: In " Motor Sessions e.p. ", you take as starting point diverse classes of motors. How did arise the idea, and what did you developed it? M. Bentley: I have always been fascinated by the hum of machines, the drones that a refrigerator produces, or an air conditioner, or any number of things. That was really the inspiration that became the Motor Sessions! eM projects have, so far, been about looking at some aspect of the modern world and describing or reflecting it musically. Djinn took electromagnetic radiation as a starting point, Greater than zero, less than one was produced from recontextualizing raw binary data. What became the Motor Sessions EP was originally going to be a complete album, incorporating refrigerators, automobiles, fans and many other types of motor sounds. I liked the shorter, more concise approach of the EP. It can be funny how a project changes form as you work on it! Isabel Garcia Pallarol: "Motor Sessions" is the 8th reference of your label. Do you think that The Foundry continues a line marked from their origin, or this line had gone changing with the time? M. Bentley: Both. I think that the first three albums (which I released at the same time) described quite a range of sound and styles, suggesting that future releases would "fill in the gaps," so to speak... and I think that they have. Of course there has also been an evolution in the music, because of my changing interests, new equipment, and varying techniques. There really are no predetermined limits, The Foundry will go wherever ideas take us. Isabel Garcia Pallarol: Which do you think it should be the listener's attitude when listening your music? M. Bentley: I don't want to say too much here, I think people should listen in any way they want. The only request is to have an open mind... but I think that's helpful in all aspects of life, isn't it? Isabel Garcia Pallarol: Please, say some words for our listeners from Barcelona, so much for those that know your music like for those that don't still know it
M. Bentley: I really appreciate the international nature of music, the fact that we are having this kind of communication, that Barcelona and Berkeley are meeting up this way. Of course I encourage everyone to sample our music, to visit our website if they like (http://www.foundrysite.com), and to send us an email and say hello (m@foundryNOSPAMsite.com... just remove the NOSPAM)... but even more importantly, enjoy your friends and family and do what you can to make your life and theirs better... small steps cover large distances! How's that for a philosophical end to the interview!
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