INTERVIEW
WITH MACHINEFABRIEK
TOKAFI.COM
by
Tobias Fischer
An
Interview with Rutger Zuydervelt is always in danger of going
out of date quickly. Since conducting the one you're about to
read in late Summer of this year, thirteen more entries were
added to the Machinefabriek discography and who knows how many
more are still to follow in the fruitful final days of 2008.
Collaborations have been an essential ingredient for developing
and honing his style and yet, it would be a fatal falacy of
throwing Zuydervelt in with the usual bunch of prolific and
promiscuous artists incapable of stopping their waterfall of
spontaneous sound emissions. For one, each Machinefabriek CD
is still a lovingly and carefully designed work of art (Rutger
works as a graphic designer), even though his print runs have
by now increased from a mere handful to 200 and more - and are
mainly (albeit it not exclusively) distributed directly to his
listeners by himself. And then, next to his regular album releases,
Zuydervelt has focussed on expressing himself in the EP format
and on formulating pointed ideas as clearly and precisely as
possible. Using diverse source materials, often relying on acoustic
instruments for their organic timbres, inner movement and emotional
associations, his music is a cohesive conglomerate of many different
approaches and prefers hinting at a hidden truth above making
momentous statements just for the sake of it. This tendency
awards his entire catalogue a timeless quality and connects
his earliest albums with his most recent output. Some of Zuydervelt's
interviews may by now be out of date, but the music of Machinefabriek
will never be.
Hi! How are you? Where are you?
Hi. I’m doing good. Busy as ever, but a lot of nice stuff
going on. And the weather is extremely good here. A shame that
I’m in the office, working (as a graphic designer). A
terrace would be better.
What’s on your schedule at the moment?
Oh man, so much. First of all, a lot has just, or is about to
get released. Like a new cd on Dekorder, called ‘Dauw’,
a 7-inch called ‘Huiswerk’, on Ketchup Cavern, a
live cdr on Sentient Recognition Archive and some more. As for
what I’m working on… There’s a project with
Mariska Baars (a.k.a. soccer Committee), in which I’m
digitally treating folk-songs she’s playing and singing.
An exciting project. Another one is a filmscore I’m doing,
together with Peter Broderick. The ilm is yet to be shot, but
we started working on the music already. It’ll take some
time before you can actually see the movie in the cinema. I
guess summer 2009.
An interview with “The Wire” and a full-length on
“12k” – how are you enjoying your 15 minutes
of fame and stardom?
It’s nice, the attention. Getting that album out on Type
and the interview in the Wire fele like some sort of trophies,
a proof for me that I’m doing the right thing. I’m
enjoying it.Your recent collaboration with Stephen Vitiello
started with a CD order.
How did you get to know about his music in the first
place? And: Had the thought of working with Stephen crossed
your mind prior to this contact?
When I started to get more into experimental music I red quit
some stuff about the subjet. Vitiello was a name that was mentioned
a lot. It took some time before I decided to start listening
to it (there’s just too much that I have to hear, you
know). On his website I picked a couple of records that I found
the most interesting, but those were hard to get. That’s
when I mailed him. He said he heard my music and liked it. That
was good to hear. He actually proposed a collaboration…“Box
Music” was realised by sending objects between the two
of you. How did the idea come up?
I was thinking about how we could do this. I did some collaborations
before, sending digital files back and forth. I didn’t
really feel like doing that again. I wanted to do something
more original. So that’s how we figured that actually
sending eachother ‘instruments’ was better than
sending pre-recorded digital material.
How did you go about selecting the objects for the collaboration?
Anything that might make an interesting sound. And some stuff
I was curious about. Like “let’s see what Stephen
can do with Stephen do with this”….
After unwrapping the boxes, did you ever come across
a moment that you thought: “I will never be able to produce
a track with this”?
I must confess that the book (some cheap pocket) was an object
I didn’t at once had an idea for. But it ended up somewhere
in the mix I believe.How important was it to you that the objects
used for a track were still recognisable after the phase of
processing and editing?
Not. It’s most of all a nice, new way for us to make music,
but the end result is what counts. Still, how this came about
was interesting enough o still give the tracks titles describing
the objects used.
While the press release talks about two solo tracks
and one collaborative track (also indicated as such in the track
list), the liner notes read “All recording and processing
by Rutger Zuydervelt and Stephen Vitiello”. Could you
clarify this? How, in general, did you go about evaluating the
material the other had created?
Well, I made two tracks with the materials in my box. Stephen
did the same. Then we decided to do one track together, so Stephen
started that, using the objects I sent him. Then I got his soundfile
and added some stuff with my objects. As for our solo tracks,
we both found we did a great job, so that was easy….
Despite the very different materials used in the compositional
process, “Box Music” has turned out an extremely
homogenuous album. How would you explain this?
I guess the way we make music and what kind of sound we want
to achieve is so strong that whatever we do sounds like ‘us’…
I odn’t really know… it’s how it comes out…
We actually never discussed what we wanted it to sound like.
So it was a pleasant surprise to have this coherent outcome.
Did this participative work teach you something about
the personality of your musical partner – even though
you’ve never met him?
That’s a hard one. Well, I did find out that I’d
really like to meet him. He seems like a nice guy. And I learned
that he’s actually more into analogue manipulation then
the digital wizardery I excpected.
While almost none of the objects for “Box Music”
were instruments in a traditional way, “Dauw”, your
album on Dekorder, relies heavily on Acoustic and Electric Guitar.
Would you say your approach to composing differs greatly depending
on the tools you use?
Yes, for sure. For box music, the music is more austere, while
for ‘Dauw’ I decided to make it sound more ‘free’,
more radical in some sort of way. Using the drum sounds (more
scraping and bowing then actually hitting) as a basis of the
album was a bit new to me. This really feels like I did something
fresh.“Dauw” is marked by a very organic flow. Were
you consciously looking for a “live feeling” for
this release?
Not a live feleling, but a more ‘lively’ feeling
I would say… Yes, after Box Music it was time to expend
my borders some more, instead of making another really quiet,
ambient-album.Both “
Dauw” and “Box Music” were mastered
by Giuseppe Ielassi. How important is his contribution to the
Machinefabriek sound at the moment?
Both records demanded a crystal-clear sound. I had just bought
some cd’s from the Die Schachtel label and they sound
great. Besides, I’m a great fan of Ielasi’s music
and I met him one or two times and he seems like a terrific
guy. So I didn’t had to think long about whom to ask…
With its epic build-up, careful and intuitive development and
deep layers of sound, “Singel” has turned out the
natural highlight of “Dauw”. Would you say it sums
up what Machinefabriek stands for in the year 2008?
No it doesn’t. But I think the album as a whole does a
better job in that. I hope more people think so……
