a cura di  Vito Camarretta  04/02/2008

Dopo aver presentato non molto tempo addietro il loro ultimo spettrale lavoro Louder (pubblicato dalla Prank Monkey Records), ricco di spunti interessanti di discussione e di bizzarria stilistica, conosciamo meglio i tre artefici del progetto Tauchsieder. Come al solito, buona lettura! COLOR_KEYS TV TheVibes.net BH Ben Hayes IS Innes Smith SM Stuart McLean TV Hi folks! How are you? BH Things could be worse, I suppose. IS Oh come now, they're not that bad. SM Wet. It's raining heavily outside and I've just came in. TV Why did you decide to call your project Tauchsieder? It's a device to heaten water, isn't it? BH It is, yes. It's also a track by Ledernacken. 'Ich Will Dich Essen' was a big favourite of mine when I saw it on 'The Max Headroom Show' in 1985. SM Same answer as above and i shouted it at Kraftwerk when they played in glasgow on 'the mix' tour to see if I could put them off. Sadly, their steely professionalism was in evidence. TV How did you meet Colin Newman? SM He liked the Frenchbloke stuff, rather worryingly and after describing us as shoegaze we cheekily asked him if he would sing something for us. I asked Tom for help in using FL Studio's turntables - he had used them like a tape loop, severely warping the sound on playback. He asked if I could send him the track in question then got back in touch saying he'd actually remixed it. which was more than we could have hoped for. TV You seem to be interested in paranormal phenomenons and I know you interviewed Prof Archie Roy. What about the matters you talked about with him? IS I am the research officer for the Scottish Society for Psychical Research, which was founded by Archie Roy, the Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow University. The society has been investigating the paranormal in Scotland since 1987, although Professor Roy has been actively involved in research since the 1960's. For the Tauchsieder album we wanted to do something like 'The Dreams' by Barry Bermange, who interviewed people talking about their dreams. Stuart & Ben have long been fans of Bermange's work and I thought it would be nice to interview people about their paranormal experiences ~ something between reality & dreams. On the album most of the talking is done by the current President of the SSPR: Nick Kyle. He attended the famous/infamous Scole Group sittings in the 1990's. His experiences are extraordinary. I think Stuart & Ben liked Nick's account so much because of the 'intelligent lights'. Even though the album is very much about sound - it's about light too - anything outside of ourselves confusing, overwhelming & delighting our senses. It's a very sensual album: supersensual even. Archie Roy's contribution has been edited down to "The one thing that I'm certain of, from all the studies I've made, and experiences, is that - it is totally wrong to believe that when the brain dies, the personality is wiped out". And with Prof Roy's experience, I wouldn't argue with him. TV Have you ever had Extra Body Experiences? Have you ever met a ghost? Any ESP? :) BH Not yet, but I hope I do someday. I think. "Valle Crucis" is the name of a ruined abbey, quite near to where I live. I went to spend the night in the grounds with some friends a few years ago. There was quite an odd atmosphere all night, it was raining heavily, and one of my friends is convinced he saw 'something'. I didn't see anything myself, but the track on the album named after the place is influenced heavily by the general atmosphere of that experience. Of course, it could have been a rabbit. IS I was once part of a team investigating Minard Castle (on the shores of Loch Fyne, Argyll) when I had an unusual experience. The Castle primarily dates from Victorian times, although parts of the castle go back to the 1700's and is now a bed & breakfast (a hotel). I was sitting in the corner of one of the guest rooms at 1 am when I had a strong floral perfume taste in my mouth. It only lasted seconds. Later I discovered that somebody who had stayed in the castle had the same experience - although far more intense. They described their experience like having deodorant sprayed into the back of their throat - and the taste remained with them for over 24 hours. I think the experience is worth mentioning, because it was corroborated. SM I once saw the figure of a very old woman doing chores in the kitchen of my father's house. Other members of my family saw this on seperate occasion (no, she didn't live there). TV Where did you grab audio and field recordings for Louder? BH My field recordings were from various places around my home in North Wales. Roadsides to mountain tops. Most of the results are so mangled-up that you'd not recognise them as anything in particular, though. Also I used snatches of electrical interference, broken hi-fi equipment, and good old short wave radio. I also dipped into 30 years-worth of old cassette recordings for various bits and pieces. The piano sound on "Eleven Year Loop" is something I did sometime in the late 1980s, for example. I never throw anything away... IS I use a stereo mic & a mini-disk recorder. I would walk around the streets with the mic subtly held in my hand recording anything & everything: street sounds, riverside walks, echoes beneath bridges & conversations between friends. I did sing into the microphone too ~ so, I suppose that'll be somewhere in the mix too! SM I recorded some sounds in Portpatrick, Wigtown, around the house, the rain, the wind, the sea, Murrayfield rugby stadium in Edinburgh, bagpipes, the chants of the Southern Islands rugby team, trips to the shops. there's a lot in there. Some are processed so much as to be unrecognisable, others left as-is. TV What's the trait d'union between Louder and Quiet? BH Well, they've both got quiet bits in them... SM the title 'Louder' was a joke really, as it's louder than the first one. Quiet was made at very low volumes and thus, was intended to be played back at very low volumes. Louder was made with the volume up. TV How do you remember Desmond Briscoe? BH I never met him, sadly. A friend of mine was trying to get a radio documentary comissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Radiophonic Workshop opening (which will be on April 1st, 2008) but the BBC decided they didn't want to bother. I think Desmond died in the same week that the idea was knocked back, which is even more depressing. I don't think the Radiophonic Workshop's legacy has ever been truly recognised or celebrated from a modern perspective. People from the RW's early days like Phil Young, Maddalena Fagandini, Dick Mills, John Harrison and (to a certain extent) Desmond Briscoe himself are usually overlooked in favour of Delia Derbyshire and Dr. Who. It's probably because almost none of their work was ever commercially released. The fact that they made some truly remarkable works with a very limited selection of cobbled-together electrical junk is all the more astounding. I love the music that was produced during the Workshop's "golden age" of 1963 to 1972, but that early material (often used as background soundscapes for radio plays) gets more interesting every time I hear it. SM The sounds of the Radiophonic Workshop have always been an influence. TV Do you own at least one brain machine? :) BH I've got a couple of Commodore 64s and a large supply of red wine. IS I think I have a brain. But how would I know? It could be a machine, operated by tiny robots. SM I have a Chinese praying to Buddha machine, although I don't think that counts. TV What's your favourite conversational matter? BH Television test patterns and station idents from the 1960s and 1970s, The Beatles and Monty Python's Flying Circus (Series 3). IS Weird, strange things. And SMUT! FILTHY BUSINESS! SM Music, books, music, more music, noises that you heard somewhere and really liked (Glasgow buses, particularly in the 1990's often squealed and squawked when applying the brakes and could be heard throughout the city like a marauding orange herd of automatons - they all 'sung' in different keys). the sublime and the ridiculous. TV What about your equipment? Do you treat field recordings in studio? BH Very few sounds leave the speakers the way they went into the microphone. The most abstract noises can be re-modelled into something approaching a musical note, but the trick is to leave as much of the original sound's character as possible. This can be done using computer tools, or in some cases by using the tape manipulation methods that have been around since the 1950s, which is what I prefer to do. Everything ends up back in a computer in the end, as it's much easier to control the results, but it's nice to have some less 'perfect' stages in the process. Broken guitar effects pedals, old synthesizers, contact microphones and dying cassette players all have their place. SM Very few things were left intact although some are stretched, chopped, processed, reversed, mangled and spat back out. TV In your viewpoint, are there any alien lifeform, in Maida Vale? BH I'd like to think so. However the BBC will soon be selling it off, so in 10 years time, I'm certain the building will have been knocked down and luxury apartments (or perhaps a shopping centre) put up in its place. It will be a tragedy, but an unavoidable tragedy. I assume that any aliens or ghosts have already found a better place to live, as there hasn't been much there for them since Elizabeth Parker turned off the Workshop lights for the last time, in the mid-1990s. IS I find John Keel's idea of 'Aliens' actually being mercurial Ultraterrestrials existing in another dimension, the most amusing, ridiculous & plausible explanation. SM that must explain the current line-up of DJ's at Radio One TV Any forthcoming release? BH I have no idea... you'll have to ask the others... IS Stuart is the daddy. He's the daddy. HE'S THE DADDY. SM I have no idea yet either, although I have all the SSPR interviews in front of me, and I'd still like to pay homage to 'the Dreams' (1964).