Most people talk about musicians collaborating. Well, picture this - put a jazz pianist, sound engineer and lighting designer in the same room. The result? High octane electro-jazz with larger-than-life visuals to set the mood. Organised by the Alliance Francais of Madras on Friday, you may have to see this concert to believe it. New York-based Frenchman Laurent de Wilde offers City Express some insight into the making of his latest album Fly. Alongside sound engineer Dominique aka Otisto 23 and video artist Nicolos Ticot, this musical experiment promises to lift your feet off the ground in wonder. No magic carpet required.
How was Fly conceptualised?
Fly is the second album that was recorded with the same concept (the first one being PC Pieces, 2007) - to produce sounds with the piano that would be digested and poured out live by a computer. Otisto 23 and I were captivated by electronic music since the late 90s, but it’s only around 2006 that computers were powerful enough to do the job live. So, with the help of a software called Abbleton Live, we proceeded to experiment with this way of producing live music.
Is it true that the album name was inspired by the sound of flies present while recording?
Yes, we were recording in a studio in the countryside, by Saint Paul de Vence, and because of the migration of a herd of cows on the other side of the road, the studio was invaded by flies during the two-week session. First, we tried to fight them. Then we decided to accept the fact that they might be a source of inspiration!
Is much of your music organic or oriented towards nature?
Well, a piano and a computer are hardly organic, they seem to belong to a very mechanical world. But as people, we are pretty oriented towards organic food and love nature. So I guess that what we are and what we like goes into our music.
What has been your biggest inspiration to create music so far?
Before being an inspiration, music is a need for us. Living without playing music would be torture. Once that is said, we draw our inspiration from a very wide variety of things - other musicians, of course, and the list could be very long (to name only a few, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Amon Tobin, Square Pusher), but also painters, writers, movie directors, poets, dancers and above all, life. Everything we live goes into our music.
How long have you and Dominique been performing together? How did you meet?
As a piano-computer band, we’ve been performing since 2006. But I know Otisto since 2000 when we met and worked together (him as a sound engineer, me as a keyboardist) in a band called Cosmik Connection. Otisto continues to this day to work with me as a sound engineer. He recorded and mixed my last acoustic jazz album, Over The Clouds, that was released earlier this year.
Are there any Chennai/ Indian musicians that you would like to collaborate with in the future?
Except for a few musicians like Zakir Hussain (Who regularly collaborate with Western musicians), I must confess, I’m rather ignorant of the beauties of Indian music. This is definitely something I have to do in the coming years, there is so much depth and complexity in it. I would love to collaborate with Indian musicians in the future and I hope the opportunity will present itself.
Are there any musical projects in the pipeline that you have started working on?
I’ve started to write a book on the inventors of keyboards during the 20th century - all geniuses and very dedicated personalities who enlightened their era. Nothing has been published so far on these endearing persons, and hopefully, by the end of next year, this book should be published.
What kind of experience can the audience look forward to at the show ?
We propose to the public a musical and visual trip that they haven’t experienced before. Hopefully, they will answer our invitation to let themselves be taken by this sensual experience. The only thing needed from them is an open and curious mind and the ability to let themselves go into the unknown.
The concert will be staged on October 19 at the Museum Theatre at 7.30pm. For details, contact 28279803.
