[blips and ifs]: September 2005

Today we feature a huge interview with Signalform, previously known as Dron and recording for various Eurolabels, and currently in collaboration with Tachikoma.

I is Ingo.
C is Christoph.
F is Frederik.

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1. When did you start making music? And why?

I:
i started making music in 1993.
i just wanted to try it out, and in the end i liked
it so much that i got stuck there.

F:
In the late eighties. It was fun playing around with a
four track sequencer on my Commodore Amiga.

C:
I the early nineties. I was drawn into it when doing
musical experiments together with Frederik.

2. Before you 'officially' began to make music, were
you a musical person? Or did you have a musical upbringing?

I: i did mix-tapes and had a couple of dj-approaches since 1987,
but i'm not really musically educated in a sense that i can
play an accoustic instrument or something like that.

F:
No and no.

C:
I was heavily infected with dance music by my brother
and tried cutting tapes, but had no musical background.

3. How do you see your music as different from that of
the artists that influenced your development?

I:
as long as evolution goes on, people will develop their own
sound, even when they play in the same genre and had the
same influences. this is also reflected in our own music.

F:
Hard to say. We onced recieved an email where the author wrote,
our music sounds refreshing. I think that's the best way
to describe it.

C:
i value those artists for the things they do differently from
those i do myself, probably the same applies to our own tracks.

4. How do you think your music will be changed by the
development of technology in the future? Or will your music remain the
same?

I:
technology will change our music for sure, it always did.
i can see that new software technology will have a big impact,
especially when it uses a dedicated hardware controller,
but i cannot name the results. as studio musicians we heavily
use sequencing rather than playing live, so maybe a new
kind of sequencer will lead to massive changes our music.

F:
Every technological possibility changes the music. Progress
enables us to discover new, unprecedented sounds. It is like
moving the deep space frontier a little bit further.
However the style will never change.

C:
we will certainly find a way to warp new technologies into our
environment. our horizon and with it our music will change for sure.

5. Do you feel that an early exposure to video games
led you to become an electronic musician?

I:
a clear yes. 20 years ago i liked chiptunes and
videogame/computer music better than most radio programs.
well, to some extend this is still valid today.

F:
Yes. I liked the sounds of the video games and the demos.
These where sounds I never heard before an that attracted me.

C:
sure. still those weirdly futuristic sounds come onto my
mind when doing a track and composing sounds.

6. If you could compose music for a musical ensemble
from another culture or historical period, what would that ensemble be?

I:
that would be rather difficult for me, i don't think that i would
do it. but if i had to, i'd choose something japanese,
with a lot of percussion in it :-)

F:
I think present time is a very good time to make music.

C:
generally, i think electronic sounds have more edge over 'organic'
instruments. if i were thrown back in time, i could imagine trying
tuned percussion, percussive repetitive music.

7. Which natural (or environmental) sounds do you hear
that you would like to record?

I:
a garden with singing birds, buzzing insects and floating water.

F:
Water, rain, chatter, wind.

C:
insects and traffic noises.

8. If you could design a musical instrument what
features would it include?

I:
it would be an electronic instrument and
it would do all kinds of different synthesis
forms at once, with a fully modular concept.
it would have lots of knobs, jacks and joysticks.

F:
A hardware controller for every parameter.
'Almost total recall': the value for every parameter would be the
same when you recall a sound. However the sound would be slightly
different and there has to be no way to discover why nor to restore
the original sound.

C:
a portable, visually and ergonomically elaborated instrument with
lots of controls, every sound generating method imaginable and
a pattern based sequencer.

9. Do you believe that dance music is following a
progressive or a retrogressive trend? Or to put it another way ... is
there any hope for dance music? Will it become more interesting in the
future, or ape the past more accurately?

I:
mainstream dance music is like fashion, new and old trends come in
alternating order.
the underground will evolve for sure. we just have to wait, see and
listen.

F:
There is hope for dance music as long as future dance music will differ
from todays understanding of dance music.

C:
dance music in my experience has always been about making an
impression,
so it will definitely evolve, selectively recycling but always moving
on.

10. Electronic musicians often report that their gear
has irregular glitches. Have errors in your gear's
hard- or software ever aided your composing?

I:
i own a korg ms20 which is slightly broken. it does strange
things when feeding it external audio signals, then it plays all
kinds of ghost notes and modulates in a really wild way.
this is very funny, so i didn't repair it.

F:
No. Only errors in operating the gear.

C:
i regard each real instrument as being a unique thing, so any glitches
are a part of its character which you can make use of. but i don't use
glitches conciously.

11. Do you ever build 'noodles,' or randomly
generative synth patches? If not, how do you introduce elements of
randomness into your work?

I:
randomness is not an obvious part of our music, it is more "under the
hood".
we use random events for modulation purposes, not so much for playing
notes.

F:
Rarely. Elements of randomness are introduced by human error.

C:
as a source of inspiration, yes. controlled randomness in a track also.

12. Do you believe that digital technology will
liberate or constrict musicians legally (in your lifetime)?

I:
digital technology is cheaper, so it will be liberating especially
for the underground scene, where the budget is always tight.

F:
Neither of them. Digital technology is just another way with its own
possibilities and restrictions. Legal liberation or constriction is
not due to technology but politics.

C:
any technology can be used to create, i tend to be optimistic about
this.