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WITH MATHIEU KARSENTI

London, 2024

During this interview, I change seats, place myself in front of another artist and ask him the questions I wish people asked me. Today, I speak to the French composer Mathieu Karsenti — and celebrate his eighth interview with me — who has just released a new solo project entitled Strings Reworks, and which takes inspiration this time from the world of collage artists. 

 

Mathieu, before we talk about your latest release, tell us about what you have been working on lately?

 

2024 has been a very productive and interesting year for me. Aside from working on my latest album, putting finishing touches, releasing it and promoting it, I developed brand new work for violin, cello and piano, as well as a new catalogue of piano compositions for my ‘vault’ and also my music work to picture. Some of these new works will be released as and when in 2025. I have yet to decide which ones, there is a lot to sift through! I also worked on some re-orchestration of a couple of my piano pieces, exploring what my voice sounds like in an orchestral setting.

 

Now, tell us about Strings Reworks, your latest solo project?

 

Strings Reworks is an expansion of my previous work, the fruit of in-depth experimentation, using the computer as the primary manipulation tool to collage, collate, re-contextualise my string works from my previous releases. I took inspiration from collage artists such as David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg or Kurt Schwitters to reframe my tracks into brand new multi-layered, multi-sensory painterly compositions, emphasising harmonic textures and abstract motifs. In a way, it is a recycling job! I also got very fascinated by Saul Leiter’s photographic work — superimposed images that happened in a natural setting, not intentionally, the photographer being a witness to the abstraction occurring in front of him, and so that also filtered through in this project.

 

Where did the idea of reworking your own music come from?

 

My work has always been multi-layered; presenting melodic lines playing at counterpoint rather than established chords with a melody derived from those chords. It’s just how my brain works and how I perceive sound around me. Years ago, I came across Ennio Morricone’s score to The Best Offer, a fantastic film starring Geoffrey Rush. The score was sublime with various voices floating around and building up to a crescendo. It was freeform (hard to tell the meter in some of the cues), liberating, and just stunning. I love Morricone’s work because there is always something innovative to get inspiration from. So this idea of freeform melodic lines co-existing and making sense together stayed lodged in my mind and it seemed to go hand in hand with the idea of collage. Also, I had previously explored layered sound and muffled strings in my ambient album and EP Bygones and Downstream Blue. So I wanted to approach Strings Reworks with a similar freedom and using sound as the starting point, not necessarily music. Lastly, I would say I hinted at this approach on my single Tōji I released in early 2024, where I reused some cello parts from my Cello Prayers to create two new tracks.

 

Tell us a little bit about the process that you have taken to rework your pieces. 

 

So Strings Reworks was a work-in-progress in my head by the time I sat down and experimented. As I developed various ideas, I toyed with the concept being just about strings and as I had already recorded these on my Ichi EP, Cello Prayers, Aitaké suite for solo violin, Viola Abstractions, Movements and Bygones. I decided to mix and mash them up and see what would happen. Soon, it felt right to add found sounds, electronic percussion and making various sonic manipulations such as changing the pitch of certain parts to suit, adding FX, computer strings, shifting other parts along and juxtaposing takes from various tracks to see how they differently would behave. I wanted to flip my work upside down and inside out. The results enabled me to create brand new musical paintings and to say something new, unencumbered by the act of composing or by habits I had previously developed as a composer. I cannot state how refreshing the process was for me and it seems my audience have jumped on board with it all! I also spent quite a bit of time mixing each track to get them to sound right to me. That process is very creative in itself, it becomes an organic art form that is intrinsically linked to composition in this format. And even though I love working with sound engineers, it is essential that I undertake the mixing process myself. It is akin to cutting out images, painting on some photographs, glueing them and cutting them up further to create a new image. 

 

Now that the works are out, how do you feel towards them and perhaps in comparison to their initial form? 

 

Well as the premise was never about making an updated version of the original tracks, I feel that the new ones are just nodding to them. If you know my work, you might recognise the parts and maybe smile at the mashups I have done but other than that they really are completely different! I am not precious when it comes to these things, but what is great is that the performance from each musician is still there in the new collages. The soul of the music is still there, it is more about showing different facets or alternative universes in this case! I am very happy with this album because I feel I have pushed myself and my craft further. I am also conscious of not repeating myself and yet these tracks still sound like me. They are still “abstract impressionist” just using a different medium. When I make art, I know how to use watercolours, oil, acrylic, pencil or charcoal, pastels etc… well my work in music is the same; using different instruments, different techniques, but the result is still my idiosyncratic expression. With my type of abstraction, there are no rules and the results are limitless.

 

What about the artworks for the singles, can you tell us about them?

 

When it came to the artwork, I really wanted to show a similar idea of collage. The cover for the album is a simple black graphic shape mutating into another whereas each single features superimposed images, interpretations on the theme of collage. In order to switch things up a bit, I asked talented friends and artists (such as yourself!) to create something or to provide a bunch of photographs and images to work with. I liked this collaborative process and the surprises it can generate. I also have a collection of pictures that I take as and when I spot something on the street, for instance for Resilience 2024 I collaged in Photoshop various photos of torn billboards. And I love what you did on Vastness and Quartetish, it is so on-point with each track! Overall, the artwork really shows the essence of this whole album and I could not pick one in particular to represent it all so I designed the mutating shape for that purpose.

 

So after Strings Reworks, what’s next? 

 

As I mentioned before, I have various projects on my plate. Some more strings and more piano works for sure!

 

Thanks very much Mathieu. The exercise has not changed, last one for the road — one book, one album, one film —, tell us about your latest cultural pearls?

One book: Isherwood: A Life Revealed by Peter Parker. This is a very complete biography of brilliant author Christopher Isherwood. As it is a hefty tome, it is taking me a while to get through it all! I came across Isherwood’s work via A Single Man directed by Tom Ford and Christopher and His Kind starring Matt Smith. Also the film Cabaret was based on Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories. One album: It has got to be Marie Awadis’ Etudes Mélodiques out now on Deutsche Grammophon! Marie has written a very special and beautiful album and it is so wonderful to have witnessed her artistic journey and to see where it all goes from here. There are so many gorgeous musical moments on her Etudes, it demands repeat listening! One film:A series actually. I recently was captivated by Shogun. I loved everything about this series, from the writing to the costumes, the acting, the cinematography and the music. On that, Atticus Ross and his two co-composers did an incredible job, subtle as well as bold, with a deep dive into Gagaku, Japan’s Imperial court music and its unique instruments. Just a stunning series!

 

Bouncing on Mathieu’s words, every artist should, every once in a while, look back at what he has achieved and give the opportunity to reflect on what could have been. Well done on this fantastic work Mathieu! Read my review of Strings Reworks. 

© 2024 Doug Thomas. All Rights Reserved.

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