London, 2025

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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, who has just released a new solo project entitled Mirages, which looks at musical illusions and disillusions.

 

Mathieu, what has happened in your life and career lately?

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Big changes! After successfully relocating to Los Angeles in early 2022, it was time to come back to Europe three years later! Moving there, my intention was to further my career but I guess the timing did not work out: post-covid filmmakers and productions struggled, the Hollywood strikes delayed a lot of projects and the LA fires was like the last nail in the coffin (and let’s not mention the unstable divisive political climate) that affected the industry and its workers in devastating ways. So I relocated in early June and I am happy to look back fondly on three interesting years where I made friends and career allies, grateful to leave with no animosity and with a renewed sense of myself as an artist. LA is like a giant mirror that forces you to evaluate where you are going. Some people get lost in their reflection, others take stock and make the necessary decisions for their next career move. I felt I had reached the end of that book and now a new European one is starting, it is exciting.

 

Tell us about Mirages, your latest solo project?

 

After a chance meeting with Helena Maria Falk, I was inspired to create some violin trios. My work is always open to interpretation and so I liked the idea of mirages, optical illusions and visual deceptions. It is a fitting title that could easily apply to my art as well as my impressionistic style of composing. It is hard to define what it is and that suits this piece well! Maybe in my subconscious, I felt a sense of illusion (disillusioned?) happening in LA whilst I stared at the Hollywood sign from my bedroom window. I also like a vague title, something intangible that is hard to define. And just when you think you know the piece, it takes you by surprise, like a mirage. The piece can be interpreted as the audience wishes, there is no specific way to approach it. It has recurring melodies that are interspersed with violin FX, glissandi and pizzicati to take the piece elsewhere. There is a Baroque quality in there in the paring down of melodies and the space the piece provides.

 

Mirages has been composed for three violins, an unusual combination, even for you. Tell us about how this came to your mind?

 

Initially, I thought of composing some simple solo violin pieces à la Bach’s “Cello suites”. But that did not yield results I was entirely happy with. I also felt I needed more dimensions, more space to explore different facets of Helena’s playing. And so the trio idea seemed a good balance where you have one high, one mid-range and one low violin covering everything and working at counterpoint. As per usual, I ended up composing numerous pieces so there may be some more to come out in the future! Violin trios are not very common but they do exist and I like the idea of hearing the pure sound of the instrument, without added FX. It forces the mind to imagine more, to hear the silence between the notes and it also puts you in a different state of mind. More and more, I am keen to create music that exists outside of the computer, in a totally live setting. The two added Variations are like a segue-way from my previous project “Strings Reworks” where I also mash up and remix Mirages to give you two alternative variations.

 

What about working with Helena Maria Falk? How did your collaboration come up?

 

I met violinist and composer Helena Maria Falk in 2024 at the premiere of a short film I scored whilst in LA. We hit it off and I was keen to record her on a new project! The more we talked, the more I felt I wanted to create the framework for her talent to shine. I wanted to focus on purity of sound and intention. When we met up to record, I was struck by Helena’s accuracy and detailed interpretation of the piece. The fact she is also playing on a 300 year old violin is the cherry on the icing. My one direction was that she should play Mirages like a Bach or a baroque piece: little to no vibrato, not too dramatic, more reflective, more descriptive. She achieved that and gave me more than I could have imagined. Helena is a world-class talent and I urged people to look her music up online!

 

You work mostly through film music; tell us how you approach your solo projects, and how ideas tend to come up and develop for instance. 

 

To be honest, it is half and half at the moment. In LA, although I worked on applied projects, I also had plenty of time to work on my solo stuff (I now have a healthy back catalogue!). I compose every day so slipping between the film world and the non-filmic one is easy. With my solo stuff, I let things develop naturally, preferring to write the music first unless a potential title idea inspires me down a certain path. But there is no specific career direction, it is all based on what I want to explore and where I want to go musically. For instance, I have a catalogue of untitled solo piano works that I keep adding to as and when. Some could be broken up into a release, or maybe they can remain untitled as part of a collection. At the risk of being misunderstood, I am keen to not guide the audience too much with overly conceptualised releases — the focus should be on the music, the concept is just an excuse really.

 

You recently relocated to France — how do you think this change will influence the work you do?

 

I have no idea! I have to follow my gut feeling and trust. Right now, it feels really good being in Europe and being back in my country of birth. After living most of my life abroad (27 years in England, 3 years in LA), it is nice to be back somewhere where the cultural reference points are the same and they are all around you. It is the right time for me to be back. Living in LA where most people are from out-of-town, out-of-state or foreigners passing through, I also realised that I do what I do anywhere in the world and that my surroundings do not actually tend to affect me too much, it is more about my inner space. I am lucky and grateful to not be living in a war-torn country and to have the choice of my career that I want to make full use of my time and work away, with or without external influences. In any case, my work is international and nowadays it is easier than ever to live near your family and friends and work remotely.

 

What’s next for you?

 

As I mentioned before, I have lots of works in the pipeline: from solo piano works, piano four hands, violin trios, cello/piano and new films to score…. Oh and a little project to come at the end of the month, stay tuned!

 

Thanks very much Mathieu. As always we are curious, last one for the road — one book, one album, one film —, tell us about your latest cultural pearls?

 

With the realization that my LA journey was coming to an end, I recently naturally gravitated towards more acoustic and more analogue music. I had to discard certain expectations, certain ambitions in order to refocus on my artistry and what better way to do that than to delve deep into Nick Drake’s three albums. I had listened and loved Drake’s songs years ago, dipping in and out of them as and when but somehow they made their way back into my life and the right moment. So one album: Pink Moon. Nick’s beautiful, pared-down haunting vocals are offset by complex finger-picking on the guitar, a master of his craft at the age of 24! Naturally, I sought out Richard Morton Jack’s fantastic Nick Drake: The Life biography; a non-romanticised look at the evidence and almost day-to-day accounts of his whereabouts and directions in his short life. His journey as an artist resonates with so many of us who often feel misunderstood and ignored, and to me I get the sense of someone drifting in and out of people’s lives, like his music, a ghost that squeezes his talent out for the world to consume later on. Film-wise, I rewatched Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime film) at the Egyptian theatre in LA a couple of months back. What a treat and what a prescient work of art dealing with the cyber world and AI. The animation is outstanding and the score by Kenji Kawai is gorgeous.

 

Bouncing on Mathieu’s words, and not surprised to hear him mentioning Nick Drake, one of the most influential artists of English folk music, and certainly someone to look at for musical inspiration! Read my review of Mirages.