Mezinárodní platforma SHAPE sdružuje 16 evropských festivalů a uměleckých center. Hlavní činnost platformy spočívá ve vzájemné výměně umělců, které jednotliví členové nominují do společného poolu. Českou republiku v minulosti reprezentovali Stanislav Abrahám a Pavel Karafiát, letos k nim pak přibyla v Praze žijící Mexičanka Laura Luna. V červnu ji SHAPE vyslal na montrealský festival MUTEK, příští měsíc se pro změnu představí publiku krakovské přehlídky Unsound.
Při té příležitosti vznikl podcast pro sérii XPLAYMIX, kterým načínáme druhou padesátku vydaných dílů. Teprve po dokončení podcastu jsme se dozvěděli, že v průběhu listopadu vyjde druhé album, které Laura Luna natočila pro label Baba Vanga. Navazuje jím na dva roky starý debut Isolarios, který přinesl pozoruhodnou směs murcofovsky emotivní elektroniky a experimentů na pomezí hudby a sound artu, kterému se Luna coby multimediální umělkyně rovněž věnuje.
Rozhovor s autorkou podcastu ponecháváme výjimečně v angličtině, ve které probíhal:
Tell us more about your podcast. Why does it sound the way it sounds?
I made the selection in a very intuitive way while I was reading a compilation of short stories by Philip K. Dick and while working on my own new material as well. The text of these stories and the process of composing my own music had a strong influence on the order I chose for the songs in the podcast. The individual tracks are thought of as chapters, as parts of a journey that is evolving with each new song. As I was putting it together, there was an overall sensation of open space, perhaps a bit of desolation combined with dazed melancholy, but each track conveys it in such a unique way.
How does a girl from Mexico end up making electronic music in Prague?
For the first time I ended up in Prague almost by accident. Those first impressions left me wanting to experience what is like to live there, so I came with the initial idea of studying cinematography and screenwriting. As I progressed I found myself more interested and gravitating towards multimedia art and along that, music as well. Being in Prague opened up the way I think about experimenting and it also allowed me to meet likeminded people and have many opportunities within the experimental music scene in Prague, which has been very welcoming and inspiring. It allowed me to develop my own style and I have been able to continue experimenting and making music.
Your Music is not exactly made for big club room major festivals. What types of events do you usually perform at? Is it standalone concerts or are you being booked with likeminded artists for special nights of experimental electronic music?
I have usually been performing with likeminded artists in various experimental music events. The venues and events have been very different, from an event in Školská 28 gallery where people could come and quietly put on the headphones and join the concerts to the most recent and bigger venue at MUTEK festival. It has always been a great experience, because people come specifically to let themselves travel and they come with such open minds to new artists.
In your promo materials, you are referred to as multimedia artist, What does this description encompass, in your case?
I’m also working on installations and sculpture, with different materials, textiles, motors, ceramic, etc., and in interactive as well as generative art, programming behaviours and constructing mechanisms for installations and audiovisual pieces. Some audiovisual instruments that I use to make music are developed from the tests with mechanisms, motors and materials that serve as inspiration for installations and sculptures.
Did you have a formal musical training before you took interest in sound art?
At around the age 14-15 I had a few lessons in guitar and piano, but they were not really formal training. I was more focused in visual forms of art, such as photography and cinema but it wasn’t until I was in Prague that I really got into making sound art as an important part of expression and art practice.
What kind of equipment do you use both onstage and in the studio?
It depends on what I have in mind regarding the tone and atmosphere I want to convey for a particular track in the studio or for a live set, it varies from circuit bent toys, experimental machines that I device on my own, synths, pianos and samplers. I also like to use instruments like the kalimba, accordions and Mexican ceramic flutes that have always a unique sound.
Your 2014 album Isolarios attempts to create immersive experience bringing forth repressed and half forgotten memories, Is it something you continue to explore in your work or is it something you dealt with solely on this album?
I continue to be interested in exploring those relationships between sound and memory, not only in music but in installation and sculptures, but I think the explorations I have made since the release of Isolarios have evolved the perspective I had about it. I have started to be interested in the way memory blurs into phantasms and fantasies, and how sound has the quality to motivate those processes.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and the future?
I continue to work actively in multimedia art, and will be studying in UK from the end of September, while I’m also working on new material for a second album to be released with Baba Vanga on mid/end November. I will be playing at UNSOUND festival on October 20th, and at CYNETART festival on November 11th, as well as other collaborations in UK and Prague to come in the next months and in the next year.
Tracklist:
Stanislav Abrahám: Chillkoot (album Shapescapes, 2014)
On Interrupt: B-Mode (album Cosmic Drift, 2016)
Aeiou: Tiki Torches (album Space Hymns, 2011)
Gurun Gurun: Korami (Kora et le Mechanix Mix) (album Home Normal, 2010)
Juan Son: En Camilla Al Quirofaño (A Medio Sedar) (album Mermaid Sashimi, 2009)
Fuji Kureta: The Hunt (EP Yetunde, 2015)
SΛTVRΣ VS -Ω-: ❖ 石のレプリカ (STONΣ RΣPLICΛ) ░░ (album ЛИЛАВО-НАПИТОК, 2016)
Oë: Le leg des hommes à l’humanité (?)
Golden Living Room: Come Home (album Welcome Home, 2014)
SΛTVRΣ VS -Ω-: ❖ LЏCID SKY (album ЛИЛАВО-НАПИТОК, 2016)
Tainsus: 80s Teenager Kids (free download, 2015)
