Amon Tobin: Ever Falling
I suppose I look at all recorded sound as source material. How it works in music is really down to how you then manipulate it.
| 10 Feb 2007
Having caught everything from the skewed sounds of a running motor bike to the brittle steps of an ant strutting around inside an aluminium container, it's a no brainer that Amon Tobin's latest studio endeavour, Foley Room, is a record that simply had to be made. The Brazilian DJ and musician recently spared The Skinny some time to discuss the many methods to his genre bending cipher.
As the title would suggest, Foley Room seems heavily involved in the capture of field samples and, as such, has something of a forensic approach to it. What significance does the concept behind a foley room hold for you?
"I suppose I look at all recorded sound as source material. How it works in music is really down to how you then manipulate it. If this record has any conceptual value at all it's making the point that all the technology we use and all the source material available to us is secondary to the creative process."
In this particular creative process, what has been the most unlikely source you've used to capture that elusive sound to add to your palette?
"I recorded a gazelle complaining, that was pretty weird. Some robots and hydraulics moving, that kind of thing."
What sort of recording techniques did you use in order to capture them at their most unadulterated?
"I recorded everything with some quite special mics on to tape. The mics were really surgical in the way they captured sound with great detail but without adding any artefacts/colouration. Having everything on tape meant that I could apply extreme pitching, slow down and speed up the recordings, without the limitations you have with digital recordings. Most of the recordings were made in a 'dead' space with no acoustic character. This let me apply whatever character I wanted afterwards when I came to making the tracks using convolution algorithms. Convolution algorithms are calculated by taking an impulse response signal from an acoustic space. You can then put your sound in that space and it will react accordingly. There are lots of spaces people have now recorded 'IR's' for. Everywhere from the inside of a hoover to the Taj Mahal."
Having produced records that experimented more in jazz, drum'n bass and samba in the past, Foley Room appears more involved with the classical form and the abstract. Do you feel that these qualities are naturally reactionary, having recently scored Splinter Cell 3 and (Hungarian arthouse flick) Taxidermia?
"Well I've been making music for quite a while now so I suppose it's natural to try different things over time. During the early nineties I was very interested in how jazz and Brazilian rhythms could work in new forms of music like d'n'b. I went into that as deep as I could and then started to look elsewhere for inspiration. For sure I got a lot of experience from working on those soundtracks though and hopefully am applying it well on stuff I've done since."
What are you aiming to apply it to next?
"I'm working on a project called 'Two Fingers' right now with a producer who goes under the name of 'doubleclick'. It's pretty much the extreme opposite of Foley Room in terms of style and nothing to do with my albums on Ninjatune. Kind of Sci-Hop or something. Anyway, it'll be a full length album probably for late this year or early next year, depending on how long it takes to finish and which label we sign with."
Having participated on 'Don't Even Trip' on the Peeping Tom LP, what was it like clanging heads with a creative mind like Mike Patton? Do you have any plans to reconvene for the next chapter of the project?
"Mike's one of the coolest people I've worked with. We have lots of ideas for future collaborations; it's more an issue of being in the same place at roughly the same time so we'll see."
Do you have any plans to charm your Scottish audience with a few live dates? Are there any rich visuals to accompany the sonics?
"Some shows in Scotland would be wicked although I can't promise visuals. To be honest I can't afford visuals, that shit's expensive!"
What is it that has kept you so motivated as an artist?
"Curiosity mainly and there's this girl..."
As the title would suggest, Foley Room seems heavily involved in the capture of field samples and, as such, has something of a forensic approach to it. What significance does the concept behind a foley room hold for you?
"I suppose I look at all recorded sound as source material. How it works in music is really down to how you then manipulate it. If this record has any conceptual value at all it's making the point that all the technology we use and all the source material available to us is secondary to the creative process."
In this particular creative process, what has been the most unlikely source you've used to capture that elusive sound to add to your palette?
"I recorded a gazelle complaining, that was pretty weird. Some robots and hydraulics moving, that kind of thing."
What sort of recording techniques did you use in order to capture them at their most unadulterated?
"I recorded everything with some quite special mics on to tape. The mics were really surgical in the way they captured sound with great detail but without adding any artefacts/colouration. Having everything on tape meant that I could apply extreme pitching, slow down and speed up the recordings, without the limitations you have with digital recordings. Most of the recordings were made in a 'dead' space with no acoustic character. This let me apply whatever character I wanted afterwards when I came to making the tracks using convolution algorithms. Convolution algorithms are calculated by taking an impulse response signal from an acoustic space. You can then put your sound in that space and it will react accordingly. There are lots of spaces people have now recorded 'IR's' for. Everywhere from the inside of a hoover to the Taj Mahal."
Having produced records that experimented more in jazz, drum'n bass and samba in the past, Foley Room appears more involved with the classical form and the abstract. Do you feel that these qualities are naturally reactionary, having recently scored Splinter Cell 3 and (Hungarian arthouse flick) Taxidermia?
"Well I've been making music for quite a while now so I suppose it's natural to try different things over time. During the early nineties I was very interested in how jazz and Brazilian rhythms could work in new forms of music like d'n'b. I went into that as deep as I could and then started to look elsewhere for inspiration. For sure I got a lot of experience from working on those soundtracks though and hopefully am applying it well on stuff I've done since."
What are you aiming to apply it to next?
"I'm working on a project called 'Two Fingers' right now with a producer who goes under the name of 'doubleclick'. It's pretty much the extreme opposite of Foley Room in terms of style and nothing to do with my albums on Ninjatune. Kind of Sci-Hop or something. Anyway, it'll be a full length album probably for late this year or early next year, depending on how long it takes to finish and which label we sign with."
Having participated on 'Don't Even Trip' on the Peeping Tom LP, what was it like clanging heads with a creative mind like Mike Patton? Do you have any plans to reconvene for the next chapter of the project?
"Mike's one of the coolest people I've worked with. We have lots of ideas for future collaborations; it's more an issue of being in the same place at roughly the same time so we'll see."
Do you have any plans to charm your Scottish audience with a few live dates? Are there any rich visuals to accompany the sonics?
"Some shows in Scotland would be wicked although I can't promise visuals. To be honest I can't afford visuals, that shit's expensive!"
What is it that has kept you so motivated as an artist?
"Curiosity mainly and there's this girl..."
Foley Room is released through Ninjatune on 5 March.
http://www.amontobin.com