[Interview + Premiere] Alchi – Tulpa (Single)
* Pour lire la version française de cette entrevue cliquez ICI!
It’s always pleasant to discover a new gold mine, a well-kept secret that contains fascinating and enriching sounds.Let’s head to The Netherlands for a true revelation from mylja records, the fantastic album Full Of It from the producer Krijn Moons. Adepts of electronic, experimental and leaping echoes, you will be seduced by this eminently vast range of emotions. At the same time joyful and contemplative, melancholic and astonishing, Alchi‘s music weaves auditory veins of great splendor, coming peacefully to embrace us, like a comforting and soft hug.
In anticipation of the release of Full Of It on January 29, we have the immense privilege to premiere a new track from the opus, the brilliant song Tulpa. We asked a few questions to Krijn, who generously answered to the request. It’s time to discover the charming and sonic universe of Alchi!
You’re releasing your first album as Alchi on mylja records on January 29, a wonderful trip through experimental electronics landscapes. Can you tell us a little bit about your musical journey and the story behind this new project?
I see this record as my coming of age as a musician, in many ways. Some songs have been finished for a long time, and the album spans over three years. I gradually found my own sound and re-recorded old parts. I started investing in more gear, which made my sound more characteristic. However, on the other hand, I didn’t want to throw away my initial ideas. It contained much more hints to dance music and much more sampling. Now I would do that very differently, but I understand what I thought was beautiful or powerful at the time, so it really is a confluence of old and new work. Along the way I found out what the collective meaning of the music was, and gradually I started to discover what I think is important in music.
© Photo: Nyré Tiessen
Your music is exciting in many ways, mixing a lot of different styles and influences, which creates a vibe where anything can happen. How did you come up with this dense and rich sound?
In the beginning, I looked to many other artists. I loved to copy otherworldly sounds from artists like Tim Hecker or Arca, and characteristic analog synth sounds from artists like Floating Points or Weval using only free vsts and guitar pedals. Using that as practice I spent a lot of experimenting to find my own signature; with a sound where everything is ‘alive’, and each sound has a lot of detail in itself. I only have one real analog synth – the Vermona Perfourmer, with which I made the unrefined sounds in combination with half-broken tape/cassette gear.
I also share a studio with a friend (Hugo Ariëns) who works with prepared guitar. He uses the guitar to create the most amazing sounds, only sparsely using effects. Because his gear is always within reach, there is still quite a lot of (prepared) guitar on the album, often as a doubled texture layer on other parts. So in short, it’s sort of a combination of work with randomness, with a lot of detail and character – mainly through unpredictable and half-broken gear.
You say that your music is made of porcelain and granite and we can really feel it throughout the course of the album while you bring us in many directions, exploring a large spectrum of emotions. What was your state of mind when you created Full Of It and what did you want to tell us exactly?
It wasn’t until I was working with Middenin in the summer that I found out. I would describe myself as an ’emotions’ person, and that feeling also guides me the most in life. However, there are often long periods that I feel flattened. In those times, I badly need music to stay in touch with how intense or powerful something can feel. Then it became clear which songs should be on the record, and why I make music that feels like an emotional world in itself. I used to sail on impressiveness or skillfulness. I think I have now shaken that off, and have mainly started to focus on what touches me the deepest, regardless of what kind of music that ultimately produces. That’s why in the end there were no short songs or interludes.
I need my own music to feel connected to my own emotions. Sometimes I wish I could be more down to earth, that I could make music that is more conceptual or cerebral.
I have come to see myself as someone who lives mainly sensory – fascination with food, smells, and especially a fascination with seeing ordinary things, like the texture of orange peels, and bees cleaning themselves.
© Photo: Nyré Tiessen
You mention that some of your biggest influences are Nicolás Jaar, Boards of Canada, Sigur Rós and James Holden, I was wondering if there were some smaller acts that influence you or that you really like at the moment? Are there some artists from The Netherlands we need to listen to?
I think we have a very vibrant ambient scene in The Netherlands. I have listened to a lot of Zeno van den Broek’s work in the past months – and a lot of stuff from Moving Furniture Records. Regarding inspiration, there are two albums that have inspired me most this year, although they are not dutch; Blake Mills’s Mutable Set and Joseph Shabason’s Anne. The arrangements in Blake Mills’s songs are mind blowing to me. There are many subtle instruments throughout the album. And Anne is just a very wonderful diverse blend of sounds, with such a natural flow.
To conclude the interview, I would like to ask you to talk a little bit about the beautiful cover of your album. Who made this abstract artwork and does this have a particular meaning?
The painting is a cutout of a larger artwork of Pleun Moons. It was part of a series of three very large canvases. The paintings came about by repeatedly ripping of the layers off an artspace’s floor. One of them was cut out in smaller pieces – such as the one on the cover of the album, which revealed even more the detail in the layers of paint and wood that were once hidden in the floor. All the colors as layers were like tree rings on the floor in that space. In that sense the original painting is about the inevitable presence of time and of different times simultaneously. Through the process of working, one can never deny what was before, even erasing or putting another layer on top does not negate that which lies beneath. Every mark, every layer, and every action defines time; in omnipresence, moments, simultaneity, or the absence of time.
Not all of that translates directly to my music, but the similarities between my music and her paintings are visible in how they came to be: through the unexpected. In such a way failure and imperfection can become a material too; it is an assembly of equally considered pieces of reality.
Thanks for your time!