Today I would like to share some stories about the new sound art project Maquinas em Diálogo, which we started with a talented Brazilian artist, Ingrid Soares.
Listen to the song while reading the text.
The Real Thing
I first met Ingrid through her electronic research, experiments, and music, which I enjoyed very much, as it brought to my mind the delicacy and intelligence of research done by Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, or the „red orb” Hawkwind electronic wizards DikMik and Del Dettmar.
In the world of digital „artists,” upon hearing Ingrid, I realized that she is the real thing, not another lost person with a laptop. She had the vision, lyrics, story, and passion, so I decided to write her an e-mail and kindly ask if she would like to collaborate with me.
Little Projects Going
It was when I still had the Saure Adler krautrock ensemble working in band mode, with a drummer, and bass player. So, we recorded a track called „Venus,” and so our collaboration started. The track got played on a good Polish radio station, with an interview, which made us both very happy.
As time went by, we cut about 7 tracks, 2 or 3 of which got released on the Via Kosmische Sessions compilation, and Ingrid wanted to work more in the field of sound art and sound production and Portuguese poetry, and being the in-the-know person (familiar even with Polish avantgarde artists from the 60s and 70s) she is, I thought it would be nice to have a little project going.
In the meantime, the Italian label TibProd (which also happens to have Conrad Schniztler, Maurizio Bianchi, and Big Robot in their impressive catalog) released my 3rd physical album, „Hippie,” which contains two tracks with Ingrid, where she shows her vocal, programming, atmospheric and even drummer skills. I think she is pretty good, but you be the judge.
Sonic Assaults
For our new project, Ingrid invented the name, which means „Machines in Dialogue”, as our “machines” (her voice and electronics, my guitar, bass guitar, computer, voice, and our assorted and lethally combined “sonic assault”) communicate through the waves of world wide web – instead of us, which is a funny evolution of the once-avantgarde medium now turned retro. As Wolfgang Seidel said somewhere, or I misread that, in which case, apologies to Mr. Seidel, “Electronica was avant-garde in the 60s, now it’s only retrofuturism.” And so it is.
Our philosophy is simple – we make sound art, meaning music is art for us, not entertainment or dance material (of course, it is also this, but not for us necessarily, at least not in this moment of the zeitgeist) – we are artists, not celebrities or entertainers, and thanks to the music we make (with roots in Kosmische Musik, industrial, noise, electronic women pioneers, poetry) we will surely avoid the fate of celebrities and entertainers, who, I believe, will be passe pretty soon. People are bored. Entertainers and celebrities only reflect that.
We don’t need more mirrors. We need artists.
And, an artist is not only a mirror. Also a void, or a fluxus vibe going on somewhere on Burroughsian “dead city radio” waves you can (if lucky) intercept in Nepal, or Poland, or… Brazil.
A Joyful Necessity
And so, we intercept the airwaves, weave our sound and poetry fabric and hope to become better at art, as we are learning all the time, through creation, not through the passive “act of learning,” which, in my opinion, leads nowhere. Act. There is hardly time for anything else. And, please enjoy our music. And forget your ego, for your ego’s sake. Make folk music, if you can’t make anything else, but please use machines, they are sad, but a joyful necessity.
For fans of Kluster, Tangerine Dream, Amon Duul, Women Pioneers in Electronic Music, Hawkwind, Popol Vuh, Gong… yes, the “demi monde” of the usual “axis.”
Maquinas em Diálogo
Ingrid Soares
A.J. Kaufmann – Hippie
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