Lorenzo Gómez Oviedo’s Hebra is an amorphous breath into void, into mystery; into unutterable questions. Here, the questions are a little more earthly.
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Ambient music speaks no language. Does this makes ambient music universal? Or do our individual spoken languages imprint themselves on our art?
As Burroughs thought, language is a virus. In that sense, probably some of this spoken language you mention is filtered in the musical making. At the same time, ambient music seeks, more than universality, the disintegration of anchor points or reachable landscapes. Rather, it seeks to inhabit mirages, leaving the ego of the artist and the listener in the background, covered in fog.
One for the techies—what gear do you use to produce your music?
My gear that I use varies in each proposal; in each album. From open-reel recorders or cassette loops to percussion instruments, electric guitar and MIDI technology. In my last two albums (Cielo, 2019 and Hebra, 2020) I used my notebook with Ableton live processes, VST [Virtual Studio Technology] instruments and field recordings.
Your albums often consist of one extended piece. How is this handled in physical releases (e.g. cassette), when the track must be interrupted?
Important topic for me. I know it would be smart to think about time according to the physical format that is being used. I used to do it. Currently, I only think about the needs of music, of its speech. Sometimes problems arise. For example, Cielo is a 42-minute track, and was edited for cassette by the label—and the track was cut in half. Ouch.
If Hebra was a place, what place would that be?
It would be a place so small that inside it everything is immense.
Hebra (and your work in general) has a very natural, organic feel. What are some of the places you made field recordings for the record?
I recorded different pastures near my house, and also made several recordings of my kitchen. For this particular album, I looked for recordings to lose their referential aspect, their traceable feature, to use as evocative and diffuse material.
What is your starting point when assembling a record?
Before, I could have replied that I always start with a concept to set a record. Currently, I am more inclined to say that I am giving birth to a mood, or a colour, that I need to put between sounds and silences.
There's often a correlation between ambient artists and some form of philosophy (an example being Éliane Radigue and Tibetan Buddhism). Is there any spiritual/philosophical aspect to your work?
Of course. In my case, the spiritual/philosophical aspect to my work is poetry. Romantic poetry, such as Hölderlin, Keats and Shelley. Also, the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, and the Argentine poet Hugo Mujica play a crucial role in my work.
The cover of Hebra (by artist Carolina Meló Crubellier) shows a striking, almost Martian landscape. How was this artwork chosen? And (if you know) how was it made?
I’m a big admirer of Crubellier's work. I gave her the music of Hebra especially to make the cover art. To my honour, she agreed and made that striking landscape, which I think deepens and expands the album. In much of her work, she manipulates and rearranges very small elements of nature in a meticulous way, creating these powerful landscapes and hypnotic beings. I asked her about her process for this album and she replied: 'I did it from Hebra, the abyss, the violence and worship.’
Is ambient music absence or presence?
Amazing question. I think I'm going to keep that question as a defining aspect. Maybe ambient music is that question that does not seek to be answered, but go through that doubt as a being.
Are there any artists you'd like to shout out?
I’ll mention artists from different provinces of Argentina that interest me a lot.
Fabián Racca (La Pampa) is an incredible improviser, and a specialist in radio art and field recordings. In Mendoza, Indr0 and Ese; two very active noise artists. In San Juan, Music By Emilio (very weird music) and Los Payasos Muertos; a strange and intense shock metal band. In Córdoba, Bardo Todol (Pablo Picco) is a prolific magician of post-form music and free improvisation. And in a very small town called Pico Truncado, in the south of the country, is Juan Manuel Patricio, a fantastic ambient musician.
Read our review of Hebra here.
Interview conducted by Andrew O’Keefe