Untitled

Frkse

Interview by L. Valena

First, just start by telling me what you responded to.

I know what a triptych is, but I don’t know what a six-something is. Whatever the word for that is. I think there were four cyanotype prints and I’m assuming they were all part of one set. They included some organic and inorganic elements in very, very cool placements. I was really into it.

And what was your first reaction to it?

Cyanotype is really interesting to me because it’s like past impressions that are recorded, but it takes a different shape when you look at it. There are certain types of art that I see that kind of represent, well let’s just say “quantum movement.” And cyanotype is really cool to me because it represents that somehow, it touches that part of my soul. So there are some parts where the more exposure you have, it’s blank, but the outside still remains. I really love that about cyanotype. There’s some sort of movement going on through each of these four pieces, and there’s one part of it in particular that has, more than the others, some spiraling rope or maybe wire. And that really resonated with me, this idea of past and present, and the potential and future. It was really cool to work with that.

What happened next?

Well, I wanted to create something that had some element of past, future, and present. That’s something that’s always on my mind, but I wanted to reflect this idea of exposure. The arrangement and how you put things on cyanotype, depending on where things are placed – some things get exposed more, some things get exposed less – if you have layers, there’s a whole other interesting interplay there. I wanted to do something in that vein. I’ve been working a lot with different synthesizers and just other, sort of, field recordings. So I programmed a synth part. I programmed a bunch of synth parts, but I finally got one that had, I don’t know, sometimes it’s synesthesia, but to me this combination of notes is this sort of blue-cyan coloring. And I just cranked up the delay. The amount of time where the delay was applied was a little bit different, and so all the notes started coming together, but they’re both panned. So it definitely gives you this sense of, Wait, where does one thing start and one thing stop? I included the bell as a reference to show those things. I’ve been really obsessed with this word in German that talks about the past. It’s Vergángenheit. Literally, if you take the two words apart, vergang means to pass and then heit is like the state. I wanted to incorporate that idea. When I think about that word and about the cyanotypes, I have a very emotional response to it because these impressions can’t be recreated. Like, that’s it. I wanted to reflect that sonically as well.

Can you say more about that word? What does it mean to you? What is it touching?

I think, in German, you have a word and then there’s a modification to it. There are many words that are like that. When we think of the past, it’s like something that happened yesterday, something that happened three years ago. But with this word, it’s not just the past. It’s a state, like the state of being in the past. It’s like leaving an impression on a piece of paper. Another word is Dunkelheit, which is darkness, but it’s the state of darkness. That’s it. It represents this finite beginning and ending in a certain way, but still ambiguous. It’s something you can feel, but it’s experiential. That’s what Vergángenheit means to me. It’s like, This is a thing; this is the state of it existing in the past in that way.

Isn’t that crazy? This may sound like a totally stoned thing to say, but I’m just going to say it out loud anyway. I think the idea that the present moment is the only one that matters is something I’m thinking about a lot lately. It’s like, we’re always here. Even when we’re thinking about the past, we’re always thinking about it through the eyes that we have today in this moment. And the same is true of the future. It hasn’t happened yet; it doesn’t exist. And yet it’s something that we’re thinking about right now in the present. It’s endlessly fascinating because it’s really hard to stay in the present. It’s hard to actually be here.

Are there things that you do to try to keep you in the present when you’re working creatively?

I meditate every day, things like that. I think it’s so interesting creatively because, when you put a mark on something, that’s it. It’s already something that’s happened in the past.

That mark in the past reminds me: do you remember the painting you did of me in corpse paint? It exists, one of the greatest paintings, at [our friend] Stan’s house. And every time I go over there, it’s this mark. My hair was a certain length at that time, and sometimes I’m like, Maybe it can be updated with longer hair. But no, this is it. This was the moment in time. I remember preparing for it and feeling so excited that you wanted to do portraits. But that is it. No updates, nothing. And it lives at Stan’s house, and it’s great. I love it.

That probably happened more than 10 years ago at this point! That’s fabulous. I love that. And that’s so different from a photo because, like, you prepared for that, you sat for that. And that painting is still the same object. Even if you prepare for a photo shoot, you’re always only looking at a representation of it that’s been printed out or that’s on a phone or something.

The thing that really fucks with me is that when I go and look at it, it’s not me, yet it’s a representation of me. That always trips me out. You nailed the features. I always look at the nostril holes and think, Yes, Lu captured that. And it’s this thing that exists in this time, in this space. I’m obviously no longer that person. You’re obviously no longer that person. No one is that same person, but it is this document of that time, right?

It’s like the You of then, as seen through the Me of then.

Yes!

Do you want to say anything else about the process of making this piece of music?

I sequenced it using an NPC and I picked notes that would not sound like they were in a scale. I didn’t want people to listen to it and say, Oh this is in this scale or that scale, they’re going for this mood or that mood. I tried to keep this sort of neutral palette, so that when the notes blend into each other, it’s like staring at a Hello Kitty. You know, Hello Kitty isn’t doing anything, but you impose your own feelings on that illustration. I wanted to keep that element. I think I always gravitate toward minor chords, but I really wanted to make it a neutral feeling. The other part of that is in thinking about cyanotypes. I don’t know why I associate cyanotype with this, and I still haven’t done this, but I want to do a sensory deprivation tank.

I do too! I’ve never done that.

It is like getting lost in this thing. So you don’t even know, like, what is the tempo? What’s going on? The only thing that keeps the beacon is this bell. That’s the only thing that allows you to navigate. This version of this chime is over here, but obviously it fades in and out. You know, whoever gets this piece as a prompt, I didn’t want not to trip them out super hard. It’s like, Here’s the beginning, here’s the end.

Is there anything else you want to add?

Whoever is listening to it, listen to it in headphones and see what you can really experience in that present moment. By the way, I love this Exquisite Corpse format. I’m so excited to see what happens in the chain.

Yeah. I’m excited to see too. I love seeing where this goes and seeing what comes through for different people, and what happens in the space in-between. Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Don’t overthink it. I had the idea in my head, but then when I actually did it, there’s a sweet spot and it’s easy to overthink it. It can definitely sabotage you being in the present as well, apropos to our conversation. So I like that.

Call Number: Y58VA | Y61MU.frUnti

“FRKSE is Boston’s apex in the (under)current of esoteric rhythmic noise and hypnotic sampling...awakening elder mantras, inspiring the sacred and the paradoxical.” - J. Morse