Integral - The mind is a terrible thing to taste...

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16 Nov, 2008

Integral - The mind is a terrible thing to taste...
Integral is a whole consisting of David Rotter and Rafael Milatz. Those German musicians claim that "we believe that electronic music can sound very digital and still have a 'human feel' to it. We try to make music that touches both the brain and the heart". I think these words taken from their myspace profile are like an appropriated introduction to this new project, which has just released their debut-album on the upcoming Tympanik Audio label. The "Rise" album sounds like a very own perception and interpretation of electronic music. I guess the sound of Integral can be easily labelled as 'ambient', but that would be a bit too restrictive to define their style of music. Integral mixes low tempo rhythms with electronic treatments, ambient-cinematographic passages and spoken samplings. "Rise" is definitely a fascinating, refreshing, mature and progressive release, which incited me to know a bit more about Integral. I'll conclude this introduction with another statement from their myspace profile: "The mind is a terrible thing to taste�" (By Stéphane Froidcoeur)

SL: Let's start this interview by a rather classical question to know who's hiding behind Integral and the way you guys met?

David: Integral is me and Rafael. Miko who played violin on one of the tracks was also part of the project for a long time, but now we all live in different cities and so working together has become more and more difficult. Me and Rafael met at a swimming lake in fact. We had some common friends and met in the summer of 98. It was a kind of 'love at first sight' because we ended up talking for hours and it was pretty much from that day that we became best friends. Both of us were doing music independently at that time and I think it took over 1 year before we did the first track together.

SL: What has been the 'click' which made you set up Integral and what kind of musical purpose did you have in mind?

David: I don't think there was any 'click'. It just grew by itself. There also wasn't any musical purpose, it was all happening out of the need to create somehow. The project didn't have a name for the first years and it went through different musical styles. For quite a time we worked under the name Leptosom which was mostly a psy-trance project, but we lost interest in dance music after a short time and got more into that ambient and IDM stuff. Actually that was also where it all had started, so we kind of closed a circle here.

SL: It seems that you've been active for many years releasing several albums, which at last have been all discarded! How did this 'older' stuff sound like and how comes you were that demanding and maybe meticulous with yourself?

David: Well, I still like the older stuff! It is really special, and I haven't heard anything like it yet. Unfortunately the sound is so bad with most of the tracks that we just can't bring that to CD. Also I don't think anybody would release it, I really wouldn't know a single label to send it to. We will release that stuff on an "Early Works"- Download-EP for free quite soon. I'm quite curious what people will say �

SL: How did you finally come to release and achieve the "Rise"-album?

David: We were thinking of putting some stuff out for some years and at that point we just needed some feedback from people who were not our friends. We ourselves had no idea anymore whether the music was good or not. You just totally loose the distance to your own stuff, having heard each track a thousand times. Our opinions oscillated between extremes� So we just put up a myspace account and then it all went on auto-pilot somehow. The first label that got in touch with us was Trachanik Records from Berlin. They had also released the latest Einoma stuff - a project we greatly admire, so we were really happy with the opportunity to release it there. But due to the situation of the label, they finally weren't able to release it at that time. Then we got in touch with Subheim and his label Spectraliquid and a little later with Tympanik. It was a hard decision between those two, but Tympanik seemed more active, so we did it with them. During all this process the track listing of the album changed all the time and the last tracks made it to the album just before we sent it out for pressing.

SL: In which way has "Rise" been a way to exorcize the past years and the earlier songs?

David: Our music really seems to come out of yearning and suffering in a way. At least I noticed that I am absolutely not capable to produce any music when I am totally happy � so in a way it seems to 'exorcise' emotions. The last years really weren't the most easy ones and I guess a lot of our longing for inner peace shines through the album at many places. Concerning the earlier songs there was no need to exorcise anything.

SL: You seem to make a difference between 'songs' and 'tracks', claiming that Integral composes rather 'songs' than 'tracks'. Can you explain this nuance?

David: Well, it's our own use of these terms. What we mean is not a nuance, but a different approach to music. Music can either be the expression of something or it can be designed to fit a certain purpose. Music as an expression gets its form from the inside out, it grows organic. Music for purpose gets it from the outside in and mostly follows a certain scheme. Music as expression tells a story, while music for purpose doesn't tell anything; it is empty in a way. You could say that songs have a soul, they are sort of living entities, they speak to you. Tracks have no live of their own, they get it only in interaction with the listeners mind. It is not about what is better. We also do both kinds: the track "Rise" for example is really a track, there is not much in it. But "Back Here Alone" for example is a song and there is a lot in it. I think it is quite obvious if you hear it. In many reviews we are described as very cinematic or soundtrack-like so people seem to recognize this strong narrative element in our music. It is really a different approach to just layering patterns in a build up-break-build up-break scheme - even if some songs may also end up following that. But as said before: there's nothing wrong with tracks and maybe that distinction only exists in our fantasy.

SL: I found an interesting statement on your myspace profile where you affirm that Integral is making 'music that touches both the brain and the heart'. So what kind of music are you making and what do you understand here?

David: IDM runs the risk of being 'music for the brain' only as you get your pleasure from it by understanding complex structures, and enjoying sophisticated sound-design. But it doesn't really 'touch' you in the core because it is often totally lacking an emotional and intuitive level. That is why many people cannot connect to IDM, they just don't get the point, because they are not trained to hear music with their brains only. The emotional level functions through melodies and atmospheres mainly, it's hard to evoke strong emotions with percussion alone. So lot of electronic music rather creates a 'state' in the listeners mind, a kind of trance if you will. That is what electronic music is very good at due to its mostly repetitive structure. You might kind of 'sync's' with the music and gets you in a certain mode of being. That is different to what rock music does for example which goes directly for your emotions and is also addressing the mind in a very different way. So what we try is to merge these two levels and create music that can give you both intellectual and emotional pleasure. That produces a state and tells a story at the same time. I don't know whether we succeed in that. We just got a long letter from a 90 year old lady who ran across our album - and she understood it! That is a pretty good sign but I feel we are not yet there really. I would like to add a lot more heart and human feel to the music and I think this will only be possible by using more natural instruments and voice.

SL: Listening to your album I've been captivated by the kind of low-tempo rhythmic. How did you come to experience with this kind of rhythmic and what does it say about sources of inspiration?

David: Well cubase opens at 120 bpm and most of the songs are in that tempo. We both feel very comfortable with 120 bpm, but I guess your question is also aiming at the fact that we don't use d'n'b-like rhythms too much and it's true: we both prefer trip hop and down tempo beats because they are like less stress. Also the information density would be two high if we put up the speed. I think even now it may be difficult to follow all the micro-movements at the first listen.

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SL: I've been also fascinated by some real low bass sounds, which accentuate some of the songs. I guess you really take care about sound research isn't it? Where do you get your sounds from and do you've a particular way of working?

David. We use manly presets and just tweak them a little. There's really not much sound design here. We just have tons of audio samples. But it is true: sounds have to fit, and I recommend searching as long as it takes to find the right sound. Never try to fix anything in the mix. Also we use long chains of inserts rather then one single effect. These multi-effects tend to have a very unique sound that you can always hear in a mix. For example you can always tell when Guitar Rig is used. That should of course be avoided.

SL: What's the input of each other in Integral and do you feel as complementary artists rather than a kind of opposites?

David: As we live in different cities we both do our tracks alone and then sit together on them for finish. It is really a miracle that we can just put our tracks on the same album and it sounds as one! Also I think you get better results like this. You can just work more fluent alone and the vision of a song is much clearer, it can find to it's form more easily. Two people tend to discuss too much and blur the essence of a song. Also both of us have become so clear in what we want that we don't like to make compromises any more that much. Another point is, that you can get working into trance more easily if you work alone. When you get into that flow-state you forget about everything. You don't drink, eat or go to the toilet. Together it is difficult to reach that state.

SL: When listening to your album I got several other German projects in mind like Lassigue Bendthaus, M² or Orphx. Do you feel related to one of these projects and what have been some of your favourite ambient projects?

David: Lassique Bendthaus might have been some influence, but not too much I guess. I don't even know the two other bands. I think the influences you hear the most are Gridlock and Autechre. The old Delerium stuff was a very important influence as well and of course the early Warp artists.

SL: How did you come to the titles of your songs and is there any kind of inspiration behind?

David: That's different from track to track. The tracks mostly get their names because you have to type something when saving the cubase project. So often we have a hard time finding something, sometimes it's just nonsense, sometimes it is there before the song or comes up effortless while hearing.

SL: You prefer using spoken samplings instead of real vocals. How comes and where did you get these samplings from?

David: We don't prefer, we would love to do something with vocals! But it's hard to find a good singer. And we would like someone who brings in own ideas that really blow us away, not someone you have to work on real hard to get at least close to what you want. So we just didn't find the right person yet. And talking about the samples could lead to some serious problems - so we better don't.

SL: How did you get in touch with Tympanik Audio and how do you feel being signed on a young and dynamic label?

David: Paul heard a song from us on a compilation and contacted us through myspace, from there it went quite quick. He really does an incredible job, you get immediate reply to every single email, problems are solved within hours. I personally have no idea how he does this and whether he ever sleeps, but for the artist it is really full-service. Also the contact between the artists of the label is really intense at times. Everybody has everybody's email and we had some long discussions that almost saturated all our Inboxes. So Tympanik now even has an own discussion board for the artists to share ideas. Also there is a nice collaboration project going on, but I don't think I am allowed to talk about that. Unfortunately we don't have time to participate in the exchange so much, as I am really busy with my day job right now. But I think this is really special about Tympanik. In general it is really strange for us to be on such a 'dark' label. We are both more hippies than anything else. Also we have absolutely no connection to this scene apart from the fact that we are used to hear a lot of EBM in the 90s. There is a lot I don't like about the industrial and EBM-scene. The dress code, all this posing and pretending to be super-bad is really very far away from what we stand for. We are nice people, we like to laugh a lot and believe in love and living harmlessly and stuff like that. To me this promoting of 'evil' or 'hate' is absolutely ridiculous especially when there are mostly very nice people behind all this masking. I just don't get the point of it. Why not just be natural?

SL: I read that you'll make a remix for the upcoming album from your label mates Zentriert Ins Antlitz, which is another band I really like for their sound and compositions. What kind of remix will you make?

David: It's already done. We remixed "Where Their Dreams Live". We liked the material, so we just translated the whole song to our aesthetics. It's a very straight forward track, no tricks, not much tweaking. It will be on our myspace soon.

SL: It seems you both are also involved in the side-project Sercosa! What can you tell us a bit this project and where's the difference in composition and sound with Integral?

David: We have decided to merge he two projects. Integral was originally my project and Sercosa is Rafael's one. But now some of Rafael's tracks are on the Integral album and I co-worked a little on some of the Sercosa tracks. So the next Integral album will be the Sercosa album. It is much more ambient than the stuff on "Rise" and will be more a kind of conceptual album.

SL: The front picture of your album reveals a kind of SF-prehistoric species. What is it all about and in and where's the link between this illustration and your sound?

David: The cover is done by Tobias Splitt, one of our oldest friends. He does in art what we do in music somehow. We used to sit together a lot when we were all living in the same city, Rafael and me doing music and Tobias painting. For the cover we asked him to draw something that 'looks like something without actually being something'". We didn't want any known object on the cover, nor did we want some abstract or technical stuff. I think Tobias solved this difficult task with perfection! It looks at the same time familiar and totally alien, organic and out of space, old and new. And even if it looks like being something it actually isn't. Or who could tell what it is?

SL: Do you guys already have some live experience(s) and is there anything planned here?

David: If we ever play live than only with a lot of live instruments and very different than heard on the album. Laptop-acts are not our business.

SL: Realizing that it took you several years to release this debut album, what will bring the future for Integral?

David: First the "Early Works"-EP will come as a free download maybe even this year. Also the next album is almost finished, it just needs one more track. As mentioned before it will be called "Sercosa" and go deeper into ambient. In the meantime we will only do remixes and put together a remix album, which will be our third release. I guess that it will be finished by the time "Sercosa" comes out. The fourth album will most likely be totally different. I would like to work a lot more with natural instruments and vocals because I am somehow done with electronic music and especially IDM. But we'll see �

Band: www.myspace.com/integral
Label: www.tympanikaudio.com / www.myspace.com/tympanik

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