INTERVIEW WITH TEMPS PERDU? / PSYGRAM MAY 2005
1.To start with this interview, I would like you to comment on your artistic work over these years. I guess that, as a couple, you share and assume the social and artistic aspects, with an open attitude in taking a position with regard to the contradictions that turn up. How do you assume this circumstance? Is it a difficult path, that of seeking personal and social coherence?
It started all in the mid eighties by purchasing our first synthesizer, a Moog/Realistic MG1 Concermate we still have and use. Soon a simple 4-track cassette machine, a digital audio delay and a Commodore VC64 computer running a 16-track midi sequencer followed. With this simple setup a cassette was released in 1987 under the moniker "Le Petit Mort". It started as solo project by Dirk but during the recording sessions Catherine became more and more interested and finally contributed flutes and synthesizers on 2 tracks. Dirk continued with doing "Le Petit Mort" solo tracks till 1989. Temps Perdu?" was founded and the studio was upgraded to an 8 track reel-to-reel recorder, 8 channel mixing desk, Ensoniq EPS sample keyboard, Atari ST1024 running Cubase 2.0 sequencing software, a DAT machine and more flutes. Our first Temps Perdu? album "Athanor" was a collection of different styles and personal experiments, the next albums were more coherent in style and mood. But it was clear from the beginning that we wanted to mix electronic with acoustic instruments.

Temps Perdu? is strongly connected with our life as a couple. We live together since more than 20 years and have now two children. Temps Perdu? is our vehicle for expressing our musical ideas. Producing new tracks in our studio is a natural part of our relationship. It helps us to share feelings otherwise impossible to express in normal daily live. The process of creating music is so encouraging that, even after 20 years we still enjoy it. It is unlikely that we ever stop creating new tracks; it is an important and inseparable thing in our relationship. Both Catherine and I have a lot of the same interest in culture, travel, the same view of life. This helps us to find common ground for our music.
2.Listening your records means a mystic experience, where the ancestral element contrasts with electronic technology. It is obvious that electronic instruments are means to take the maximum result out of them, but nevertheless the tonal timbre richness of the acoustic instruments brings the source, still primal, in order to connect without subconscious as a way of channeling energy. How do you develop the structuring phase of your pieces?
We love the electro-organic quality you obtain when working with acoustic and electronic sounds. We always loved flutes in classical Arabian and Indian music because of the haunting beauty and mystical mood. Acoustic instruments have a certain magic you don't achieve with electronic instruments. Intonation and sound color of a flute for example is directly connected with ones body and soul. On the other hand electronic instruments are incredible tools, which let you produce otherworldly sound structures very difficult- if not impossible to achieve with acoustic instruments only.

What we're looking for while recording are these moments of magic. This is often triggered by a rhythm or a spontaneous played melody. One is working on a sequence the other one plays simultaneous with an acoustic instrument and so like that a track starts to grow. We do need a certain atmosphere to compose in, though we usually start with a loop, percussion or an ambient chord. We begin with acoustic instruments, then blend in electronics or vice versa, there is no strict recipe. We lay down a foundation of sorts, and then the other one comes in and ad-libs. But we do function as one complete unit; we complement each other perfectly. Most of the time we're quite astonished with the results because we don't really need a special mood, it just flows during the 2 hours at one time we spend in our studio. It's sometimes difficult to get into the mood of a track started a few weeks ago but 2 hours later we mostly managed to bring the piece to the next step. That's a very nice feeling…Usually we have the habit to compose in parallel on different tracks. One by one we finish these tracks later on. With today's software it is so easy to switch between different unfinished tracks. Just a few years ago we tend to work on a piece till it was ready for mixing because it was too time consuming to set up the gear for another song.
3. The use of sampler gives magic, spiritual dimension to your music. Most of the material you produce comes from acoustic sources treated through studio techniques. The sampler is an indispensable tool by means of which you carry out loop techniques, amongst others. Furthermore there is the artificial creation of acoustic spaces by means of digital effects devices for signal delay, such as reverb delay or chorus, with which you creates at sense of the existence of several performers playing the same line. Do you let yourselves be carried a way by your own instinct?
We like to experiment with samples and loop techniques. On our first CD "Athanor" we used the possibilities of modern sampling machines extensively. Curiously on our last album "Earth Story" (2000 Amplexus) we did use a sampling machine feed with self made samples just on one track ("Eclipse"). On the other tracks we used electronic and acoustic instruments treated with effects and looping devices. Most rhythms sounds are sequencer triggered drum samples. We're rather curious to discover new sounds by manipulating acoustic instruments or voices with digital or analogue effects. But our own instinct is our most important tool. Our aim is to create fascinating, unusual or bizarre music.

Some of our music reflects the wideness of deserts and remote places. The use of reverbs and digital echoes adds space and visual power that helps to interpret the impressions we got during our voyages to Egypt, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Lanzarote Island, France or Spain..
 
4. That conception of harmonies and ambiences shape music and noise, which merge in a whole, forming a turbid balance between daydream and nightmare. Do you think that, through this transformation, the human being reaches sensations which are, somehow, premonitory and which help to channel our body's inner energy?
 
We always liked music with a good balance between pure beauty and thrilling counterpoints. It keeps you awake and focused instead of being lulled to sleep. Energetic, rhythmic structures can create an opening, the more dramatic atmospheric pieces too. But both elements together can open yet a more intense dimension and can help channeling your energy. For us it is a bit like switching from a b/w TV screen to a wide full color screen cinema format. But as always it is question of taste and different perception of music in general.
 
5. However, you stated more than once that the most important thing was having fun and the pleasure of playing. What others beliefs justify the need to make a music which touches our innermost fibers?
 
Although we are no prolific artists we are addicted to create our own music from time to time. The main intention in all our music is to open a door, which allows us to step out of everyday time and obligations, into a place we feel most comfortable with. Many of our current social structures and material concerns do not encourage emotional creativity. In any case, our music can offer a place where the bondage of western time is removed and the feeling of an expanded state is encouraged. So for us to create these sounds and rhythms and utilizing our own bodies as a kind of biological filter is our way of channeling our creativity when the juices are flowing. With your own music we express feelings we can't articulate otherwise. While in the studio we're vibrating in your own soundworld. We can't describe it just happens. It is a great feeling to finish a new track you love.
 
6.Something, which attracts one attention when listening to your works, is the importance you give to voices, which are mixed and processed. The human voice is a basic instrument capable of making a huge range of sounds, which transcends the language. You carry out a process of transformation and shape it by means of loops, samplers and filters, creating cyclic sequences. How do you carry out the process of editing sounds obtained from natural sound sources?
 
We do not use voice that much, but then it is with the same intention with every sound we use. We rarely let things untouched, we feel the need to tweak around to make sounds, voices, and sequences more interesting and to give them their own identity. As soon as we record a new track the fun of editing and adding effects starts. The possibilities are now almost endless. Besides our hardware audio processors there is a whole world of software plug ins we can choose from.
 
7.In 1999, Stefano Gentile, coordinator by the label Amplexus, offers you the probability to realize a record. You decide by a mini-CD of the name " The day the earth melted". A work very close to the work of the American space electronic music, perhaps by the drums you use and superpose layers of synthesizer. Do you think your work has common points with these artists (Steve Roach, Michael Sterns, Robert Rich, and others)? What do you reflect in this work?
 
The title "The Day the Earth melted" for the one track 3" mini CD was chosen because of a TV documentary from BBC that we liked a lot. We tried to reflect the scenario of a volcano eruption. At first all is quiet, then the eruption then silence again but now the earth is covered with ash, destructive but in the same time fascinating and beautiful streams of hot lava. The track begins with calm nature sounds and warm synthesizer washes and peaks at 15 minutes with an aggressive played ocarina and dark clouds of sounds. After the eruption the dark clouds are blown away by the wind, the lava gets cold and life slowly returns back but the natural destruction is still visible. If you listen to the track carefully you may understand what we mean. Till today it is the longest piece of music we ever did and it still one of our favorites.

We love the music of our American friends and colleagues much and have a deep respect for their work. We sometimes share certain key-elements but we all have our different personalities and ideas which influence the music.
 
8. By the way, your work sounds distant, reflective, like it summons images from the past, why is that?
 
Images of surrealism, archeological documentation series about forgotten archetypes are one of the main influences while composing new tracks. We find the mysteries about forgotten cultures so interesting that we try to compose our music in an adventurous and mysterious way as well.
 
9. Psygram is a project, which attracts my attention for your dark atmospheres. In this sense, "In dreamshow", "Vision of shadows" or "Gehörgänge" marks a important change in the way of structuring pieces in relation to Temps Perdu?. Percussions, voices and ambiences made by means of sampler and synthesizers are the basis of sound. Influences of ethnic music are also perceived. Can it be considered your project most experimental work up to now?
 
Dirk and his friend Siegfried Fischer started composing music around the same time as Temps Perdu?. In the beginning under the moniker "Jesus Drum" but this changed quickly to "Psygram" which stands for psychogram (n, spirit message; psychological description of person; mental picture). The music is focused on surreal ambient-industrial soundscapes and hypnotic live improvisations in a studio setting with influences of electro acoustic music. It is our "industrial-ambient research project".

Most tracks are generated from chance processes, ranging from sampling and looping techniques to free form improvisation. The first cassette and the first two CD albums consists of more or less structured pieces with the aid of an eight track reel-to-reel recorder and sequencer software. In 2002 the CD "Gehörgänge was released by the Italian label Amplexus as part of the "Amplexus Weird" series. The music for this CD was recorded in 1999. We put away all habits. It was entirely improvised and recorded straight to digital 2 track DAT machine without using electronic instruments, prepared backing tapes or sequencers. Only acoustic instruments: accordion,rainmaker and Siegfried's strange voice articulations. These sounds were heavily treated in real-time mainly with feedback loops, reverbs and delay effects. We recorded 3,5 hours and the 57 minutes you hear on the CD are the best moments. No editing, no mastering, no overdubs. This was a big challenge for us. Even several years later we enjoy it to listen all the way through the album. That is why this particular CD was such a personal success for us (I don't speak about the sales figure here).
 
10. Which instruments have you got in the studio in this moment?
 
Actually we have an array of flutes from different countries and places: Egypt, China, India, Haiti, Japan, Tunisia, Africa, Thailand, Bolivia, Ireland, North America, and Mexico. We have a Northern Sonoran dreampipe (similar to the Australian didgeridoo), an Indonesian angklung (a wooden percussion instrument made from bamboo pipes of differing length and pitch. These are fixed loosely to a small wooden frame and shaken to produce a tremolo.) There is also an ocean drum, a Xaphoon (Hawaiian bamboo flute with tenor saxophone reed), congas, different South American rainmakers, Tibetan crotales and a collection of rattles. On the electronic side we have a Korg Wavestation SR, an e-mu Proteus 3 World sample player, an Ensoniq EPS sampling keyboard, a Roland JP 8000, a Moog/Realistic Concertmate MG1 (our first synthesizer) and some software synthesizers like Green Oaks Crystal or Waldorf A1.

For recording, sequencing and mixing we use a PC based DAW running Steinberg's Cubase SX, a Behringer MX8000 24 channel inline mixing desk, Sony DCT-60 DAT Recorder, JBL 4408 monitor speakers, B.P.M. 73 Condenser Microphone, Behringer DMX 2000 Compressor, Behringer Ultrafex II Exciter and a Doepfer MAQ 16/3 step sequencer.

For effects we use the following hardware audio processors: Alesis Quadraverb+, Sony HR MP5, Lexicon MPX 100, Yamaha REV 500, Lexicon Jamman, Vesta Kaza Dig-411 Digital Delay and Behringer Virtualizer plus some software plug ins as well.
 
11. Do you prefer the analogical instruments in combination with the digital technology?
 
We mix all together, no matter what technology is behind. We do not care if electronic instruments are analog, digital, subtractive, additive, FM, virtual analog, software or whatever comes next.
 
12. How is your experience like when you give a concert live in which everything has to be carefully planned (I am referring to the prerecorded basis). Is, perhaps, in the live concerts when you turn more intensely to improvisation?
 
We performed only twice here in our hometown Düsseldorf but this is long time ago, 1989 and 1991. Both concerts were half prepared, half improvised. We had a very good audience. The direct feedback was encouraging and both concerts were a full success with about 300 people coming along. We had several offers to perform live since then but we never really felt the urge to perform live again. Having normal full time jobs and 2 kids we decided to focus exclusively on our studio work.
 
13. What would it be the ideal way of listening to your music?
 
The music we are producing seems to demand more awareness than the usual sing along tune you hear in the radio. But everyone has it's own habits. We for example like listening to our favorite music while driving the car or while preparing meals. The most intense moments while listening to music is when on foot or while relaxing. When we first traveled the southwest of North America we had a very good sound system in our rental car. Driving through endless deserts in Arizona, Utah and Nevada whilst listening to CDs by Steve Roach, Baked Beans, Jon Hassell, Mo Boma, Robert Rich or our own music was a great experience we will never forget. The desert was the movie, the music was the soundtrack.
 
14. The audience who listen your records is astonished by such a rich variety of timbres. Is your sound perhaps the search for a kind of music that is difficult to define, although it moves and charms whoever feels it flowing through their senses?
 
When listening to our music several times you will discover more and more details. The variety of timbres in our music is a result of constantly trying new things. We tend to compose our pieces with a large amount of different tracks, layers and tiny details fading in and out. It takes us usually several month to finish one track, it grows on us over the weeks, deeper and deeper till we feel all is set. A music that is difficult to define would be the ideal for everything we do.
 
15. Your CD "Gehörgänge" are built around a minimal, spiritual concept. Does this have any relationship with the way one feels about life?
 
Siegfried and I were in a state of deep ritual mantra and concentration while recording this album. This is one of the main reasons we are making this kind of music. You can step out of the real world and change the perception of things. Music is the most important thing for us both.
 
16. Is literature one of the inspirational sources that help you in some way to channel all the creative potential, which rises from subconscious imagination?
 
Sure, we love reading. We like science-fiction, adventure, philosophy, travel-guides, archeology. Thanks to these themes, we get some new ideas and perspectives for new tracks.
 
17. What will you provide us in the future?
 
People are always asking when we will release the next album but our time frame is different to other artists. Well, we are actually composing new tracks for an upcoming Temps Perdu? album. We hope for a release in 2006.