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Die Form : Zillo (1997) Dirk Hoffman
ZILLO: After your long time collaboration
with Hyperium you changed the label now. What were the reasons
for that?
PHILIPPE: We were in an important period with the recording
of DUALITY, and wanted to find better partners. As we were not
satisfied with HYPERIUM, we have chosen a new label.
ZILLO: You entitled your new work „Duality". What do you
want to express with that - the duality of male and female
voices and/or the duality of electronic and acoustic
instruments or what else?
PHILIPPE: DUALITY presents multiple facets in a broad
sense, more intellectual... The man and the woman, or
electronic and acoustic instruments, are rather complementary
than opposed, in my mind.
More and more I feel a transition between two worlds: the
human's one where he has an harmonious place in the nature,
and the inhuman's world destroying all for the profit and
immediacy. The values of beauty and emotion are going out. So,
I am very attached to old techniques, for the music and also
for the photography and cinema, and I like to mix very
different elements which can seem opposed, as the old analogic
systems and noises of nature, living voices and processed
voices, or treated samples and real acoustic instruments.
Just as in my images we can discern under the surface an
organical netting which suggests other elements or which carry
us away in times... After all these years of work, the most
important for me is to go further in the thought (reflection)
sense, beyond appearances.
I constantly try to find new evolutions as ended as
possible, out of movements and fashions. Though eroticism is
ever omnipresent, we wished to keep us away from the
"fetish-S/M" image, too reducing and limited.
ZILLO: A few time ago your friend Martin Bowes started to
work in a more classical conception. Did you get the contact
with Frank Dematteis via him?
PHILIPPE: I decided to contact Franck when I received
"Etude" from ATTRITION. He arranged all these tracks and I
immediately liked the sound of his viola. Furthermore, he was
DIE FORM fan since years and got nearly all our albums.
ZILLO: How did the idea to use violins in your music arise?
Also via Martin?
PHILIPPE: Since a long time I had already this idea to add
acoustic instruments as viola or cello to electronic sounds
and samplers. As well as real sounds of nature I recorded last
year in Bretagne. The circumstances were so that we have
worked on DUALITY. Besides Eliane with whom I live, it is
interesting to collaborate with some rare external persons (as
Mutsumi Oku, Akifumi Nakajima or Franck Dematteis). For the
next CD nothing is decided yet...
ZILLO: How did you work together with Frank? Did he bring
some useful ideas into your conception of the work?
PHILIPPE: All the DUALITY tracks were recorded and
premixed. I had already composed the multiple parts of
"classical" strings, and vocals were ready too. Franck worked
on these previews in order to add supplementary arrangements.
He has not changed the tracks, but added a personal and living
touch, emphasizing Eliane's voice and the existing melodies.
ZILLO: Did you also change the subject of your lyrics while
moving towards a more acoustic and warm musical environment?
PHILIPPE: The texts are more complex and worked,
corresponding to a less superficial step, in continuity with
L'AME ELECTRIQUE and SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS, also less minimal,
trying to develop a form of inner poetry rather abstract.
ZILLO: Did you have again some special lyrical influences
you worked with on „Duality"?
PHILIPPE: Our work is the result of our life and emotions.
It is very personal and as far as possible from external
influences. The citations I use sometimes are only trails...
ZILLO: What about the idea to do a cover of a composition
of F. Schubert?
PHILIPPE: I chose this Schubert's Lied when I heard Eliane
singing it as an exercise. It is more a study than a classical
execution. Its title and its symbolic beauty drew me at once,
and the contrast with the album seems to me rather surprising.
As I am autodidact and non-musician, I see a certain form of
irony in this choice!
ZILLO: Can you tell me something about the special edition
with the CD-ROM and booklet of,.Duality"?
PHILIPPE: DUALITY will be released in two different
editions: a limited one in a A5 box with a 24 pages booklet
and a standard one with a 12 pages booklet, including only
exclusive new photos and the lyrics, but not in CD-ROM format
for the moment, The photographies and texts being the
essential complement of the music, I thought it was important
to offer an edition as complete and beautiful as possible.
Moreover I am very attached to the aspect of rare objects:
maybe a fetichist inclination for collections...
We should have issued a compilation in such box type with
HYPERIUM since years (MUSEUM OF ECSTASY), but they were not
able to manage for the manufacture... It is a pity.
ZILLO: What about your further plans?
PHILIPPE: As usual, a lot of projects for the future! First
we have to prepare the next shows: performances with a new
female dancer, video-projections, rehearse with Eliane and
Franck... Then, several singles with remixes and unpublished
tracks. Products like posters, t-shirts, post-cards, and a
long video including live parts and films. Lastly, photo
exhibitions and maybe a new
book...
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