"...pulled in loads of different directions"
Aside from creating an eloquent midway house between baroque, Eastern Europe and electronic music, Rudi Zygadlo is also a fervent reader. The Scottish musician, who now plies his trade in Berlin, has crafted a distinct step away from his electronica of yesteryear with upcoming album, 'Tragicomedies', and how good that step sounds.
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You been out enjoying the sunshine then?
I was out this morning and went to the market to bask in it. It’s beautiful.
On to the album, though. It seems that you’ve taken a step away from the electronic side of things with this new release. What lead to that decision?
Erm, I don’t know really. It just got pulled in loads of different directions and I stopped listening to as much electronic and dance-orientated stuff. Around the time of the first album, I was listening to a lot of stuff and not necessarily super up to scratch with it and then got less interested listening to it and got inspired to do something else. There was no real conscious effort to do something different, it’s just the way it got shifted, I guess.
So what exactly were you lending your ears to at the time?
Probably a lot of classical music. I didn’t stop listening to electronic music completely but generally speaking I was listening to avant-garde and composer stuff to be honest. Quite a lot of Alfred Schnittke and John Zorn; stuff like that and a lot of Eastern European composers and even going back to baroque music. Having said that, I wasn’t trying to emulate that. It was more of a combined thing that sat in the middle.
So an intriguing middle ground between Bach and modern Eastern Europe? Could be a lot less aurally exciting. It does seem like more of a passive influence though, would that be right?
Yeah, totally. I’ve started trying to write some string quartet music that could be notated which I suppose would have been more strongly inspired by it but for the album itself, it’s definitely more passive.
And as for the live instrumentation continuing on from the last project, was that an important feature that you wanted to carry over?
I suppose it is. I’ve always been interested in live instrumentation and there is on the album, though it’s not necessarily in the foreground. I’ve been working with some instrumentalists from Berlin, but I’ve always listened to classical stuff. You would be right, though.
Rudi Zygadlo - Melpomeme
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You come off as quite the reader too, with literary references popping up in your work now and then. What do you like to read?
Novels, I don’t really read a lot of non-fiction. I do like to read, but not necessarily fast or anything like that. I’ve read a lot of Eastern Europe literature because I studied Slavonic languages at university before I dropped out. But also, American stuff and English lit. I’ve read a few bits of [Thomas] Pynchon who was a total enigma and only a few photographs of him exist. He would win awards and just not turn up to pick them up. There were lots of conspiracies around him, like, people thought that he was JD Salinger and he’s written six or seven novels, some of which are huge that cover all sorts of crazy stuff. His prose is just really difficult to read and sometimes it’s like you’ll read a page and not have understood it at all if you’re not in the right frame of mind. It can go completely over your head. It can be an author that sometimes I don’t enjoy because its so challenging, but you do get a lot out of it when you do pick up on it. His latest novel is supposed to be an easier read. I’ve not read it but I think its called ‘Inherent Voice’ and it came out a couple of years ago.
Might be something I would pick up. But back to the music, your recent remix of Lianne La Havas is a favourite of mine at the moment. Anything happening with that?
I actually don’t know, but I just got asked to do it and it’s the title track from the album. My thoughts would be that it’s just a digital release if anything.
Finally, what are your plans post-album?
I'm trying to put a band together at the moment just to perform the new album and get a more interesting live experience. So that should be quite exciting and I'm trying to get that done before the end of next month. I'm writing some new music because I haven’t written much new stuff in a while. Then, gonna try and do some more remixes and writing some string quartet music, which I'm quite looking forward to hearing when that happens. But yeah, I just want to keep up the output and performing.
Photo Credit: David Richardson
Words by Errol Anderson
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Rudi Zygadlo releases ‘Tragicomedies’ on September 17th via Planet Mu
- - -
You been out enjoying the sunshine then?
I was out this morning and went to the market to bask in it. It’s beautiful.
On to the album, though. It seems that you’ve taken a step away from the electronic side of things with this new release. What lead to that decision?
Erm, I don’t know really. It just got pulled in loads of different directions and I stopped listening to as much electronic and dance-orientated stuff. Around the time of the first album, I was listening to a lot of stuff and not necessarily super up to scratch with it and then got less interested listening to it and got inspired to do something else. There was no real conscious effort to do something different, it’s just the way it got shifted, I guess.
So what exactly were you lending your ears to at the time?
Probably a lot of classical music. I didn’t stop listening to electronic music completely but generally speaking I was listening to avant-garde and composer stuff to be honest. Quite a lot of Alfred Schnittke and John Zorn; stuff like that and a lot of Eastern European composers and even going back to baroque music. Having said that, I wasn’t trying to emulate that. It was more of a combined thing that sat in the middle.
So an intriguing middle ground between Bach and modern Eastern Europe? Could be a lot less aurally exciting. It does seem like more of a passive influence though, would that be right?
Yeah, totally. I’ve started trying to write some string quartet music that could be notated which I suppose would have been more strongly inspired by it but for the album itself, it’s definitely more passive.
And as for the live instrumentation continuing on from the last project, was that an important feature that you wanted to carry over?
I suppose it is. I’ve always been interested in live instrumentation and there is on the album, though it’s not necessarily in the foreground. I’ve been working with some instrumentalists from Berlin, but I’ve always listened to classical stuff. You would be right, though.
Rudi Zygadlo - Melpomeme
- - -
You come off as quite the reader too, with literary references popping up in your work now and then. What do you like to read?
Novels, I don’t really read a lot of non-fiction. I do like to read, but not necessarily fast or anything like that. I’ve read a lot of Eastern Europe literature because I studied Slavonic languages at university before I dropped out. But also, American stuff and English lit. I’ve read a few bits of [Thomas] Pynchon who was a total enigma and only a few photographs of him exist. He would win awards and just not turn up to pick them up. There were lots of conspiracies around him, like, people thought that he was JD Salinger and he’s written six or seven novels, some of which are huge that cover all sorts of crazy stuff. His prose is just really difficult to read and sometimes it’s like you’ll read a page and not have understood it at all if you’re not in the right frame of mind. It can go completely over your head. It can be an author that sometimes I don’t enjoy because its so challenging, but you do get a lot out of it when you do pick up on it. His latest novel is supposed to be an easier read. I’ve not read it but I think its called ‘Inherent Voice’ and it came out a couple of years ago.
Might be something I would pick up. But back to the music, your recent remix of Lianne La Havas is a favourite of mine at the moment. Anything happening with that?
I actually don’t know, but I just got asked to do it and it’s the title track from the album. My thoughts would be that it’s just a digital release if anything.
Finally, what are your plans post-album?
I'm trying to put a band together at the moment just to perform the new album and get a more interesting live experience. So that should be quite exciting and I'm trying to get that done before the end of next month. I'm writing some new music because I haven’t written much new stuff in a while. Then, gonna try and do some more remixes and writing some string quartet music, which I'm quite looking forward to hearing when that happens. But yeah, I just want to keep up the output and performing.
Photo Credit: David Richardson
Words by Errol Anderson
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Rudi Zygadlo releases ‘Tragicomedies’ on September 17th via Planet Mu
