Loren Nerell - The Archaeologist of Sound

A full twenty-six years after his debut on the scene, Loren Nerell has landed at Projekt, releasing a few weeks ago his seventh album “Slow Dream“, an evocative and thoroughly successful blend of ambient, white noise and Eastern ethnic traditions. The musician comes off twenty-six years of experimentation and sonic “documentaries” on cultures and traditions, often carried out through the form of field recordings, as in the evocative “Lilin Dewa”. Original and highly personal, Nerell's curriculum ranges from his work with the Kronos Quartet to collaborations with former-Tangerine Dream member Paul Haslinger and the late Californian companion A Produce, not to mention his decade-long friendship with modern ambient-music guru Steve Roach. We interviewed him via video call, for a chat full of anecdotes and surprises, in which he also explained to us the workings and his discovery of the gamelan, the highly distinctive traditional Balinese instrument to which much of his fame is tied.

Let's start from the end: you've just released "Slow Dream", your fifth solo album. How and where did the process that led to its creation begin?

Actually it's my seventh album, if you count the first two, which were released on cassette. It all started about five years ago, in a conversation with Steve Roach. We were talking about hypnagogic illusions, those brief periods of time between sleep and wakefulness, and also about music that could describe that state of mind, which is a genuine creative space. So I started working on something that could function within that span of time preceding sleep. I experimented slowly, occasionally removing parts and replacing them, until I felt everything was right.

Good, we'll talk more about your relationship with Steve later on. How many influences shaped this record, and which ones?

Well, there are many, everything that's happened in the past has influenced its creation, for better or worse. Obviously Steve was an influence: he gave me the idea; then gamelan, particularly Javanese gamelan, which I played for a long time every evening at concerts for shadow puppet shows. Actually, I only used gamelan occasionally on the record, mostly in the form of field recordings that I recorded directly in Java; but I processed and altered these to such an extent that it's now hard to say exactly what they are, or what they sound like. The thread running through the whole record, though, is based on a twenty-minute recording I made in Bali with a rare gamelan: once I brought it into the studio, I stretched it out to six hours in length, then worked on its sound, cutting out the most interesting parts, which I ultimately used as the backbone of the entire record.

And the use of gamelan is probably one of the things that makes your music so distinctive. How did you come to take an interest in this instrument, and briefly, how does it work?

Gamelan is actually a group of instruments, made up mainly of melodic percussion whose principle is the same as the xylophone's. I became interested in this instrument many years ago: at the university I was attending there were some classes where gamelan was studied, and I was looking for a class different from the one I was taking, since I wanted to become a full-time student. A friend of mine knew I was interested in "new", strange things, so he suggested I join the gamelan course. At the time I didn't know what a gamelan was, or even where Indonesia was; so I went to class, saw the huge gongs and metallophones, and decided to give it a try, and I never let go of it.

In my opinion, "Slow Dream" is an extraordinary work that combines the most "classic" ambient with mystical, profound elements that seem to stem from an all-round sonic and cultural exploration. A "learned" work, in every sense. Do you agree?

Well, thank you, I'm glad you liked it. It is a "learned" work, yes, in the sense that it comes from the study of a particular culture and, obviously, from the fact that I myself come from different cultures: so the most fitting definition is definitely "multicultural". Generally speaking, though, my goal is never to create or evoke a particular place: I simply make the music I like, and the things I like are reflected in it. I like space, I like things that invite reflection, and music that carries you into dimensions different from everyday life. If all that can be considered profound, then the record undoubtedly is too. Everyone can find something in it, and that something is necessarily there, otherwise it wouldn't have been found!

This is also your first album on Projekt, a label that's absolutely fundamental in the history of music, especially overseas. How did you get in touch with Sam Rosenthal, and how important is the relationship with one's label for a musician?

I've known Sam Rosenthal for years, since 1980 when he left California to go to college. Then I ran into him again later on, when he was Walter Holland's roommate, a friend of mine and an electronic musician, the leader of Amber Route. At the time, though, Sam wasn't really working in the ambient field, so there was no way to establish a working relationship. Later on I met Brian Lustmord, who liked my music: so some of my early works came out on his Side Effects. When Brian later closed his label, Soleilmoon signed me and I stayed with them for a while. Another record of mine came out on Projekt, a collaboration with Steve Roach, which Sam reissued in 2006 after Soleilmoon had discontinued it. As for "Slow Dream", it happened in more or less the same way: Steve suggested Sam give my record a listen, he liked it, and so it came out on Projekt.

By the way, it was four years ago that "Terraform" came out, the superb work that saw you collaborate with Steve Roach. What do you remember of that time?

We started working on that album in 2003: Steve worked on the mastering of my album "Taksu" and really liked the direction I was taking, so he came up with the idea of trying to collaborate on an album together. After recording some material in my studio, I went to see him for a week: we worked almost always at night in his Timeroom studios. After that stretch of work we stopped and parted ways with the idea of finishing everything off in the following months, since we only had a few small things left to add. Well, those months turned into three years, since we were both extremely busy with other projects. So, in 2006 we decided to finish the mix, but that actually took much longer, with numerous elements being changed along the way. As I said before, we worked mainly at night, on the verge of falling asleep. Jokingly, between ourselves we remember the record as the "sleep album", because neither of us remembers much of the sessions: we were probably completely lost in sleep during the recordings! (laughs)

Incredible! That's really strange... You're telling me things I never would have imagined! Anyway, you told me this is your seventh work. Even though you've released "only" seven albums in your career, "Point Of Arrival" dates all the way back to 1986, twenty-six years ago! Is your music the kind that needs time to develop, or is this mainly down to your many parallel commitments?

Well, honestly, I'm slow! (laughs) In any case, everyday life has also played its part at times. Over the past twenty-six years, I've gone back to school twice, I've traveled a great deal, especially in Indonesia, where I've been many times. I've also given many gamelan performances and collaborated with countless bands, both live and in studio sessions, and all of this has certainly kept my creativity at bay. On top of that, I work full-time for UCLA (the University of California, Los Angeles, ed.), and that also takes up a lot of my time.

I know you took part in other hugely important projects in the past, for example the Kronos Quartet. What do you remember of that experience?

It all happened while I was in school, taking a graduate course in ethnomusicology at UCLA. The Kronos Quartet was a group of artists experimenting with chamber music: they were interested in collaborating live with a few ensembles – including the Javanese gamelan ensemble I was part of – and at the time they happened to be in Los Angeles. Personally, I wanted to show how classically trained musicians and gamelan performers had completely different ways of approaching things, so much so that they weren't always able to reconcile; in the end, I became the go-between for the two groups. In any case, I still stand by my thesis: for example, classical music is very linear, even in its scores, since you start playing according to what's written at the top left and finish with the last notation at the bottom right. In gamelan the approach is cyclical: you play a given cycle, repeating it until you have to move on to the next one, and these can last any length of time, depending on what you're performing, which in turn is based purely on feeling. So we got around the problem by following a scheme that suited both sides: Kronos would set a certain number of cycles and the gamelan ensemble had to follow them. Sometimes we were in time, sometimes not: because of this I basically had to take note of everything, an interesting experience nonetheless.

I also know you studied anthropology. Is it a “second passion” of yours? And does it play a role in your compositional process? What I mean is: behind your music – particularly when it comes to traditional influences – is there a kind of anthropological research at work?

In a way, anthropology led me toward ethnomusicology and the study of gamelan. I became interested in it very early on, at around nine years old, when I took a trip with my parents through Mexico and all of Central America. I saw with my own eyes that there's more than one way to live your life, that your own little corner of the world isn't the only one. Then I found all those Mayan and Aztec pyramids fascinating, and wanted to know more. I think that first trip to Mexico was a real turning point in my life, one that led me to become who I am today and to do what I do, both musically and professionally. As for composition, yes, it's true I never use Western notation: if I need to write something down, I do it using gamelan notation. Also, most of my pieces are built on cycles, which makes them much closer to gamelan than to Western music. Lastly, regarding the anthropological research, after getting a degree in anthropology I worked for a while as an archaeologist near Los Angeles. And that obviously influenced my work in Bali in the field of temple music, which is what led to my degree in ethnomusicology.

Good, we're nearly at the end, two last, quick questions... What's your favorite Loren Nerell album?

Maybe “The Venerable Dark Cloud”. Actually, I'm working on an extended version of that mini-album, which will include all the original tracks plus some outtakes and new material.

Great, you've already anticipated my last question: what are your plans – if you have any – for the near future?

The extended version of “The Venerable Dark Cloud”! I'm also currently working on a soundtrack for a short film, that's my most immediate project. A few years ago, I released an album in collaboration with my friend Barry Craig (A Produce), titled “Intangible” and released on Hypnos. Sadly, Barry passed away right around the time the album was about to come out: we'd been thinking about making a second record together, and I still have a few tracks we never finished, so I've been thinking about trying to complete them and see what comes of it. Some of his friends were also thinking about recording an album in his memory, after receiving some of the material from him that was meant to end up in our project. So the two projects might actually merge and see the light of day together. Right now, I'm enjoying the release and the good success of “Slow Dream”, as well as the first vinyl pressing of my very first work, “Point Of Arrival”.

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