Natural Snow Buildings - The eternal dance of the Sun and the Moon

Last June 30th, the Milan audience had the privilege of attending the first Italian date of the prolific French duo Natural Snow Buildings at Spazio O’. Leading lights of what's now known as contemporary drone-folk, Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte told me about their artistic journey and their plans for the future.

I've waited several years to see you live... I believe this is the first time you've played in Italy, right? Did you enjoy Milan and the show at Spazio O'?

Yes, this is our first time in Italy. And yes, we really enjoyed playing at O': the space is fantastic, vast and white. We played in near-darkness, something we love doing, and the sound was fabulous - we can't imagine better conditions to perform in. We're amazed so many people showed up...

Let's talk a bit about the history of Natural Snow Buildings. How and when did you meet and start making music together?

We met in the university library on the campus where we were both studying in 1997, so our meeting was pretty much down to chance. We started NSB about a year later.

Was NSB your first musical experience? And where does the band's name come from?

We'd had a few experiences here and there, nothing that really led anywhere. NSB was our first real band. The name is a free association of ideas that has taken on many meanings over the years.

Your music is often referred to as, essentially, drone music, in the early days with a mix of folk-psychedelic elements and now (I think) with more of a space influence. These are just rough attempts to slot you into some genre or other, but it's not easy to define a musical form as unique as yours. So I'd love to hear your own definition of it, what this music means to the two of you as a duo.

Most of the time we don't feel tied to any genre... It's always awkward when someone asks what kind of music you play. How would we describe our music to someone who's never heard it? Well, there's guitar for a lot of it, but there's also every kind of instrument, sometimes there's vocals... It's partly improvised, there's noise and a drone in the background, it's melodic... Do you see what I mean? No? OK then, we're making some kind of experimental folk music... and that's just to get rid of the question.

Have you had any particular influences - bands or composers who set you off on your musical journey?

Yes, many. Listening to music, discovering new things takes up a huge part of our lives, so you can imagine how many musicians have played a big role in shaping our musical ethos. The list could go on for pages and pages (from Kath Bloom and Loren Mazzacane Connors to Tarentel, Neil Young, Six Organs Of Admittance, Charalambides, Alice Coltrane, Stars Of The Lid, film soundtracks, music from every corner of the world), there are so many... We believe that whatever you listen to, however you absorb it, it will have an impact (positive or negative) on what you play.

What kind of music do you usually listen to these days?

What we're listening to lately: Wolvserpent, Horseback, Krzysztof Komeda, Fabio Frizzi, The Haxan Cloak, Deux Filles, Swans, Mamiffer, Eat Skull, Angel Olsen, anything from the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Joanna Gruesome, Jessica Pratt…

You've released a huge number of CD-Rs and cassettes, especially since the mid-2000s. Most of them came out in numbered editions that vanished very quickly into the hands of a small circle of fans and collectors — some of whom just took advantage of their rarity to resell them online at very high prices. Are you aware of your (rather large) fanbase and its desire to own a copy of your key albums?

Our fanbase is an abstraction to us, mainly because we make music in what we call a "social vacuum". We're solitary by choice, so that fans don't factor into the equation when we're creating. And although we're very happy (and moved by their reactions) when we get the chance to actually meet people who like our music (even though it scares us a little…), we're not obsessed with fans and their wishes when we make music. It might sound like a paradox, but it's pretty clear in our heads…

And as for rarity, we like the idea of things running out: you can't expect to stick around forever, and that applies to everything. Now, there's nothing we can do about the market for our releases, but flooding the world with unwanted copies wouldn't be a solution either — overproduction is certainly not the best answer to scarcity.

So is there a specific (perhaps ideological) choice behind these limited editions? Or is it simply that record labels aren't interested enough in putting them out?

Yes, we could say there's some kind of ethic of restraint behind our unwillingness to flood the world with our music. We're just shadows in this world, and we're quite drawn to the idea that at some point in the future we'll certainly go back to putting out small quantities of things from our bedroom.

You've recently reissued some (wonderful) material with Ba Da Bing Records. What's your relationship with this label like? Is there a chance of a reissue of "The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun" — probably your most beloved work — in the near future?

The label got in touch with us maybe a couple of years ago. We exchanged emails with Ben Goldberg of Ba Da Bing for about a year before actually releasing anything on his label. It's funny, because we'd thought about his label back when we finished "The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun" around 2005 (we were big fans of 1 Mile North), but we held back because we thought Ba Da Bing was too big for us. Now it's become our label of choice.

Our next record will come out with them, and yes, we're discussing a joint reissue of "The Dance Of The Moon And The Sun" with Ba Da Bing and Students Of Decay.

Your albums are usually accompanied by the wonderful artwork created by Solange. Did you study drawing, or are you self-taught? What's your inspiration for these illustrations and, for instance, the comic-book booklet for "Shadow Kingdom"?

Solange: I'm self-taught, I've never taken an art class in my life. The main idea for the "Shadow Kingdom" comic comes from the writings of Agnes Murgoci: she was an ethnologist/folklorist who did fieldwork in central Europe (mainly Romania) in the 1930s and became interested in vampire traditions.

Do you know and/or appreciate any other underground projects comparable to yours? For instance Big Blood, Super Minerals (a Peasant Magik box set from 2010 included a few NSB tracks alongside theirs), Cerberus Shoal, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Fursaxa, Jüppala Kääpiö…

We're currently working on some tracks with Ben Nash, which should come out by the end of the year.

Your output has slowed down a bit recently, and your last two albums as NSB have been sold almost exclusively at your shows. What are the plans for the future?

We've slowed down our release schedule, but we're still recording music, so... expect some new albums soon on Ba Da Bing.

And what about your side projects like Isengrind (Solange) and TwinSisterMoon (Mehdi)? Any new developments or projects in the works?

Mehdi: It's highly likely that the latest TSM album to date ("Bogyrealm Vessels") will be the last one. I'm quite happy with the entire discography under the TSM name, it has its own logic, a kind of unity that I wouldn't want to spoil by putting out another album. I have some unreleased material that maybe, one day, I'll put out on tape, but I think it's time to exile TSM to limbo...

Solange: I just released a new Isengrind tape on Was Ist Das.

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