Orcas - L'infinita quiete

Tom: First my initial ideas came under Rafael's control, so that the structures could actually emerge, then we simply spent a lot of time working on them, until they started getting close to how we thought they "should" sound. In the case of some tracks, "Selah" for example, everything started from an improvisation: in that case it happened that in a single day we'd already done 90% of the work. I think it's fantastic, actually, that a track can emerge in such a natural way.

Raf: For me, being able to get my hands on Tom's ideas was decisive. There's always something more to say when you've got someone with you in the studio who listens and gives their opinion.

It seemed to me that you focused a lot more on the song form itself, so much so that these are tracks that would keep their charm even if performed with just voice and acoustic guitar... Would you agree?

Tom: Well, "Half Light", "An Absolute" and a few others were written exactly that way, so yes, I think part of these tracks have great potential for variations and different versions.

Could it be that "Yearling" has a bit more Benoît Pioulard and less Rafael compared to "Orcas"?

Tom: Actually no: we try to split things up so that it's always fifty-fifty, but considering that he handled both the mixing and the arrangements, I'd say his hand is felt almost more than mine. The one thing I handled entirely on my own, and for which I couldn't have been replaced, was the vocals.

Raf: I actually think that's probably true, in the sense that there are a whole lot of songs in the truest sense of the word. I mean, Tom is a fantastic songwriter, so it's natural that on a record full of pop songs and lyrics you can feel his hand a lot. But to be honest, I think my obsession with pop music played just as much of a role, as much as working with Martyn and Michael (Heyne and Lerner, ed.), the two true cherries on the cake.

What is the record actually about? Thinking about the cover art, the lyrics, the titles: what themes did you want to develop?

Tom: It's all based on the fact that we both had a 2012 full of changes and challenges, which led us to think about how much life can change in a single year. All of us are in constant, ongoing evolution, and that takes a huge amount of effort to sometimes manage to become better people.

On the instrumental side, though, I heard you sounding a lot closer to a certain kind of dream-pop... Was that a deliberate stylistic choice?

Tom: Maybe the difference comes down to how the tracks came about: "Tell", for example, started out as a guitar piece of mine, which Rafael took and completely transformed... The choices about key and harmony were almost all mine, but the production and arrangements were his. He also worked a lot on my voice with various effects, which gave it a very distinctive shape.

What instruments did you play? The impression is that you set the laptop aside almost entirely to go for a decidedly organic approach, made up of traditional instruments played "for real"...

Tom: I handled bass, guitar, bells and a few other things, but the fullness of the sound is down to Martyn Heyne, who added piano and 12-string parts to our demos, giving the record a huge amount of energy and that classic touch it wouldn't have had without him.

Raf: I worked with some synths, guitars and a drum machine, while Tom, Michael and Martyn did the rest.

Rafael, I really loved your latest solo work, "The Unintentional Sea", quite far removed from "Yearling" except maybe for a few tracks, like "Pethricor" and "Tell". Is your hand behind those drone passages?

Raf: No, actually those tracks came out of drones from Tom's guitar, and I just limited myself to adding a few things during mixing.

How do you organize yourselves to split up the work? Do you usually work together, or do you just exchange files and impressions remotely?

Tom: We were both living in Seattle when we recorded the album – I still live there, while Rafael moved to New York – so we did everything face to face. That said, when I'd head home, Rafael would keep working with his knobs for hours, I think, and the result was that I'd get a ton of emails from him between 2 and 5 in the morning.

What can we find of your individual experiences in this project?

Tom: As far as I'm concerned, probably the lyrics, because every verse or shift in phrasing reflects an experience or a thought I've had.

Raf: In my case, everything to do with the emotional content of the music, the timbre of the instruments, the sounds, the shapes and the production.

Looking back at the Orcas experience, what do you think about collaboration in music?

Tom: The most important thing is respect, followed by an equal passion for the project: a lot of my collaborations have fizzled out because one person or the other stopped putting in the effort, or didn't have enough time. But when it works, collaborating gives you an enormous satisfaction, very different from what a solo project can offer, because it lets you share everything with another person.

Raf: Well said!

Outside the studio, do you share any other passions? I know Rafael works a lot with multimedia and Thomas is also a photographer…

Tom: Good liquor and Larry David's TV shows!

Raf: Larry David for sure, then good whiskey (though to be honest I barely drank it before meeting Tom) and movies – Wes Anderson's are always a big event for us.

Have you also played live together? Did you find it hard to bring your music to the stage?

Tom: We did a short tour in 2012 and it went pretty well, although Rafael had to do a lot of programming and arranging work, while I just sang and played guitar, so it was a bit more lopsided than in the studio.

So do you have a tour planned for "Yearling" as well?

Tom: Unfortunately we can't think about any shows in the short term, because all our original tapes were stolen along with Rafael's computers and hard drives during a robbery earlier this year!

Raf: …and to think that even before the record came out I was already thinking about how interesting it would have been to perform these pieces live with an actual four-piece band, made up of me, Tom, Martyn and Michael. A real shame.

Rafael, it's been four years since The Sight Below has been dormant… Are you still working on it, or are you focusing on your other projects?

Raf: Funny you should ask, because I had actually just finished a new work under The Sight Below name, made in collaboration with my friend Markus Guentner. Unfortunately I lost those masters too, so I'll have to start from scratch. I had written a lot of music mainly intended for shows and performances, but I lost almost all of it. The only good thing is that all this stirred up quite an emotional storm in me, and that will light a fire under me to start over from zero, exactly like what happened with "Glider". All these works seem to come out of periods of emotional turmoil.

The musical language you created with The Sight Below is basically impossible to define: what of it can we still find today in your most recent projects?

Raf: Maybe a bit of the guitar interplay. I think of the records released as The Sight Below almost as if they were Windy & Carl playing in a room while Basic Channel perform down the block. I think that's the best way I can describe them.

Thomas, you on the other hand have released almost exclusively as Benoît Pioulard. What does this moniker represent for you?

Tom: Originally it was just a veil, because I thought it would be off-putting to use my real name, but at the same time I didn't want to use a name that made me seem like something other than an individual. Ten years later, I have to say it's stuck to me, so much so that there are still people who address me as Ben: to me that's something genuinely beautiful.

You've released almost all of your work with Kranky, a label we can by now call historic: are there any releases of theirs that influenced you?

Tom: Yes, I started listening to Labradford and Godspeed You! Black Emperor around age fourteen, and I owe a lot to the Kranky catalogue. When I sent my first demo at nineteen, I thought they'd be the very last label to respond, and instead they were the only ones who even considered me.

Whereas for Orcas you chose Morr Music. Why is that?

Tom: Because they're very precise, in typical German fashion, and Thomas Morr is a fantastic person.

Raf: I think it made sense for us, given that we're also among their longest-standing fans!

What other projects are you working on?

Tom: I've just finished recording a new album for Kranky and a 7″ for another label, both of which will come out early next year.

Raf: As for me, I've recently finished an hour of music to score a silent film from the Soviet era, titled “In Spring”. I performed this suite live at an event near Gorky Park in Moscow, and the audience was really enthusiastic. The strangest part was probably being interviewed by Russian national TV, especially being American! I'd like to release a version of this pièce at some point in the future. Then I'll probably start working with Denovali, and in October I'll definitely be playing at their Swingfest in Essen, and, even more importantly, I've got a number of projects lined up with Ghostly International, which for me feels less like a label and more like family. I hope to get my studio back to full working order soon, hopefully by next month, since I'll be handling the mixing of Tom's two new records. And then I think I'll keep working on remixes and mastering, as well as on Substrata, the festival I organize in Seattle.

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