Thomas Köner - Thomas Koner - The sound of contemplation

Let me start by telling you that I believe this latest album of yours is among the finest things you've ever released. I read that the path leading to this record began after you read some of Fridtjof Nansen's diaries. How did they influence you while working on this long composition?

Actually, I didn't just read some of them, I read all of them. Quite a long time ago. I no longer own the original books, since they were very old and heavy, so what's left to me are a few passages I copied into my notebook. One of them is titled “Love is the Snow of Life” and the entire theme of “Tiento De Las Nieves” originates from that paragraph, which is also reflected in the album's cover.

Why did you decide to set electronics aside and focus solely on the piano?

I wanted to convey a sense of simplicity, of longing, of space. And I felt the piano was the most suitable instrument for that.

Did you try to isolate the music and strip away all human feeling from it – perhaps with the intent of reaching a purer form of contemplation, as in a photograph – or did you try to embed your emotions in the sound – as in a painting?

Ideally, both. The ability to observe and to witness cannot be separated from the fact that the observer is oneself, and this shows the complexity of memories and situations. The sound of this record holds much of the spatial quality that has become part of my music over time: distance, horizons, varying degrees of visibility, the ability to disappear.

The result comes very close to the most contemplative kind of piano ambient music, the kind that people like Harold Budd have developed over the years. Do you feel closer to that kind of sound today?

A composer doesn't think about emptiness; all of his ideas are conditioned by what he knows (or doesn't know) at the moment he writes. That said, I'd say the main relationship my piano music has is with that of Morton Feldman. Harold Budd usually uses too many notes in too little time for my taste, but despite that, he sounds much more pleasant than Feldman!

Did you use any other instruments besides the piano?

I'd be tempted to say, paradoxically, that the most important instrument on the record isn't the piano, but the way we recorded it, in particular how we positioned the microphones. The finishing touches are electronic, taken from the typical toolbox – for instance the envelope corrector – to create elements that sounded synthesized.

The art of creating landscapes with music is something that has marked your entire recent output. Have you developed, and are you still developing, a deliberate path based on this, or is it just one of the ways you prefer to evolve your soundscape?

The most important thing I've always focused on is precise observation. Obviously, the term has a double meaning: whatever physical landscape you find yourself in, it's always reflected in your mental space as well. So first of all, I've always needed to observe closely in order to grasp the prevailing elements, and the way they change. And this too has two sides: the observer and the observed, which merge together in the moment of observation.

On your previous album "Novaya Zemlya", you offered an important lesson on the absence of life in music, once again drawing inspiration from a real location with its own, in some ways terrible, history. What does that record represent for you: a soundtrack for that place, or a sonic photograph of it?

Both. And there's a third important element too: the longing for the existence of unexplored, unreachable places. It's no coincidence that the title, in Russian, means "New Land".

Do you think that kind of sonic research can fall, strictly speaking, under the definition of music?

Yes. Music, in reality, doesn't mean anything concrete - it's a social practice determined by social structures. And those structures are in turn governed... That's why, at this point in 2014, we're still forcibly distinguishing between the sound of a refrigerator and that of a violin.

How did you get the sounds you used? Are they pure field recordings, or samples processed on a laptop?

A combination of both, but frankly I think the equipment matters less than the purity of the vision.

These two very different albums came out on two important labels, Touch and Denovali. How did you find working with them?

Their contribution to my music has been truly invaluable, and in turn I'm deeply honoured to be able to contribute to their catalogue!

And why, instead, did you end your partnership with Mille Plateaux years ago?

Because the label died as the result of a financial disaster. A real shame.

With that label you released, among others, the excellent "Kaamos" and "Daikan", which also have the merit of having introduced me to what I still consider your masterpieces today, namely "Teimo" and "Permafrost". What's your relationship with your artistic past?

Strangely enough, I can't bring myself to consider my early works old or immature. Today, twenty-five years on, I'd make them exactly the same way I did back then!

How important, in general, is visual impact in your art?

A lot, definitely. For many of my works I've developed dedicated visuals to use during live shows, and this has allowed me to build myself an alter ego as a visual artist. I'm quite interested in the interaction between image and sound, even though, paradoxically, I'm aware that there's no real relationship between these two elements — they're independent and can at most complement each other.

Do you think your music adapts well to the dynamics of a live show?

Ideally, all my concerts should be a meeting point between the verticality of time and the fleeting moment, with a lateral sonic flow, within the spatial situation of an outdoor or indoor location, shaped by the resonance of a specific and unique audience. I don't know if I'll ever reach this ideal model, but the live dimension is certainly essential to me.

How do you build your live sets? How much do you improvise and how much do you draw from your albums?

In an ideal situation I'd be able to develop a completely improvised set. In normal situations I try to make the approach gradual, reworking existing compositions while also trying to reach places I've never been before.

Do you plan to bring “Tiento De Las Nieves” to the stage as well?

Yes, for the first time there will be two of us, me and my wife Ivana Neimarevic (who also plays piano on the record, ed.). We'll also play the second half of the work, shorter than the first, which will come out next year. It'll be fantastic, a huge challenge, because it's an extremely difficult piece to reproduce in its full essence. It takes tremendous concentration to properly convey its essential groove, its flow and the distribution of sound over time. We managed it in the studio, on our own: and believe me, what you hear on the record is anything but the first take!

I know this will be hard to answer, but maybe you're already working on it, so I'll ask anyway: what directions do you intend to take your research now?

I believe the adventure of sound coincides with the vision of something that lies behind, beyond and within the flow of immediate things. Something that is already real even when it still has to be realized. Something that arises as a remote possibility, and yet gives meaning to everything. An eternal question, in short.

And to wrap up, what else are you working on these days?

A combined live scoring of the films “Tron” and “Metropolis”, which will take shape as a 360° projection this December in Paris. Then a series of performances with Jana Winderen in special, entirely outdoor locations, along the lines of our latest recorded collaboration. Then also a remix of “Black (Inside)” by Rolf Julius, the second installment of the “Novaya Zemlya” trilogy, and the recording of the second half of “Tiento De Las Nieves”.

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