Juno Daily: In The Mix – CoH meets Abul Mogard’s Winter Solstice special + interview
Experimental duo celebrate their border-crossing collaboration with a Winter Solstice special
Stemming from a chance meeting at festival in 2019, fabled electronic music visionaries CoH & Abul Mogard have joined forces for what they describe as “a supranatural alchemy of discrete analogue material and digital energies”. To celebarte the recent release of their debut for Houndstooth, Coh meets Abul Mogard, the pair fused talents once again to create a mix specially designed for today, the shortest day of the year.
This maiden collaboration focuses stunning new perspectives on the artist’s respective, fiercely singular and widely adored bodies of work. Ivan Pavlov’s CoH, deeply respected for intensely curious original solo work, and in SoiSong with Psychic TV/Coil’s Peter Christophersen, here renders a vital, grayscale fluorescence from Guido Zen’s lushly romantic Buchla 200 and Serge Modular scapes, painted to tape between Stockholm’s EMS studio and at home, under his Abul Mogard nom de synth. It’s also significant as being the first Abul Mogard release to be disclosed as the work of Italian artist Guido Zen; the late ‘90s electronica pioneer known for work with Gamers In Exile and Goodiepal and and more recently in kosmiche unit Brain Machine and a trio with NWW dynamo Colin Potter and Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving).
As well as the exclusive mix, the pair even granted us an interview too – scroll down for more…
00:00 Unknown 00:47 Stephan Mathieu - Flake 01:30 Alessandro Cortini - Forse Vivo 02:00 Exit Refugium Peccatorum - F.W.Murnau 04:04 Karamika - TON 2.1 07:25 Christmas Beatz - Dark Woods 09:44 Alessandro Cortini - Forse Vivo 10:35 Di0xazine & SYN Zyxo - Dark Christmas 11:50 Diana Dark - Christmas Night 13:44 Skrima - Diva 16:29 Joachim Spieth - Terrain 2 19:00 Brain Machine - Crystal Cloud 20:01 Holy Similaun - Fahdato Su Stremi 20:40 A. Shmitov, N. Dancheva - Christmas Spiritual Songs No. 4 20:50 Tomat - Dark Christmas 24:54 Potter Natalizia Zen - Ukim 26:48 Mike Cooper - By The River 29:31 Mike Cooper - A Mask of Flesh 33:30 Lewis Balou - So Be In Love With Me 34:05 Taylor Deupree & Richard Chartier - specification.seven 37:40 Midori Hirano - Untitiled 40:24 R.P.M. - Cut and Cover 41:18 Rivet - Ney Non 44:10 David Darling - Fables 46:10 Sawako - Appled Soapbox 48:48 Claire M Singer - Eilean
Tell us about the initial meeting from which the collaboration stemmed. Where was it and what did you bond over initially?
COH: We first met in Ljubljana, during the Sonica 2019 festival – somewhere between the shows, at the venue, a girl came up to me, with kind words about my work, also telling me she’s eager to see Abul Mogard performing the next day. I couldn’t have made to see that show myself, as I had a jam gig with Shortparis scheduled for the same time, but she seemed very excited about it, particularly because of the mysterious identity of Abul Mogard.Then she left, and literally a few minutes after, a polite and elegant man comes up to me, introducing himself as Guido, complimenting on my music and, surprisingly, inviting me to see his show tomorrow, the Abul Mogard show. It was a funny moment, we laughed and we talked a little about music and sound aesthetics, finding common grounds, and right there and then we pretty much decided to give it a try together.
AM: It was exactly like that. I had been following Ivan’s work for quite some time and loved his SoiSong collaboration with Peter Christopherson so I wanted to meet him. Unfortunately I missed his show as I had arrived from the airport after his slot. When we met, there was a nice connection straight away and we thought about trying something together.
This is the first Abul Mogard release to be disclosed as the work of Italian artist Guido Zen – why the secrecy and why is now the time to ‘come out of the cold’….
AM: I started this project in 2010 during which I was going through a difficult period of my life, both personally and musically. Working on this project, the first one on my own after many years of collaborations, was therapeutic and I felt the need to disconnect it from my previous work. I thought that working anonymously would give me more freedom to experiment. I remember that at the time I would have loved that this music was composed by an old man. That is why I created this character.
My life and state of mind is very different now and at some point being hidden behind Abul started to make less sense.
It’s been a gradual process that began three years ago when I played a few concerts without hiding behind walls of videos and smoke, and then more recently disclosing my real name. For a long time I thought about Abul while making music, trying to figure out if what I was producing was right for him. His presence was always with me in my work. While at the beginning this gave me a great push towards new paths, more recently I felt limited by it. In terms of musical exploration, I began to feel that I had to re-propose music that featured the classic sound of Abul Mogard.
While Working on the album “In Immobile Air” it felt like Abul passed me the torch so I could continue on my own.
Tell us about the process of making the album – was it a case of getting in a room together and jamming or was it a bit more ‘postal’??
AM: Not really. The album was made remotely. I had a few multitracks of recordings that I really liked but was never able to make into finished pieces. I thought of sending this to Ivan and he transformed them into what you can hear on the album. A lot of these recordings came from a residency I did at EMS Studio in Stockholm where I had access to some extremely good sounding modular synthesisers, a Serge Music System and a Buchla 200. I had never used either of them and these recordings represent my exploration in getting to know these machines.
COH: It is also somewhat remarkable, as a pre-story to our meeting in Ljubljana, as I was in Stockholm at the time Guido made these recordings, but never had the time to even pop in to meet him in person – I know the EMS studios well, being a good friends with the director Mats Lindström.
AM: In fact we did speak about EMS studio when we met and when I was back home I thought about those recordings I had in my hard drive.
Do you take on different discernable duties in the music making or is it a free for all? Do specific roles emerge in time without being discussed?
AM: There were no rules or discussions beforehand, except that we thought at the very beginning that combining our sounds, Ivan’s being pure digital and my own, more analog and grainy , could lead to interesting results..
COH: The idea was to manifest these “common grounds” we have been talking about, particularly where it comes to the “grain” in sound distortion, which can sometimes give a sense of physicality to music. Also the possibility of expanding a stereo signal by digital means in an attempt to create a larger space. This can be an interesting challenge if trying to retain the kind of density of layers one might find in much of Abul Mogard output. Well, this is what I was aiming at, at least – I enjoy challenges.
What were the first few and last tracks to be made during the process and can you hear a difference between them, having been on that musical journey?
AM: If I recall correctly, the album order is the same as the order we made the tracks, so it might represent our musical process in this collaboration. The last piece is also quite different and it’s the only one that doesn’t feature the sounds recorded at EMS. During lockdown in 2020 I had repaired an old Revox reel to reel that had been broken for years. I played an old tape to see if it was working correctly and found these sounds I had no memory of that I really liked. I recorded them into the computer and kept them in file. While we were working on this album I thought of sending this material to Ivan and see if he liked to use them for the final track and so he did.
COH: Indeed, we kept the order. I generally prefer to do that, with COH releases as well. I tend to see an album as a whole, a process, rather than a collection of independent pieces. In a way, they seem to grow out of each other, the newly finished track offering an opening for the next, the next track borrowing some inspiration and knowledge from the previous.. Wasn’t Alejandro Jodowsky shooting some of his films like that, following the script in time, rather than editing randomly filmed scenes into the sequence? Anyway, it feels natural to maintain the order – hopefully, this also communicates the original flow to the listener.
What did you want to achieve with the mix you’ve done for us?
COH: I feel, in a manner similar to the album, except now taking turns – we’ve created that same kind of a continuous flow for each other to navigate, and to challenge the direction. It was a joy to make, and I hope it will be fun to listen to.
What’s next for you both as a project and separately/with other people?
AM: I am working on a few remixes right now plus some more collaborative and solo work. I also have some concerts planned for 2023, both on my own and with Ivan.
COH: Obviously, Abul Mogard and COH are rehearsing towards playing a few live shows next year. As for myself, I have just finished mastering a new record in collaboration with a Parisian artist Wladimir Schall, and I’m in the middle of recording a new COH album, to come out in 2023.