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Interview with Richard Chartier

Interview: Vlad Kudryavtsev, May 2009

Robert Crouch

Did you get any formal musical training?

Not at all, but I can play things by ear though, but that doesnt count. I was trained and educated as a visual artist

Who influenced you musically and esthetically?

Many artists... Initially Zoviet France was a big influence, Morton Feldman, Toru Takemitsu, the ideas of Erik Satie. I find that many visual artists are a great influence. Influences change over the years though.

What did you listen to when you were young?

Lots of synth pop , and things like Kraftwerk and Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno, Skinny Puppy, 4AD in the 1980s... In 1986 or 87 a good friend of mine who was a few years older introduced me to more experimental music such as Zoviet France, Etant Donnes, The Hafler Trio, John Duncan, Nurse with Wound. It was a big shift when I started listening to more and more works that were not dependant on traditional song structures. I felt a direct esthetic link to the new ways of listening I experienced through loop based work

Do you find that digital minimalism is in a kind of crisis now? (As well as glitch, clicks'n'cuts, lowercase, reductionism....)

I think like any genre many people have seen it as an easy way to make music, and in many cases it shows. This happens when any esthetic form becomes generalized or "decoded".

Who are you heroes in art and graphic design and why?

Any Swiss Modernist from the middle century because of the timelessness of that esthetic. Very formal, a brilliant use of type and space, especially negative space.

When did you start making music and how did it sound then? What instruments did you use then?

I started making "music" in 1985. I was in some terrible synth Industrial type bands that basically just did work for fun. I had several synthesizers: Yamaha DX-100, Roland Juno-2, Korg M-1. I can't remember exactly which one. And effects pedals. In 1988 or 89 I went completly towards a kind of "shapeless" sound: loops, low frequencies, drones.

Tell us about your early musical memories.

I really loved the sounds that machines made: the refridgerator, the electric clock, the can opener, the air conditioner etc. I would mimic them.

How and why did you become interested in electronic music? Any specific triggers?

I really liked the sounds. One of my earliest memories of listening to electronic music was as a very young child in the 1970s listening to the "Autobahn" LP by Kraftwerk with my mother in our living room. It was so different than all the other records that my parents had and I still don't know why it was in their collection.

Tell us the story of LINE label.

LINE was founded by me as a sublabel of Taylor Deupree's 12k label. Taylor and I had been working closely together on projects for 12k for a while at the time. In 2000 I had just finished my work "Series" and was looking for a new label that would be interested in releasing it. Due to the extreme minimalism of this CD, my most minimal work, several labels said it was just "too minimal", including Mille Plateaux and Raster-Noton. Due to this response, Taylor and I had a long discussion about this release and other materials that I had received from artists Immedia and Miki Yui. He suggested that I start my own label which would be dedicated to this type of ultra-minimalist work. Right as we were about to launch the label, Olaf Bender emailed me and said that he had finally wrapped his ears around "Series" and wanted to release it. But it was too late... Everything was in motion for LINE. It was as simple as that. I chose the name LINE (although people always think to this day that its L-NE) because a line is the shortest distance between two points (which later inspired the double 12k/LINE cd set "Between Two Points"). And it has gone since then. It has shifted as my esthetic interests have shifted.

You run also your own 3particles label. Why did you set up your own?

3particles was just set up primarily as an outlet for limited editions, originally private editions for close friends, and then just special releases (and now rereleases)

You often describe your music as physical. Why?

I would describe it with dealing with sensation, perception rather than emotion.

What are the themes that you unveil when writing music?

The themes and narrative of the work is the work itself.

What ideas and qualities did you work with in your albums?

The first CD "Direct.Incidental.Consequential" actually had a theme, "electricity", it sounds very electric. It stemmed from the limitations in technology that I had during that time. Pan Sonic influenced that work, now that I look back. "Direct.Incidental.Consequential", "Postfabricated", "A Hesitant Fold" were all very linked to that limit of technology. Limited means with which I wanted to create a limited palette of sound types. Although "Postfabricated" is my pop album, a pop album for insects or flourescent lightbulbs perhaps. I still think it's the strangest work I have created. It almost has a sense of humor. "Decisive Forms" is very unique as it is a point out of time in the series of works, it reflects kind of later attitudes and paths. The 4 CDs for LINE "Series", "Of Surfaces", "Two Locations" and in part "Set Or Performance" are all very linked in technology and esthetic leanings. There is a distinct voice to "Series", perhaps my ultimate ode to pointilist minimalist sound. The more full sound of the release "Incidence" on Raster-Noton, resulted from a series of unusual processes and "mistakes." There was a lot of reworking on that piece. There were about seven versions of that work. It started very empty and quiet and gradually became more dense. I intend to re-release that work with another 22-minute piece "Preincidence" which was an earlier version of it. The archival and retrieval works are made from sounds and loops from the early 1990s. They become a kind of reflection and refraction of what they originally were and seen through a decade of learning and creating.

How did you find the idea of composing minimal music? Some composers come to it unintentionally, achieving it though work and then they find depths and high variability potential in it. How did it happen to you?

There is a certain element of accident, variation, exploration and careful reaction to each sound and its interaction to the sounds around it.

What is your current sound pallette? Did you move away from using extreme frequencies and sound production debris?

I still use elements and influences from my previous work. I don't define my palette as that would be constraining. I am still working on the follow up to "Series" but I find that way of working difficult to reapproach. That work is called "Deletion", a few sketches for it can be found on compilations.

Tell your story of the 90’s. What were you doing, what were you into musically?

From experimental, to ambient, to industrial, to synth pop again, to techno, to minimalist techno

How do you compose? Do you have any formal plan what to do, a kind of score, any set ways you process sounds and compose?

I have an idea of structures, flow, but not process. There is a lot of building up and deleting.

You mentioned that you use a "shareware" program. What do you use?

At the beginning I used a program called Soundmaker or Soundeffect. When other artists who were working in a similar vein (Taylor Deupree, Nosei Sakata, Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai) and I started making contact we realized that we all had been using this program in major ways in our work. It's a Mac OS 9 program so it doesn't work anymore. It was never updated. A few years back Carsten had been in contact with the programmer to try and get us an updated version. It would be very interesting to work with it again. Ah... nostalgia...

How did you get hooked up with Taylor Deupree? Did you work already together before founding LINE?

I contacted him after hearing the "Microscopic Sound" CD compilation and realized we were both very interested in similar sounds and structures as well as our mutual affinity for synth pop and especially the band Pink Industry. When we first met in person at his studio in Brooklyn we knew we had to work together. In regards to 12k... I did several CDs for 12k and tried (successfully) get 12k's packaging in a standard format. He would run things by me as a fellow artist and designer. Sometimes I was the "happy face" of 12k. But having said that 12k is distinctly a creation of Taylor Deupree.

What are the current projects you are working on and what will come in relatively distant future?

"Untitled (Angle.1)" on Non Visual Objects, based on audio from the installation with visual artist Linn Meyers. "Field For Mixing", it's a compilation of 2 unrelated works combining installation recordings and field recordings. "Fabrication 2" with Asmus Tietchens, it's a surprising new work with one of my favourite artists. I have been asked to curate an exhibition at the Art Gallery of University of Maryland which is titled "Data.Waves.Audio.Lines".

What will come out on LINE? In what direction will you move with the label?

We have several exciting releases planned. The newest one being TU'M which is quite beautiful, also the OPTOFONICA DVD, a reissue by Lovesliescrushing and a new solo work by a half of Lovesliescrushing, Scott Cortez. Also Stephan Mathieu, a possible follow up to "For" by Alva Noto.

Most of your CDs were recorded for your sound installations. What do you want to convey with them? Are they purely auditory experiences or do they involve visual component?

Only a few have been for sound installations. some installations are purely auditory and some have a visual but non-illusionary element.

I find that you shift towards warmer sound. Like some of other sound artists of kindred spirits: Carsten Nicolai, Ralph Steinbrüchel, Bernhard Günter, Taylor Deupree, Stephan Mathieu.

Warm but still cold. I think some of my earlier works are very warm.

What role does the idea of active listening play in your music?

You really have to focus to fully engage with the work

You often collaborate, what is fascinating about it? What collaborations proved successful?

Collaboration is a way to hit refresh on your yourself. I find the results of a successful collaborative project fascinating when you can't tell who did what... There are a few pieces that I really don't understand what part is mine, or how we came to the result. Collaboration allows you to shift into new roles in process. I think all of them have been successful. I really enjoy working with Asmus Tietchens. Working with Ivan Pavlov (CoH) was the most demanding and forced me the most to rethink how I work and I learned a lot. I am looking forward to our pop collaboration Nice Box (that we have begun with the cover of Soft Cell's "Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché" on the recent "Recovery" 10x7" box set. Working with William Basinski was strange in that in the end... I began to take on characteristics of his work and he took on characteristics of mine. What you would expect was my contribution is often me, an unusual transference.

Do any scientific ideas inspire your work? What kind of?

Anything that Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand work on scientifically inspire me and they are particularly delightful to work with. Any project they asked me to work on I would say yes to.


Robert Crouch