Influences: Joakim

As you know, I’m very interested in the history of music, how it evolved, how genres contaminated each other etc. The genesis of what we know as Techno and House music is an amazing example of accidental, multi-cutural, hybrid genre genesis, and this 2 hour definitive documentary about it is a must-watch.

A major piece of televised philosophy. Deleuze, who’s one of the most important philosophesr of the last century, always refused interviews, until he accepted to do this abedecaire (i don’t know the translation in English, basically you pick words starting with each letter from the alphabet and comment about each of them) with a former student, Claire Parnet. It is as brilliant as it is entertaining and a great introduction to 20th century French philosophy. Deleuze voice is mesmerising and his ideas are so inspiring. Unfortunately the whole abecedaire was taken down from Youtube recently, probably because someone reissued it on DVD and blocked the videos, but look out and you’ll find it. I also recommend hearing Roland Barthes’ lectures (easy to find on Ubuweb), because his voice is just incredible.

There’s a lot to say about this video. First, how cool is it to see Marvin rehearsing in a simple Belgian studio laying down on a couch in sweatpants?! And what about that groove, bloody perfection. The musicians smiles and focus make my day any day. Goosebumps all the way. The effortless vibe, pure soul and extreme simplicity transpiring from this video is somehow what I’m aspiring to as a musician. A lot of my favourite records are bare singer/songwriter albums. The opposite of what I know how to do. But I think as an artist you need to look up at impossible goals and never stay in your comfort zone. Spoiler : I got inspired by that video for one of my songs, which is not on the new album.

Back when French TV title sequences were the best source of cosmic electronic music and psychedelic images (yeah, there’s not only Saul Bass in the world of avant-garde animated title sequences).

One of the best eras for music and art in the 20th century, the early 80s, when world crisis and early globalism led to a stream of hyper creativity. Punk was merging with funk and tropical rhythms, Rock was flirting with Electronic music, Disco mutated into Hip Hop etc. Art and music were so close as well, you can see it in Basquiat’s superb documentary “Downtown 81”. David Van Thiegem is a lesser known figure of that 80s New York avant garde scene that inspired so many, a foot in music and another one in visual art, experimenting with everything. DIY forever.

One thing I often dislike in music these days is live shows. I mean in general, there’s always great performers out there, but the average expectation of what a performance is has fallen into the idea of a spectacle, where audiences are watching a passive show as if you were going to the movies. Bring on the lasers, video mapping and other fireworks. Although I admit it can be impressive when done right, I miss the filth, sweat and feeling of danger of a great performance like this one. Or sometimes just musicianship. This is also electronic music, the ‘musicians’ on stage don’t have much to do with their instruments, just like producers with their laptop and controllers today, but the intensity of it is impressive. They are on stage like it’s a matter of life and death.

Besides having some of Scott Walker’s album in my all-time favorite list, I admire a lot the freedom of this guy. He kept going weirder and weirder throughout his career. When he was with the Walker Brothers they could have become the new Beatles, but no, he chose to do his own thing, sophisticated orchestral crooner albums like Scott 3 and 4. And now, he’s making some of the strangest music I know, beating raw meat to produce sounds he wants and commissioning videos like this, a fascinating object.

As you may have read already, Mishima was somehow an influence on this new album through one of his books about the ethics of the Samurai I read while writing music. Then I watched this biopic of Mishima’s unconventional life directed by Paul Shrader who’s most famous for writing the scenario of Taxi Driver and being a respected cinema critic. I was quite blown away by this movie. The way the plot is organized through parallel sequences, the amazing and sometimes very abstract set designs, the mesmerizing music of Philip Glass. It is quite perfect. And such an interesting and beautiful allegory of the artist and the creation in general. I definitely want to watch it again.

Because sometimes we need to have a good laugh too. And Tim & Eric are among my favorites, thanks to Charlotte, my partner at Tigersushi, who introduced me to their bizarre world. Dr Brule rules.

I’m just gonna leave this here. For those who are not familiar with Ryan Trecartin, he’s one of the most famous contemporary artist who emerged in the 2010s. You will find hints of the soon to be born Vaporwave genre in there (this was released in 2007). Pop, soap opera, youth, queer, youtube cultures melted into one insane and sometimes borderline unwatchable video that catapulted Trecartin into “post internet” artist stardom.

Speaking of vaporwave, this is probably the first video establishing those aesthetics, before Daniel Lopatin aka Oneohtrix Point Never made it big through his Chuck Person’s Eccojams project. I’m mentioning vaporwave here even though I only know this genre very superficially because I feel it’s one of the most interesting new sub-cultures that have emerged recently and because it somehow had some influence on my latest work. It looks a bit nostalgic when you first look at it, but I think it’s much more complex than that. Actually most kids who make and listen to this didn’t grow up with the images and music they refer too. It’s interesting in its relationship with products and advertising, its fetishisation of culture and its strange exoticism as it is very much centred around a fantasy of Japanese anime and video games culture.