the science group...
for unknown japanese magazine...
1) The credits for your lyrics to the album (1992-96) suggests that this
project has been a long time in the writing. When and in what
circumstances did you first start to work on it?
I have been writing texts on science related subjects for a long time,
some appear on other CD's (starting with News from Babel). I began to
work toward a whole project somewhere around 1992, slowly accumulating
texts. I seem to work that way at the moment, there are several other
projects growing in the same way.
2) The press release mentions that Stevan Tickmayer is a "contemporary
classical composer from the ex-Yugoslavia". But the music on "...A Mere
Coincidence..." is certainly rock-based, and Stevan himself plays the
keyboard parts. Is working in a rock group something new for him?
Stevan was trained in composition, piano and contrabass. He has written
numerous contemporary pieces and has a standing ensemble (The Tickmayer
Formatio) to perform them. He studied, amongst others, with Louis
Andreissen in Amsterdam and then moved to France as composer for
choreographer Josef Nadj at the Centre Choreographique National
dユOrleans. I met him first in Novi Sad in the early Eighties. There was
a memorable concert with the Black Sheep in the garden of a local
sculptor there, where Stevan and some other Hungarian musicians joined
us. After that, I saw him on and off, eventually working with him - with
Josef Nadj (Stevan played the piano), on a circus piece and in a trio
with Erno Kiraly. I offered him the Science texts, by then a recordユs
worth, and proposed we make a CD. As far as I know he never worked in a
Rock group and Iユm not sure if he would call this a rock record either.
3) The music on this album is extremely complicated and the listener's
only possible way of explaining that human beings are able to play this
music is to believe there's probably a lot of studio trickery involved.
Well... Could this work be performed live? (BTW, any such plans?)
Yes, it the compositions are extremely complicated, though the played
parts were of course really played. Not all together though, and not in
real time. Steven and I put our parts on first. Then Fred came to France
and added his. Claudio was sent an A-Dats and a score and he added his
parts in Germany, after which Amy arrived and sang. Bob added his bass
parts as we went along, as well as singing and overdubbing guitars,
percussion and whatever else he thought was necessary in the course of
the mixing. There was a great deal of production work involved but, I
would say, the compositions are certainly performable. It would take at
least 10 days of rehearsal though and we would need our own mixing
engineer and probably some outboard equipment. In fact we were invited
to Victoriaville this year, but Amy was already engaged at that time.
However, because of the rehearsal time and travel costs, only a festival
or tour could afford to invite us and it would not be cheap. The same
was true of tヤDomestic Storiesユ, which we were never invited to perform.
P53 only ever got two invitations., both from major festivals. So,
unless there is serious interest I doubt whether the Science material
will ever actually be performed. Which, I think, is a great pity.
4) Fred Frith and Amy Denio make very significant contributions to
almost all the tracks on the album. Why aren't they credited as full
members of the project?
As with 'Domestic', this was not really a group project, it was Stevan
and my project with invited musicians. Bob produced the record, as well
as playing and singing. He did all the mixing alone, so his was a full
and equal part. The others came for a day or two days and overdubbed
parts. Their imput, though vital was of a different order. As I wrote
it, they are all credited as members of the project, but the 'authors'
of the record were Stevan (music), Bob (production) and myself (texts).
Does that make sense?
6) It is tempting to see The Science Group as a particularly successful
attempt at modern "progressive" rock. What music do you (or would like
to) associate the word "progressive" to nowadays?
I guess that could be said; it has enough in common with the language of
'progressive' rock to be seen as fitting into it. Nevertheless
'progressive' seems to me to a historical label - to refer to styles
that matured in the 1970's. To say a group is progressive today seems to
mean that their music refers back somehow to that period. Which is why I
am equivocal about the term, and myself no longer use it, except
historically. And why, when all is said, I'm not sure if this CD is
really a progressive rock record. There are some parts that definitely
use that language, but far more which do not. Perhaps the familiar bits
are just easier to recognise and label? I prefer to think there is
something else going on on this record, but I am happy when anyone has a
good word to say for it!
|