An Interview with De Mond & Floris Vanhoof

On November 30th, De Mond (Stijn Wybouw & Arno De Bock) and Floris Vanhoof are performing a sensory overloading live A/V installation. Allowing your mind to create their own associations for a little while longer after the show. Ahead of this performance, we had a back and forth with Stijn and Arno about sampling as a living body, synthesizing stories into sound and compromising in a band, becoming de mond (the mouth). Via electronic mail Floris Vanhoof shared some thoughts on light rhythms, soap bubbles and limitless meaning production.

Sanae: Since you are rehearsing at the moment, I’m curious if you could go into detail about what parts are still in need of rehearsing–what are your focus points today?

De Mond: Stijn bought an old synthesizer today and we have been just testing it out. We actually figured out last week that all Stijn’s work is based on “wonder”. It is a puzzling object–we needed help from many people to get it to work. When we rehearse we are always trying out some sounds. That’s the way new things grow. It never starts with a concrete plan or idea. We usually just start to play, work on samples and record sounds. Sometimes we start playing without telling each other to begin. After half an hour, we might say, “That was nice.” 

S: When you create these musical compositions as you go, do you constantly make notes? 

DM: We try to record as much as possible, often with a cheap recorder or a Zoom. A lot of samples came out of these recordings. It started from just loop tapes Stijn had made with a really fragile violin microphone in his mouth. Our music is not written out–it is based on listening. Sometimes it is the feeling of playing that is nice, but afterwards, the focus of the piece seems to be on a different point, and it does not sound nice to us anymore. 

S: Stijn has a solo project called Kramp and Arno played several bands–I can imagine it is very different working alone on the creation of a project in comparison to doing this together–what does collaboration creatively influence, something that does not otherwise come about? 

DM: When you play solo, you have no compromises. With a project of two, you’re two different voices that make up one body. The interesting part is when you have all these different sounds becoming one thing. 

S: When you describe all these bodies becoming one thing, I think of your debut record Glow and its heavy layerings. It is filled with stimulation–sombre maximalism. What drew you to go this direction?

DM: Most of Stijn’s previous projects also had this layered sound. It’s generated by sending a lot of information to our own amps, unfolding the idea to control our own sound and be as self-sufficient as possible. “Plug and play.” A kind of release. 

S: In an article in The Wire, Floris distinguishes art and music by means of reflection versus intense focus, music being the latter. How does De Mond relate to the realm of art, how would you describe your kind of practice?

DM: Stijn’s background in visual art opened up the way he was looking at sound and music. He has discovered certain sounds and instruments through experimentation, trial and error. It’s incredibly rewarding and instructive to explore possibilities in an unstructured way together with Arno to shape De Mond. The exchange of collaborating with visual artists like Floris also opened up new possibilities for experiencing and reimagining live shows. You have all these mindsets, all these personalities, but in the end we have one mouth, de mond.

You have all these mindsets, all these personalities, but in the end we have one mouth, de mond.

S: How have these genuine artistic exchanges that still exist in Brussels, influenced the two of you? 

DM: The chaotic part has definitely been influential. A lot is happening–there are so many sounds when walking down the street. The disorganization draws us here. Brussels is very specific in its organization and it has a chaotic sound. The density of the city is also translated in the things we do.

S: Is Glow inspired by this chaos you are describing?

DM: We rehearse in an old place where we have stationed our own amplifiers. We bring these along wherever we play live. They kind of create these layers of sound, these textures. 

S: Your practice has been categorized as Musique concrète. What kind of freedom does this collaging of recorded sounds give you? 

DM: Having all these different sources that you can bring together, merge them into one world. The freedom to just record, dump it into a synthesizer and run over it. The samples we make are created through playing and re-listening to them, putting them through another thing. It’s like a living thing. Collecting and working around sounds that come to you as you are going for a walk. It creates a distance from the initial source. When we record it, music becomes almost an accident. An accident that grants you new opportunities.

S: When you take pieces from all these different places and put them together it forces different stories or references together that might have never crossed paths otherwise. What does the synthesis of these stories do?

DM: They express the world that is inside your head. You’re the filter bank that brings the sounds together. Like the world we try to channel during our live performances, by sitting across each other with a small candle in-between us, with smog to such a degree we can not see each other anymore. It allows us to dive into our head and try to invite the audience into our world as well. 

Like the world we channel during our performances with a candle in-between us and smog to such a degree we can not see each other anymore.

S: Floris, do you have an example of an unexpected synthesis of media while experimenting with material? A moment when something new was constituted?

F: During a Singuhr workshop with John Driscoll in Berlin, I was projecting ultrasound at soap bubbles. That same summer, I was experimenting with a reversed LED that translates laser beams into sound. I still had the bottle of soap bubble liquid around in the studio–I found out that soap bubbles are always moving, and photons from the laser are bent into waves that sound well when captured by the reversed LED.

S: How do you relate to music as an experience against music or art that has a specific message?

F: My friend Makino Takashi once made a brilliant film called “Generator”. He sees the film as a medium that can trigger ideas in the imagination of the audience; images with a limitless capacity for meaning. A very powerful film and artistic position that keeps on inspiring me.

DM: When we work together with Floris, it is more of a physical experience. It started with this idea of turning a stroboscope into a film projector, being very interested in the physical aspects of this strobe. When there is rhythm, you lose track of other things in the space. We started experimenting with that idea. “The living brain” by W.Grey Walter explains how the frequency of light impacts your brain. Your brain reproduces these images for a little while after.

 © Joeri Thiry STUK

 

S: I can imagine that if we speak of rhythm, it feels rather intuitive when making music, how does this work with light? 

F: For my light performance with De Mond, I’m literally making light rhythms as a reaction to the music. Since light and sound are different wavelengths, these light rhythms can be completely out of sync with the music, but it will still feel right.

S: In an interview with De Mond by Joeri Bruyninckx the voice is described as a kind of universal. How does the mouth as an instrument differ from others?

DM: It is direct and it is always there. A short line extension of the body that produces crazy sounds, by moaning, by screaming in a microphone, a rudimental source of sound.

Prior to the interview Floris Vanhoof gave me some background on his collaboration with De Mond on November 30th at de Brakke Grond:

Around the time when De Mond was working on their debut album, Stijn saw a performance of Floris Vanhoof with a 16mm film projector and electronic sounds. After they got talking, Stijn was curious if his strobe lights could be modified to project images. In Floris’ studio they experimented with color filters and were impressed by the long lasting after image these 1500W strong stroboscopes could produce. Floris modified the strobes so they can turn around and make shapes with a laser cutter–playing with our persistence of vision. During the concert, Floris will run around and project some 35mm slides and 16mm film–nothing narrative, it’s just about the light. Like the third musician, playing light rhythms rather than sound rhythms, Floris joins De Mond on selected shows.

 © Joeri Thiry STUK