Ian HawgoodIan Hawgood is a resident of Tokyo and London. Using collected locale recordings and a variety of instruments, the work under his civil name concentrates on organic tones and micro-elements. Through static, decay and bursts of melody, the music slowly evolves and devolves along its linear path to a point of meditation upon place, location and 'home'.
Currently working as a high-school teacher and sound designer, he also curates the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning and Nomadic Kids Republic labels.
InterviewLoop
Guillermo Escudero
WEBSITE
Ian Hawgood is a multiphase artist who lives in London and Tokyo and works under various monikers. Under his name explores micro textures under software design environment and field recordings. He's interested in the varied soundscapes of those places that come across between London and Tokyo that collects for his field recordings. He curates the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning, Nomadic Kids Republic and Koen Music labels which deal with electronica, folk, glitch genres, in which are released a bunch of releases of our protagonist.
What kind of textures are you interested regarding the digital treatments to piano and guitar making undistinguished the original sounds of these instruments?
"My aim was never to really 'hide' the original instruments but I am simply interested in the tones you can get after the attack of an instrument. I am especially fond of various pianos, mostly broken, which have such differing decay, sustain and just tonal flavour to them depending on so many things compared to most other instruments. For 'Snow Roads' for example, I took vibraphone, piano, guitar and vocal works friends and I made, and focused on the decay elements to create drones, or a very specific ambiance rather, for the sounds. It had a certain tonal flavour which has worked for a lot of my releases, yet within the same album, I close with 'Hanamic Cubes' which is simply direct wheezy harmonium by The Remote Viewer. I also sampled a violin I (tried) to play in 'Specks The Flakes' and 'One Day Winter', and these were pretty direct I think. And this isn't something new for me at all. 'Enfants Ruraux' for example, was all about sitting down and being very direct with acoustic guitars, pianos and organs I played when I was dusting around Pennsylvania and New York. Its simply a question of the vibe, tone and feel I want to get, and I LOVE the wheeze of an old pump organ, the buzz of a warped guitar, the hiss and crackle of tape and warmth of a slightly out of tune piano. So yeah, I am now moving in a direction where I focus on the more pure sound of instruments, but within the same framework of near silent tones, decays and scapes as well."
I think that field recordings are taken from vast spaces. Is there any naturalist influence in you for the making of these recordings?
"Definitely. I always carry my field recorder wherever I go. But there is something very satisfying about taking the train out of Tokyo (where I live term-time) a couple of hours, into the middle of nowhere, and just recording, sitting by a river with headphones on and listening attentively to the music of everyday rural/natural life. In many ways these are a reaction to the work I used to do for exhibitions often involving very specific projects, mostly urban scapes. I was told what to do and it was rather boring even if the sound itself was beautiful and interesting. Also, living in the city (London and Tokyo) I need to get out, and I just love to take my recorder and just relax and record things naturally, non-specifically. I am going back into recording in the city again for myself, but it seems very specific, so for example just today I found myself recording cash tills, flickering neon lights and such specific things...whereas out of the city I just record straight for a few hours, nothing specific...its nicer that way."
The labels you run are based in London and Tokyo in order to promote artists of both cities?
"Not at all. I want to promote Japanese artists a fair bit as its very hard for them to be heard due to language issues among other things. BUT, the labels are about releasing works of music I think are amazing, unique and soulful, and I don't care where the person(s) does or doesn't come from. The only reason they are between London and Tokyo is that I curate them, and live in Tokyo and London. We are printed in the UK but even when I do move back to the UK fully next year, I will still come back to Japan a lot and have a connection here checking music out as I want to keep that side of the labels up for sure. But I may live in France, Spain or Italy, so the label might just spread its geographic wings as much as I have an annoying tendency to do."
Do you have any side-projects?
"A bunch of stuff...far too much to mention in detail. And I don't really like talking about them as I think people can just come across them...that's the case for my other monikers as they have no connection to the work under my own name musically speaking. But if you mean non-solo projects, then I am doing some work with Gareth Davis, Machinefabriek, Jeremy Bible and Danny Norbury now to name a few but rather than 'side' these are my main projects now...I won't be recording or at least. releasing solo material for a while after my Decemberish release of my old work - Tents and Hills (as a full album I made a couple of years ago now) with Humming Conch. My last albums, except Snow Roads, were all quite old material and I need some space now to evolve the sound much more. I'm happy with where I am at musically for sure, but now I am ready to sit down and slowly make something with a new direction for me over the coming year or so. I'm just at a point where working with others makes sense, and while I do that, working on whole other material for myself is incredibly exciting and demanding too."
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Currently working as a high-school teacher and sound designer, he also curates the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning and Nomadic Kids Republic labels.
InterviewLoop
Guillermo Escudero
WEBSITE
Ian Hawgood is a multiphase artist who lives in London and Tokyo and works under various monikers. Under his name explores micro textures under software design environment and field recordings. He's interested in the varied soundscapes of those places that come across between London and Tokyo that collects for his field recordings. He curates the Home Normal, Tokyo Droning, Nomadic Kids Republic and Koen Music labels which deal with electronica, folk, glitch genres, in which are released a bunch of releases of our protagonist.
What kind of textures are you interested regarding the digital treatments to piano and guitar making undistinguished the original sounds of these instruments?
"My aim was never to really 'hide' the original instruments but I am simply interested in the tones you can get after the attack of an instrument. I am especially fond of various pianos, mostly broken, which have such differing decay, sustain and just tonal flavour to them depending on so many things compared to most other instruments. For 'Snow Roads' for example, I took vibraphone, piano, guitar and vocal works friends and I made, and focused on the decay elements to create drones, or a very specific ambiance rather, for the sounds. It had a certain tonal flavour which has worked for a lot of my releases, yet within the same album, I close with 'Hanamic Cubes' which is simply direct wheezy harmonium by The Remote Viewer. I also sampled a violin I (tried) to play in 'Specks The Flakes' and 'One Day Winter', and these were pretty direct I think. And this isn't something new for me at all. 'Enfants Ruraux' for example, was all about sitting down and being very direct with acoustic guitars, pianos and organs I played when I was dusting around Pennsylvania and New York. Its simply a question of the vibe, tone and feel I want to get, and I LOVE the wheeze of an old pump organ, the buzz of a warped guitar, the hiss and crackle of tape and warmth of a slightly out of tune piano. So yeah, I am now moving in a direction where I focus on the more pure sound of instruments, but within the same framework of near silent tones, decays and scapes as well."
I think that field recordings are taken from vast spaces. Is there any naturalist influence in you for the making of these recordings?
"Definitely. I always carry my field recorder wherever I go. But there is something very satisfying about taking the train out of Tokyo (where I live term-time) a couple of hours, into the middle of nowhere, and just recording, sitting by a river with headphones on and listening attentively to the music of everyday rural/natural life. In many ways these are a reaction to the work I used to do for exhibitions often involving very specific projects, mostly urban scapes. I was told what to do and it was rather boring even if the sound itself was beautiful and interesting. Also, living in the city (London and Tokyo) I need to get out, and I just love to take my recorder and just relax and record things naturally, non-specifically. I am going back into recording in the city again for myself, but it seems very specific, so for example just today I found myself recording cash tills, flickering neon lights and such specific things...whereas out of the city I just record straight for a few hours, nothing specific...its nicer that way."
The labels you run are based in London and Tokyo in order to promote artists of both cities?
"Not at all. I want to promote Japanese artists a fair bit as its very hard for them to be heard due to language issues among other things. BUT, the labels are about releasing works of music I think are amazing, unique and soulful, and I don't care where the person(s) does or doesn't come from. The only reason they are between London and Tokyo is that I curate them, and live in Tokyo and London. We are printed in the UK but even when I do move back to the UK fully next year, I will still come back to Japan a lot and have a connection here checking music out as I want to keep that side of the labels up for sure. But I may live in France, Spain or Italy, so the label might just spread its geographic wings as much as I have an annoying tendency to do."
Do you have any side-projects?
"A bunch of stuff...far too much to mention in detail. And I don't really like talking about them as I think people can just come across them...that's the case for my other monikers as they have no connection to the work under my own name musically speaking. But if you mean non-solo projects, then I am doing some work with Gareth Davis, Machinefabriek, Jeremy Bible and Danny Norbury now to name a few but rather than 'side' these are my main projects now...I won't be recording or at least. releasing solo material for a while after my Decemberish release of my old work - Tents and Hills (as a full album I made a couple of years ago now) with Humming Conch. My last albums, except Snow Roads, were all quite old material and I need some space now to evolve the sound much more. I'm happy with where I am at musically for sure, but now I am ready to sit down and slowly make something with a new direction for me over the coming year or so. I'm just at a point where working with others makes sense, and while I do that, working on whole other material for myself is incredibly exciting and demanding too."
<< Back
URL'swww.koenmusic.com
www.homenormal.com
www.tokyodroning.com
www.nomadickids.com
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