Nils Frahm interview, part 1 — Latter i Mørket (Laughter in the Dark)
(Jump down to start reading the interview in English)
Netop i disse dage (3. — 24. maj) spiller forestillingen, eller om du vil, det iscenesatte hørespil Latter i Mørket på Teater Republique på Østerbro i København.
Stykket er baseret på Vladimir Nabokovs (Lolita) roman af samme navn og fortæller historien om Albinus (Thomas Mørk), der forlader sin familie til fordel for den unge, smukke Margot (Clara Fasting). I en bilulykke mister Albinus synet, hvorefter hun fører ham bag lyset i et bedragerisk spil med Albinus’ bedste ven, Rex (Johannes Lilleøre).
Historien handler om menneskets natur; om had, begær, ondskab og afmagt. En natur, der kan stå i skærende kontrast til de idealbilleder, vi opstiller for vores liv.
Dogmefilmens gudfar Mogens Rukov har skrevet manuskriptet, mens den verdenskendte performance- og installationstrup Hotel Pro Forma med instruktør Kirsten Dehlholm (Reumert-vinder) i spidsen har skabt en meget sanselig iscenesættelse, hvor lyd, lys og mørke danner ramme om trekantsdramaet. Publikum oplever i gennem en række visuelle og auditive virkemidler, hvordan deres egne sanser påvirkes og udfordres i samspil og modspil med hovedpersonernes.
Forestillingen er delt op i tre forskellige versioner af den samme historie, hvor sanserne bruges anderledes hver gang.
1. akt: Mørket
Rummet er mørklagt, og publikum er iført hovedtelefoner. Vi oplever verden som Albinus: uden syn, fortvivlet, desperat og magtesløs. Mørket og 3D lyd via hovedtelefonerne forstærker de andre sanser og ordets betydning. Historien fortælles baglæns, hvor den tragiske og voldsomme slutning åbner forestillingen.
2. akt: Lyset
Rummet ses for første gang: en uafvendelig maskine i konstant bevægelse. Rummet multipliceres af spejle og skyggespil der skaber synsbedrag. De koreograferede skuespillere forstærker sanseligheden i teksten og skaber utryghed. Baggrunden for historiens slutning fortælles via lyden i hovedtelefonerne, og skuespillerne kommer ekstremt tæt på tilskueren. En kropslig, sanselig og illusorisk fremførelse.
3. akt: Musikken
En live piano koncert afslutter værket, og der genfortælles igennem musikken. Kompositionerne afspejler værkets fatale fortælling med smukke melodier, og hele kroppen tænker sig om en sidste gang.
Som det fremgår af traileren ovenover, er komponisten ingen ringere end den fantastiske Nils Frahm, som jeg ved flere lejligheder har kastet mange roser efter her på Musik Mig Blidt. Fredag den 2. maj — dagen før premieren, havde jeg æren og fornøjelsen af at interviewe Nils Frahm om, hvilken rolle hans musik spiller i forestillingen — med afstikkere til andre musikrelaterede emner, herunder hans egen musik og liveshows.
Nils Frahm interview, part 1
(read part 2 of the interview here)
How did you get involved in the play?
First Kirsten (Editor’s note: director Kirsten Dehlholm) approcached me about the idea of doing music for theater and then she came to Berlin one day in 2012. She visited me and convinced me. That was the starting point. Then I read the book from Labukov — Laughter In The Dark and got mentally prepared for the story. But I didn’t start anything yet, didn’t prepare any compositions on beforehand. I decided I just wanted to be here (Copenhagen) prior enough so I could start from scratch here. So I packed some instruments from home, something I thought might be useful. I brought a little more than I’m using now, so it was like figuring out colors and sounds and the instruments I wanted to use. I had in mind that I wanted to have a harmonium, so I found one here the first day when I came. That became a big part of the score. Fortunately it worked out and everybody liked it.
I spent the nights here after the rehearsals and just reflected about what we had done. Also it was a good decision not to prepare, because you never really now if your preparations will be fitting or not. My process is usually that I don’t worry about things before they arrive and then I make up my mind. Also that little pressure that you have to work under a deadline and come up with something is sometimes a good thing.
How did Kirsten talk you into participating?
She brought a book with all the things Hotel Proforma has done in the past and obviously they are great thing. And especially visually and aesthetically it really resonated with what I like. I also did some research and checked their videos and projects out and I thought “okay, this is something I want to be involved in”. It was an easy decision, she is just a charismatic, fantastic person and I had the feeling that if I would do it, I would learn something from her. She is so experienced.
So have you learned something from her?
Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah! Sometimes it hard to focus on that while you are “in it” but working on a theater schedule and seeing how they create the narrative, the stage and atmosphere – it’s something I can relate to also because I try to do something similar when I stage a show. I also have to think about the lights, the appearance, the atmosphere, the details, the whole production. I think there are a lot of things I’ve seen here in the theater space, how they use the space, which I find inspiring.
I think what I learned the most is how little room for improvisation, that theater leaves, which is different from my show because my show is about improvisation. When working with theater you refine every little detail, every little movement and every little sentence. Every day you get a little closer to how it should be. You fix it. And it should be like that. That is a very different way of putting up a show. It is so interesting to see how detailed they work. If I would play a show and then watch the video and be like “yeah I should change this and this note and I will do it again” and then after one point I would say “okay, it has to be exactly like this” – it would never occur to me to do something like that. I would always be like “okay, I want to create a framework within I can create my magic”. That would be my approach. But of course when you have so many people involved you need to talk about the cues and so on. So it’s a very fresh experience for me to fit in this kind of machine. It’s also very interesting and much fun for me to refine my parts and set them into stone and be like “okay this is how they should be” as opposed to my solo shows. That’s something I learned.
What part does your music play in the theater play?
She (Kirsten Dehlholm) said it’s like I’m sitting in the heart chamber of this play. Like if the whole stage, the whole room is an organism I’m kinda like expressing the emotions which the actors are not allowed to show that often in the play. That’s also something Kirsten likes about actors if they don’t become overly emotional, yelling and being super expressive. So the more expressive moments are the musical moments. So you see some things which are abstract put back and restrained and then I fill it it up with emotions when the music comes.
So you kind of enhance the feeling?
She (Kirsten) said that I have the gun in my hand, you know because so much depend on the music being powerful emotionally. If we have a black and white scheme then I’m putting in the colors and making it vivid and lively. That’s not because of me but because the nature of music works that way. You just immediately relate to it. My role is really to emotionalize the people in the play.
So she was right. I’m in the heart chamber. And I’m also sitting on stage and it (the setup) looks like a big machine and I’m almost like a puppeteer!
So it almost looks like a heart chamber physically?
Yeah, yeah!
Why did you think the sound of the harmonium would fit into the whole atmosphere of the play?
It’s a good contrast to the piano. The family of sounds that the harmonium produces is more like a singing sound comparable to a violin, obo or a clarinet. The harmonium enables me to use the technique of the keyboard but this sound very different from the piano. It’s nice to have the piano and the synthesizer, but the harmonium is such an interesting instrument because it’s never been used for concerts, Really. The harmonium is a classical rehearsal instrument. It’s a home organ that people had in their living room to practice church music and sing with the family. Basically it’s an instrument you play and people sing along to it. It’s a very folky instrument – an organ but a cheap, disposable organ. In that way it’s not a concert instrument, it’s not loud enough, it’s very quiet and small. But today we can use microphones and amplify it and change the sound and with all that technique it sounds like a very big organ. Yet it still has this kind of spooky little out of tune, very earthy tone, which you don’t get from a synthesizer. The synthesizer always sounds kind of etheric and otherworldly, while the harmonium sounds very worldly to me.
I wanted to put a contrast to this kind of modernistic, abstract stage design. The harmonium is a very harsh contrast, which brings you emotionally home immediately.
You play both during the show and also in the end, right?
Yeah I have my musical cues, some overlap with the acting and some “make the acting stop”. They (Repulique/Hotel Pro Forma) call it a concert in the end – I play 17–18 minutes, where I revisit most of themes I’m been introducing. It’s like a summing up.
So it’s like the end titles in a movie?
Yeah, I feel like that too.
On your latest album – Spaces – and in live performances in general, I know that you like to adapt your musical approach according to the space acoustics and the environment. Has this affected your music in this case?
I think in this example I adapted more to the fact that there is theater play going on. If I would be alone on stage, normally the people define the space and the atmosphere. Often I change my mind just after I said hello to everybody. I hear the initial reaction of the people and sometimes they are very vocal and in to it and sometimes more reserved. Depending on the whole atmosphere in the room I take it from there and maybe create a different pace of the set. Maybe I feel like okay this is more like a quiet night or this is a party night. I then change the songs and the sounds accordingly.
But does this also apply for the setting of Laughter in the Dark or only for your solo performances?
I think it applies for everything I do. Like what I said, I come here, I have nothing prepared. Then I start feeling what is needed. This is a very intuitive process. It’s also where Kirsten and I meet, because Kirsten is also very intuitive. As much control and precision she uses to create the experience, she always asks her belly “does it feel right or wrong”? If it doesn’t feel right, she doesn’t do it. We share this work approach.
So it is possible that you will change a bit up according to how people react to it?
Yeah, I think we will develop the piece while we perform it. I think the compositions and their pace will change. It’s a bit like when you make a song in the studio and you listen to it and you like it. Then after a couple of years you listen to it with a friend and then all of a sudden it sounds different to you. You feel like hmm it’s way too long or oh this went by fast – I should make it longer. You listen differently when somebody is listening too. It’s the same with the audience. You can play one song in an empty room and then with an audience. And then you feel different about the song. This is exactly why I feel you should be pretty flexible. Don’t be narrow-minded and be like “okay, this is what I rehearsed — I have to do it like that”. You need to feel good about it while you play it. Only then you will have fun on stage.
It sounds like you had total creative freedom?
That’s right.
Do you like that?
I also like getting ideas from someone who gives me restrictions or limited possibilities. This is also liberating. I think my creativity is mostly fed by certain limitations. One limitation is always that I don’t use playback tracks. I never felt good about that. It bores me and I feel like I’m cheating. So the biggest limitation I’m dealing with is that I can only do whatever I can do with my two hands at one time. This is really working out for me because if I were to allow myself to use playbacks I would be like “then I can do everything – beats, whole orchestra etc.” That would overwhelm me so much! The fact that I can only do whatever I can do in one moment keeps me thinking “what can I do next”? There’s always something I hadn’t thought about. I suddenly, for instance, realize “ahh I could use the piano as a drum set! – and I start taking some toilet brushes (See this youtube video!) because I can’t use a drum computer. That pays back – I feel like everybody intuitively understands what I’m doing there. It’s fun for people to watch also when somebody is actually playing music!
It’s becoming pretty rare these days because musicians get so good at preparing their live sets. They often have one hand on some instrument and the other operating some computer. For the studio I don’t care but for the live experience I think it’s never really good or ideal. In that sense I’m conservative in my way of working. There was a good old school of musicians performing and playing for the last couple of hundred years and I don’t want to accept that this is over now. I still need live music. I still need people to perform.
This is also what theater makes me think about. Theater is a performance. It’s not a movie. It’s “real” people acting. If you would just put on a video you’d made and show it on a screen — then it’s not theater anymore, it’s a movie. So I think we should think in similar terms in the case of a concert. A concert is when people play – when people only play back something they’ve done somewhere else then it’s not a concert. Then it’s — what is it? We should find a name for it! It’s not that I don’t like it but I think we shouldn’t call it a concert.
Murcof for instance, an electronic musician from Mexico, he only uses his laptop. He makes incredible, incredible studio works. I love his albums. But he is not like a “player” so when he plays a concert he brings his computer, sits down and don’t move for one hour. He creates the most amazing sound experience. It’s great, it’s rewarding, I like it! But he doesn’t really “play” so for his favor I’d like to find a new word for what he does. It’s not a concert it’s a “live music listening session” or something. It’s kind of what cinema is as opposed to theater.
I guess it’s difficult to see the playfulness in creating music when it’s done behind a screen? That’s what I think is a quality in your shows – it seems like you are playing around?
It’s a playground! I put on my own little circus. I introduce all the different elements and items you see on stage. When you (the audience) enter the room and I’m not on stage you go to the stage and go like “oh this looks interesting, what will happen?”.
I always loved that moment the most when I was very young like 13–14. After school I would almost every night go to concerts in Hamburg. Too see jazz bands or other experimental bands. I would always come to venue early because I was eager and then I would always go to the stage while the musicians where not yet there. I saw all the instruments, all the gear they had. All the crazy, beaten up amplifiers. Touring musicians who’d played for 20 years have very unique set ups. And it’s very interesting to see these setups as opposed to one soundcard in the computer. Then it’s like there’s nothing to look forward to. But if you come to the stage where everything is packed up with instruments then you already imagine what they will do with all that.
That’s why I like my stage setup too. I have all these old beaten up instruments cabled together in a really messy way. It’s mysterious! And people look forward to me — the “puppeteer” doing stuff with all these instruments.
Read part 2 of the interview here.
Udover musikken i traileren, kan du få en fornemmelse af det musikalske udtryk, Nils Frahm har udviklet ved at streame to skitser, som Hotel Pro Forma har lagt op. Her skal det understreges, at der netop er tale om skitser og ikke stykker, du kan høre i netop denne form under forestillingen.
Læs mere om forestillingen Latter i Mørket via Hotel Pro Formas hjemmeside.
Bestil billetter via Republiques hjemmeside.
Tags: Hotel Pro Forma, Kirsten Dehlholm, Latter i mørket, Mogens Rukov, Murcof, Nils Frahm, Nils Frahm interview
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