Ke’So
While being locked down, Brooklyn based electronic producer Dilian slowed down his bpm and decided to release it as Ke’So.
“What is this?”
Is this your first Ke’So interview?
Yeah, first in relation to this project.
What does it mean, Ke’So?
Ke’So is an abbreviation and a phonetic “modernization” of the Spanish phrase “qué es eso?”, which means “what is that/this?”. In text messages people use a lot “k” to replace “qué,” they sound the same. I thought it’s a good name ‘cause people would ask me “what is that?” and basically the question is the meaning of it.
So can you introduce yourself a bit?
I’m Dilian, I make music as Dilian and a few other projects, including Ke’So. There’s also Gap, Safari Explorer and xxx1990 with my friend Aaron Tripp.
Are you from NYC or is this just where you live right now?
My parents are from Easter Europe but I grew up mostly in Mexico and I’ve been in Brooklyn, NY for the past bunch of years now.
I enjoyed your EP on Krut. Pity it’s just 4 songs.
I believe Krut has as a principle putting out only shorter releases, I think max 20 min.
Is this your first release as Ke’So?
It’s my first semi-full release I guess, yeah, I had a track before on a label that a good friend of mine is running, Kapha Selections. It’s released on a split tape with another good friend of mine, Gabe Rains. It was a close family affair one, so that was really sweet. It was the first track I made as Ke’So, which happened in April 2020, in the peak of lockdown in NYC.
Since I’ve made a full new album that I hope someone would like enough to release soon.
“Dynamics is key”
Your EP sounds like Autechre in dub.
That’s a good description.
Basically I wanted to make something listenable and calmer to contrast a bit the project under my name which is very high bpm sound design clubby experimental music; I just had finished working on a couple of new albums for it. There weren’t any shows and no clubs open so I found myself just trying to have a bit of a more relaxing time and listening to music I haven’t listened to in a while from my collection and also new one in similar styles, I was really enjoying that so decided to make something myself.
Yeah, the dub influence is the main vain but I don’t really want to make straight up dub or any straight anything to be honest, so tried to add a lot of more dynamics to it, I think for me dynamics is key, in the sense that I like things to keep being interesting and hold a person’s attention. Within one track I like to have a bunch of changes, to evolve, so that after a few seconds new things come in and others are subtracted and so on. I find myself loosing patience if a music piece is very static or just there’s no development within. Specially with instrumental music. Pop music is fine because there’s words but instrumental music to me needs to shift a lot. Same with time signatures, I like to mess em up. So yeah, it has a lot of influences from my own and other experimental electronic music practices.
But I also was very inspired by some of the work of Mexican musician Jorge Reyes, the feel of it more than the actual music. He was known for using pre-hispanic instruments blended with electronic music, which inevitably has a lot to do with sounds coming from nature and the environment.
How do you make your music?
It varies but this project was more using beats and synths generated by a sampler/keyboard and mostly improvised live. I’d play with the beats and sequence them until I found something I liked and then would record that part in a lengthy jam and then I’d add something else and after I’d play on top other parts with synths and in the end select and edit on the computer. I used a space echo in the set-up which I manipulated live with the beats and synths, plus another delays and reverb I have. Don’t think I used any samples for this. I’ve just gotten a new mixer that makes things sound better and has great eq so I was using that to filter as well. Was just fun to play with the echo and the mixer.
For live I usually use a sampler/synth/drum machine and an op-1 keyboard, but sometimes I have to use the computer for performances, although I don’t like it much. But if things are mostly generated on the computer it’s hard to reproduce that otherwise, and it’s more and more the case lately to be honest.
You combine DJ-sets with live concerts. What do you take from your DJ-sets into your own music?
I’m actually not sure if any – I do prepare a DJ-set based on the project I’m asked to play with and/or the venue/party type/etc. But since I’m mostly interested in creating live performances, either live or DJ, that are non-traditional. I try building on what is expected but then veer off from what is now the common fluid DJ and live sets form.
I think there’s a space for experimentation in it as well, I feel there’s audiences who don’t just want to go dance or just listen, there’s maybe a space for more of a varied show experience where the beat can be interrupted and a time for sonic weirdness can ensue and then go back to the dancing portion or not, and so on. In other words, I’d like to create a dynamic and contrasted performances, for both a DJ and a live set. Going back to the way I structure a track – I think a live set is sort of a time stretched version of that.
Maybe I should have started with this: when did you start making music?
I stated when I was about 12-13 playing guitar cuz my older brother had a band and they practiced in our living room sometimes and I thought that was cool. But even before I was very into music — metal and Elvis Presley and The Beatles. And then I had a band with my brother who played drums, sort of a punky weird semi-improvised band. Then after the band stopped I started making music on my own and went trough different stages of styles and using different methods and gear. I mostly use electronic instruments and computer software to generate sounds these days.
Joeri Bruyninckx
Dilian Official Website / Facebook
Krut Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp
Headline photo by John Elliott
