Bardo Todol is Argentinian Pablo Picco and his two kids Nico and Cina.

For five years now, they have made raw musique concrète and “free folk”.

“I imagine that the moon is like a transistor”

I own two Bardo Todol releases: the Chocolate Monk one and the Finnish tape.

Pablo Picco: Nice man! Thanks! The Finnish tape, is it maybe the split with Devid Ciampalini? Or the last collaboration with the Vluba members?

The Ikuisuus one with Ciampalini. For how long have you been making this kind of music? Five years or so?

Yes…the “early” Bardo Todol started like five years ago. It was more related to tapes and recordings that I made with my little daughter, Nico. It has this approach more close to free folk music (somewhat more psychedelic) … And now Bardo Todol has the side project Bardo Todol y sus Aves sin nido, which is more like a “concrete music” fandom … the music is more textural and Nico and I are joined by Cina (he is three).

So Bardo Todol are you and your two kids?

They are my kids and they do whatever I want. No … honesty … erm … I tend to record EVERYTHING. I always take my Walkman with me to record. I love tapes and recently (like more than a year or so) I started to make music with four track machines. So the tape collages are more vivid. I love the sound … and it’s constantly pushing me to think about another kind of world, another kind of transmission. We used to walk a lot through the forest that surrounds our home … and I really love to go to rivers and record them, haha. You can check all that on our Instagram account.

I enjoy the dictaphone sound you talked about. It has a raw lo-fi quality. Do you still record everything on tape? Is this how you work: record on tape, then later edit on computer?

Yes … I record almost everything on tape … But now I am going again to a more “quality sound” and try to record more clearly … I am currently making some sounds with a “good” mic passing the signal through a digital computer program such as pure data … So the sound is constantly moving. I am making a “rotten” electronic album right now. It will be called something like “The electrónika path” and also recording another something like “Music 4 breath and Electronika” with harmoniums and the sounds of breath. I am also recording my hurdy gurdy … most like a concrete and moving rotating sound. I discovered that concept with the amazing Anne-F Jacques. You have to check her work. I was lucky to work on an album with her and soon there will be another one. So I used a lot of tape, but currently I have lost my two reel to reel recorders and I miss them A LOT.

The last thing I heard from you is the Krut release. Why is that album called ‘Songs for the Moon’?

I mostly make music at night when our kids are sleeping. There’s a strange connection with the sounds. Very different from the day and light hours. These last few days I have had some stomach aches. Let’s call it stomach activity.

Why an album about the moon?

I don’t know why. I just keep thinking about the moon. How it acts with these kinds of things. The album starts with a work for a short film I made more than a year ago for Ana Comes, ‘Cumbres Tenebrosas’ (you can watch it here). The images are about a region in Argentina that was devastated in the 40s with terrible earthquakes. It is San Juan, situated in Western Argentina. I was born there. Somewhat the images are all the time reinforcing the role of the woman. And then I just started to add some female voices, like sirens, and lost the transistors. I imagine that the moon is like a transistor … an antenna that broadcasts and emits lots of sounds.

Do you play live?

I’m not very good at live gigs. I don’t like to play live. So Bardo Todol is more like an internet and physical tape act. Plus I am feeling quite “old”, haha. And the kids, and the house life … It’s a good thing to record and go to record at other people’s houses.

Are you part of a local Argentinian scene?

There are so many good things in Argentinian experimental music! People are making sooo tasty sort of music (I also have my own label, trying to support local artists who make field recordings, vaporwave, folk and minimalistic kinds of music). I made friends with projects that are alike and some others which are not. I played, recorded and will make some things in the future with Vluba, Federico Durand, Pan del Indio, Fernando Perales, Juan José Calarco, Salvador Cresta, Trífido, Mrs, Las Hijas De Israel, Nonoise…and many others. I think I forgot quite a few.

Because this is for a magazine called It’s Psychedelic Baby!: do you see your music as psychedelic?

I think that my relationship with psychedelic music started by listening to a lot of this Finnish improv music collectives. We listen a lot to Kemialliset Ystavat, Uton, Avarus, Islaja and Lau Nau. Free folk has defined and shaped my ears to make music with acoustic instruments, and free folk pushed me to travel to India and grab a harmonium (I made a documentary about it years ago. Download it here).

I believe that concrete music … that the way I approach it at this moment is more somewhat psychedelic. Like Reynols for example. I listen to rock jams and then noise things … and then concrete … and then field recordings, and more and more. The psychedelic part of it is that the music helps you to travel to different places in your mind. Some busy, some hot, some calm, some very familiar, some very unfamiliar, some more acoustic … and so on … sounding like Zižek here.

Joeri Bruyninckx

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