Radboud Mens | Interview | Sound-Artist, Composer and Sound Designer
Radboud Mens is a sound-artist, composer and sound designer.
Next to his solo work, he has worked with a broad variety of artists, including Stephan Mathieu, Janek Schaefer and Timebllind, voice-artist Jaap Blonk, guitarist Dan Armstrong (as Fitness Landscape), Michel Banabila, Mark Poysden (as Alignment), Craig Ward (ex-Deus), and Matthijs Kouw.
‘Sine’ is one of the earlier works by Radboud Mens. It was constructed in 1998 and released on CD by Staalplaat in 2000 which recently reissued recordings on vinyl featuring an entire side of new material. Having forged out a unique path in music for many years this is a means by which to view the genesis of what would become “Radboud Mens music”. Side A comprises the original ‘Sine’ which is considered a minor masterpiece of the early 2000’s click dub electronica. ‘Funkhummer’ launches proceedings by a measured gathering of elements, buzzes and hums traverse the rhythmic spikes that punctuate throughout. Already at this starting post one can acknowledge machine music with a human pulse. ‘Machines’ lurch and growl gently amongst a tiny ping pong pulse on the next track ‘Steel’. ‘Moi’ attaches itself to the subconscious with its dizzying sinewy highs and bare bones bass shadowing an equal love for dub processes and experimental forms. With ‘Metal/Dub/Plate’ a dark drone anchors the mischievous random play on the surface. Equally unnerving and enticing here we see the end of the original ‘Sine’. Flip the record and we enter the new chapter in the story of ‘Sine’. Radboud works on music that binds disparate forms together into one sound, as a result these new tracks incorporate all styles witnessed in the original, retaining the clicks and cuts mentality whilst incorporating a deeper ambient drone approach with a minimal dub influence sweeping throughout. ‘For Da’ is a direct continuation of the original work with its light clicks and a woozy atmosphere. Tape shifts gears into a deep haunted world with a skittering beat and repeating melodic cloud of sound. ‘Condition’ takes the experimental dub further into space leading into the uplifting conclusion where ascension takes hold. The original and updated ‘Sine’ fit firmly together as a unique whole bringing together a sparse assured sound carefully crafted to ignite a transcendental mood in the listener.
How did you first get interested in music and what led you to become a sound-artist?
Radboud Mens: I became interested in music through the records my brother and sisters played when I was very young. Later, when I turned eight, I got a tape recorder with a built-in microphone and started recording the birds at 5 in the morning. Or flushing the toilet. I was very excited to be able to capture these sounds and play them back. I bought my first drum machine in 1982 and started making music with it in combination with synths. In 1988 I went to art school and started making sound machines. That was such an important moment for me that I decided this was what I wanted to do.
Tell us about some of the early noise-machines you created in the late 1980s and what were some of the basic audio equipment that influenced you?
They were very simple in principle; I had laid a woofer flat on the floor and connected it to a normal amplifier and a cassette player that played a noise tape. I dropped dice and marbles into the woofer and placed a large tin drum over the speaker. The audio I was playing made the marbles and dice jump out of the woofer, hit the inside of the tin drum and then fall back into the woofer… It was so loud that during the assessment of my work the teachers refused to enter the classroom where I had put my work. They wanted me to turn it off before they entered the room. I told my teachers that I didn’t think it was good policy to tell an artist to turn off their work and told them to at least come in first and have a look. They said if I didn’t turn it off they couldn’t rate my work. I didn’t really see that as my problem and declined. The following year they arranged for me to study audio art with Ton Brunel, but I had to promise I would never make another noise machine at the academy. I then accepted their proposal under protest.
You were experimenting with sound very early one… among other things, you attached contact mics to dog’s brushes that you used to destroy vinyl records by scratch-playing them, boosting the signal through broken cassette-decks and recording the results. How did you generate ideas like that and what else did you do to create new sounds?
I had a dog at the time, so I had a dog brush with lots of thin needles. I wondered what would happen if I stuck a contact microphone on it and tried to play records with it. Turns out you can play with it just fine; if you carefully use a few needles, you will still hear the music or you will destroy the entire record. At the same time, I tied the arm of a cheap turntable to the table top with a piece of string. Moving the turntable allowed me to find the right groove in some techno record. I distorted that signal and thus made Technoise.
One of the first releases was under the name of Hyware and Technoise. Tell us about it.
Hyware was the brand of the dog brush; I thought it was a good name for my noise project. Technoise was exactly what I did; a combination of techno and noise. I used the Technics logo and converted it into my Technoise logo. I met Colin Cod of the English dub reggae band Zion Train in Staalplaat. He was sent to our shop by Mick Harris of Napalm Death to buy noise from us. I gave him a stack of 30 CDs (Merzbow and all sorts of other noise acts) to listen through, but he immediately bought everything without checking even one. When I played him the noise I was making, he knew of a label in London that wanted to release my noise.
What can you tell us about your collaboration with Peter Fleur?
I met him in 1985 in the first Staalplaat shop on the Spuistraat in Amsterdam. He was doing a brilliant radio show called Discipline on a free radio station that later became Radio 100. He had the entire Korg series complete; MS10, MS20, MS50, SQ10 and the vocoder. We experimented a lot, mounted all kinds of metal springs on an old turntable and played that through the filters of the MS20 while all kinds of other things were running along. In 1995 we used a sampler and made our first drone record; ‘Organic 23’. It was a CD with 3 tracks, each 23 minutes long, and a 5-inch vinyl record with 23 locked grooves you could play along with the CD tracks. I’ve always liked the idea of “unfinished music”; music that leaves “room” for the listener to fill in with his imagination or with some extra sounds you provide them with.
“Sounds from outside “finish” the music”
What led you to create minimal music? What’s unique when it comes to creating minimal music?
I don’t really know what led me to make minimal music. I think it was maybe because I wanted or needed to keep things simple. A few sounds is often enough to make interesting music. I like it when music is transparent and, like I said before, has room for other sounds to come through. When I’m listening to music and the window is open, sounds from outside “finish” the music. Could be birds or traffic or kids playing….
Tell us about the making of ‘Cl;ck’, which used digital clicks and errors that you collected?
Back in the nineties I was working at the Centre of Electronic Music in Amsterdam. I worked there as a sound engineer with composers like Charlemagne Palestine. Back then everything was recorded to DAT but I also started to use hard disk recording. The recordings had to be cleaned up; all digital clicks had to be removed. Instead of throwing them all in the bin from the computer, I for some reason decided to keep them in a separate folder. At one point, going through the digital clicks, I found that they all sounded different. Just by clicking around with my mouse I could already make rhythms and little melodies. So that led to ‘Cl;ck’ in 1997.
You collaborated with a lot of artists, including Stephan Mathieu, Janek Schaefer and Timeblind, voice-artist Jaap Blonk, guitarist Dan Armstrong (as Fitness Landscape), Michel Banabila, Mark Poysden (as Alignment), Craig Ward (ex-dEUS), and MVK. What are some of the most interesting collaborations and why?
In 2002 I played at the Mutek festival in Montreal. Frans de Waard told me that he had recorded some music for a CD during the festival the year before and that Mutek had released it. I had already decided in advance that I wanted to do that that year too, but I didn’t know with whom yet. After I presented the idea to Janek, we decided who else we wanted to get involved with. Mutek provided a mixer and two speakers. I believe we recorded that CD in 1 day. That was an interesting collaboration but the most interesting collaboration for me is Alignment with Mark Poysden. We are both very specific on the sounds that we want to use and also both like working conceptually and experimentally.
I’ve been truly enjoying one of the latest releases by Staalplaat, ‘Sine ~ Plus +’, the material was recorded in the late 90s… tell us what’s the concept about it and how did you approach it.
Working with a sine wave generator and standing waves during my Hyware gigs in the mid nineties, I was very interested in low frequencies. So in 1998 I wanted to do a CD based around that. I just got a computer with Cool Edit and a simple DAW called Acid.
In Cool Edit I could draw soundwaves with the “pencil” tool. I created all sorts of digital clicks and weird sounds that way. I could also import system files into Cool Edit and save them as sound files. Every track on ‘Sine’ is based around another frequency (30hz, 33 Hz, 40 Hz..) and with the other sound I had made I created rhythms like I had done on ‘Cl;ck’ but less techno and more dubby. Also more subtle and diverse I think. I always spent a lot of time designing the sounds. After that the tracks are often making themselves.
I’ve been also enjoying your latest collaboration album with Son Of Chi, ‘The Transition Recordings’.
Son of Chi is Hanyo van Oosterom. He started using my tracks and samples to make an ambient. My guitar installation, my long string installation, my minimal techno et cetera. After that I added some sounds to that again and he finished it. We have been working on that for quite some time but he did most of the work. We are working on a new album now.
What currently occupies your life?
I think of myself primarily as a sound artist and love to work on installations and my own instruments. The sounds I use in my music mostly come from these instruments. Bass flutes, long strings..
I’m working on an album with Fernando from Haarvöl. The new Alignment album is almost finished. I just finished a two hour solo album for Korm Plastics. And there will be a new album with MVK someday soon.
Next to making a lot of music I also do recording and mastering for Staalplaat and others.
Thank you. Last word is yours.
Thank you!!
Klemen Breznikar
Radboud Mens Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp / YouTube / SoundCloud
Staalplaat label Bandcamp
