voices #36
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Ince B
answering some questions. We have already observed his ambient / drone work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “altered buoyancy” that we prefer is “baseload drift”. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Ince B: Ince B is the name of a defunct and demolished power station which was very near to where I lived as a child. The red aircraft beacons shone across fields and dairy farms to my bedroom. On the other side of the house, there was the huge oil refinery Shell Stanlow that had a heavy and brooding presence, especially when the flare tower lit up the night sky with its burning pulses. Every Saturday morning, they would test the emergency sirens which sent an eerie whine across the fields. As you got closer to the refinery, you could hear its constant drone. I can hear and feel all of this in baseload drift; it is a response to the intensively industrialised landscape of my childhood.
Musically, it started as a simple A Minor chord droned with textures added through my use of these little contact mic instruments that I made myself. I wanted to see how much I could do with just a single chord. Then I started to wonder about layering different textures like waves throughout the track. I was using a lot of looping prior to recording this but, en route to the recording session, the power supply for my looper got damaged, so I ended up working in a different way recording sound-on-sound. For the entire length of the track, I played drones over the top of drones through different effects and with different amounts of distortion, this is what gives the track the feeling of something that pulses and changes throughout even though it is just a single chord.
[2. CREATION]
■ The A. O.: How do you usually approach composition? Do you start with a concept, a sound, a state of mind or what else? How do you generally proceed from the initial seed to the complete work?
► Ince B: My starting point is experimentation. I start by thinking what would happen if I plugged this into that? What would happen in I separated the notes of a chord onto those freeze pedals? So I do it. Quite often I will have an idea away from my equipment and come back and start connecting things in new ways to see how it sounds. Sound comes first. I start messing about and then I curate the outcomes of my experiments. I slowly start to attach specific feelings and ideas to the music as I listen and adapt it, pieces will grow as a combination of curated experiments and emotional resonances that I find within them.
[3. FEEDBACK]
■ The A. O.: What do you hope listeners feel or experience when engaging with your music?
► Ince B: I think that there is a brooding presence of the oil-refinery throughout the album, as well as a sentimental nostalgia for lost people and things. I hope that comes across. But above all, I hope that people enjoy the music based on its merits and that it has some meaning to them. I am satisfied that it is a clear expression of my intentions, but I know I can’t control what it might mean to other people.
[4. IDENTITY]
■ The A. O.: In a world saturated with digital music content, how do you try to keep your sound distinct and personally meaningful?
► Ince B: My main motivation for making music is that it makes me feel good. It is such an engaging and engrossing experience that I lose myself in it. I just want to keep exploring and enjoying that. This leads to loads of ideas, and the most important part of the creativity is how I shape and curate the experiments, how do I give them coherence? I guess that will lead to it being distinct. My idiosyncrasies as a player will make personal sounds, my taste as a listener will shape what I chose and then my life experience will influence and inform the music. I put on a night with lots of different drone, ambient and minimalist music. These things are like fingerprint – there are recognisably similar but also wholly unique. I think the most important thing is to set off into the process without preconceptions and without a specific sound or style in mind.
[5. INFLUENCES]
■ The A. O.: Mention 3 albums that you consider relevant to your musical path and why.
► Ince B: ○ Sunn0))) – Monoliths & Dimensions
This album has such a broad sense of scales of sound. There are the trademark colossal swathes of guitars feeding back, but they combine this with things like the delicate intimacy of the trumpet solo at the end of Alice. Incredible.
○ Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline
This was a complete education to me. It opened my eyes to how much was possible in ambient and drone music. There is so much in this album, in terms of narrative, movement and content. It’s astonishing.
○ William Bassinski – The Disintegration Loops
This is a wonderfulcollection because of how purely he applies a process and executes an idea. Also, it’s so lucky. What a piece of monumental serendipity – to achieve something like this through this combination of concept, skill and chance. It’s why you’ve got to keep experimenting and playing. You might not know the purpose, but something of incredible worth could come of it.
[6. REGARDS]
■ The A. O.: Leave us with a quote you love.
► Ince B: “The great artists were never those who embodied a wholly flawless and perfect style, but those who used style as a way of hardening themselves against the chaotic expression of suffering.” (Adorno and Horkheimer)