Setting aside the loops and dense layers of his past work, the composer discusses 'Nightlife,' an album that passes for a band until you hear how far apart he kept each player.
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This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on composer Koen Holtkamp. For years, Koen worked as half of the duo Mountains. His new solo record, Nightlife, took shape in late at night sessions at his home in New York’s Hudson Valley .
We talk about stepping away from the methods that defined his work Mountains, why he rebuilds his modular system for every project and still won't call himself a synth player, and why finishing an album is harder than making the sounds.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Koen Holtkamp's "Slow Fox Run," "Northern Flicker," and "Dream On," from Nightlife, and Codona's "Colemanwonder")
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00:00 Introduction
00:57 Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley
04:52 Why the Record Is Called Nightlife
06:15 Finding a Plucked-String Sound
08:37 An Electronic Path to an Organic Sound
10:41 What Still Surprises Him in the Modular
12:11 A New Instrument for Every Project
13:50 Modular Synthesis 101
16:33 Stems and Directions for Greg Fox and Matt Bauder
18:28 Codona, Don Cherry, and Joanna Brouk
19:22 A Band That Never Shared a Room
21:15 Mixing His Own Work
23:12 Why Finishing Is the Hardest Part
24:14 Video Art, Meditation, and a Rail Trail
25:44 When the Sketches Became an Album
27:53 Lasers, Light, and Space
29:59 Why Musicians Think About Light
32:10 Synesthesia and Seeing Sound
34:20 Chicago Post-Rock and ECM Jazz
37:07 Lineage and Tradition
38:46 Where Mountains Stands Now
39:07 Taking Nightlife to the Stage
41:18 Drummers, Saxophone, and the Live Band
42:32 The Long Way to a Band
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Follow Koen Holtkamp on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/koenholtkamp/
Purchase 'Nightlife' from Bandcamp → https://koenholtkamp.bandcamp.com/album/nightlife
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/ca-en/album/nightlife-koen-holtkamp/exi7y60b319ur
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://album.link/i/6773481167
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