PHOTO BY SHLOMIT SLAVIN
Floating between dream and reality, traveling through time and space – an exclusive interview with Ran Slavin
Ran Slavin is an Israeli based multimedia artist, director and composer. His works occupy some surreal space between dreams and reality, archaic past and futurism, cold cyber/urban landscapes and human emotions, rational and subconscious. In his cinematic masterpiece “The Insomniac City Cycles“, he analyzes the moving, evolving, alive and multilayered organism of the city and its relation to our (sub)consciousness, identity, inner relations. The city becomes like an alien structure, yet filled with inhabitants struggling for human contact. No wonder Ran’s art was given such tags as relation art or urban surrealism. In “Ursulimum“, another notable video work, the artist explores the relation between archaic past and futurism, the ever evolving concept of history and cultural landscape. Ran’s works frequently transcend the ethereal mood, but in a very modern, almost futuristic way.
The Insomniac City Cycles by Ran Slavin.
Similar qualities can be attributed to Ran’s sonic works. His abstract and cinematic compositions float like elegant and diverse drone/ambient/field recording waves full of unexpected narrative turns. Having produced the excellent mix for our journal, Ran also provided some interesting insight and thoughts in this exclusive interview.
Right-click and save a copy of Ran Slavin mix
Tracklist:
01. Svarte Greiner – The Boat Was My Friend
02. Strië – Fragments Of The Past
03. G.H. – Ground (Modern Love)
04. Dale Cooper Quartet And The Dictaphones – Mon Tragique Chartreuse
05. Ran Slavin – Triggers Of Violence
06. Erik K Skodvin – Neither Dust
07. G.H. – Albedo
08. G.H. – Earth
09. Svarte Greiner – Baandspiller I Solnedgang
10. Stina Nordenstam – Come To Me
11. Strië – Crack in the Boards
12. Murcof featuring Erik Truffaz – Al Mediodia
13. Strië – Substraction
14. Ran Slavin – Unreleased
15. Ran Slavin – Unreleased
INTERVIEW
Silence is one of the most important components of sound construction. What does the silence mean to you? Is it a blank canvass or a component of sound? Collaborator or powerful rival that needs to be challenged? Do you more enjoy silence or the presence of the sound and how is it reflected in your music?
I love silence. I strive for silence. Silence is the utmost beauty. It is a signifier of concentration and purity. In that sense, I think it is both a component and a canvas.
Sound quality can be measured objectively, such as when tools are used to gauge the accuracy with which the device reproduces an original sound; or it can be measured subjectively, such as when human listeners respond to the sound or gauge, its perceived similarity to another sound. What do you think the qualitative sound is and what it consists of? How much attention do you pay to sound quality in your own music? What would be your example of quality in music?
I think quality in sound is a very wide, open and subjective topic. There are many angles of it. Every form of sound has a certain quality in my perception. A destroyed sound and a well produced sound, for example. It’s a wide spectrum and I can appreciate many forms. I think it’s not about the quality in sound, but what you DO with sound.
For example, a delta blues track by Blind Willie Johnson or Robert Johnson is great despite and also because of the bad recording.
I tend to play with these parameters of “bad” and “good” in my own tracks. I usually fall in love with the “wrong” sound and go with it, so it’s interesting for me to make a beautiful and compelling/touching track with grained “unsounds”. The inner tensions there interest me.
Which part of your music is calculated/constructed and which is more influenced by emotions? What is more important in (your) music: brain or heart? How do they complement each other? Is there more contradiction or collaboration between them?
Usually, my music isn’t calculated. It sort of happens sometimes, when it happens. That is to say, I don’t plan it, so in my music I would say it’s all heart or chance or both. It starts with the heart and the subconscious and then the brain comes in to shape and make order. So sometimes it is more raw and emotional, but usually it is under control. I don’t make much music, although I have 4 unreleased albums just sitting there and waiting to be published with material from my Mille Plateaux era, which hasn’t grown old and I think sounds pretty cool, but I don’t know what’s going on with labels anymore, who would be interested etc. My next idea is to release them one after the other with only 3 month interval between each other. I feel like actually releasing then, not putting them out on bandcamp. Maybe digital releases.
Could you describe your creative process?
I might have a few sound files from God knows when on my machine and they make their way into some editing program or other. Then I will start to fiddle around, layer them and shape them slowly or quickly into tracks.
Or I record some guitar in 2009 and come back to those sounds in 2013 with an intent. Or I hear a track or sound I like on the new and grab it for integration in my own composition. Sometimes soundtracks present themselves from shards of material that’s floating around. I used to be a lot less ambient then I am in the last years. My pro tools sessions used to look like very complicated, condensed, multichopped files.
Can you describe from beginning to end how the material – let’s say a new album – is made?
Showing Light / Ran Slavin / New on False Industries
“Showing Light” was born very quickly, in one session. It happened like this: I was preparing a live show, arranging some files for possible live stuff and then something went off and few files were playing at once, that sounded altogether new and beautiful to me, some new combination between a few existing sound files, so I thought why not keep it? About 5 or 6 tracks unfolded this way and I just seized them in real time. I hardly needed to add anything to them later, I liked and preserved the original muffled low ends and kind of murky initial studio feel. I didn’t want to “open” it or fix in mastering as well. This kind of thing happened to me many times before, when after the mastering and the music is printed and all, I suddenly hear the first edition of the track and love it and feel some “truth” was lost. The file before it was eq’d and mastered. So here I was aware of it and maintained the basics throughout.
Describe where the sound concept comes from, what influenced you, how you came up with the timbre, modulations or mood, how it was developed and expanded?
Most of my sounds come from some sort of mistake or misintention. A glitch in a broad sense. I hardly work methodically and come up a prior with a concept and then set about to do it. When I’m at work and I get carried away, when something makes me forget time and place, when something is beautiful to me, then it might feel like it’s worth a print. When it comes together, music is like meditation. You need it on chemical and biological scale, you are one with it. That’s a good signifier for good music or any art, when you lose yourself.
What is the meaning behind the album’s title “Showing Light”?
I’m glad you asked. “Showing Light” refers to 2 things. One is a spiritual level, you might say, but also ironically. To show light is like to show or produce something good and optimistic, that helps others like in religion phenomena, but the tracks sound far from light, they are actually quite dark, but I find a lot of hope in there. For me this LP is close to early blues and gospel in a personal and subjective way. It won’t sound like that to you automatically at all, but it’s there somewhere. This release is about hope in some way or other. I also wanted the cover to portray this direction and resemble early delta blues LP covers. Nice photo by my mate Yuval Robichek, which was done in a snap and unintentionally and design by Tuvia Kudashevich.
The second interpretation relates to my video work. Half of the tracks here found their way into my video works, and “Showing Light” refers to the physicality of what I do, when I make exhibitions. When I project a video work in exhibitions and live performances, I show light.
What are your immediate future plans?
I am working on series of new video materials daily. I wake up and sit in the studio working for about 10-12 hours daily, if I’m lucky not to be interrupted.
I’m taking part in an exhibition in Hannover at KunstHalle Faust with 2 video works and a live performance at the opening. Also live video performances in Tel Aviv at “The store” and at “Pasaz” in September and October and screening in Uganda in Jerusalem.
Technological progress is unstoppable indeed. Probably no major innovator from the past could imagine how much we will achieve in the 20th century. The Wright brothers first flight was in 1903 and in 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon! Transistor invented in 1948 later changed our daily life as one of the basic building blocks of electronic circuits. Are you interested in technologies and their progress? What have made you the biggest impression over the past century? Maybe you have your personal vision of the world after couple of years? Maybe you think that technologies will bring humanity to an end? Share your thoughts.
Ursulimum by Ran Slavin.
I am very much interested in technology to the extent of science fiction. Most of my visual work is about technology in this way or the other and touches sci-fi. I think Apple made a huge change in course with Steve Job’s vision. He changed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. Personal computers are the biggest tools of our decade, I think, unarguably.
I’m interested in second life. This avatar social environment is quite fantastic and futuristic. These interactive virtual 3D environments are fun and could be taken to the next level somehow. Imagine a room, where all the walls are LED screens with whatever you want on them. Like the vision from “Cloud Atlas” film of the future. I’m a sucker for cyberpunk environments from back when I was 16 and saw “Blade Runner” for the first time.
As far as we know, for the most of your life you lived in Tel Aviv in Israel. Have you ever felt a need to move somewhere else, experience the living in other country. How important is home, your own cultural space to you? How does it influence your music?
I grew up and lived in the USA, London and shortly in Singapore. All have influenced me. I love London and Europe, Asia and New York. But yes, for the most it has been Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem.
I feel the need to move constantly and I love moving. I think its a basic instinct to move and be free to roam. The experience and multicultures are enriching and vital. Whenever I can, I will move. With Israel, my current location, I have a deeply ambivalent relationship. A political ambivalence and a humanistic one. I know so many mistakes were done and afflicted on an unnecessary scale on the way to form the state. The “culture space” needs to constantly be scrutinized and reevaluated, because democracy and human rights are constantly at threat and under attack. So one needs to stay on guard. And I’m also constantly observing. And the middle eastern “neighborhood” is a very fragile barrel of dynamite. So my natural tendency and interest in ephemeral topics like ambient sound and science fiction might have a strong friction with reality.
Clint Eastwood once said “This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country”. What would be your vision? What genre would you like to develop, maybe there are some books you would like to see as films? Could you tell us, have you ever had some ideas for movie and what do nowadays cinema lacks in general?
Ghost by Ran Slavin. 2013.
Well, the main aspiration is to make my next movie. I’m constantly struggling to make it happen. I have two ideas for future films, which I am developing and new strange mini series under way.
Regarding the cinema, there are great movies coming out all the time. “Headshot” by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is a really great film, also “The Raid Redemption”, “Holy Motors”, “Yellow Sea”, “Invisible Waves”, “Hit&Miss” series, “Breaking Bad”, “Big Bad Wolves” and many many more.
Sculpture is the most popular form of visual art in Africa. What place does the sculpture occupy in your life? Do you pay attention to sculptures in cities, showcases, galleries and other spaces? Maybe you have your most impressive one? Which one and why? Or maybe you are not interested in this form of art at all?
I love sculpture, but I don’t make it anymore. I used to sculpt and make casts in the 90′s with concrete wax and light. I’m interested in sculpture, but I’m all digital now and actually about non-material. I just think there are so many objects out in the world, so many things, I just don’t feel the need to add any more. I’m going for reduction.
Mr. Slavin, in your opinion, what is the meaning of modern art?
Modern Art is an old term, isn’t it? In the 60′s it was Modern Art. When I hear the word Modern Art, I’m reminded of the 60′s-70′s era.
Austrian Felix Baumgartner reached the boundary between atmosphere and space and jumped down, thus exceeding the speed of sound. Are you influenced by record breaking in general? If there would be no restricting factors, what meaningful and deeply influential record would you like to break?
Not influenced by record breaking. I don’t think about it at all, but an influential record would be to be able to travel at the speed of light and to travel both forward and backward in time. Also to discover space loop holes, and some other livable sun systems. Discovering alternative life to human system or expanding human systems into something else, challenging natural biology and the integration of human DNA and biology with technology.
What is your meaning of life?
I don’t know. Feeling well, making films and video, travel as much as possible, work hard, make amazing things, keep discovering, following your dreams.