Sonic Piecesからこのリリースができてとてもハッピーなんだ。パッケージも気に入っているし、彼らの哲学も、そしてこれまでにこのレーベルが出してきた音楽も好きだ。作品のすべての細かいディテールにここまで深く配慮してくれる人たちに出会えたのは本当に素晴らしいよ。僕はその点を本当にリスペクトしている。それに、彼らは僕の好きな街ベルリンを拠点にしているから、Sonic Piecesと仕事をしているということで、ベルリンに行く口実をたくさん作れる。いいインディペンデントのレーベルは、音楽にすごく貢献していると思うよ。最近の一般的な見方（ある程度までは理解できるけど）とは逆に、僕はレコード・レーベルは現在とても重要な役割を担っていると思っている。僕なんかも、途方もない量の音楽が、特にデジタル形式で入手可能であることに圧倒されてしまう。デジタルというメディアは、新しい音楽を発掘するにはすごくいいんだけど、どういうわけか僕にはあまりしっくりこないんだよね。僕はフィジカルな体験が好きで、レコードを触るのも好き、そして、レコード・レーベルが、新しいリリースやプロジェクトを継続的、安定的に提供してくれるのが好きなんだ。レーベルは「ホーム」、そこに行けばナイスで素敵な体験ができる場所になりえるんだよ。
Hello. My name is Raul Pastor Medall, I am originally from Spain, although I have spent the last decade pretty much split between Portland, Oregon, which is a part of the world that I like a lot, and my native European land. I play music under the moniker ‘Rauelsson’, that is some sort of a nickname that I had when I was growing up.
I have released a few records on the Portland-based label Hush Records, most of it guitar-based quiet acoustic music; some of it is instrumental and some of it tends to be more like singer-songwriter type of songs. These days I seem to focus more on the instrumental side of music. My latest record, pretty much fully instrumental, is
I was mostly recorded by the sea, in Benicassim, central east coast Spain. I have been touring with this new record quite a bit over the last year. I played in Japan in 2012 with my friend Laurel Simmons, aka MayMay and I had a great time. I can’t wait to come back! I am honored to play with Erik and Otto; I really like their solo work as well as their amazing music as Deaf Center.
Your new album "Vora" is really fantastic!! What do you have the concept when you start to make this?
Thank you. I started recording sounds from a beach that is very close to where I have been living for the past two and half years. I moved back to Spain from Portland and the idea of relocating very close to a nice weather, solitary beach town was very appealing (in the summer is not solitary at all! though). I started collecting lots of different sounds and then improvising on the piano while listening to those field recordings. There was a lot of sound from water and rocks and walking around etc. I compiled quite a lot of piano improvisations and different types of sound material. Then I move back to Portland again, where I listened to those recordings, selected some passages and, without edits on the original performances added some string and synth arrangements to those selected parts.It was all pretty spontaneous and done without much thinking. Then I went to Berlin and tried to make sense all of that collection of songs with the talented Nils Frahm on controls, who helped enormously with mixing.
What inspires you to create music?
Many different things; sometimes sound itself, sometimes images, places, people, music by others. Ideas can come from little accidents, from unexpected sources. I really like the fact that the whole creative process is so open, and so impossible to predict and pin down; there is definitively a lot of beauty within the enigmatic process of creating something.
Do you think that you were influenced by any kind of music?
I listen to very different kinds of music: electronic music, classical music, and very recurrently lots of the music that really influenced me in the early days: Nick Drake, Neil Young, Nina Simone etc. Now I am listening to a lot of rhythmic, subbassy down tempo stuff. Of course, there is amazing music that I really like and that is made these days by artists such as Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines, Deaf Center, etc. and maybe their music made a more direct impact on this record, but those things tend to be pretty unconscious in my case.
How did you become interested in sound construction?
I could not point to a specific moment or reason. I slowly became more aware of the importance of the non-musical aspects of sound. We are somehow ‘educated’ to see as a line that puts such sounds on one side and the musical ones on the other. It’s best to see it as a whole and put the focus on whatever level of the sound spectrum you want to put it on. Whatever sounds good to you, whatever works. Instruments can offer so much if you let them speak not only in the language you are told they should speak in.
"Vora" was released from Sonic Pieces. How is the label?
I am very happy with this release on Sonic Pieces. I love the packaging, the philosophy and the music released by the label so far. It is great to find people that care so deeply about every detail of their work. I have a lot of respect for that. As a plus, they are based in Berlin, which is a city I like, and working with Sonic Pieces has provided many excuses to go to Berlin. I think that nice independent record labels make a very strong contribution to music. Contrary to some current common view (to a certain extend understandable), I think that record labels have a very important role today. I tend to get so overwhelmed by the immense amount of music availability, especially in a digital format. For some reason digital music is a medium that, although great to discover new music, does not really stick with me. I like the physical experience, I like to touch records and I like when record labels offer you some continuity and stability in providing you with new releases and projects. They can become ‘homes’ where you know you can go and have a nice and good experience.
How is the music scene in Spain for you?
I have been gone and disconnected for so long that it is not easy for me to grasp it or have a real picture of what’s going on. When I am here I live in a very small place, and not in Madrid or Barcelona, where things are mostly happening. There are pockets of very interesting people all over the place and I feel very grateful for the kind response that I have been getting over the past few years. In general though I would say that in Spain, musically speaking, things are easier for you if your music is more rhythmic and melodic than mine. In comparison to other European countries where I have been playing there is less of a culture of entertainment that includes quiet music in general.
You will come to Japan again soon! I can't wait! How do you feel the Japan Tour?
I am truly excited. I really had a wonderful time in 2012 and really can’t wait to be back. I loved the country, the mountains, gardens and was particularly amazed about how incredibly nice people are, and the food, of course. I’ll see if I remember any of the words I learned last time! I am also thrilled to play with Otto and Erik and to see how people respond to our music and to Monique's workshops.
Do you have some japanese favorite artists?
To be honest I do not know a lot of Japanese music. I have listened to quite a lot of Toru Takemitsu for some reason, and also some Ryuichi Sakamoto’s stuff, but I am not very familiar with current artists. On my 2012 tour I discovered a lot of very interesting projects. Most of them connected to Yasuhiko Fukuzono’s wonderful flau records. I like Hayati Aoki and Radiosonde, also Cuushe and aus. I hope I discover some new music on this trip as well.
Please let me know near future plan.
I am really concentrating now on live shows and on interpreting ‘Vora’ live, which takes a bit more of an electronic approach. After the Japan tour I have a show on May 10th in Castellon, Spain where I will be playing the entire record with a choir, strings (Anne Muller and Christoph Berg) and a percussion ensemble. I am very excited about that. I just finished music for a short film. I am about to complete preparation of a ‘scored’ book of photos taken (precisely!) during my previous visit to Japan. I am also working on some new music with the idea of releasing a new record at some point by the end of next year; at least that’s the plan.
Please give a massage to japanese fans!
Do you want me to give a massage to japanese fans? Or a message? Hmm, my message would be: let’s all give massages to each other! Jokes aside, please come to see this little Sonic Pieces expedition in Japan and say hello after the show!
INTERVIEW in April 2014
TRANSLATED by Naoko Yamada
TEXT by Masato Hoshino
RAUELSSON
