BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Imagine if you could rock up to the recording studio and just play whatever you like.
No sheet music to drag along; no difficult passages to perfect under your fingertips. Just you, your instrument, and the moment.
This is Three, the brand new release from Xani Kolac. And, as you’re about to see, it’s fun.
Xani has chosen to record an album of her own improvised violin music on vinyl. Tracks range from six to 10 minutes, and use live-looping, amplification, and effects in a way that is entirely spontaneous. The album is a little pop, a little contemporary classical, and will be first launched at a jazz venue. (Genre – what even?)
Today on CutCommon, we are proud to host the world premiere of Xani’s music video Sun White from this album, Three.
Read the interview, then watch the premiere.
Xani is an expert in improvisation who has shared the stage with artists ranging from Clare Bowditch to Tim Rogers, and Kav Temperley (on RocKwiz, no less). She’s collaborated with Dots+Loops, and earlier this year performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre alongside Vaudrey.
Xani, you have just released your new album Three. Love it. Tell us the backstory.
Over our summer just gone, I had it in my mind that I wanted to go into the studio just to see what would happen.
I’d been saving up some money for my next creative venture and was thinking a lot about how I always end up recording new music during the cold Melbourne winter. I thought it’d be nice to be sweaty and hot in the studio just for a change. So I took my loop pedal, my amps, my electronic effects and my violin into Rolling Stock Recording Rooms in Collingwood, Myles Mumford set up some mics and DIs, and I just played.
I prepared absolutely nothing contrary to what I usually do. I mapped out no ideas and I just decided to see what would happen. Once the day was done, Myles and I mixed the tracks and that was that!
So, your entire album is improvised and captured in the studio. What do you think it means to record music that isn’t pre-planned, and isn’t intended for replication in performance?
There is a vast canon of recorded works out there that are completely improvised, from genres like jazz to world music. The difference between performing live improvisations that are unprepared and recording them is that a recording can be deleted!
My experience with this release in particular has been that I’ve had a lot of free improvisations in my mind and under my fingers for a long time now, and so finally putting it on record is like breathing out.
How does this tie in with your album launches? That is, how do you launch an album of fully improvised music, and how do you imagine each launch event will differ?
This has been the really tricky bit! How I envisaged the launch shows, in the beginning, was as performances of the improvisations almost note-for-note. I began transcribing what I played on the recording with the idea that I would repeat it and have my friends Biddy Connor (viola) and Anita Quayle (cello) join me. But as I was practising these transcriptions, I felt some of the magic disappearing. So I’ve gone for a bit of a hybrid.
I have arranged some of the pieces for string trio and live looping for the Melbourne show, which will be very exciting; whereas the interstate shows will feature solo interpretations of the improvisations as well as a couple of completely improvised experiments.
The next project that I am working on is an amplified string ensemble, so the Melbourne launch is giving me the chance to try three different approaches to contemporary amplified string playing:
- Composing specific parts with instructions regarding the use of electronic effects;
- Composing cues the string players can use at certain points and then ad lib;
- Creating a space for all players to improvise freely.
Rehearsals have been incredible, and it feels as though I’m finally hearing the sounds I’ve wanted to hear for so long.
You’ve chosen to launch at a few jazz venues. But the album itself certainly isn’t restricted by the label of ‘jazz’ alone. How do you decide on venue when musical style is your own creation?
I go with spaces where there is a listening audience. I have found that jazz audiences in Australia are very open to different kinds of improvised musics, and I’ve also found that contemporary classical audiences are up for moments of improvisation. Finding my niche has always been my Achilles heel, and I’m beginning to think that I might never find one!
How do you describe the style of your album? And what makes you choose these phrases or languages?
My friends and family have said that my album ‘sounds so Xani’. I keep creating music that crosses over: improvisation on a fundamentally classical instrument making music as accessible as pop music. I don’t know where it fits and I don’t know what sound it is. I’ve never been great at describing my own music, but I suppose this album sounds like epic violin climaxes and beautiful melodies. Oh, and there’s also a darker track called CODE ORANGE, which is very industrial and repetitive, hard music. It’s a big mix of sounds I’ve created with only violin – kind of like what Camille did for voice on her Le Fil album. But because of the improvised nature of my music, it sounds less clean and concise, and more lo-fi and explosive.
What was the biggest surprise to you during the spontaneous recording?
Listening back to my improvisations was completely surprising. I expected to find a track or two that worked, but I ended up loving pretty much everything I did. That probably sounds completely narcissistic, but having recorded so many EPs and albums in the past with other projects, listening back and actually enjoying something you’ve played is rare.
I’ve struggled over the last 10 years to get the sounds I’ve had in my head on to a record. The sterile nature of the studio has made it difficult to replicate what I can find musically in a live setting. This recording is the closest I’ve come to imitating what I do on stage. It sounds like me, and it’s such a relief to know that I may have found a process that works for me in the studio. Or maybe this is some gem of an experience that will never happen again. Who knows?!
You’ve chosen to recorded on vinyl. What’s with this decision, made in today’s digital world?
When vinyl had its comeback, I bought a live Joni Mitchell LP. I decided to collect only live vinyl from back in the day of tape recording because it sounded so good. That album is one of my favourites to this day. It crackles and pops and sounds so sweet, and it made me want to have my very own vinyl release some day. I put it down on my bucket list and have been waiting ever since for the right record to press.
Everything about this album has been so unexpected, including how much I ended up loving the music I had made. I knew pretty much straight away that this was the release for my first (and probably my only) vinyl record. Nobody buys CDs anymore (except in Japan), but vinyl is different. It’s a collector’s item for genuine music lovers, and functions simultaneously as recorded music and merchandise. Without vinyl, a lot of artists would have nothing to sell at shows.
Xani, we’re thrilled that this interview also marks the world premiere of your music video Sun White on CutCommon. What’s the story behind this film clip?
When I decided to go into the studio to record these improvisations, I decided it might be nice to capture whatever happened on film. Even if the whole experiment ended up being a flop, I thought I could use some footage for something down the track. My friend Bea Mazur came along and filmed for three hours while I was recording. It’s very simple, raw filming, but it captured how I put everything into every note that I played.
I decided to make a clip to the shortest track on the album featuring bits and pieces from the filming. This track, Sun White, uses ‘chopping’ – a contemporary string technique made most famous by gypsy jazz violinists and artists such as Darol Anger and Casey Driessen. This track probably best represents how much joy making this record has given me. At the end of the day it’s just my violin and I in a room making music together. That’s how it’s always been. It’s what I’ll always do.
WATCH! This is the world premiere of the video Sun White by Xani from her new album Three.
Xani will launch Three on August 3 at Melbourne’s Jazz Lab, August 19 at Brisbane’s Spring Hill Reservoir (with Kathryn McKee), October 11 at Perth’s Ellington Jazz Club, and September 13 at Camperdown’s The Newsagency. Keep up to date with future events on Xani’s Facebook page.
Listen to the full album now on Spotify.
Images supplied. Credit: Michelle Grace Hunder; album cover and featured image by Kurt Peterson.
