Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

Caro C  Hello and welcome to the Sound On Sound podcast about Electronic Music and all things synth. I'm Caro C and in this episode I'm talking to Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. Robert is a New York based composer and artist who aims to be experimental and avant garde, favouring chance and serendipity as part of his process. His main tools are his voice, modular synthesis and field recordings. His main output is music for film and TV, as well as improvisational performance. Film and TV credits include Candyman, a 2021 supernatural horror film directed by Nia DaCosta, Power, a documentary on Netflix and TV series The Marketeers. Let's start with a taste of Robert's music. This is an extract called The Sweet from his original soundtrack for Candyman. Hello Robert and welcome to the Sound on Sound podcast. Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe Hello Caro. Thank-you for having me. CC You're very welcome. Excited to talk to you today and unpack your artistry. So I think let's start with a journey to how you got to be the artist you are now, in a sense. RAAL Hmm. Well, how did I arrive at the place that I am now? I don't know, I guess as a child I was always interested in music. I discovered music through my father's record collection when I was very young and I eventually started to journey out on my own, try to discover things. I was always very curious and very open to discovering things and so I would always find very interesting bits and pieces due to the way that things looked. I would pick up a record, you know, just on whatever sort of visual cue I had from it, if I thought that the album art looked interesting. I also come from a, you know, a visual art background, which is something I did when I was young and have continued on throughout my life. I focused more on sound historically through my work, but I always come back to visual work be it video or works on paper and also I had a real affinity for film and the cinema and at a very young age I found that I was very interested in film sound and how sound was a language that engaged with the visuals of cinema, that was something that could be quite expansive. And so I think that sort of quite naturally throughout the course of my life, I have leaned more into sonic worlds that are textural, multitemporal, atmospheric and essentially finding ways, it was interesting for me to find ways to create a narrative through a vocabulary in a language that I created that wasn't based around an actual language and so it was interesting for me to find ways to ultimately tell stories without using words. So that was a lot of it and yeah, I think ultimately that's a very brief summation of how I've arrived at the place that I am now. CC Yeah and that feels quite broad as well. So for me, I think of you and I think you define yourself as an avant garde artist and also the improvisation, the use of modular instruments. Is that a manifestation of those things you're talking about. Did you find out that they were the perfect way for you to channel that through music and sound, if you like? RAAL I think that is accurate. I think that after years of, since I was a teenager when I began to play music in groups and I came up, you know, in the punk scene. CC And what kind of instruments were you playing then at that point? RAAL Generally electric bass and singing. And for me it was more interesting to take on an instrument and discover for myself how to play it. So I have no formal training in any instrument that I play or the voice, but I was, I became sort of fascinated with this idea of cultivating techniques and sort of, you know, if you will, creating my own tradition, you know, within that space. It was far more interesting for me to look at things that existed as a reference and clearly, you know, you will be influenced by things over time, there are things that will compel you to investigate them further, or things that just give you a general pleasure. But for me, I was most excited about finding different ways to engage, finding different dexterities in how to utilize these tools to try to create something new or at least something that was form fit for me specifically and so as a teenager I was playing in different groups, different bands, all sort of punk related, sort of left field music, strange, noisy types of things and as I got older, I was interested in focusing on work away from collaborating inside of a group and doing things as a solo artist. And so the first thing I really focused on was the voice. I had been singing in groups for years and along that journey, I found different ways to engage my body and find different ways to sing, just to create sound with the body and the breath in the mouth, shaping things differently, finding different places to sing from, whether it was the diaphragm or the nasal cavity or the throat. And so it was really interesting for me and something I spent a lot of time on really in the early 00s, the early two thousands, where I focused very specifically on my voice, the human voice and finding ways to create work with the voice, removing language from that equation and finding a way to build narrative with the human voice tonal textural structures and as time went on I started to engage with other instruments, trying to find different dynamic spaces with my voice and utilising an instrument, whether it was a steel string guitar or percussion or electronics. And eventually I landed on the modular synthesiser due to the fact that, you know, in my estimation the most unique instrument that humans have is the voice and it's a very individual thing, you know, every voice sounds different. There are voices that can be paired together, there are ways to emulate other voices, but the long and short of it is each is its own and I wanted to have an instrument to play within that space that had the similar possibilities and could structure things in ways that, in which I could make a more nuanced and dynamic space utilising the voice and another, instrument, which became the modular synthesiser due to the fact that there are so many variables attached and they're so malleable and so organic in the way that they can be used and, you know, in my estimation the utilisation of the modular synthesizer put it in a space for me as a solo artist where in one moment I had a collaborator and in another moment I had, it was an extension of my own body. And so for me that was a really interesting proposal and something that I've investigated for many, many years at this point. CC Wow. Awesome, awesome. And yet you are an avant-garde artist and you're inspired by avant-garde artists, a few in particular that you've named. I wonder if you could tell us a bit more about that in terms of what that means for you. You've talked a little bit about why you don't want to stick to certain musical conventions, but there's also, there's other layers in there, isn't there? RAAL Right and you know I have sort of a hang up with creative or artistic endeavors that are taught in a way that they're boxed in, where someone is told, well, this is the way that you do this, this is a tradition that's been set down and there you go and so that's why I always leaned away from any sort of formal training because I also found at a pretty early age that I was able to understand these ideas and sort of teach myself, like find my own way, sort of forge my own path in doing, you know, in learning how to utilise any of these things and you know, I have a great love for formal and traditional music from all over the world. But at the same time I can reference those things but not adhere to those particular structures, it's almost like building a new house, you're building a new architecture within that space. CC Yes, so you're still honouring them, but you're definitely being a conduit for your own. RAAL Exactly. It's hard for me to believe that you can quantify or qualify artistic endeavors because it's down to the individual, you know, it's what compels them to make the thing and that I think is most important. And when you talk about that and how work can be received or perceived, everyone comes from a different perspective and a different vantage point and no one will have the understanding or the emotional connection to that particular work as the one that created it. CC So true. RAAL And that's fine, that's just how it works, we're all, we can all be witness to the exact same thing in the exact same moment and have a different takeaway, even though we witness the same thing and it's the same way that I that I view, you know, sort of criticism in that world when people don't understand or dislike the things that I do, I'm not bothered by it because I'm not that person. I'm compelled to make the thing and so I'm going to make the thing and you know, someone not understanding it or not liking it has nothing to do with me and I'm okay with that and everyone is entitled to their opinion. So I guess ultimately, going back to this idea of the avant-garde and more left field spaces, those were the things that were more compelling to me as I was in my formative years. I was always interested in how things could be engaged in ways that maybe had not been established before. I found that it was important for me to exist within that space and within the concept of improvisation or spontaneous music or ecstatic music or sound, those were the things that really excited me. And also the concept of improvisation and improvisation first and foremost is about listening in that particular space, improvising in a sonic space and whether it's with a collaborator or a group or be it solo, you always have to be aware and responding to the things that are happening in real time. So that was also something that was very exciting for me, finding ways in which to be free in that space and not be concerned with trying to make sure that everything goes to plan because, you know, that's all fine and good but it's also maybe not that interesting. For me it's really interesting also dealing with a modular synthesiser. So with a modular synthesiser, being that it's based around voltage and electricity, you know, it's different amounts of voltage that are are being passed along the patch cables, you know, from one module to another and so essentially the machine is having a dialogue from one module to another and you are initiating that conversation. You are making informed decisions or choices in that moment on who is talking to who and then you have the possibility of engaging or injecting into that conversation, but you know, that's something that's really fun for me, being in that moment where the instrument could do something that I potentially did not expect it to do and instead of trying to course correct it, I move fluidly with the machine and that's something that's really, I think is really lovely and freeing, being able to take those moments and find a fluidity in the engagement instead of trying to stifle or halt the movement that the machine is making. CC So may we get quite nerdy around your modular setup. So what's your modular setup at the moment, how have you got to that being your favourite setup? RAAL So my modular setup changes. There are certain modules that I return to again and again, mainly those dealing with chance due to the fact that also, I guess I didn't say this before, but my practice in my process is an aleatoric one. So I may be presented with an idea or a situation that I may not have considered and that's also really exciting for me to be in the moment and understand that there's, oh I didn't consider that so let's explore that further. Due to the fact that I have this aleatoric process, I can find ways in which to engage in that space very naturally and it ultimately, the process is very, you know, we're not infallible as entities and I would apply that to any sort of artistic work, you know, there's this idea of chance or these sort of mistake-isms that happen within the process, I think are quite compelling really. So being that my practice is an aleatoric one, I can find these more natural spaces, especially when dealing with electronics or machines. You know, ultimately as human beings we're soft machines, we're just fleshy computers so there is, you know, there is that correlation you have between the human and the machine which I find quite interesting and quite real. So as far as the modules that I use within the system I always, one thing I will say is that I always use a very fixed size for a setup, I want to be able to use a modular synthesizer that is very portable, that I can move where I need to and not be lugging around a bunch of gear, so I always use a small portable briefcase essentially and then what goes into that depends on what I'm planning to do. So I treat every performance as a, you know, as being site specific and so there will be certain things that I will return to but maybe sound sources I will swap in and out, you know, I have more modules that will fit in the case and so currently I use a lot of, I'm doing a lot of spectral synthesis using spectral oscillators in which you can engage or access different partials within the waveform. I have over the years used sequencers and as time has gone on I have moved away from using proper step sequencers and have landed on using random voltages to make adjustments to frequency or pitch within because also the 12 note scale, the Western scale is not necessarily something that I adhere to and so I'm more interested in playing around in between those notes. So as far as scaling is concerned, it's down to using random stepped voltages and then attenuating those voltages so I can sort of rein in how high or how low they go and then just play around with those sorts of things. Also using shift registers for random or pseudo random movement, rhythmic movement within that setup. Yeah and I will say the one thing that I always use in every system are low pass gates. CC Right. RAAL I like the, the physical or tactile quality that you get from the sound of a low pass gate due to the fact that these circuits are vactral based which are, you know, these light sensitive op amps, so they have a different response. So it's not a hard response, it's a soft response in and out. So focusing currently on spectral synthesis, I've been using the Spectraphon by Make Noise, which is a dual spectral oscillator but also a processing module so it's able to, you're able to process external sounds through it and then address the odd and even partials within the sound wave which is super interesting and, it's a very rich world, the world of spectral synthesis and being able to engage with that has been really nice. CC And in terms of other kind of loyal companions of machines, are there any others you can think of that yeah, you never tire of? RAAL Yeah, I mean I always have low pass gates in my system, either the DXG which is a stereo dual low pass gate for make noiseor the Optomix, which is a dual mono low pass gate which has a dampening circuit in which you can do sort of ducking or side chaining with each of the channels, which is really nice. Yeah, it just makes for a very dynamic, very tactile, very physical sound. It actually sounds like an object being struck or a membrane being struck and so that's something that's always been really exciting for me, to be able to create the sort of illusion of that physical object has always been really nice for me and the dynamic nature of it is something that's really great. I also really like, there's a company called Omi Industries and they make a cascading shift register, digital shift register which creates eight cascading pseudo random gates, which also have three CV outputs with attenuverters attached to them so essentially they're outputting random voltages that you can scale the voltages positive or negative out of those. That's something that never leaves my case. Also I generally tend to use Pamela's New Workout or PRO Workout rather, from ALM Busy Circuits, which is a UK based modular synthesizer company which is really fantastic. Another one actually is, I use two granular samplers generally the Morphagene from Make Noise, which is a super clean, high fidelity, granular sampler and then the Arbhar from Instruo, which is a Scottish modular synthesizer company which really has, the design of that thing is really wonderful and can make for really interesting and robust sonic situations. I like to play with this idea of physical modelling or this idea of illusion where if you were to hear something without understanding how it was made, you wouldn't necessarily know what the instrumentation was or how it was made. I think that's something really fun to play with. That for me is exciting, being able to create a world of sound in which you can't quite put your finger on what it is that's been done and I'm always more than happy to explain how I create the work that I do or play with things in real time, but also it's the sort of thing where no matter what the gear is, it's down to the individual's creative process in their brain. So I've got my own way of doing things and will make informed decisions within that space and no one else is going to do that the way that I do it. And so I'm always very open about the things that I do and how I make them and I'm happy to walk through any patch that I make from start to finish because you know, I think that can potentially be interesting and it's still going to be my work, you know. CC I mean, you could say that about a lot of creative endeavors but for me, particularly using technology, it can be such a solitary process which opens you up to your own personal little labyrinth of signal chains and signal flow, but at the same time it can be really exciting to listen to how other people, or find out how other people do it and that can then feed into your own innovation, if you like. RAAL Yeah, absolutely. CC Can we delve more into your TV and film work because I know you've done quite a lot, haven't you. You've worked for TV and film and they must differ. Are there any projects in particular that, fairly recent that you would like to unpack a bit for us? RAAL Well there are few over the last few years. I've focused very intently on composing scores for film and television and it's something that's really exciting for me due to the fact that I grew up with this affinity for cinema and so I feel that the work that I make is suited for that space and it's exciting for me to engage in a different way than I have as an artist for many years, like it's a different way of thinking and it's a different way of engagement but it is also still collaboration and that's the thing that's important for me. I don't do these things, I don't think about these things in the in the way of a career or jobs, these are things that I'm compelled to do. Like I like to work and I love to make work and when I start to contextualize these things as in a space, as you know, one would a job, then it's not enticing for me anymore, it's not exciting. CC Don't use the J word. RAAL Exactly. It has to be a project that I have some sort of a vested interest in. It has to be a project in which I know going into it that I will be able to fully collaborate with the filmmaker, that's the most important thing for me because sound is such an integral part of cinema that it needs to get its space, you know, within the process. CC But also I guess for me personally, when I think it's done well, it's very much in service. It's in service, not just to sound itself, it's in service to the narrative of the film, it's in service to that vision for humanity, whatever it's about. But also it's that humility isn't it, that you're not being the bit that people are going to sing along to. It seems to me that your work is very much about supporting, but also makes me think of like, I don't know, short stories or something that way you don't quite get that resolution. RAAL No, I think that's pretty accurate, you know. For me I always feel that the best scores or the best sound within film are actually characters within that landscape and so that's something I try to achieve with every film composition job that I take on - job. It's also important for me to be involved in the process as early as I possibly can because I want to be able to have that communication very early on with the filmmaker. If I can come in onto a project before they start shooting the film, that's always the best. CC Have you managed to do that? RAAL On most films that I've done, documentaries are slightly different but most narrative features that's how I work. CC And can you think of any examples of how that's played out? RAAL So generally when I'm approached about a project, narrative fiction, they'll send me a script, I'll read the script and then after I read the script, then I will have a conversation with the filmmaker. It's interesting for me to be able to read the script, have my own interpretation of what the story is and sort of start to build that world in my own brain once I sit down and talk with the filmmaker and then take their temperature, understand where they are, what their vision is and then how I would be able to accentuate or enhance that vision. And once we arrive at a point where we understand that we want this to be a collaboration basically I'd take, you know, a week, about a week to figure out what the sound palette is for the film, think about instrumentation, think about what the core of the sonic world is and then I start to build ideas and give them compositional ideas as they are still either finishing the script, casting, location scouting. Before the film starts shooting, I like to have a sound in the director's ear because I think that that conversation where the sound has the potential to influence the visual, you know, has as much weight as the visual influencing the sound, which is something that you find generally because the composer is often the last person thought of in that space and the film is already done, it's already been constructed and then the composer is tasked with essentially tucking it into bed, which is not that interesting to me. CC Yeah I was just thinking that. It's almost like you're trying to then get yourself in the weave, whereas if you're there at the start, the sound is part of the tapestry, which surely then makes it more robustly woven. RAAL Right. CC So does that tend to be modular as in hardware, software kind of sketches or ideas that you'll get down basically? RAAL It's all hardware. I don't, I'm really not one built for software. I will use some plug-ins for EQing or compression, some effects, but the actual sound sources are all made with either acoustic instruments, the voice or hardware electronic pieces. I use a computer as an editing tool and I'll do arrangements of recordings where I'll, you know, I'll do a recording and then I'll listen back to it, I'll cut it up and then do arrangements. And I don't work on a grid which I think most people think is probably crazy. Even if I'm doing something that is a pattern you know, like something percussive, I might take a recording of a few hits and then place those manually within the recording so I can move things by, you know, milliseconds, so it actually sounds someone naturally playing it, iIt's not something that's fixed to a grid and I can put it as close to a grid as, you know, as I want but being able to have things move and swing, you know, so I'm literally cutting up individual hits and then moving them one by one, listening back to it. And I also move very slowly in that space. I think generally I'm a patient person and always have been so moving slowly and taking my time doesn't really bug me at all. It might bug others because they, you know, we do live in a culture of convenience where everything is hot and fast and now but I'm sort of the antithesis of that. Some of the more recent films, I've just completed work on a couple, two that it will, actually three, I've been working for the last 10 months on a film called The Man In My Basement, which is a new film by Nadia Latif, which is a Walter Mosley adaptation of one of his novels, the novel of the same name and that one is really exciting. That one, because I worked on it for so long, I was on location, I did a lot of field recordings on location as they were shooting and used those, not only as textural elements within the score but also had conceived of this idea of taking field recordings or recordings of actors and give them direction in ways of body movement or vocalisations, whether it was breathing, screaming, sniffing, walking up and down the stairs, shaking their bodies, all sorts of things. And I would take all of those recordings, process them through a granular sampler or, you know, do time stretching and like pitch up or down any of the sounds and then I would build instruments out of those field recordings and body movements or vocalisations. And so that was actually really exciting for me, to play with these and make these weird instruments out of, you know, someone simply walking up and down the stairs. And then two documentaries that I've just finished that will be premiering at Sundance Film Festival. One is called Life After, which is a documentary about right to die legislation, which is quite prescient, directed by Reid Davenport. And a film called Seeds by a filmmaker called Brittany Shyne, which is a documentary about a community of black farmers who are activists in rural Georgia. It's a lovely film, it's really beautiful. So those are the most recent things, but then I'm still supporting the film Union that I did. I collaborated with Brett Story and Stephen Maing on this documentary about the foundation of the Amazon Labour Union, which currently is shortlisted for the Academy Awards so we'll see in the coming days if that nomination happens but it's been, you know, ultimately it's a grassroots campaign for just getting the film out there because no distributor will pick it up because of the subject matter, because it deals with labour unions and one of the biggest companies in the world. So there's that film and then the film I was doing at the same time by the name of Power, which is a documentary about the history of modern policing by Yance Ford. CC Yeah and that one's available on Netflix. RAAL That one yeah, that one is available on Netflix. CC Yeah brilliant. Wow. Well thank-you very much for unpacking your adventures in sound and music so far and long may they continue. RAAL Oh, thank-you so much. CC Thank you for listening and be sure to check out the show notes for further information, as well as links and details of other episodes in the Electronic Music series. And just before you go, let me point you to soundonsound.com/podcasts so you can check out what's on our other channels. This has been a Caro C production for Sound On Sound.