OnClassical, July 2009 (Italy)
Kevin Kastning: A New Classical Language
"Kevin Kastning is the new artist at onclassical.com:
guitarist, composer and instruments inventor, he is obtaining
large consensus in America for his innovative music and
recordings. His four last publications (2006-2009) have been recently included
in our catalog: these albums are artistically relevant, curious, and impeccable
at a sound level. The art of Kevin Kastning and of musicians Szabó and
Siegfried, who flanked him, is innovative, courageous, hypnotic. We directly
speak with the artist in a long interview that Alessandro Simonetto, founder of
OnClassical, prepared for the OC blog."
A.S. Your music is a sort of improvisation that becomes composition in
the act of performing it. We know this is a very original style of composition
and performance at the same time. What are the influences of your artistic
language? How do your thoughts and your own musical artistic processes impact
these compositions?
K.K. Wow, that is a good question. I don’t know if I could list all my
artistic influences, as I am sure there are some which are there, but
unconscious and unknown to me. A few composers that come to mind are Bartok,
Elliott Carter, Gesualdo, Tallis, Beethoven’s middle and late period string
quartets, Ockeghem, the second Viennese school, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Bach,
Byrd, Josquin, Praetorius, and even going back as far as Machaut. Bartok’s
string quartets had a deep and tremendously profound impact on me; both
artistically and even spiritually. I also suspect that I have been impacted by
artists from the French post-impressionist and the abstract expressionist
periods; as well as authors such as Joyce, Proust, and Eliot. Sometimes I think
I have a tendency to translate the visual into the audible.
OnClassical featured Artist: Kevin Kastning.
K.K. I find that when I’m involved in observing and really taking in a
painting, that I will start to hear things; I look at a Jackson Pollock work and
I can hear a lot of sound in that. Architecture can be an influence as well; I
am a fan of Frank Gehry, and can hear sound when I look at some of his designs.
I have thought of how the architectural concept behind flying buttresses of the
Gothic period can translate into compositional form, or become a structural
element of a piece. I also find that I am pretty heavily influenced by nature:
landscapes; the seeming randomness of things like leaf veining and bird song and
avian sounds. Lately I see things like cloud formations, forest growth patterns,
river meanders, and certainly snow and snow patterns and wonder how I could
translate that directly to score paper. I think that an artist’s varied
influences and impacting exposures become internally aggregated and sort of
transmogrify into a new and unique amalgam; this becomes that artist’s voice.
A.S. The collaboration with other musicians such as Siegfried and Sandór
Szabó: how do you discover to have the same "frequencies" / feeling for working
at the same project?
K.K. As for the works with Siegfried, he and I began working together in
the early 1990s; our album “Binary Forms” was recorded in 1992. In this case,
Siegfried knew we were operating on the same artistic frequency. I didn’t; he
brought it to my attention and asked if we could record together. At first I
said no, but I’m glad he pressed me to do it, otherwise it never would have
happened. He was right, by the way.
Kevin Kastning and Sandór Szabó at the Traumwald Studio.
I’ll use Sandór as a more detailed example; I hope he won’t mind! I met him a
few years ago; before we met, I knew who he was, and he had found my music and
researched it a bit prior to initially contacting me. We conversed quite a lot
and listened to each other’s music. I had a strong sense, both conscious and
subconscious, that he and I would artistically fit together like two puzzle
pieces. And we did, in fact, on not only an artistic level, but also on a
spiritual and deeply inner level, which of course translated to and became
evident in the works we jointly create. We just knew that we were operating on,
to use your rather accurate term, the same frequency. Sandór stated the same
thing to me, but an interesting difference is that he knew it long before I did!
It’s tough to verbalize or explain; it is as if we’d known each other
artistically long before we actually met. In fact, I’ve never met anyone with
whom I have so much in common artistically. The work he and I do together is the
most natural process in which I’ve ever been involved. I know he and I will be
working together for a very long time.
I’ve been asked by other artists to collaborate or record with them, but it’s
really rare that I feel an artistic connection or affinity. There are a couple
of other artists with whom I’m either working or with whom I’m going to be
recording, though.
A.S. The guitars you, Kevin and the other musicians, play: how do you
choose them? Do you personally build them? How and why?
K.K.
As for the instruments I play, I initially select them based on
their voice and tonal response. I will select a specific instrument for a
certain composition or recording based on the requirements of that composition.
For several years, I have been internally hearing (and still do) compositions
which involved ranges and registers of instruments, specifically of the guitar
family, which were not extant. I’m fortunate to be an artist endorser for Santa
Cruz Guitars; we have a wonderful working relationship. After we’d established
that relationship, I approached them with some instrument design ideas I had
which extended the range of the guitar, and asked if they were interested in
building them for me. To my surprise, they were not only agreeable, but very
excited to do this. The first instrument I designed, and by designed I mean the
register and range and tunings, was the DKK, which is an extended baritone
guitar; it is tuned to F#, which is one whole step above a bass, and a seventh
lower than guitar. For this extended range to be possible, a much longer scale
length is required; this in turn requires a very different playing technique. I
used the DKK in the studio on an upcoming album with Sandor wherein I had it in
bass (E) tuning, and it sounded amazing; just really full and rich. With a
lower-pitched instrument, far more string harmonics are available. When using
the extended baritones, many of my chord voicings and harmonic structures
involve artificial string harmonics; this just is not possible on a standard
concert-pitch guitar. From the DKK came the DKK-12, which is a 12-string version
of it, also in F# tuning.
Photo: The DKK-12 extended baritone Guitar.
I have devised many of my own intervallic tunings for the DKK-12, and I first
used these on the album Parallel Crossings. On that album, for some pieces I
used concert F# tuning and on others I used my intervallic tunings. To briefly
explain: in F# concert tuning on the DKK-12, the string pairs are all in
octaves; for example, the first course is F# / f#. In intervallic tunings, the
first course might be F# / A. In other words, each course is tuned to a
different non-octavic interval. In fact, all my work on Parabola was recorded
using entirely my own intervallic tunings; I didn’t use any concert tunings
whatsoever on the entire record. The intervallic tunings also provide entirely
other sets of artificial harmonics; as well as the possibility of 12-note chord
voicings.
The newest KK / Santa Cruz instrument is the Alto Guitar. This is a
small-bodied, short-scale length 12-string which is pitched a P4 (perfect
fourth) above standard guitar concert tuning; concert tuning is E; the alto is
in A. It’s a very unusual guitar voice; it sounds like an amalgam of harpsichord
and mandolin. I will touring Europe with Sandor this year, and will be taking
the alto on the tour with me. So to answer your question: I don’t build them,
but I did design them.
A.S. Yes, that was my intention...
K.K. And they were built to fill an artistic need: that need being the
compositions for instruments which didn’t exist. Now they do exist.
Interestingly enough, Sandor has a 12-string baritone which was built using the
DKK-12 specifications; once he heard mine, he had to have one! He uses this
instrument rather virtuosically on Resonance and Parallel Crossings. We have an
album in the can which will be released in 2010 wherein we are both using
different intervallic tunings on 12-string baritones. The harmonic densities and
soundscapes are just huge! There is another new instrument on which I’m working
with a wonderful and gifted luthier here in the US named Dan Roberts; it will
have a wider range even than the DKK-12.
Again, this instrument is conceived out
of a need for an even wider ranging instrument for new compositions and their
required tunings on which I’m working. The intervallic tunings are born out of a
similar process: I have these pieces, or I’m hearing compositions involving
harmonic structures that I can’t achieve. Unless I re-invent something; first
the instrument, and then that instrument’s tuning scenarios.
A.S. When I was teen I improvised at the piano with closed eyes, looking
for the best sound for my invention: I defined the music that came out: blind
music. Do you think we could define your own language in the same way?
K.K. Hmmm… I don’t know, but that’s another good question. I come from a
discipline of composing; I’ve composed over 200 pieces; various string quartets,
piano sonatas, trios; mostly chamber works. So even though I’m improvising with
Sandor, for example, those improvisations are coming from a place of formal
composition. Form is always a consideration, even where there is what might be
perceived as a lack of form. I did an album in 2004 with Siegfried entitled
Bichromial, and on that album, we focused on a concept I defined as open form
compositions: these were improvised pieces with no repeating sections or motifs.
The form was not cyclic in any way, but purely linear. So even in the absence of
form, there is form. At least in my mind.
Photo: The KK-Alto guitar in progress.
A.S. What are the technical equipment used to record (I mean microphones,
preamps, and more ...). What is your attitude/mood before and during the
recording session?
K.K. I am very, very finicky about, and demanding of, recording
equipment. The albums have been recorded using microphones by the German
companies Gefell and Neumann into Millennia preamps. The Millennias are the
cleanest and purest preamps I’ve ever used. The Gefell mics are so incredibly
detailed that I think they can almost hear your thoughts! Lately I’ve been using
some microphones from Peluso; I really like those very much and am excited about
them. I have them in the studio, and am already at work on the next couple of
albums, and the Peluso mics are being used on those, as well as the Gefells. The
Peluso mics are really wonderful. They render the image in such a manner that
they provide a wider soundscape, which is difficult to do and something for
which I’ve been searching. My recording chain is very pure and direct:
microphone to preamp to recorder. In both the recording and the mixing process,
no EQ, compression, or limiting is ever used. The only outboard gear used in the
mixing and mastering process other than the mixing desk and mastering recorder
is the Bricasti M7 reverb unit. This is like having Boston Symphony Hall right
in the studio; it’s inexplicably beautiful and pure. Every album from
Resonance on has been mixed
with the M7; in fact, Resonance
was the first album ever mixed with the M7. I’ve been really fortunate to work
with companies like Bricasti and Peluso, too. For the past year or so, I've been
using the Enhanced Audio M600 microphone mounting system. It really adds a
measure of clarity, depth, and detail. In fact, Parabola was recorded using
the M600 on the mics.
Photo: Kevin Kastning during a recording session.
As for the mood before and during the recording sessions, I suppose I would say
it’s relaxed and natural. Sandor and I have recorded four complete albums
together, and parts of two more. The feeling in the studio is highly energized;
yet very placid and calm. I think he and I both have about the exact same
artistic temperament and approach; no stress, no nervousness; we just allow the
music to speak through us. I know that may sound a little odd, but I don’t how
to explain it other than that. For me, the recording process is very natural.
It’s a part of the creative process which tends to be more concrete than others.
Strangely enough, as much as I find this process to be a natural one, after a
day in the recording studio, I am just so wiped out that I can barely speak. The
albums I’ve done with Sandor were each recorded in just one day; while that’s a
pretty fast recording pace, it can leave you rather drained at the end of that
long day!
A.S. The musical language from
Scalar Fields to the new album,
Parabola,
through (via) Resonance and
Parallel Crossings, is constantly evolving. Do you
think to bring this moving language versus forms of electronic or maybe
microtonal music, for example, using the computer to modulate the sounds during
the performance or tuning the guitars with strange temperaments?
K.K. I’ve never been very interested in electronic music, though I have
listened to it; I find much of John Cage’s work interesting. Real acoustic
instruments speak to me very directly and entirely spiritually; I think we will
never fully explore their capabilities. Microtonal music I do find interesting;
for example, Ezra Sims and the quarter-tone work of Charles Ives especially. The
various tunings I’ve created are like extra paint colors on an artist’s palette;
they’re not a an end unto themselves, but a means to an end. I think my (for
lack of a better term) research into scordatura has been one catalyst for growth
and forward momentum, though not the only one. Since you mentioned the three
released albums I’ve done with Sandor, I’ll answer based on those. I’m not
interested in repeating something I’ve already done; each new composition or new
album will always be different from what preceded it. Not as a prerequisite
exactly, but as far as I can tell, this is just part of my artistic process. At
any given moment, I’m working on two or three new albums in the studio, and
usually around 10 or so new non-guitar compositions; pieces for string quartet,
for example. There is a new album with Siegfried which is complete; it will be
released later this year or early next year. It’s very different than anything
we’ve done; yet it’s still us, and in my opinion, it’s the finest and most
evolved work he and I have done together. And I’m working on a solo album using
my various guitar voices; specifically the DKK-12 and the alto together, and
also an album of medieval works. With so many new pieces to complete, and so
many new ones beginning all the time as others finish, there’s just no time to
repeat something I’ve already done. So I think that what you’re describing as
hearing the music constantly evolving is maybe just a part of this
forward-moving process or momentum. I know Sandor feels the same. I think this
is not something unique to he and I; I suspect this is a normal developmental
element of a healthy artistic trajectory.
Van Gogh once said something to the effect that “a true artist is one who is
always seeking, but never finding.” I think the evolvement you’re hearing in my
music is just part of an organic process. And by the way, thank you for saying
so.
A.S. To be part of our artists (and albums) at OnClassical is not very
easy. We received each month tens of musicians that send their material to our
office but very few products have been considered good for our purpose. Your
albums are instead a summary of innovative music and well-captured sound. Why
did you choose OnClassical? What do you think about the project we are working
on?
K.K. OnClassical came along at a time wherein I was thinking about what
they were doing, before I even heard of them. I wondered why recording
technology was moving forward, but content delivery was moving backward vis a
vis the low-res mp3 download trends. It would be like having a high-definition
DVD player, and connecting it to a 1950s black-and-white TV. It didn’t make
sense to me. I wondered why no one was offering high-resolution downloads; with the
advent of broadband connections, the low-res and terribly compressed mp3 format
was no longer valid. I had thought of posting high-res versions of the albums
and making them available for download, but before I could implement it, and I
doubt that I could have done this very effectively, as it’s not an insignificant
move, I was contacted by OnClassical, and was invited to sign with them. At first I
wasn’t interested in signing with more download sites, but when I saw what they
were doing, I was pretty excited about it. Finally someone was making it
possible to download high-res files, and a classical online label at that. The
genre which could benefit most from high-res recordings more so than any other
genre; it was finally happening. I hope to provide OnClassical with the 24-bit
masters of some upcoming releases, too. I think it’s a great concept, and I like
how OnClassical is executing it, otherwise I would never have signed with them.
I’m really proud to be a part of OnClassical.