An Interview with Kristian Kouvo of Enthronement
by Carly Zander

(Continued from Previous Page)

What inspires you to make your music today?

What gives me inspiration and motivation today to create music is life itself. All the different levels of emotions and dimensions in it. I like the idea of being a "vibrating string" which mirrors life musically; what I see and what I feel — I play it out. That could inspire something new, and again someone, somewhere will respond to my rendering of the life experience; the sound and music, and he/she could reply with his/her own way. The interpretations of life.

Based on your earlier comments, you seem to be of the new-school of using virtual instruments, instead of traditional keyboards, tape decks, and such. Why choose the virtual studio environment over traditional music gear?

I did my first experiments in terms of computer music with my Commodore-64. Later on I moved to Amiga and finally to PC. I always felt that effects machines, synthesizers and such are nice instruments, but personally I prefer to make everything with and within a computer.

I don't like the hassle with the MIDI-instruments and machines. Too much moving parts, too much to learn, too much to adjust. With a decent software-based studio you can make it all much faster and easier, and consentrate on the actual music — and hopefully all the energy and effort you've put in also can be heard. I don't need a lot hardware to feel I'm a "real electronic musician." I think the main points are that you feel "at home" with your gear and you like the sound coming out of the speakers. All other things are just a matter of taste.

You've just releasd a new disc, called Omnipotent Mainframe with Neotrope Records — talk about that a little: Why you made it, favorite track, the concept?

First of all, I must say "Omnipotent Mainframe" is a very dear release to me. It's my "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to the world. It is actually a collection my best works in the late years. Only 4 tracks were specifically made for this CD, knowing they will go on the release. The other 8 tracks were originally made for different reasons; either for myself, or for some occasional happenings in my original hometown, Karjaa.

A couple of these tracks ("Aurora Borealis" and "Solar Eclipse") were played in a Millennium-party in the town of Karjaa, once the time hit 00:00. Rockets were flying, lights were flashing and these tracks welcomed our town to the new century. A few tracks were made for an art-night happening where me and my brother played computers and synthesizers for the people in an open street. This art-night has every year a lot of performers, and people play and dance through the night. This also happened in my old hometown; Karjaa. Once I did a track for a performance, which included a group of yoga-gymnastics performing their yoga routine. The themes in this performance were consentrating on the values of nature and the harmony within us.

Much of my music has been inspired by movies; scifi, fantasy and such. Movies made by Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron, and Ridley Scott have had a strong impact on my work, giving me a certain state of mind when creating a song. I use a lot of imaginative scenes in my mind to make the actual sound and music. Then I try to explain the scene in my mind in the musical language. Like the painter paints the canvas and fills and constructs the picture, I fill the space and time with the elemnts of sound and rhythm.

The CD "Omnipotent Mainframe" is lot about our present state in our world and near future, even a distant future, with possible scenes of independent machine-evolution. This could be a utopia, perhaps even a dystopia, but not an impossible scene. Think of a world, where the human race has failed to uphold its life and cycle to continue as a lifeform in a polluted world, but machines continue and evolve themselves where we left off. They inherit our interest to find out all the knowledge and have all the science, curiosity, but none of our negative effects. This picture might not be very romantic, but is one of the possible future paths we have. The main track; "Omnipotent Mainframe" is about this scene, a huge self-aware mainframe building robots and machines to achieve only one goal: to find out all the secrets of the universe and ultimately becoming one with it.

Other themes of the CD are about hope in our world, like the songs "Zambia" and "Aurora Borealis." Humankind trying to solve its problems with energy, pollution and war. Maybe we one day find harmony again, and can create a stable living curve for the future and our children. The CD also has an epilogue track, "Song for Mya", which is about love really. It's also an experiment for me to make something, which is not just pure machinery [a smile]. This release is much about my thoughts and feelings and — without spoiling it too much explaining what it is — I prefer my audience to make their own judgements and feelings out of what they see and feel while listening to the music itself.

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