song: surface noise (aquarium)
scanner
by deceptikon
Robin Rimbaud AKA Scanner is known around the world for creating some of the most fascinating experimental soundscapes in recent history. Armed with a police scanner, he intercepts bits of conversation ranging from the commonplace to the downright bizarre, and blends them into incredible works of art. We caught up with Scanner via e-mail as he journied in a train across the UK countryside.
Name: Robin Rimbaud AKA scanner
Age: Timeless
Birthplace: London UK
Currently living in: Countless time zones across the globe.
How long have you been writing music?
Since I was 11 years old I have been playing around with tape recorders initially, then with guitars and reel to reel recorders until today when I use a lot more digital devices for their scale and ability to make such grand sounds from such modest resources.
Where did you first get the idea of using a police scanner?
I've always been interested in communication and how people interact with others. Discovering the actual Scanner device itself (which is a relatively simple but long range radio receiver) provided me with the chance to tune in directly to the language and lives of private individuals. Creatively I immediately saw the artistic potential of utilising these voices and collating them into various soundscapes.
What inspires you to write? It seems to me like you draw a lot of inspiration from visual as well as musical art.
Wish I could answer this. I am never short on inspiration though. I can continue in this manner without the need for any form of artifical stimulant - I don't drink tea, coffee and have never touched alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. I even cut sugar out of my diet completely now so perhaps this is the reason behind my constant energy then! :-)
What was the most interesting or strange conversation you've picked up?
Of course I want to say yours! But probably when a person, inevitably male, rings up a pre-recorded telephone sex line and listens in for a little bit of one handed listening. To hear the breaths, a totally unsexual tale being presented and then for the phone to go 'clunk' when the 'deed' is done is rather unsettling.
How did your collaboration with DJ Spooky come about?
Well for both it was an exchange of sounds as much as aesthetics. I have been good friends with DJ Spooky for a number of years and have collaborated live countless times. For this record we each responded blind at times to soundscapes that the other produced. A lot more material than can be heard on The Quick and the Dead has been produced which is likely to emerge on a subsequent release, possibly remixed. Rhythms were dissolved within textures, a melody scribbled across a back beat. It followed on in the nature of live collaborations we have established over the years.
The ability to exchange and share ideas is crucial and these collaborations allow me and the collaborator to work as both negatives and positives of each other, recognising spaces within the soundfields and ideas of the other. It teaches the respect of space but also the relevance of context and extension of ones ideas to the other.
Is there anyone who you would like to collaborate with in the future?
I am constantly surprised by the interest in my work so wouldn't be able to say - every time a new possibility arrives I am surprised by the potential. I can't answer this as there are just too many people to consider!
Who are some of your favourite musicians and artists?
Countless - I am a big fan of Bernd Friedmann/Non Place Urban Field, of Richie Hawtin/Plastikman, John Cage, Nick Drake, AC/DC, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Stockhausen, Low, Stevie Wonder, John Zorn, Jim O'Rourke...etc. etc TOO TOO many. I still love music so much.
In the film Better Living Through Circuitry, you explained how your live performances are mostly improvised. Do you find it is more difficult to approach it like this? Have you ever had a show where you had a lot of difficulty picking up transmissions?
I like the risk factor actually. I have never been nor intend to be a jukebox so one can't expect anything from me. I try my best in a live situation to make something magical happen. I remain positive that it will happen each time.
What equipment do you use in your live setup? Is it much different from your studio setup?
A series of small boxes that reveal a larger sound that their size might suggest. That includes a sampler, keyboard I play with a touch sensitive screen, two mini discs, a theremin, effects unit the size of a credit card and the occasional laptop that floats in textures and rhythms when necessary.
What are you working on right now?
Right now I just completed a UK project called Diary will brought the audience intimately into the immediate performance. By recording visually and aurally a form of 'tour diary' around each show, each evening captured the flotsam and jetsam of the local environment,trawling the hidden noise of the modern metropolis. Every show was entirely unique. Everyone became the uquitious fly on the wall, exploring the journey to the venue, setting up the show, the meals and negotiations, the backstage becoming the frontstage, bridging that vast divide between audience and performer and in so doing divesting the blare of celebrity.
I am also producing a collaborative work with the British School of Art in Rome Italy around the architecture of the city with a photographer Luisa Lambri who represented Italy in the Biennale in Florence last year.
I am working on a public arts project called Needle Cut in Washington DC. where I am making an alternative tour through the city working with members of the group Fugazi and the Go Go dance scene for 2001.
I am also Artist In Residence for the BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' flagship arts programme experimenting with the medium of broadcasting in a series of features. That has meant documentaries so far on jet lag, ventriloquism, height, Marcel Duchamp and housing in cities.
I am making a film for the Valencia Biennale in Spain to run from June to October and another public art project in Gotheburg Sweden for the same period.
You see, I don't rest at all! :-)
scanner website