Eli Keszler: "Space and architecture is the foundation for everything to me"
- Aurora Mitchell
- Oct 25, 2016
- 5 min read
Over the course of 10 years, visual artist, composer and innovative percussionist Eli Keszler has been producing sound art and stretching the possibilities of recorded sound through live installations and released output through labels such as PAN and R.E.L Records. He’s preparing to release his latest album next month through brand new label Empty Editions – which is the label offshoot of Hong Kong’s esteemed Empty Gallery. It’s titled Last Signs of Speed and it’s a very gentle dub-inspired offering, characterised by stomach-dipping sub bass and Keszler’s idiosyncratic frantic drumming.
His work with drums has been a particular source of fascination for a lot of his listeners, including Ben UFO. Using percussion to create sound art, in 2012 he performed with an L-Carrier installation at Brooklyn based art and technology centre Eyebeam. The echo that filters softly throughout the room refracts each drum hit and allows its sound to breathe even when Keszler has moved onto a new part of the piece. He’ll be bringing his percussive talents to The Yard this Thursday as he performs new installation Planning Permission, alongside Paul McGuire. Before then, he’ll be playing records in the Rye Wax basement. We caught up with him to find out more about the process behind his current projects.
I really enjoy the contrast between jazz and dub on your recent Truants mix – where do you generally look to find these records? I’m not familiar with any of the tracks; it’s always refreshing when a mix brings you to completely new music.
I am really immersed in jazz and Jamaican music in general, and have been since I was a kid. I'm always looking out for gems, tracks that break molds or point to some sort of new space. I only share music that I find endlessly deep and go back to over and over again myself. Many of these tracks I've returned again and again since I first found them years ago.
What were your first interactions with both jazz and dub music?
I remember my dad playing me John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, as well as my uncle taking me to concerts from a young age. I was taken by it immediately, and knew that there was so much in this music. Dub came though my uncle sharing records with me and being floored by what I heard.
Your drumming is so remarkable; I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Do you feel that people are able get a better sense of you and your music by seeing you perform in person than when they’re listening to your records?
I think that there is a live read of what I do and on recording it has to be something different. The mediums function differently and the spaces that a recording creates is drastically different then being in front of a performer as an audience member. I don't see one as better then the other I just see them as different ways to communicate.
Last Signs of Speed is wonderful. I like how gentle the sounds are; the drumming is often like the fast patter of tip toes, there’s also this real sense of tension throughout the record. When you came to record the album, were you hoping to evoke a particular mood or atmosphere?
Yes absolutely - I always am trying to create a specific atmosphere, and I see 'mood', as vague as that term may be as being essential to conveying ideas. I want people to get lost in the music and feel something strong and present, all the conflicting energy and rhythm and gentleness and speed you mentioned interact to create a complexity that create it's own type of world and logic, and hopefully reflect on some version of sounds logic in our environments.
It’s interesting because your drumming rumbles so frantically and yet it doesn’t make your music feel cluttered. How do you go about arranging different instruments in your compositions?
Very carefully. I want the music to breathe, I want space around everything. Even though there are busy aspects, I want things to feel sparse and soft even if they are loud and jagged. The idea always being to have materials behave in ways that play with our understanding of them. We live in a moment of incredible displays of alchemy, with technology performing what are essentially miracles before us. I want music to feel this way, and I want to make it happen with the most basic materials – wood, metal, strings and drums.
The artwork for Last Signs of Speed is really intriguing. What is it depicting?
My visual projects and music work together and often in congruence. An ongoing interest for me is the idea of the build up of marks. The breaking point where dots turn into a form and stop being dots for instance. The idea of rhythm turning into pitch is a musical concept that continues to draw me in. I'm drawn towards depicting elapsed time through drawing and that's what this piece is really about. I think of this in relation to the many complicated non-linear ways in which we take information in, and are able to form new ways of experiencing through this today. The cover itself is an Intaglio print using a specially formed ink which will produce variables colors as it ages, reflecting this idea in another form.
You’re going to be playing with Rashad Becker in Europe very soon, he’s also an artist that is very fascinated with space. I find that the spaces in between recorded instruments in compositions can sometimes make for the most revelatory moments. What do you view as space’s function within your music?
Rashad and I have a very similar aesthetic and relation to music in our lives It's one part of a larger idea that I think we both share as artists and friends. Space and architecture is the foundation for everything to me. I am fascinated by the way sound can define social spaces whether in a club or at home, and music is a social space. Last Signs of Speed in many ways is an environmental record. Even though it is performed I see it bouncing off of rooms and out of headphones. Though it is defined as music, I see the music as a surface or tool to define architecture and space.
When you DJ at Rye Wax on Wednesday, will you be working with a similar vibe or do you plan to take us into a different headspace?
I'll run a wide range as I'm into a lot of different music but ultimately I'll be following the room to see what is happening and just try and keep with it.
You’re performing Planning Permission, your new installation, at The Yard the next day. Could you talk me through how ddmmyy commissioned you and what went into planning the performance?
Jack from ddmmyy contacted me a few years ago and expressed interest in wanting to put on a concert here, and after some time and organization it's finally happening. We have been working for months up to this to make this piece something very special and specific.
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Tickets to see Eli Keszler & Paul McGuire perform brand new work at the Yard, Hackney Wick can be found here:
- ( a pre-concert interview with Eli at 6pm before the Friday show)
Aurora & Eli will be playing DJ sets in-store at Rye Wax, Wednesday 26th - Free entry from 7pm.
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