SIMPLY IN THEIR WORDS (Installment Siete)
Interview conducted by Tom Sękowski
This is the seventh of a regular series of "simply in their words" - series interviews with some of the musicians from the improvised, jazz and new music genres that are making a real mark on the landscape. I don't want to add any additional text to these musicians' responses, as my words would only clutter what it is they're trying to convey to the readers.
I've been following the recorded output of percussionist Lucas Niggli since his contributions to Sainkho Namchylak's record Letters (Leo Records) back in 1993. Since that time, I have always somehow mysteriously "found" his recordings, whether it was his work with Roots of Communication to his output with various other Swiss outfits: Kieloor Entartet or Steamboat Switzerland. His playing is rather unpredictable and through the numerous mutations and formations, he always stays true to himself. This interview was conducted at the end of January of 2004.
Tom Sękowski: What turns your head when you listen to a percussionist?
Lucas Niggli: The colours he uses and the phrasing of his rhythm language, as well as the flexibility in taking positions in the music, also called interplay.
TS: What turned you on to the drum set in your childhood?
LN: Maybe my first years in Cameroon. Maybe my nervous standby energy? But it was more by an accident of drums standing in our cellar, (a family friend who had no space in his apartment) and that was the initial destiny.
TS: Is there one particular project or band that you're most proud of?
LN: It has to be my working band ZOOM which became a pool of musicians (Nils Wogram, Philipp Schaufelberger, Peter Herbert and recently also the Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich) with whom I can play my compositions. We're touring all of Europe, and it has become a real family. Steamboat Switzerland is the other working-band where I think we are discovering new territories in music.
TS: How did your band ZOOM come about? What do you have planned for the near future for ZOOM?
LN: As a sideman of the "anything-goes-generation" in music, I needed to have my own band, to work consequently on my own language, as a drummer and composer. I had so many diverse projects going on, from my avant-core band Steamboat Switzerland to the acoustic, more world-music inspired band, Singing Drums from my early mentor Pierre Favre. I started with the bass-less formula of trombone-guitar-drums, which was a very light and virtuoso band. Now in the quintet, with bass and clarinet, I work much more on the composed sections.
TS: What is it about Sylvie Courvoisier's piano mastery that invited you to work with her [especially on the gorgeous recording Lavin (Intakt)]?
LN: I have a little series of duos with pianists, which I think is a beautiful combination, complete orchestration!! I played with many Swiss-based pianists like Irene Schweizer, Peter Waters, Jacques Demierre. Sylvie and me, we know each other for a very long time before we started our international careers. We played so many times in little clubs in Switzerland. Both of us like to use the instrument as a sound generator, many different techniques of producing colours.
TS: Can you please tell us a little bit more about Roots of Communication origin, its' purpose? Does the trio still exist to this day?
LN: The band existed about 4 years, and we worked with the very archaic combination of drums and horns (alphorns), which where used in old cultures as long distance communication tools (almost like the first cell phones). So the music was kept very simple, and had a unique energy. We ended up more and more as a Swiss-cliché-representation band, and that was the moment for me to leave the band.
TS: How did you develop a relationship with another percussionist, Pierre Favre? The reason I ask this question is that it's quite unusual for one percussionist to develop such a close relationship with another one.
LN: Pierre was a very important teacher of mine, and as we worked so intensively for the past 15 years, he became one of my best friends. As he could be my father, we never had any ego-problems. We had never concurrence feelings. We just concentrated on playing, thinking and talking about the music. We had so many equal feelings, and our sense of time and phrasing became so close that we could move and play like a very flexible chamber-ensemble played during 7 years in all his bands, starting from a duo, to the quartet Singing Drums up to his European Chamber Ensemble. It was also Pierre who encouraged me to have my own band, and to compose. He is a wonderful person, and one of the biggest influences for me, without ever having the feeling of have copied him.
TS: Steamboat Switzerland is a very unusual outing for you in that it has an extreme amount of ferocity. Can you please tell us a little bit more about this trio? What is in the works in the future for the trio?
LN: There is nearly no new-music and avant-garde literature for drum kit. It is an instrument which became very developed in jazz and rock music, but not in the classical composed new music. However, for me, as a musician influenced a lot by the European composed music of the 20th century, I wanted to play such music on my instrument. That was one starting point of this high-energy-trio. The other one was to play composed abstract music with the energy of rock music. We call it avant-core. The band has a module concept. Many compositions from metal-guitarist Stephan Wittwer, to piano studies from Ruth Crawford up to the Suite "ac/db" from the English composer Sam Hayden (which we commissioned) are mixed up with radical free improvisations, wall of sounds. We just recorded our forth CD, a record where we interpret the large composition by Swiss drummer and composer Michael Werthmüller, coming out in autumn on the GROB record label. Then we'll do another piece by the American composer David Dramm (living in Amsterdam) for the Dutch new-music collective Orkest de Volharding and Steamboat Switzerland.
TS: What is the most crucial thing that managing Unit Records for a number of years in the 90's taught you about music and the music industry?
LN: I learned many important and positive things during that period. The most crucial thing is to see that the quality of music and the numbers of sold copies don't have any relation. There is so much beautiful music around, absolutely unique and wonderfully produced, but nobody knows about it, so nobody buys it. Marketing became too important. And Unit Records, the Musicians Own Label, nearly doesn't exist anymore because of a three-year mismanagement. It has lost its' international reputation.
TS: Are there any lesser known percussionists that you're listening to now?
LN: Oh, there are many names around but I must say, I don't especially listen to percussionist.
TS: Who was your biggest musical influence when you chose to take up percussion? Does this influence still have a hold on you to this day?
LN: Oh, that list is funny. There were drummers like Ringo Starr, Billy Cobham, Fredy Studer, Pierre Favre- not bad development between ages of 9 to 14 years!
TS: What's your biggest regret in terms of a recording or a group that you had involved yourself in?
LN: There are no such regrets. I always left bands before I had to regret something. But of course, there are some CDs with which I'm not 100% happy with certain compositions or solos, or the playing in general. But I'm not really the person who looks behind.
TS: Why should we see Lucas Niggli play live when he comes to our town?
LN: Live concerts are never comparable to listening to a CD, and I would say that our audience is always hit by our presence on stage. The relaxed virtuosity and the playing with risks. Well, come out and see and hear us.
TS: Who would you like to work with who up to now has eluded you?
LN: There are of course some big names. I would never say no if they call me up for a gig or a project. That's what you're asking for, a list of musicians? But I'm more interested in working bands with musicians I really have good vibes with. They don't have to live next door. I'm very happy now to work in a new band with bassist Barry Guy and the Swiss pianist Jacques Demierre.
TS: What has working with vocalists such as Sainkho Namchylak, Anna Grichting or Franziska Baumann taught you?
LN: Strong characters. They all know what they want. Singers don't take the role of a side-woman like drummers do. Of course, Sainkho was the biggest adventure to work with. She also comes from another culture. We needed some time before we came together. There are two more singers I worked with that I wanted to list: Erika Stucky and Susanne Abbühl. All of these singers have an incredible presence on stage. No instruments between them. Just the voice, and that can be very hard.
TS: Why do you think you're one of the few Swiss artists that Intakt has taken a serious interest in? (almost half a dozen recordings in about five years).
LN: That's a question you should ask Patrik Landolt, the manager of Intakt Records.
TS: What upcoming recordings do you have planned for the year ahead?
LN: I've just finished the new CD which features my Band ZOOM together with Phil Minton and the Ensemble Neue Musik Zürich, and 11-piece band. We recorded my composition SWEAT, a Suite in 7 Movements, and it's coming out on Intakt Records. We just also finished a new CD with Steamboat Switzerland, coming out on GROB Records. Concerning the future plans of recordings, there are some dreams around, but not yet ripe to be communicated.
For all things Lucas Niggli, visit www.lucasniggli.ch.
Recommended Lucas Niggli recordings:
Sainkho Namchylak - Letter (Leo Records, 1993)
Kieloor Entartet - The Red Light Fugue (Unit Records, 1995)
Various Artists - The Field Recordings 3 - The Thunderclaps CD - Live at the Den Haag Korzo Theatre (X-OR Records, 1996)
Roots of Communication - Pro Helvetia (Unit Records, 1996)
Katrin Scholl / Daniel Erismann / Hans Koch / Fred Frith / Peter Kowald / Lucas Niggli NIL (Unit Records, 1996)
Michel Wintsch & Road Movie featuring Gerry Hemingway (Between The Lines, 1998)
Steamboat Switzerland - Live (Unit Records, 1998)
Lucas Niggli & Sylvie Courvoisier - Lavin (Intakt Records, 1999)
Anna Grichting / Jean-Jacques Pendretti / Martin Schütz / Lucas Niggli - Border Meetings (Altri Suoni, 2000)
Lucas Niggli ZOOM - Rough Ride (Intakt Records, 2003)
Lucas Niggli Big ZOOM - Big Ball (Intakt Records, 2003)
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