Scanner alias Robin Rimbaud is an english electronic music composer and musician.
The artist is famous for having embezzled cell phones and police scanners for his live performances. He catches the voice of people talking arround , their conversations and builds his live from those strange and fleeting sounds.
The artist Web site:
scannerdot.com
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Magnetic room : You have a singular place in the contemporary electronic creation. I have the feeling this peculiarity comes from an original conception of the musical domain. Could you tell us how you deal with music?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud : An emotive response has always been important to me, and the desire to take risks and experiment and refuse to follow recognized models of production or composition. I want to create works that move people, strike them in the heart AND the mind, to resonate.
Magnetic room : You use a lot of samples from the classical repertoire, especially in your Messe, but also in your live mixes. You use them as material or texture. Classical Composers whose works you remix are they also references for you? Did sacred music and religious works influence you?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud : I remember when I was a student I used to listen to church music and the service on the BBC radio after university, not for any traditional religious inclinations or beliefs but for the power and spiritual quality of the sound. Choral voices, the richness quality of strings, classical instrumentation, the prayers read in this large reverberant space, created such a memorable experience to me. I remember listening to Faure’s Requiem as a teenager and finding something so spectacular in this work, and have followed a lot of composers in this line over the years.
Magnetic room : On your web site (http://www.scannerdot.com), you quote four CD’s, four books and films, you have listened to, read or seen, month after month. You work closely with the world of art and cinema (for instance the fifty two spaces done from pictures by Antonioni)… What kind of artist did influence you the most, in music of course but also in cinema, in art or in literature?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :It’s impossible to suggest a singular artist that may inspire me as I enjoy life in that I can discover and learn about so many other inspirations on a regular basis. I want to share my enthusiasm and experience with the world so anyone who visits my site can perhaps discover something fresh in reading through my suggestions. I adore cinema, especially since it’s not my art form so can take some kind of distance from it. I’ve been inspired by everyone from film directors, writers, poets, philosophers, composers, thinkers.
Magnetic room : Parallel to your “experimental” work and to your electronic research, you play the guitar in a pop band called Githead. Why did you take part in this project? What did motivate you?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :Well, the simplest answer - the sheer pleasure of engaging in a group experience. Colin Newman of Wire and Malka Spigel of Minimal Compact have been my friends for 17 years as of now and we are like family. Nothing was planned; it was really a chance encounter in their studio that led to my picking up the guitar, an instrument I’d played since I was a teenager, and sharing this with them. One makes different decisions in life, about well-being, finances, and so on and for my professional life contentment is essential so Githead is extremely pleasurable and engaging. Much of our time is spent laughing, talking and sharing our lives and experiences.
Magnetic room : In your Messe, in Ave 120 for example, you use religious songs samples. Some of them are quite long (more than five minutes). It is an original use of sample which is usually either a rhythmical element or a repetitive melodic figure often relatively short. Sometimes almost all of the melodic structure of a passage is made up of your quotations (Faure for instance). You are then free to focus on textures, atmosphere, profoundness and relief. You work on sounds, you add voices and noises, but you don’t always modify neither melody nor rhythm.
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :It’s hard to say. I approach each work with my own sound and compositional language. Repetition is a form that can work very well to introduce more complex ideas into a musical vocabulary, in that it offers the bricks and bones, forming the skeleton of the work. I focus on the key elements, the frames and then present other sound worlds around that.
Magnetic room : How do you generally proceed in order to compose? What do you start from (from an abstract idea, experimentations)?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I lead a fairly strict discipline, governed by the work schedule I follow, very active and international in nature. For projects I often do not have the luxury of free time so have to be very positive and disciplined in the composition and structure. Having said that I experiment in the studio to a fair degree, often beginning with abstract sounds or a pulse and seeing where that might lead me. Often the story is told and finished in a way I would never have anticipated.
Magnetic room : What are your tools to work?
Scanner :Like many artists today I use a laptop, various software tools, a keyboard and portable recording equipment. Given that I travel so much it’s essential that my life is mobile and very portable.
Magnetic room : They say you are hard-working. What is your way of working from day to day?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I don’t think I work hard enough though at any one time I’m working on around 12 different projects at least, from recording, production, curating, writing and so on. My schedule is intense. I wake up early always, around 07h00, work on emails, communications, attend meetings, work in the studio, travel to airports, visit exhibitions, until evening time, but I always stop to watch a film in the evening if possible on DVD, at the cinema or go out to experience live music or film. Weekends do not exist for me!
Magnetic room : A more prosaic and inquisitive question: how does an artist like you live? Can you entirely live on your music?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :A valuable question to ask and yes surprisingly I make a very fine living from my work. It’s helped by the fact that I don’t just one occupation for example, working with arts, music, writing, presentation, radio, criticism, etc. I also don’t spend money on alcohol, drugs or anything so can save my money!
Magnetic room : How do you manage concerning royalties’ composers you quote?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I have generally only quote composers who are deceased and their work is beyond copyright but in other cases I simply present the work as it is in the hope it’s not seen as exploiting their legacy. I’ve been sampled a number of times and haven’t had any issues with this kind of use.
Magnetic room : Internet has an important place in your work. You work on net art projects. (http://www.nighthaunts.org.uk for instance). How do you consider internet and how do you use it on a day-to-day basis?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I’ve been creating works long before the internet was born so have embraced it for it’s power to present ideas to a wider world at almost no cost. It’s exploded an idea of geography and the relationship between places, people and time. I enjoy the ability to frequently and freely exchange sounds, words, ideas and communications across the world, creating projects exclusively for this medium in the process.
Magnetic room : What connection do you have with France? Are they French artists you like particularly? Which ones?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I have French family origins so have a historical connection, but I’ve always been a great admirer of French cinema of course, as well as the contemporary art scene with figures such as Philippe Pareno, Loris Greaud and Xavier Veilhan. There’s such an inspiring connection with ideas and philosophy in France too. Much of my work is presented and experience in France too, especially with contemporary dance.
Magnetic room : How do you see the present electronic scene? Nowadays do you have the impression to belong to an artistic family?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :This ‘electronic scene’ has altered significantly since I began working with it in the early 1990s. It’s become more fractured and expanded across the globe, yet there is a sense of connection between some artists still I feel. Music is a language that can move through barriers and beyond cultural limitations so can be experienced almost everywhere so this family can be found all over!
Magnetic room : What do you remember about Stockhausen?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :I remember him listening to my music, responding very positively and then recommending that I need to be more like an apple on the moon for his advice. It’s always amused me. Then he posted me a box set of CDs which he signed for me in silver pen which was sweet.
Magnetic room : What are your immediate and future plans?
Scanner/Robin Rimbaud :Most immediately I need to finish writing and producing my new album for Bine Music in Germany, entitled ‘Rockets, Unto the Edges of Edges,’ continue production on my major show at the Royal Opera House in London on 13 September 2009 for a six hour performance entitled ‘Of Air and Ear,’ write a piece of music for Derby UK to be heard by 35,000 football fans in September, write a piece for the quartet Alter Ego for the Venice Biennial, finish up many projects, always endless deadlines. The DVD of Kirkou & Karaba, the musical I composed last year will be released in France in August 2009. I’m also developing a new work, ‘The Nature of Being,’ with Dutch artist Olga Mink (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmLWst0WP3c), which will be an extended performance piece to move the heart and the mind. So, yes, the usual absurd busy pattern.