Seeking to bolster collective ecological awareness, Latvian producer, composer and visionary figure Waterflower has been losing herself in nature, sampling field recordings and eclectic electronica in an effort to blend natural and technological elements together. The result is rather eloquent, expressed through the sonic and visual medium in ‘Something in the Shadow’ (Kaut kas tajā ēnā).
Exploring five key biotopes in her country’s landscape, the record delivers a rather interesting blend of leftfield textures and dub-flavoured beats, making for a perfect soundtrack to the compelling footage of the various biotopes. Almost laidback, yet nuanced and witty, ‘Something in the Shadow’ carries a truly meaningful ethos, further augmented by the academic collaboration with the University of Latvia’s Biology Department.
Intrigued by Waterflower’s artistic research, we caught up with her to find out more about the single and her overarching artistry… interview below!
Hi Waterflower, thanks for chatting with us! Your artistry is obviously pretty unique and abstract, something that we deeply value here at Mesmerized. You have recently released “Kaut Kas Tajā Ēnā (Something in the Shadow)”, a complex, multi-faceted piece with deep, meaningful roots. Curiously, it was born out of a collaboration with the University of Latvia’s Biology Department. How exactly did such collaboration unfold? was there perhaps a demo version of the track prior to all of that?
Actually, this project stemmed out of a long-term collab “behind the scenes” of Waterflower – I have been researching the unique biotopes in my country Latvia over the last few years. Many of these biotopes are EU-protected. What really got me hooked was going into specific biotopes to record music in them (music made with wild plants and mushrooms – by connecting my instruments), and also discovering how quickly biotopes can erode with man-made interference or invasive species.
For some places, I could see the beginnings of such happenings, with my own eyes. My ongoing personal biotopes project inspired my biologist friend, and she invited me to become part of their ongoing project, aimed at young people in Latvia, to inspire a connection to nature and biology. There was a demo track beforehand! The song had a totally different version during the video shooting period – it was in a different key, tempo and genre.
The instrumentation was the same (including percussion elements made with water and bird calls by the common eider and eurasian bittern). But after completing the video shoot, I felt the track needed more depth, so eventually, many months later, it got a revamp and was dubified.
From a sound design standpoint, how did you go about connecting sonic energy and its corresponding natural, earthy features? did you impose yourself any ‘rules’, or a particular workflow?
When I was invited to take part in the project with the Latvian University, it became clear the project would involve making a totally new track (to convey the message of nature clearly enough). When planning the track with the biologists, we agreed that I should mix acoustic (nature) sounds and digital synthesis.
That kind of production combo was typical in my early work, back in 2006-2009. As for rules… there were none! I was given full creative freedom. I went deep, deep into nature and my own roots to make the track. Which is probably why it took so long (almost five months) to finalise. A chance meeting with Traq1Dub came just at the right time, to involve his approach to my track, and get inspired to dubify. I liked that, because dub has very set sound characteristics, which imposed some creative rules on the free, nature-inspired electronica track (the early version of Something In The Shadow).
‘Something in the Shadow’ comes with a stunning piece of visual content, credited to director and animator Sabīne Moore (aka yourself, Waterflower). How do you balance visual and sonic arts, and was the video developed after the music, or vice versa? (or together)?
The song and video were planned out together, and within a few months, I had the first demo ready (the previous, electronica version), and planned out the video shooting locations with the Biologists to shoot video in the summer over three individual trips. I had so much fun going around the chosen locations, shooting whatever insect, bird, snake or plant that was pointed out to me. Afterwards, I picked all the frames I liked, and synchronised the ambience audio, recorded separately.
This totalled to one hour of “good” video footage. But when I started to build the track, I soon realised that my music lacked the kind of drive and atmosphere I was looking for, for this project. This bled into several months of sonic uncertainty… video was on pause, making the song project file very large, with layers and layers of muted ideas. Somewhere in the midst of that, I tried to re-structure it into dub (and it was my first-ever attempt at doing so). Eventually, but after a lot of shyness and technical difficulties (the file had become so plug-in-complex, it crashed upon opening), I offered the song to Traq1Dub, and we sorted through what was available, together.
We spent a couple of days jamming around on the track, and perhaps another month or so back and forth. Eventually, I could start editing the video, but that was no easy feat as well – how to reduce 1h of unique and biologically diverse nature footage to the length of one song? I shortened the track even more, and finally, everything came together. The last part was the animation – actually, I had to do that part on tour, with limited tools. I finished the video and mastered the track while travelling in Southeast Asia, sometime between being in Thailand, Cambodia, and reaching Singapore. Not to mention colour editing – I’m such a perfectionist – that took weeks already before. This project was massive for me to do! And I am so happy and grateful for the result.
You are obviously an expert producer, very creative and with a sense of purpose. How does music inform your creative choices? After years in the craft, what are your priorities, and what are you looking for when composing new music?
While my songs initially come out as sketches of ready ideas, I look for depth in music. It takes me ages to reach the kind of depth I am looking for. I like to build harmonies with multiple overlapping similar-sounding instruments.
Do you feel more confident writing music alone, or within a team?
This one is tricky.. while I love working in a team, I am actually very shy to include anyone in my initial process. Getting the idea down is a very private process for me, because at first I just improvise, and it’s only at the fourth or ninth sit-down with the material, that I am able to distance myself enough to process what I had been trying to say intuitively, to find the spark and to add depth and emphasis.
The first idea is a very, very private process. I even struggle to start on an idea, if I know anyone else is in the next room. I need to be totally and utterly alone to feel like my intuition is flowing without being influenced by others. A mirrorless moment. Once I’ve “done my homework”, I really love to bounce my creations with others, and let them run wild with whatever I have mustered to bring to the table.
Your work is the result of a long journey; how did you end up in this industry? Are there any influences (for example fellow artists) that have shaped your vision along the way?
I’ve been very lucky to grow up in a hugely supportive community, that recognised what I was doing was unique, early on. There have been ups and downs since, but I could never have maintained a music career without my friends and all the international connections I have made through active touring (for over a decade). My favourite artists are challengers, people who dance like jesters with the system, never totally yielding to (capitalist) control. I find that artists who become too career-focused start to bore me pretty quickly. But there are plenty of artists out there who are successful in being different (and at times, misunderstood) – Bjork, Aphex Twin, Xiu Xiu, to name a few.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
The last two years have been extreme: I’ve been touring almost non-stop, being on the road almost every month for at least a weekend or a week every month, but returning home to freelance. I’ve been away 60% of the time, and this contrast has added a real depth to my music production. I have so many tracks I can’t wait to show the world. Most of them are finished, or near finished. The only public presence of these tracks is at my live shows – I love testing my new tracks on different audiences, different rooms, different speakers and exploring how they resonate in new spaces. I want my music to have a universal language, but keep it just weird enough.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Oh.. I have things cooking…
