Drummer, percussionist, and artist Julian Sartorius forms sounds into previously unseen shapes. His precise and multi-layered rhythmical patterns are keen excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, bridging the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. Julian Sartorius has released numerous solo albums, creates audiovisual art works, collaborates with musicians, writers, and artists, and performs live in intimate venues and on festival stages.
We caught up with him ahead of his SHAPE+ residency at the upcoming Ephemera Festival in Warsaw.
What is your background, and how did you get into music?
I have no memory of that because I was very young when I started, and I don’t have any memories without drums. I was two years old and I already wanted to play drums. That’s what my mother said.
Did your parents lead you to it?
It could have been from the vinyl records we had at home. My mum also had pans on the lowest shelf of the cupboard, and I would take them out and drum on the floor. I also got a small drum from my grandparents in Basel. I used to walk around the table with my drum, drumming. I wanted to become a drummer, and I wanted to take lessons. When I was five years old, I got my first drumming lessons. I wanted to start earlier, but I was too small.
Why did drums in particular attract you?
I can’t say; it’s just instinct. I simply felt a huge attraction to the drums. Later also to guitar and synths.
The drum and drumming are also very physical…
Yeah. And the rhythm. I studied jazz drums, but I work in many different fields. It doesn’t make a difference if it’s improvised or jazz-related. I don’t belong to a specific scene or genre. I like it when everything just melts together. So, for example, I listen to a lot of electronic music and work with a lot of electronic music artists, but I generally only work with acoustic sounds.
Do you also post-process it digitally, or largely work with, let’s say, mechanical, hand-made sound?
I usually don’t post-process the sounds, as a lot of the sound-shaping happens in the process of recording, like mic positioning, materials, how I play it etc.. I sometimes then make collages, different layers, but I don’t change the sound of the material—it’s still acoustic. The post-processing is more arranging and assembling rather than changing the actual character of the sound. I might just mix it. For me, it’s really important to work with acoustic sound.
As a drummer, I guess practice is quite important. Do you practice every day?
I used to practice a lot, but now I’m so often on tour that there are not many possibilities to practice. But I can practice mentally. At the music university in Lucerne, I researched mental practicing—you basically practice the instruments in your head. I wanted to be able to travel and practice, but it’s not easy.
Can you talk about mental practising?
You just visualise that you are behind the instrument, and you do all the movements and you play, but without using the body—it’s all through the imagination. As far as I know, scientists have discovered that for the brain, it doesn’t matter whether you actually make the movement or just imagine it; it triggers the same response. So if you have a certain knowledge of the movements, you can practice mentally just by imagining them.
This is interesting because when you practice an instrument physically, your concentration can lapse sometimes and you might not be really focused. You still practice, but maybe not so efficiently. But when you mentally practice, there is no in-between; you are either focused or not. You have to be a hundred percent focused on it.
I wrote my master’s thesis on this topic. It’s often used in sports, of course, and it’s also frequently used in classical music. But in experimental music it’s not so common.
You are also doing a SHAPE+ residency at the upcoming Ephemera festival in Warsaw.
I’m playing with Marek Pospieszalski, with whom I’ve already played at Unsound, and a guitar player called Artur Rumiński. It’s going to be improvised. We rehearse a day before, just checking sounds, etc, and then we play.
Do you find it easy to just sort of play with anybody, even people you’ve never met before?
Yes—I love it. It’s really about listening, reacting, and experience. I’ve been performing improvised music since I was a teenager. I love to just meet people on stage, not to play too much beforehand because it’s such a special moment. I love the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen on stage.
Do you prefer the live situation, or do you also like working in studio settings?
I also work a lot in the studio. For example, as a session musician, I get invited to play on records, or people send me stuff, and I record on top of it. It’s often electronic musicians who send me stuff, because they’re looking for some acoustic elements that blend well with the electronics.
For my own productions, when I go to the studio, it’s also like improvising—I don’t write it down and then record it; I just do it in the moment.
You also work with objects, prepared instruments, etc.
I also do sound walks with an audience. I have a headphone system, and people follow me. There, it’s all about the unexpected—I don’t rehearse the route I take. I love those kinds of surprises.
There’s also a certain level of risk involved because you never know how it will pan out.
I don’t feel like it’s a real risk. If it doesn’t go well, it’s not like anyone will die or anything.
We often forget that. It’s not a life-or-death thing, this whole scene. People take it too seriously sometimes.
I feel I can take the risk—I won’t die, and the audience won’t die either. You can’t do it as a surgeon, but as a musician on stage, it doesn’t matter; you can take all the risks.
I love it when musicians take risks on stage. When it’s routine and everything is pre-produced and guaranteed to work one hundred percent, I lose interest. I love the energy of things possibly going wrong.
It’s also great when you’re touring, and every evening can be unique and totally different.
What are your plans for the next few months?
I‘m still touring a lot with different people, mostly in Europe, but also in Asia. I’ll also try to work on a solo record while on tour because I don’t have so much time in the studio.
How do you navigate your life on the road and at home? Is it difficult to get used to switching between the two?
That’s a really difficult question. Sometimes, it feels easier to just stay on the road rather than go home in between. It can be hard sometimes to go home for a short time and then immediately leave again.
Do you ever get tired from all the traveling, or does it give you energy?
It depends a lot on the travel. If it’s a nice train ride or the drives aren’t so long, then I don’t get so tired of course. But sometimes we play late, and then we have early flights, and that’s super tiring. I try to avoid flying as much as possible, so I try to take trains whenever I can.
Interview Lucia Udvardyova
Photo Mehdi Benkler