Concerning Time and 'Pure Duration': Part 1...
Music Journalist Vidion Smythe talks to Patrik Gryst on the release of his debut solo album ‘Pure Duration’ about Philosophy, Electronic Music and the Nature of Existence.…and of course the lockdown.
Normally interviews with creatives types are conducted in a variety interesting and related locations - but we are in the middle of the parallel-universe where we are dealing with a pandemic and a lockdown and we communicate with everyone via video call.
Gryst’s debut solo album ‘Pure Duration’ is both reminiscent of that ‘normal’ we are all so desperate to return to, yet yearns for a place much further back in time, with elements of hauntology and psychogeography, no more evident in tracks such ‘The Lost Summer of 1984’ and ‘October Ghost.’
Having listened to the album the day before, and without a large bookcase groaning with weighty tomes in sight, I was keen to grill Gryst about the themes explored by his mournful yet shimmering electronic soundscape.
Smythe: ‘Pure Duration’: Henrik Bergson, the philosopher right? I had to research that, but an obscure title, nonetheless for a debut album. What was your thinking behind the project?’
Gryst: ‘I guess it’s interesting to note the work of philosophers like Bergson and phenomenological existentialists like Merleau-Ponty are being reinterpreted by physicists who postulate a new theory of the universe to suggest that time does not exist...but to answer your question, I guess the album explores that very conundrum: how memory is an integral part of our experience of a constant present we call reality.
I wanted to explore the concept of duration, and how our lives are very much about moving from one experience to another, for example watching trees blowing in a sudden breeze on a hot summer night to reminiscing about an encounter with an unrequited love….'
Smythe: ‘Many artists work in different ways. How do you work? How do you approach a track?’
Gryst: ‘Depending on the type of track, I start with a melody or chord progressions. With EDM tracks it’s always the drums first. Initially, I work very quickly: I lay down a complete track in a few hours or in a day or two…then it may take many weeks, months and in some cases years to refine it. I’m completely obsessive and very much a perfectionist - which can be as helpful as it can be a hinderance.
It all starts with a mood or an idea. For example, ‘The Lost Summer of 1984’ started out as an idea about an inventor in a post apocalyptic future who creates a time-machine powered by nostalgia. Very little of history has survived and only in snippets and 1984 is heralded as part of a golden age. Its very much the soundtrack to the inventor stepping out of the time-machine into the glorious summer of 1984.’
As the conversation unfolds I get the sense that Gryst is a thinker...
Smythe: “That’s pretty deep, do you often create back-stories for your tracks?”
Gryst: ‘Yes… it could be a very simple idea that might underpin the title of a track or it could be a whole narrative. In many respects, I’m still that eight year old kid climbing trees, collecting butterflies and staying up all night with a pair of binoculars and the ‘Observer’s Book of Stars’ studying constellations… I’m definitely a frustrated writer, artist and musician trying to make sense of the world through creative expression.’
Smythe: ‘Another track that stuck out for me was ‘Tomorrow Soon,’ is that relevant to the pandemic?’
Gryst: ‘Definitely, I wrote it at the beginning of the first lockdown in the UK when it felt like we were entering into a kind of pre-cursor to the apocalypse. I was making jokes about “this is how the end of the world starts,” then as we began to get accustomed to going out once a day for exercise or for other essential things like food, I got a sense that whilst everything was getting pretty stark - this was around April 2020 - and the death toll was rising pretty sharply, people were still hopeful that things would return to normal, and I got this idea that it felt like tomorrow was on hold somehow but that it would return soon.’
Smythe: ’Shining Eyes’ is an intriguing title as well as being very upbeat in contrast to some of the darker or ethereal tracks on the album, tell me about it?’
Gryst: ‘I was inspired to write this after watching a seminar given by the very charismatic Benjamin Zander, who is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He talks about his realisation that the conductor is the only person in an orchestra who doesn’t make a sound, yet it’s his job to awaken possibility in others, which you can see when people’s eyes shine. Quite simply I wanted to make a track that made people’s eye shine.’
Smythe: ‘For many artists, the lockdown has proved beneficial in terms of focussing on their work. Has this been the case for you?’
Gryst: ‘Definitely. I work very quickly anyway and I guess I’m quite prolific compared to most other musical artists, but I remember thinking: ‘well, there’s no excuse, look at how much free time there is’. The lockdown for me has provided an opportunity to turn on the taps, so to speak. I hear music most of the time, even in my sleep, and it felt good to be able to have a platform to get more of it out into the world.
…I’ve always tried to adopt the Weyger model of art and living that follows the principle of adapting to your limitations. The the lockdown has meant that I’ve got at least ten album projects in the pipeline, two or three of which may see fruition this year.’
‘Pure Duration‘ was released on Lethe Records on March 17th, 2021, and is available in all online stores and on all streaming platforms.
Part 2 of my interview with Patrik Gryst coming soon…
Vidion Smythe