[*] other discs not played:
"Switched on Wagner" on Mille Plateaux
"Elevator One" on Mille Plateaux
"Easy Listening 1"
plus rare vinyl by his alpine anti-rock groups:
8 Oder 9
Auch Wenn Es Selts Klingen
 
Recent interview [April 2000] with Curd Duca:

>WTM: your elevator 3 seems different from previous "easy listening"
>and "elevators". Is that because you have gone fishing a little
>further for samples?

CD: yes, maybe a little bit ... but i think the main difference is
the processing (sound and thought) ... more sophisticated DSP
programs ... also my thinking is getting more advanced ...

>WTM: It is at once more beautiful with the addition of some
>unsampled astrid gilberto-esque vocals but also more confrontational--

CD: carin is amazing, isn' she ?

>WTM: carin feldschmid's voice is a very nice development. it offers
>a kind of ethereal anchor to the new disc. Lot's of noise and
>dissonance balanced by this heavenly sultry voice...but also your
>sounds seems simultaneously more confrontational with the inclusion
>of noises that are usually excluded from recordings but have in the
>past few years come to make up an entire new repertoire of sounds -
>radio signals, blips, scratches, bleeps, moans etc. to create music,
>even songs with just these components - a lot of people have found
>these 'organic' sounds to be a perfect antidote to over-used
>synthesizer sounds and effects etc. It is almost like these
>scratches and blips and surface noise are a return to organic
>sources. is this how you see it?

CD: i've used scratches and clicks for quite some time ... since easy
listening 4, even before ... it came very naturally ... the clicks
and crackle that were part of the samples ... and i often did not
correct digital glitches in some loops because they added something
... my work process is very hands-on ... with faster computers i can
"play" with the cursor on-screen and coax all kinds of weird noises
from some of these DSp programs ... the trick is how to select from
this variety and to integrate the results ... to make them make sense
...

>WTM: I realize that is why I liked your stuff. And now there are
>musical units like Pole who make entire albums of Kraftwerk like
>material out of scratches-pops-blips -- To me you seem to work like
>some chemist/pharmacist or alchemist who has his little shelves of
>little labeled bottles of sound spices ready to blend...

CD: as an alchemist, i use things that others would overlook ... i
think i'm good at seeing what's there and evoking its qualities
...when i was a kid, i had a chemistry kit and a little lab in the
back of our house ... i saw myself as a serious researcher ... i
still counduct experiments ... i set certain parameters and then i
react to what the computer gives back to me ... first and foremost i
listen ... then i edit or make changes for a new try ...

>WTM:  where/when do you work best?

CD: a) in a cultural vacuum ... i don't need much stimulus ...
b) in the morning (fast/effective) and in the evening (inventive/intuitive)

>WTM: What is YOUR reason to keep your cuts so short?

CD: a) i am very impatient when it comes to music (and art and films) ...
b) i don't like redundancy ... 98% of all music is WAY too long ...
c) i like surprises ...
d) the transition from one to the next is important ... some tracks
are the background for others ... the impression has to be fresh ...
the previous tracks being still present ... like with food ... some
tastes play off of each other well ...
f) the only thing that i have taken to heart from the 80ies: never be
boring ... a little aside : what i don't understand is : why is most
music so long ? i always thought we live in the information age where
time is precious and attention spans are short and people are used to
fast cuts and bursts of information ... and what do we see ? music
titles are longer than in the
50ies ... they go on and on and most of them hold no surprises ...

>WTM: let me just offer a short possible explanation: it is precisely
>BECAUSE attn spans have shortened and our ability to find expansive
>periods of time is becoming a losing battle in the war of psychic
>and employment globalisation and the 24hr economy have grown more
>difficult that some musicians rather than ape the hyper maybe want
>to be a counterfriction in it. Offer meditative removes from this
>like a musical park, like a sigh of noises. i like dub because it
>tends to be the opposite of our culture - it is slow and is not
>afraid of the scary silences that so many people seem afraid of. in
>silences and expansiveness comes the ability to delve deeper and
>question the perpetual ride on the over-hyped speedy glitzy surface
>present. only my humble opinion... And so, are you still working on
>your Hitler speeches piece. It seems perfect timing for 'your'
>austria. It could be called the Heider Suite or the Heider-Hitler
>Duets.

CD: it's very ironic ... when i did it i had no idea ... i consider
it finished ... Staalplat didn't want it ... so it's just sitting on
my hard drive ...

WTM: There must be some label out there willing to deal with it.
Anyway, is inventing / putting these pieces together fun or do you
NEED to do them?

CD: both ... mostly fun and interesting, especially at the beginning
... the final production phases (fine-tuning and finding the perfect
running order and transitions) can be a drag ...

WTM: How do you know your pieces are finished?

CD: When things fall into place ... mostly they do ... in some cases
immediately ... sometimes it requires more effort ...

WTM: Who do you listen to in your leisure time?

CD: I hardly ever listen to music anymore ... if i do, it's current
stuff that i get from mille plateaux or musician/friends ...
sometimes i search out stuff on the internet ... i am mostly
digesting ...