Christoph Berg

Antonymes recently has been interviewed by Fluid Radio about aspects of the upcoming album ‘The License To Interpret Dreams’ released through Hidden Shoal Recordings. You should definitely read the entire interview over here, but here are some excerpts:

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Other artists have been introduced to some of the compositions. Did you always know who you wanted to work with or did ideas formulate as the album grew?

I’ve worked with James Banbury [cello] many times over the last six years or so, mainly as a graphic designer for his label, Service Audio Visual. I’d originally recorded A Light From The Heavens for Beauty Becomes The Enemy Of The Future, and James supplied the beautiful cello parts that really brought it to life, so I always knew that he would be on the album He’s such an accomplished and experienced string arranger, and I knew his contributions would always be prefect.

I’ve known Christoph Berg for quite some time and I was really overjoyed when he agreed to play on the album. His input on the album extends far beyond the pieces he plays on. His encouragement and ideas were really important, and really pushed me on tracks like A Fragile Acceptance and The Door Towards The Dream. I’m really looking forward to working on more projects with Christoph in the future.

Jan Van Den Broek fronts the astonishingly beautiful June 11. His inclusion on the album was really out of the blue, but when Paul Morley presented me with the words for Doubt I really couldn’t think of anyone else to deliver them.

What was the process with regards to recording and how easy did you find it working with other artists?

For me, often the recording process can be very quick, as a lot of what I do is improvised. As I don’t play particularly well, and I tend not to like re-recording parts, so there is usually a lot of “manipulation and reconstruction”. This is the lengthy part of the process for me. Even on the simplest of pieces I can be working for weeks, so working with other musicians, people that can really play is a great way of speeding up the process.

With Christoph and James I didn’t need, or want to give them to much direction. They pretty much did what they wanted, with just a vague sense of what I was looking for. I was more interested in what I knew they were capable of. I think the only thing I was prescriptive about was the cello on A Fragile Acceptance, where I actually sent the specific parts to James to play. Paul’s words on Doubt came out of me listening to Bright Red, by Laurie Anderson. I love the way that she and Lou Reed deliver the words on the title track. Jan Van Den Broek delivered the words perfectly, and also did a great job on the vocal treatments. Collaborating has opened up many possibilities for me, and I’m looking forward to doing much more.

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www.antonymes.co.uk
www.music.hiddenshoal.com