Amon Tobin, Brazilian star in the electronica scene
In his first tour around Brazil, the Rio de Janeiro-born DJ, raised abroad, talks about his relation with Brazilian music and says that he doesn't write songs thinking of dance floors
Nana Vaz de Castro
26/04/2001
Judging by the stage name, nobody would assume that he's Brazilian. Maybe if he used his real name, Amon Santos de Araújo, it would be easier to figure that Amon Tobin (the name Tobin is borrowed from his Irish stepfather) is a Rio de Janeiro native. He left town when he was about to turn 10, and lived in Morocco, Netherlands, London, Portugal and Madeira Island before settling in Brighton, south of England, where he currently lives.
Hyped by international critics as an electronica trendsetter since he put out the debut album, Bricolage
(1997), Tobin is on a business trip to Brazil (where part of his family lives) for the first time. The premiere wasn't very exciting, though. On his first performances last week in Recife, during the Abril Pro Rock festival, the DJ played for very few people, harmed by the late hour (it was past three in the morning) and by the devastating effect of the previous acts, which had already flipped out the crowd (read article).
But Tobin won't let it get him down. He will have another shot in São Paulo, sharing the bill with funk/rap group Mamelo Sound System (read article). "For me, performing in Brazil carries a sentimental importance", says the DJ, who shall also play an electronica festival in Minas Gerais and later on in Rio. Only one of his albums - Permutation (1998) - was released in Brazil. The others (Adventures in Foam Intro, 1996, where he used the pseudonym Cujo; Bricolage and Supermodified (2000) remain unreleased around here.
Tobin has worked more with Brazilian artists, lately, but he claims this is not on purpose. According to him, having participated in Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo (on Samba da Benção), Tom Zé's remix disc, Postmodern Platos (on Defect 2: Curiosidade ) and Airto Moreira's Revenge of the Killer Bees (on Chicken Mind ) does not indicate a pre-set tendency. "It just so happened; I like working with interesting people and music, it doesn't matter where they are coming from."
Electro-acoustic bossa nova
He doesn't appreciate very much the myth around the fact that being Brazilian is being exotic. In fact, tracks like Chomp Samba, which explored his relation with Brazil through the means of drumming, belong in the past. "I am going farther, now, exploring and processing samba sounds in a more digital fashion", says the Tom Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor and Milton Nascimento fan. "I specifically enjoy the music that they were making in the '70s", he adds.
Bossa nova is also an influence on his music (just listen to the acoustic guitar on One Day in My Garden) , as well as contemporary classical music and its electro-acoustic side (he names Stockhausen as a reference, which is noticed on tracks like Golfer vrs Boxer ). But the stronger feature in his sound collage work is the jazz (explicit on the drum-bass-piano structure of Night Life , among others). Of course, everything is digitally reprocessed, receiving drum'n'bass and jungle treatments.
Tobin - who once played the guitar, keyboards and harmonica in pubs and streets, while living in Portugal - doesn't deny the drum'n'bass, but he doesn't think that his albums can be restricted to the style. "I don't make music willing to keep people on the dance floor. Fortunately, my work allows me more freedom to explore new sounds", he says. Exploration and investigation are key concepts concerning his music: "I reckon that 90% of the creation process happens while I'm listening to music, attentive to everything that can be sampled and included in my arrangements. It's always been like that, in a way, I've always paid a lot of attention to music".
Hyped by international critics as an electronica trendsetter since he put out the debut album, Bricolage
(1997), Tobin is on a business trip to Brazil (where part of his family lives) for the first time. The premiere wasn't very exciting, though. On his first performances last week in Recife, during the Abril Pro Rock festival, the DJ played for very few people, harmed by the late hour (it was past three in the morning) and by the devastating effect of the previous acts, which had already flipped out the crowd (read article).
But Tobin won't let it get him down. He will have another shot in São Paulo, sharing the bill with funk/rap group Mamelo Sound System (read article). "For me, performing in Brazil carries a sentimental importance", says the DJ, who shall also play an electronica festival in Minas Gerais and later on in Rio. Only one of his albums - Permutation
(1998) - was released in Brazil. The others (Adventures in Foam Intro, 1996, where he used the pseudonym Cujo; Bricolage and Supermodified (2000) remain unreleased around here. Tobin has worked more with Brazilian artists, lately, but he claims this is not on purpose. According to him, having participated in Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo (on Samba da Benção
), Tom Zé's remix disc, Postmodern Platos (on Defect 2: Curiosidade ) and Airto Moreira's Revenge of the Killer Bees (on Chicken Mind ) does not indicate a pre-set tendency. "It just so happened; I like working with interesting people and music, it doesn't matter where they are coming from."Electro-acoustic bossa nova
He doesn't appreciate very much the myth around the fact that being Brazilian is being exotic. In fact, tracks like Chomp Samba
, which explored his relation with Brazil through the means of drumming, belong in the past. "I am going farther, now, exploring and processing samba sounds in a more digital fashion", says the Tom Jobim, Jorge Ben Jor and Milton Nascimento fan. "I specifically enjoy the music that they were making in the '70s", he adds.Bossa nova is also an influence on his music (just listen to the acoustic guitar on One Day in My Garden
) , as well as contemporary classical music and its electro-acoustic side (he names Stockhausen as a reference, which is noticed on tracks like Golfer vrs Boxer ). But the stronger feature in his sound collage work is the jazz (explicit on the drum-bass-piano structure of Night Life , among others). Of course, everything is digitally reprocessed, receiving drum'n'bass and jungle treatments.Tobin - who once played the guitar, keyboards and harmonica in pubs and streets, while living in Portugal - doesn't deny the drum'n'bass, but he doesn't think that his albums can be restricted to the style. "I don't make music willing to keep people on the dance floor. Fortunately, my work allows me more freedom to explore new sounds", he says. Exploration and investigation are key concepts concerning his music: "I reckon that 90% of the creation process happens while I'm listening to music, attentive to everything that can be sampled and included in my arrangements. It's always been like that, in a way, I've always paid a lot of attention to music".