Love in Slides : Interview with Phillipe (DIE FORM ) .

 

1) Where were you inspired to find the name Die form?

P : I found this name by chance, among others, then, later on, I discovered that it was the name of a newspaper of the Bauhaus movement around 1928.
I thought it was an interesting idea : different meanings in different languages: in German, die Form means “the shape”, in French “difforme“ means “deformity”.

2) Before  Die form had you played in previous projects?

P: No, I started by the drawing, the photography and the super-8 cinema, then I continued with Die Form, Bain Total as label and other pseudonyms like Fine Automatic, Krylon Hertz, Camera obscura, HURT…

I released first sound experiments in 1977-78, without knowing music, with plates of metal, pieces of wood, domestic ustensils, discs played at various speeds forwards or backwards, and radio waves, as well as voices, acoustic instruments and guitars, recorded with a small cassette recorder! At that time I did not have a synthetizer.

3) What could we expect about the production process of the last albums, an interesting story?

 

P: About Rayon X…

«Rayon X», finally emerged over a three-year period of research, reflexion and obstinacy.
«Music is the language of emotions», this can be the guiding principle – the electrical current – for this new project, in which hybrid images composed of layers echo the hypnotic structure of the music.
The voices mingle with the grain of the amplified breath of the electronic machines in a kind of surreal and dreamt obsessions chemistry.
Creation is like a journey through time and memory, like a necessary alternative to the illusion to live, like an explosive therapy after a phase of introversion and introspection.
There is always this spark of mystery, this attraction towards the void and the dead black, in search of the thrill and the flash, of the ultimate pleasure, despite fear and doubt.
It remains here, like in the universe, luminous traces of a few already disappeared stars…
Universe÷Matrix÷Memory.

About Musique Concrète…

DIE FORM ÷ MUSIQUE CONCRETE is the new experimental, instrumental, cinematic, ambient solo-project of Philippe Fichot composed from 2013 to 2014. The tracks have been started during a recovery stay, and completed, improved and mixed in studio in 2015.
Since ages, music and sounds have always been a powerful medium to express the emotions, with the power to reveal and generate images from the invisible, from borderline worlds to new visionary landscapes and mindscapes.
For this project, many different sources have been used : electronic analog and digital tools, as well as noises and tapes (this is the relation with the «musique concrète» reference) and some natural and artificial voices too.
This could be a transition between the past and the future, inspired by silence and meditation.
This is the first project released on the original DIE FORM label BAIN TOTAL, reactivated in 2015.
«Vous ne pouvez empêcher les oiseaux de la tristesse de voler au-dessus de vos têtes, mais ne les laissez pas faire leur nid dans vos cheveux» (proverbe chinois) (in «Melodia Melancolica»)
«You can not prevent birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from making/building their
nest in your hair». (Chinese proverb) (in «Melodia Melancolica»)

4) What is the concept of Die Form? It has been modified from its origins or kept as yesterday?

P: My first idea was to create things outside the norm, apart from the conventional and commercial music distribution channels and apart from art in general. Factor of emotions.
It is a multiform and multi-media project which join together sounds, images and performances.
Die Form has always been closely linked to my life and thus changed over the years. For me it is a means of expression and also a kind of therapy which allow me to express myself and to exchange with other people. In general, I live quite isolated and a bit cut off from the rest of the world.

5) How you met to Miss. Eliane. ? YOU had begun Die form without her in the line-up, right?

P : Éliane visited me with a friend during the recording sessions of Hurt. Then I saw her again at a party, during a period of chaos and depression. At the beginning, she wasn’t actively involved in the projects.
Yes, I realized albums before knowing her and also some side-projects without her like Elektrode, Société Anonyme, Ukiyo, The Visionary Garden…

6) Mr. Philippe , Do you  have an Academic formation  in photography or are you an autodidact?

P: I learnt on my own the photography and the music, simultaneously with a training in an offset printing factory. At that time I refused to comply with a teaching, but I had wasted a lot of time and energy to reach a certain mastery in the realization of my ideas. Nevertheless, that let me totally free and avoided to be too much influenced.

 

 

 

7) What are your favorite bands and influences?

P : Difficult to make a selection… I’ve listened a lot of electronic music since the beginning, while I was drawing: Tangerine Dream , Klaus Schulze , Can and of course , Kraftwerk , Neu! , Faust, Heldon, The normal  Suicide   and then  industrial music : Throbbing Gristle ,  SPK , but also  The residents  , Tuxedomoon ,“No New York” bands(produced by Brian Eno)  .

 

8) Think Die form is a band that could exist without its aesthetic?

P: Not, I don’t think so. The image, the sound and esthetics are closely linked in all our creations and combine to increase intensity and touch all senses.

 

9) A reader sent us an inquiry via e-mail: what size are you?

 

P: Ah ! Ah ! I don’t know ;-) Pas très grands !!! Not very tall !!!

10) Have you ever thought re-release video clips on videocassette to a more modern format like DVD?

P: No, I’ve decided to keep the video images and the films for the performances on stage. The audio-visual supports don’t suit me.

11) About the French scene, could you recommend some new or older classic bands that you think necessary to know?

 

P: I liked very much Heldon.

12) Many of your fans usually do not know where to buy your books of photography, which store do you recommend for people from America and South America?

P: The book is still available from our publisher in Hong Kong and one can order us products directly at Bain Total which has just been reactivated. We also have shops on Bandcamp and BigCartel.

13) What is the Die form’s label ? 

P: So we have just reactivated BAIN TOTAL for the realization of “Musique Concrète”, then for other rereleased projects, in particular for very old unreleased ones.
Certain projects are released on OUT OF LINE in Germany, others on Rotorelief in France.

14) Besides your work as a band or as a photographer  , have you  made particular jobs?

P: Yes, I worked in a printing factory during 13 years.

15) What are you trying to prove to your topic Sound and Picture?they have suffered censorship in any country?

P: Some projects were prohibited to minors in Germany, and we had a few difficulties with the CD manufacturer because of cover images, a long time ago.
Few concerts were censured or stopped, which always amazes me!

16) What are your plans for 2015/2016 ?

P: A new personal project, instrumental, experimental and ambient (“MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE”), then rerelease  of cassettes on vinyls (DIE FORM ÷ FINE AUTOMATIC and DIE FORM ÷ HURT).
A new album of DIE FORM is in the process of composition, and many other things are in the pipeline!

17) Any message for your readers worldwide to end this interview?

P: Thank you for your attention and your faithful support for so many years!

www.dieform.net
www.facebook.com/DieFormMusic
www.facebook.com/philippe.fichot.33

http://dieform.bandcamp.com/merch
http://roseeros.bigcartel.com/