FLUIDIAN Talks New Album, Sunscape Festival & More

Emil Gherasim aka Fluidian is a Romanian composer, musician, and sound artist. His work includes electroacoustic and electronic art music, chamber music, film and theater music, sound illustrations for contemporary dance and visual performances, minimalist textural music, sound paintings and ambient soundscapes.

His music is very personal and deeply meditative, with huge visual emotions, combining minimalist sound textures with a specific manner of improvisation. Due to his playing techniques like wind-guitar (blowing across the strings) or bowed-guitar (using a violin bow), manipulated with electronics and using his own minimalistic textural concept, his music transforms into a contemplative, floating soundjourney.

Fluidian is best known for his solo performances, but has also been collaborate with artists like Arve Henriksen, Tibor Szemző, László Gőz, Ede Terényi, Petre Ionuțescu, Paul Taylor, Sándor Szabó, Roland Heidrich and many more. In addition, he composes original music for theater plays, dance performances, films and new textural electronic art music for different sound ensembles.

Fluidian will perform at Sunscape Festival on September 20. See what he has to says about the upcoming performance in the interview below.

Hello! Music is, more than anything else, a feeling that connects you with nature and places you in the universe. However, do you consider that the artist, at the time of creation, thought about this perspective? Could this feeling become a form of vanity that could be exploited at some point?

Hi! Yes, it’s true. Somehow in the moment of creating something we express our feelings in an artistic language and connect with nature. It’s hard to explain the process, but it’s there and sometimes it also helps us understand the meanings of very simple things in our lives in a much deeper way. Regarding vanity, in this complex process, I think we don’t have a view on it in the moment of creation, but maybe later we could realize if it was there or not.

Music is like the fruit of many experiments. In this case, Fluidian is a project of instrumental improvisation and sound experimentation. Can we talk about ‘new’ under these conditions?

In music every kind of experimentation has already been done in the last hundreds of years. There is nothing new on our planet in this context, but strangely and luckily if you can find and develop your own language with your sound arsenals/gadgets/instruments, you can create a new level of expressing yourself, can be something different from any others and can add a personality, and a new perspective to the same context, in a similar way as it’s happening in nature. There are no two plants looking the same or behaving in the same way. It’s fascinating!

“Clouds of Wonder” is your most recent album released as Fluidian. How did the collaboration with Roland Heidrich go? What does such a production actually imply?

Our collaboration with Roland Heidrich started in 2017, we recorded instantly fully improvised sessions in his studio in Budapest and it was absolutely astonishing to listen later to the results of our musical conversations. He is a very sensitive and intuitive musician, one of the best guitarists I have ever met. The recording process was the same as on the Pendular Emotions album recorded with trumpeter Petre Ionuțescu, meaning: press the record button and play. These kinds of musical conversations can open new levels of our musicality.

One says that music is more like a journey, not a destination. However, we know that every journey has its final goal. How do you imagine your project in its full fulfillment, in total understanding of the world?

I think if one day I feel or see the final goal, that will be the last moment of my life. The journey in art is about exploring new territories, and never-ending stories. It’s better not to think too much about the final destination, things will happen anyway. More important is to live in the moment in the place where you are and follow your instincts and just be there and explore what you feel. Of course, it’s also very important to have a concept and a vision of what you want to do.

Given that we are discussing experimental music, are there conventional artists that inspire you or do you simply follow?

I’m not sure what is the meaning of “conventional artist”, but if it’s referring to mainstream or known famous artists, yes, I have some well-known favorite artists whose works inspire me a lot, like Peter Gabriel, Björk, Portishead, Frank Zappa, Mats and Morgan, Jon Hassell, Nik Bärtsch, Eivind Aarset, David Torn, David Sylvian, Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvær, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Arvo Pärt, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and many more. Some of them are not so popular mainstream artists, but they are famous for their own artistic vision.

Creating an image of something you don’t know enough about can be tough. Experimental music leaves several suspension points behind it, no question about it. Can you imagine what it would be like if you met your music on the street?

Street is not the best place for artistic exploration, but at the same time you have a lot of interesting noises and sounds there, which could inspire you in the creating process. However, I think I’m not an experimental musician, but I understand and accept that minimalist repetitive contemplative music, what I do, is categorized under the same umbrella of “experimental music”.

If we think that this is a much more subjective and very personal exploration than in other musical areas, can there be created a barrier to understanding and accepting through this kind of selfishness?

Yes and no. Every little aspect of our perception is fed by our mind which reflects a vision of our thoughts. Impossible to create a barrier, but instinctively we can feel where the limits are.

Artists, in their moment of full inspiration, enter a so-called personal movie. (maybe because those who work on movies get into music, heh) That being said, can you imagine a movie where Fluidian’s music would be played the most?

Yes, I can. My Fluidian concept is about visual sound reflections of my thoughts and visions, a sound representation of emotions I had or have. I can imagine a very blurry noir movie in a dome space room where there is a river that will flow endlessly again and again and again.

I’d like to turn our attention to the Sunscape festival now. What should the public expect from the Fluidian concert?

As I said before, I think what I do in music is not an experiment, because I know exactly what I do and why. It’s not a randomly created thing. So, that being said, I will try to create a sound contemplation that hopefully will resonate with the Sunscape festival concept and at the same time with the public’s expectations. To be honest, an open-minded person without expectations always adds a specific vibe and sense of an artistic performance in a particular moment and space. Looking forward to being there and performing.

During the Sunscape festival, you will perform with Manuela Marchis, a local artist who also works in the field of experimental music. How do you think this collaboration will go on stage?

Our plan is to have an introduction set by Manuela Marchis, and then I will contribute some sounds to her performance, followed by my Fluidian musical journey. Manuela has something special in her music and in her voice which connects well with my musical vision. This is the first time we have performed together and I’m very excited.

What emotion should we be charged with before the concert?

As always, it’s important to be open and all other things will come anyway.