We caught up with Nonclassical Artistic Director Gabriel Prokofiev about the inspiration behind his latest single, his BBC Radio 3 show and more.
You've just released your new single with us, Six Hesit Heist – what's the story behind it?
This new track came about because I was in a bit of a creative dead-end – one of the projects I’ve been working on this year is a viola concerto for Max Rysanov, which actually got interrupted for three months in the summer because I was asked to do this sci-fi series with Indian film producers Memysis Lab. I had been working on the concerto and it was going well, but then I had this big break from it and I just got a bit stuck. It’s a big piece and, of course, it means a lot to me. In lockdown, everyone’s been up and down, there are good days and bad days, and I was definitely having a bad day when I came across this sketch that I’d totally forgotten about, which would go on to become Six Hesit Heist. Hearing it again gave me this thrill, it got me excited about composing on a day I was feeling a bit flat and lacking in inspiration.
It was originally a sketch for a ballet I did last year with Birmingham Royal Ballet called Sense of Time, but it didn't get used in the end, so it was just sitting there, this forgotten little sketch. It was written for orchestra but with a really powerful electronic kick drum and synthesizers – it’s just a quirky piece with this jerky rhythm – it excited me, and that feeling made me think I want to finish this and get it released immediately. I grew up playing in bands, and in the world of pop music or dance music, when you write a song you gig it the next day, or if you create a new dance track you try to release it within the next few weeks or months. But with classical music you write a piece, maybe it’ll get performed once fairly soon after because it’s a commission or something, but then it won’t be released publicly for ages, years sometimes. So releasing a work quickly sort of goes against the classical norms. But it’s really satisfying as an artist to get it out there.
Sense of Time – Trailer // Birmingham Royal Ballet
Has the pandemic affected the way you're writing music?
A lot of my inspiration comes from the world around me, especially from London, or travelling to other cities – that energy you get from being about town. That feeling has totally shrunk and I really feel that, and sometimes I really feel that I’m missing that inspiration.
The great thing about music is it can be therapy. This track was a kind of therapy for me, and it brought the energy of urban life back into my studio. However the grind of lockdown life is still a challenge. I’ve found the thing is just to keep different projects on the boil – that helps keep me excited. Also, doing the sci-fi series (OK Computer – coming out on Disney+ Hotstar Spring 2021 TBA) was actually a lot easier because I had this really exciting new world to get deep into. I feel really fortunate to have been asked to do that; it was really nice because they didn’t really push me in any direction, they just wanted me to do my thing. Obviously there are some epic moments when I probably did go a bit bigger and more cinematic than I would normally, but that’s what you have to provide for film, and there were lots of chances to provide some pretty quirky and quite personal stuff. I feel like I’m part of this really exciting new venture – I really believe in the directors: Neil Padegar and Pooja Shetty – I think they’re ones to watch.
Your new radio show explores electronic music through the 20th century – what was it like making the show? Did you discover any hidden gems you didn't know about before?
It was really inspiring and it was actually a lot of work getting it together. I had many conversations with the brilliant producer Alannah Chance – we spent hours on Zoom going through and discussing it, and then I spent a lot of time researching online and going through my own collection to build the playlist. Of course I had way too much music quite quickly – once I had put in everything that I wanted to include I had three hours that I had to condense down to an hour for each show, and then with the speech it has to go down to 45 minutes of music, so it was a real challenge actually. There’s definitely pieces I wish I could have included, but I think that’s the nature of doing this sort of programme.
The motivation behind the programme was that I’ve always felt there was a lot of early electronic music – and more recently, electronic music from the classical world – that very few people know about. The electro-acoustic and classical electronics scene is such a small inward-looking scene, and I’ve always felt that it could appeal to a lot more people, but it’s never really been well promoted.
I also wanted to touch on artists from outside the classical world, because obviously electronic music has influenced all genres of music. I went back and forth finding pieces that had a big impact on me, and through that process I discovered some amazing stuff that I hadn't heard before that got me really excited. For example, Ligeti’s got these two electronic pieces recorded in Stockhausen’s studio in the late 50s, and I’d never heard them, so that was a really nice thing to discover. I also found this Egyptian artist called Halim El-Dabh, who was making the first bits of sound art a few years before Pierre Schaeffer. A lot of the programme changes the conception that it was European men that pioneered everything in electronic music.
In recent years, some previously unreleased stuff has emerged from archives, so I found some really cool lesser-known pieces by Bernard Parmegiani and Francois Bayle, works using synths and drum machines that I found really interesting. I found this track by Parmegiani where he used an 808 drum machine, which you really don’t expect from these classical composers – that was one of the highlights. I also discovered some newer composers out there who I hadn't come across before. There’s a really good track by Holly Herndon ft. Jlin ‘Godmother’ which is really cool – that was new to me. And I came across Klein for the first time, who I didn’t know about before. Klein is part of this new generation of post internet electronic people who are using field recordings from their smartphones mixed in with often really distorted electronics – it’s like the latest generation of DIY electronic artists. She’s just not following any rules, it’s a very very personal take. I think with each bit of technology there’s always a new style that kind of comes out of it, and that's very interesting to discover.
What was your highlight of making the show?
One of the interesting things making the show was getting a refreshed overview of the evolution of electronic music – it made me see new connections in the way electronic music has developed, especially seeing how people from different backgrounds use electronics.
As ever it was brilliant discovering new music – classics that I didn’t know, and new artists too – that’s the biggest highlight. And I guess it’s exciting for me that the programme’s going out on Radio 3 and a wider audience are listening to it, and I have this chance to play stuff that hardly ever gets played on the radio. I’ve featured really important music that no one's really playing and they should be. I’m really pleased that I’ve done this, and I hope there’s some legacy after this.
I usually DJ live, but because of lockdown I haven’t been DJing for almost a year, and doing this has made me think I would like to develop the show into a more regular radio programme – I think there’s room for it .
The Electronic Century with Gabriel Prokofiev
BBC Radio 3
What's coming up next?
I’m desperately trying to finish this viola concerto, because it’s being premiered in April (by Max Rysanov with Beethoven Bonn Orchester, in Bonn and Koblenz) which is quite soon! Then I’ve also been finishing an album for strings and electronics – in a way Six Hesit Heist has kind of been like a warm-up for that. So I’ve just been finishing mixing that, and I’m really excited about that because I haven’t released that much of my electronic music, even though I’ve written and performed a lot.
For another big project for 2021, I’m doing the music for a new performance of Dante’s Inferno, in which I’ll be performing live electronics with a string quartet and a flute and a clarinet on stage with John Malkovich narrating – that’s going to be a very special musical drama! We’re booked for all these festivals in June – I just hope it still happens. I’m about to lock myself away and work on that for the next few months.
