Five Sound Questions to Tomas Postema

Some time ago we watched a short video of BOT, one of the main projects Tomas Postema is working on at the moment. 

I collaborated with Tomas on various projects, and he is a talented and inspiring person to work with. Tomas plays keys, is also a composer and sound designer inspired by both electronic and organic sounds, and with his CompActLab foundation he creates music theater performances. This summer BOT plays at the ‘Over het IJ’ festival in Amsterdam. See www.wijzijnbot.nl (in Dutch) for more information. These are Tomas’ answers to my questions: 

1. What sound from your childhood made the most impression on you?

I’m afraid that must be music. I’d have to choose between Miles Davis’ “Ascenseur Pour l’Echafaud” and the sound from a barrel organ. I was only three years old and astonished by the fact that music was played by a machine, instead of a human being. Miles Davis brings me back to rainy days and hot chocolate.  

2. How do you listen to the world around you?

Again, as music. I believe our world of sound is based upon organisation. I hear layers, structure, form, dynamics, melody, musical sentences in everything I hear. Some people think we are able to structure sound and call this music. I think by making music we are just adding structured sound to the world (of sound) in our human way.  

3. Which place in the world do you favor for its sound?

A year ago I visited a small town called Penne, in Italy. My parents (they live there) and I were drinking a fine Italian cappuccino, when suddenly a cloud of sound appeared from a small street. About a hundred kids, going to school, came passing by, talking with their particular loud, expressive, Italian voices. It sounded like a group of birds, amazing!  

4. How could we make sound improve our lives?

I think you can compare sound to, for example, food. It’s just there, but being aware of what you eat is important. Being conscious of the sources of food, the way it’s grown and so on. In such a way food can improve your live. As soon as you are aware of sound, conscious of the effects of it and even where it comes from and how it was created, you can relate to it, live with it in a kind of relationship.   

5. What sound  would you like to wake up to?

Right now, as I (at last!) answer these questions, it’s summer. I would like to wake up with the promise of a beautiful, bright summer day. It could be the chords produced by the first traffic in a city, or the melody of the cockcrow on a farm. Somehow I’d recognize the environment, the atmosphere of summer!

Also read the answers of other artists in the Five Sound Questions section.

Comments

[Sean M Painter]

Tomas has a great point concerning the concept that the sound of the universe shifting and existing around us, is in it's own way music. All sound, intentional-unintentional or coincidental is a product of action and reaction. I support his mention of the human way of making music being merely intentional organization of sound information.
I merely wanted to add that the conscious perception and interpretation of sound information as music is as subjective to the listener as emotional states, tastes, colors and the like.
Thanks for the good questions and thanks Tomas for the lucid responses.