James Holden & Wacław Zimpel (Interview)

It’s Friday so we’re listening to something more upbeat. Today we’re listening to James Holden & Wacław Zimpel, an English electronic musician and Polish clarinetist respectively. We previously featured Holden’s music in 2023. The pair channeled their shared influences of krautrock and Indian classical on their new record, The Universe Will Take Care of You, which came out last Friday. It’s in the running for album of the year for us. It’s a collection of ecstatic freeform electroacoustic pieces, with Zimpel improvising over Holden’s homemade synthesizers. We’re also revisiting Holden’s 2023 LP, Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities, which was his first solo LP in a decade and further demonstrates the sui generis sounds from his custom instruments. A conversation with James and Wacław, who are now touring, follows the streaming links.

The Universe Will Take Care of You - James Holden & Wacław Zimpel (51m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Imagine This Is a High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities - James Holden (60m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What's your earliest memory of music?

Wacław Zimpel: I think it is my father playing piano at home. He would play a lot of Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven. Also some Debussy. I remember banging the upper register of the keyboard when he was playing.

James Holden: i'm not sure, it was already there before i started remembering things, if you see what i mean. but i remember times when suddenly it seemed unmeasurably exciting: the theme music (synthwave) of an 80s tv special about computers, "oh mummy" amstrad cpc464 game theme music, the theme music on a tape audiobook of the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, saint saens, memory from cats (lolpuke), bohemian rhapsody.

What were the first records / artists you listened to that inspired you to create your own music? What helped you find your sound?

WZ: The early blues artists like Howlin Wolf, Bukka White, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Robert Johnson, and many others. Later on John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy. I also remember an amazing clarinet solo from Louis Armstrong take on “When The Saints Go Marching In.” Actually this solo made me pick up the clarinet when I was 15. Many years later I was listening to the same track and I figured out that it was actually a saxophone, not a clarinet!

JH: so my first memory of this is the amstrad game i mentioned, my mum showed me how to work out the theme tune on the piano. and then i realised you could change bits and it was interesting. honestly the rest is a bit of a blur.

James, how did you get into making your own instruments? How did it occur to you to do that, and what are some of the original instruments you used on The Universe Will Take Care of You?

JH: i think i've always been interested in making the music feel lively, lifelike, full of movement, and that led me to things like max/msp, modular synths, where you can build whole systems that have their own kind of life going on. so the best instrument on this lp is my software 'benny', (which is open source, free, at playbenny.com) because inside that is where i build instruments. the key for me is feedback loops, either in the machines or between the performers or between the performers and the machines, because feedback loops generate a kind of multi-fractal depth that you can't ever fake by 'composing' or 'planning'.

Tell us about how collaboration worked on this record.

WZ: It was very organic and natural. For some reason every time we are in the studio we do something creative. No dry sessions. We always come up with something we like and always we are very surprised where we get with the music.

There are no rules on how we start, It might be some chord progression we found or some particular sound or arpeggio and we follow whatever comes out of the speakers. It feels very much like an impro jazz session, but because of the sound it goes somewhere else.

JH: we just went in the room with almost nothing and played around. some songs come from an idea like 'what if i put the clarinet through this fx' or 'here's a chord sequence that i've been playing with' or 'how about i build a looper in benny with a bunch of fun stuff in the loop path'. usually it's like a song in a day, and most of the time the first go at recording is the one.

What krautrock records influenced you, and what about that music speaks to you?

WZ: For me these are mostly Can records. I also love some other stuff by Holger Czukay. And I am a big fan of the Jacki Liebzeit concept of the rhythm.

JH: discovering krautrock was a huge moment for me, specifically and particularly the cluster/harmonia end of it more than the can/duul/faust end, though that's awesome too. it seemed like the music i was always looking for - as warm and rich as the early trance stuff i've always loved but so much freer and trippier.

Indian traditional music is also a shared influence. What records would you recommend?

WZ: I have a big catalogue of concert recordings which I got from my dear friend and fantastic khanjira artist Aggu Baba. It is a span of hindustani and carnatic music from last 6 - 7 dedicated. My favourite artists which I constantly come back to are U Shrinivas, Karaikudi Mani, G Harishankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan, Akkarai Sisters, Annapurna Devi, S. Balachander, and many more.

JH: i'll let w answer this one! impossible question tbh! thinking about answering made me put U Srinivas - Double Mandolin on, which is really nice.

What music are you guys listening to these days?

WZ: Recently mostly indian music. I always do that while being on tour with Saagara and I just came back from the last concert, so this music is still with me.

JH: today i've got queued up: the new cole pulice, wacław's old lp zimpel & ziolek because i was thinking about it after an interview earlier in the week, this u srinivas and a stella chiweshe that caught my eye searching and the new secret getii lp and an old stargazers' assistant one and the new death in vegas (which bangs)

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

WZ: Ah, so many great artists which so few people heard about. But not sure if that means underrated. Maybe it is better to enjoy music in general and not put too much attention on visibility? I listened to Aarktica (Jon Derosa) Mareación literally thousands of times.

JH: legowelt, though tbh i think he's as rated as he wants to be, which is wise. oh and motion sickness of time travel.

What are you working on next?

WZ: I have a lot of open projects of new solo ideas based on self made PVC flutes.

I also write songs these days - but don't really know what to do with them yet.

I also constantly work on my clarinet looping system which is based on a plugin called Pitch Gate which we created together with James. I also want to work on new music with James, I think there are still a lot of territories which we can discover together.

All these years we worked together were very transformative to me, learned so much and still do.

JH: i'm not sure what it is, but i suddenly realised this week – and i'm not sure i can explain this at all – but yeah, i realised that it will be easy and it will contain the knowledge i gained doing this record. wacław has taught me a lot, musically and zen-wise.