21st January 2021: #WhirlwindInFocus – Arthur Hnatek shares brand-new exclusive video ahead of ‘Static’ – out on Friday on LP, CD & DL

Arthur Hnatek‘s music sits on a continuum between acoustic and electronic soundworlds. His compositional style constantly fluctuates between the two, borrowing different elements in a synthesis of sounds that takes the music outside of usual genre descriptions. The first three singles from his debut trio album Static are testament to this – a cover of Squarepusher’s Brexit lament ‘MIDI Sans Frontieres’ meets two sparse, synthetically-adapted textures that are the result of intensely-focused improvisation amongst kindred spirits. Arthur shares some of his music with us in this specially-recorded video.

Interview by Hugh Morris (hugh@whirlwindrecordings.com)

WWR: Hi Arthur! Where are you in the world right now? It looks snowy?!

AH: Hi! I’m in Zürich, Switzerland. And yes! Zürich has seen way more snow this year than the past decade.

WWR: What’s the concept behind your new album Static? And where do you look for inspiration for cross-genre jazz and electronic projects?

Static is a new exploration of my main interest – the interaction between acoustic instrumental improvisation and the sequencer-based electronic culture. I love manipulating acoustic sounds (specially with my drumming) to evoke techniques like sampling or processing. The inspiration comes less from people, and more often than not from textures or sounds I discover. On the album, it came also from the repetitive nature of the seemingly simple compositions, and a wide freedom left within the band to explore potential new textural ideas.

WWR: Could you introduce your bandmates for us?

AH: Of course! They are both great musicians that I admire greatly, but also very close friends that I’ve known for a long time. We’ve shared so many different musical settings over the years.

On bass, you have Swiss maestro Fabien Iannone. He’s a great electric bass player as well and creates captivating electronic music. His interests reach far beyond music as a very skilled graphic designer, filmmaker and even very serious about his vegetables!

From Verona, Italy, we have Francesco Geminiani on saxophone. At first, he was a ridiculous “New York Jazz Tradition” tenor player; he moved back from the Big Apple some time ago and now dives deep into West Coast modular synthesis as well as coding his own AI inspired graphic art.

I believe the plurality of our common interests creates the uniqueness of our music. I love the fact we can talk and share about way more than our individual instrumental practices.

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 Arthur’s new album Static is available on LP, CD & DL from our site. Follow Arthur on Instagram for all the latest updates.

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