Abul Mogard describes a recent work ~
This track is taken from my second album “Drifted Heaven” and is one of my favorite ones. I find it difficult to translate my own music into words. I can say that it’s quite melancholic and it still moves me.
BIOGRAPHY
Abul Mogard approached music in old age. He was born in Belgrad and spent most of his life working in a Serbian factory. When he retired, he felt that his accustomed environment with all the acoustic noises he had been listening to during his working years was gone. Music was a way to somehow recreate these surroundings, and not having a formal musical education he realized that using electronic musical instruments would make this possible. These machines could also make similar sounds to the ones he remembered.
He started working with synthesizers and other devices, some of which he has built himself over the past few years. He made two solo albums, Abul Mogard in 2012 and Drifted Heaven released in November 2013. His latest work, entitled Lulled Glaciers, is made in collaboration with German experimental musician Siegmar Fricke and British sound artist Justin Wiggan and was released in January 2014.
All of his music, except some pieces featured in compilations, has been released on audiocassette by VCO Recordings (Pittsburgh, USA).
INTERVIEW
What is your earliest musical memory that, in looking back, has proved to be significant regarding your career as a composer?
Silence, more than music was the main reason I started making music. My retirement from the work in the factory forced me into quietness and solitude. It was music that rescued me, as I could partially restore with sounds the environment I was used to.
If relevant, which composer(s) have been the most influential regarding your own work? If the answer is “none”, please explain. Has it changed over time?
I must say that I used to listen to music but I never had the chance to explore it deeply. For this reason I cannot recall any particular composer that influenced my work directly. It may seem pretentious to say that but I don’t have a formal music education, so even if someone influenced me in the past I cannot recall it. However, in the past few years, since I started releasing my music I found myself more interested in studying music and composers.
I particularly like Steve Reich with his repetitive and hypnotic structures and also the music of an electronic group called Coil, although I don’t know all their work. More recently I have been enjoying some of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s work from 1930’s.
Can you describe your working process, i.e. do you use computer notation software, if so, do you find that it inhibits your process at all, do you have a regular schedule for writing? What other technology, if any, do you use?
Music has become a necessity, as it is a way to establish a conversation with myself. This process is very instinctive and it is not linked to any schedule.
I normally start working on sounds generated with my Farfisa organ, a synthesizer or some of the equipment I have built. After that I use a computer to record what I am doing and depending on the piece I add more layers of instrumentation. I never felt inhibited by using a computer, as it is for me a device that allows me to make and record music with a good sound quality.
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