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AmbiEntrance: How/when was the idea for the continuing BiP_HOp generation series born?
Petit: Three or Four years ago I started to think of developping a label dealing with electronic music but I was too busy with my other one : Pandemonium Rdz.
Actually I was afraid that it be too much work for one single person and tried to find some associates... Which didn't work because I'm probably too individualistic and need to remain independent. I mean I like to wake up every morning and work on what I like best without owing anything to anyone but the musicians who trust me, and the nice people who support my activities.
AmbiEntrance: What's your story, Philippe? How did you arrive into this electro-musical-assembling position and what qualifies you?
Petit: What qualifies my involvement in music is my passion. I want to help spread the word on what I like and share it with as many people as I can. So I started doing radio shows back in 1985, then self-published fanzines, wrote in tons of fanzines and also international magazines ran by other people which helped me to get in touch with labels and bands all over the place.
After a while, I started to picture how things worked and felt I could start a label. Pandemonium Rdz and its single club Erase -yer- Head were launched in 1993 to document Noïz, Post-HC, Experimental musics... The definition of the term Pandemonium is : "A wild state of noise and disorder". Which was a pretty good definition for the kind of music I started to release.
Little by little releases started to develop beautiful ambiences, instrumental/"cinematic" sonorities... Twisted, odd but enthralling and melodious at the same time. A parallel music for perpendicular feelings. 41 records came out by such acts as Spaceheads, Ruins, Alboth!, Flying Luttenbachers, Cerberus Shoal, Hint, Melt Banana, Unsane, Double Nelson, Ground Zero, Guapo... Little by little I started to issue more and more acts incorporating machines to their music (Spaceheads, Andy's Car Crash, Guapo, Hint) and enjoyed it more and more.
After all those releases Pandemonium was becoming sort of a routine and I really needed to rejuvenate and start working on a new project. One morning I woke up and HOp. Bip is the French word referring to the call of every electronic device. When they talk to us they bleep, blip, bip.
BiP_Hop because of the pun and the symmetry.
AmbiEntrance: Do you create music youself or just "organize" it?
Petit: I only organize it. Several times I thought I'd start to try master an instrument, or a sampler but I'm not patient so...
AmbiEntrance: BiP_HOp generation is a global gathering; how would you compare the experimental music scene in your home country of France with other parts of
the world?
Petit: I do not want to be associated with what's "going on in France" as such. I tend to work more with overseas artists. But then that's because BiP_HOp was never really considered to be a label with a nationality, more of a non-located label...
I'm born French but I dislike the notion of nationalism and I feel like I'm a citizen of the world... Well, I do not have the impression that I belong to the world around me, and I dislike most of it. Injustice, greed, exploitation, war... But that's another story and back to the question...
Experimentation comes from everywhere. Electronic technologies have become more and more important in our everyday life so it tends to be normal that many people start to assemble sounds using machines. Same evolution throughout the whole so-called "civilised" world so there is a lot of creativity and talent involved with this music, as well as a lot of untalented followers trying to recreate and copy their idols. Same old story... and I heard it started to happen on some other planets too.
AmbiEntrance: What was the first "glitch" recording you heard, and what was the result
of that experience?
Petit: I can't remember which record was the first one I heard but I'd say that as a kid watching repeatedly the movie "Forbidden Planet" with its incredible soundtrack by Bebe Barron, or seing Kraftwerk play back in 1976 certainly helped me realise music could be created with machines. Then I was impressed by the likes of Silver Apples, Eno, SPK, Reich, Cabaret Voltaire, Einsturzende Neubauten, Pierre Henry, Varese, and tons of other ones throughout the years. Which certainly slowly educated my ears and unconsciously put me in the best of mood to enjoy Panasonic, Autechre and Oval. And since then so many other talented and younger sound assemblers.
AmbiEntrance: Why would you say some people hear music in these tracks where others
hear only noise?
Petit: Well I remember John Cage once said that "noise annoys only when it is ignored", I guess that most of people do not pay enough attention to music in general. All I can say is that you get out as much as you put in. So obviously when you first hear Oval it can sound odd but if you listen to "systemiche" with attention you start to discover melodies. Modern life is so fast and consumerist that it tends to be difficult to do things properly, to fully concentrate so I guess we all miss ssomething, somewhere, at some point...
AmbiEntrance: How does your selection process (for artists then tracks) work? Are their pieces personally requested, or volunteered to you?
Petit: I would like to create a document of today's creative forms of electronica, from IDM to experimental, microsound to glitchiness... So, originally, I asked the contribution of most of the people I knew and considered representative. I feel very grateful to the ones who believed in me and made it all possible. Now that compilations are coming out regularly some more people volunteer because they have discovered the BiP_HOp Generation series and like the idea.
AmbiEntrance: What can you tell us about some of the artists in Volume 1?
Petit: Support them.
SCHNEIDER TM comes from Germany and records for City Slang.
PHONEM was born in UK and now inhabits Leipzig, in Germany. He has records with Morr Music, Jetlag and is on countless compilations by the likes of Pitchcadet, Neo Ouija, Beta Bodega Coallition...
GOEM comes from the Netherlands and have done albums with Mego, Staalplaat, Noise MuseuM... Each of them is very active.
MARUMARI is from Rhode Island, city of HP Lovercraft, and he has albums on Carpark.
ULTRA MILKMAIDS are twins from France and release their records abroad on Ant Zen, Noise MuseuM, Staalplaat ...
MASSIMO is from Catania, Italy. He has albums on Microwave, Fals.ch/Mego and Staalplaat.
AmbiEntrance: I like the cohesive electronic art theme which ties between the
packaging and the website; how involved in those processes are you?
Petit: I'm a very good friend of the designer and very lucky to have his help. So you see i'm totally involved. The site, covers, and imagery is designed by Julien Berthier. He also did a very nice album under the alias D'IBERVILLE. He is an architect and a professional web-designer during the day, and at night...
Two other friends also help a lot. Benoit Roux who does films, flyers, ads, checking out our mistakes. He is also a professional printer/designer.
Guillaume Amen did the artwork of the Tennis album. Another talented designer.
AmbiEntrance: Who will we be hearing from in future volumes and when can we expect
new releases to appear?
Petit: Hopefully the BiP_HOp Generation series will offer one volume every 3/4 months.
v.2 will be out in March. 20 exclusive tracks by :
BERNARD FLEISCHMANN (Austria) who has records on Morr Music, Charhizma...
AROVANE (Germany) has records on Din, Morr, City Centre Offices, Vertical Form
WARMDESK (USA) has done records for Fällt, and Static Caravan + a split w. PImmon on A Posterori
KÖHN (Belgium) has two albums on (Kraak)3.
WANG INC. (Italy) has done a 12" on Sonig.
LAURENT PERNICE (France) did 4 albums on PDCD and 2 new one are upcoming on Moloko+ and Organic.
In April will come out the second album of TENNIS. An on-going London based collaboration between Benge (real name Ben Edwards) and Si-{cut}.db (real name Douglas Benford) exploring digital and electro-acoustic sounds and rhythms combined with 21st century audio software. "Europe on Horseback", and shows a progression of the "Tennis sound" into a harder more digital/glitchy but accesible rhythmic realm, with dub and german influences to the fore.
In May another prestigious collaboration, between SPACEHADS and MAX EASTLEY :
the time of the ancient astronaut. Universal head expander vol.1 [bleep 04]
MAX EASTLEY plays The Arc. A nine foot long mono chord. One string stretched over wood and played with a bow or glass rods. The pitch is changed by flexing the wood. The string can also be shortened with clips. It is then fed into electronic effects.
The SPACEHEADS is a duo mixing trumpet and electronics with drums and percussion.
In June a third volume in the BiP_HOp Generation series.
I have started to work with Chris Dooks (digital artist, broadcast tv director and musician) on his album under the moniker B O V I N E L I F E. Over the past fifteen months Bovine Life has been jamming through the modem, speaking in electronic tongues, secreting sounds that vary from being immersed in amniotic fluid, right through to searing bleeps that would make any nation stand to attention !
And it's all been done through the telephone autobahn - AKA the web !
This cd features BOVINE LIFE VS THE THIRD EYE FOUNDATION, and other collaborations with KOMET, KOHN, FUTURE PILOT AKA, and artists from labels such as MEGO (ALKU), LEAF (YLYPTYK), DISKONO... & more.
It should be released in September, along with a fourth volume in the BiP_HOp Generation series.
Also in the works is a series of split CDs and some more full-length... A lot is upcoming on biP_HOp so keep in touch.
AmbiEntrance: Are you actively seeking contributors for upcoming editions? Should interested parties contact you?
Petit: I still have a radio show, BiP_HOp is also a webzine so I'm always happy and i need to get new music so yes I hope that more and more musicians will get in touch. Obviously I won't be able to feature them all in the BiP_HOp Generation series but if i like their music they'll get airplay and promotion. I also set up local BiP_HOp performances every month with concerts and I DJ music I like in between the shows. So i guess it is worth getting in touch.
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