I recently sent some questions to shadowy French electro maven Luxus Varta who was kind enough to answer them. Monsieur Varta lives in the shadow of The Alps in Haute Savoie. Apart from almost hosting the Winter Olympics in 2018, it’s also the type of location where food programmes are made about cheese and saucisson. However, largely unknown to the population, it’s also a place where the electro tectonic plates shift in order to produce a strain of the genre so fundamentally at odds with its environment that its creator could be said to be inhabiting some sort of parallel universe. Luxus Varta is the artist in residence and what follows is a small insight into what goes on in his strange and fascinating mind.
The name came to mind during a hypnagogic state. It's a phase full of hallucinating ideas, but the most difficult thing is to remember them after sleep. Sometimes I manage to wake up and write them down, as was the case with ‘Luxus Varta’. And as I'm more interested in the sound of words than their meaning, it was perfect. It's up to you to interpret it in your own way.
You’ve been releasing music for around ten years under this name. However, you’ve yet to put out an album. Is there one on the horizon and, if so, is there a concept?
No, there's no album on the horizon at the moment. I'm not very attracted to this format, even more so these days when everything moves so fast and hardly anyone dwells on an overall concept anymore. People don't even listen to a whole song anymore, so imagine 10 or 12 tracks! I prefer to concentrate on 4 or 5 well-targeted compositions and then move on to something else. Listening to the same artist for more than 20 minutes seems complicated these days. I think the EP format is pretty well suited to our times.
You have collaborated with Paris The Black Fu as Techmarine Bottom Feeders though, and released ‘Boanerges & The Watery Deep’ back in 2020. How did that come about, what influenced it, and is that project dead now?
Basically, it's a solo project from Paris that started about 25 years ago. I joined after collaborating on 2 Detroit Grand Pubahs’ albums as drummer. At the time I already had my own home studio, so I played him a few demos I had in stock. He found them interesting and so we started working together. Things took a long time to fall into place because at the start we didn't really intend to publish anything. The album that finally came out is like a best of of all those years of experimentation. The project isn't dead, but I'm no longer involved because I don't have enough time to play two roles effectively.
How did the pandemic effect your work, and general outlook?
Very little impact on me as I spend most of my free time locked up in my studio :) I think artists are the people who have coped best with confinement. You have to be creative when you're locked up for a long time. And as I'm lucky enough to have a garden, it wasn't too difficult a time.
My outlook hasn't changed that much. I've always thought that our lives were hanging by a thread and that we should make the most of them. The pandemic just proved me right, among many other things...
I read that you operated a drum machine in a punk group. How does the spirit of that genre infiltrate your sound? Or is it just about attitude?
The punk spirit is at the root of my career, so it inevitably influences my music in some way. I think I've retained the freedom of expression, the non-conformism, and my attraction to underground productions. But the most important thing is to have realised that you don't need to learn music to become a musician, which makes things a lot more interesting if you want to stand out from the crowd. It's all a question of transposing energy into frequencies. Despite the wisdom that comes with age, the basic attitude remains intact. You just have to call on it at the right moment.
Using a drum machine helped me to analyse and understand rhythms, and then I moved naturally to the drums, all the while retaining the pleasure I had in programming the sounds. After that, I bought an MC-303 as soon as it came out, so I could play solo at home and record ideas.
How does living in Annecy influence you? I guess it’s not too far from Grenoble where Miss Kittin & The Hacker started out. Maelstrom is from Nantes I think. I don’t want to stereotype but do you notice any similarities between you all? And is electro; etc the music of the French provinces?
Let's be clear, as long as I can find myself lost alone in the forest less than 10 minutes from home, Annecy or anywhere else makes no difference. Nature is one of my main sources of inspiration, even if you can't hear it directly. Everything in it is open to interpretation, it's like a kind of monumental work of art bringing together a multitude of other works in perpetual motion. You have to know how to observe it to make the most of it.
I'm not far from Grenoble but I've never had the pleasure of meeting Kittin & The Hacker. Or Maelstrom, even though it was thanks to him and Objekt that I was able to release my first record 10 years ago. On several occasions, and especially with Louisahhh, his productions have demonstrated his taste for the punk spirit. He must have felt something familiar when he listened to my demos.
I don't think the electro scene is limited to the provinces. There may be a different vibe outside the big cities, but the genre remains the same. Not to mention all the talented artists who remain in the shadows. The tip of the iceberg doesn't always represent reality, as the internet shows us every day. So I couldn't make such a claim.
What is your creative process? Do you have a specific discipline when composing tracks?
It's pretty simple: I've kept my old band habits, when I used to practice with my bassist friend before joining the other guitarists. So I usually start by working on the rhythm section (unless I've picked up a different hypnagogic idea), which is the part that takes up the most time. Then I add pad chords (choir), arpeggio (rhythm guitar), and the melodies (lead guitar) often come last.
My creative process is relatively slow. I hardly listen to any music for a month before my recording session, it’s a good way to regain a bit of purity. In general, I rarely write more than 2 songs a month.
What’s your attitude towards clubbing? Do you go out often? Where are the hotspots in Annecy? Do you have any idea of how often your music is played out?
I don't have a clubbing culture at all. I've never liked dancing and I hate talking loudly :) So it's hard for me to give you an answer on this subject, because the only time I go to a club is to play live.
My music isn't particularly suited to the dancefloor, or at least I don't see it that way. I guess the format I offer isn't very practical for DJs, which greatly minimises the opportunity to play my tracks.
If you could go back to any musical epoch, where would you go and why?
The late 70s and early 80s seem like a good time. The post-punk movement was certainly very stimulating, as it is at every critical juncture when renewal is needed. There was still a lot to explore. Alternatively, going further back in time, the early 20th century might be another option. With the rejection of traditional orchestral music and the great classical composers, the questioning of tonal music and the arrival of the futurists, there must have been an incredible creative effervescence! A truly radical and crucial period in modern music.
Could you please put a playlist together of 15 tracks that have had a lasting influence on you and say a few words about it. Thanks.
From the inventive arrangements of Pixies to the relentless experimentation of Sonic Youth, via the intelligent rock of The Stranglers, these 15 tracks reflect most of my influences.
There are more or less obvious sources, such as my obsession with angelic choirs on Talk Talk's sublime ‘I Believe In You’, the singular rhythms of The Jesus Lizard, the delicate melodies of Harold Budd, the electronic manipulations of Jim O'Rourke, and the tintinnabulism of Arvo Pärt.
Influences don't necessarily appeal directly to memory, they can be very subtle. I like to think that all the sounds we ingest during our lives are stored in our subconscious, and that on the day you compose, the notes and melodies mix randomly to create your own personal touch. That's what music is all about.
Playlist :
01. Pixies - Hang Wire
02. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine
03. The Stranglers - Maninwhite
04. The Gun Club - My Dreams
05. The Jesus Lizard - Mouth Breather
06. Melvins - Buck Owens
07. Ween - The Goin' Gets Tough from the Getgo
08. Alan Vega - Faster Blaster
09. Fred Frith - Minimalism
10. Talk Talk - I Believe in You
11. Robert Wyatt - N.I.O. (New Information Order)
12. Harold Budd - Dead Horse Alive With Flies
13. Fennesz - Dheli Plaza
14. Jim O'Rourke - And a 1, 2, 3, 4
15. Arvo Pärt - Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, for string orchestra & bell
I have embedded the playlist below. Unfortunately 'Dead Horse Alive With Flies' isn't on Youtube, except as part of Harold Budd's album 'By The Dawn's Early Light'. So I've included the whole album.
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