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Kris Vango is back again, with new music, giving us a more relaxing, ambient and pop version of Virgo or a more electronic and crazy version of Gemini compared to the last Messenger/Mercury.
We have had the pleasure of speaking with him and this has been the result.
Your latest release presents two distinct versions of the music: a Virgo version and a Gemini version. Could you explain how these two different astrological signs influenced the musical and visual styles of each version?
Each album I create is themed for a planet and explores their archetypes through a sonic movement that references their themes, mythologies, spiritualities and so on. Less the phi; physics. And more the psi; psychic and psychedelic properties of these mystical neighboring spinning balls. Mercury in astrology relates to both Virgo and Gemini. Gemini being the mental and air element of the planet. Thought, the juggling jazz of the mental intellect and choosing which device to use to communicate something. And Virgo, the embodiment of this into earth (in the form of the physical expression and tangible manifestation by repetition and form). Together it is turning bubbles of ideas into consistent practice or principle which is self expression, logos, identity, format and communication. Both have different sound textures so it felt right to have two versions that reflect sonically the properties of both mercurial signs. Virgo is more a classic album. Gemini is everything and nothing all at once. It is open ended. It is something I might re-release many times in different forms and formats.
You mentioned that this new work was written at the start of the pandemic and is a homage to Sophie. How did the emotional weight of that period and your connection to Sophie shape the overall sound and feel of the project?
This will have to be a lengthy answer and I still feel awkward to talk about this because I don’t want to use Sophie to prop up my art, which is also why I released these independently, but I want to share my story and also speak my experiences. My sounds are always an autobiographical mirror of events in my life and this is also something I try to capture honestly within the art itself. Which can also be annoying for those around me as I’m in constant creating and rarely settled. I write my music mostly in travel and nomadically and support myself with digital commercial art jobs to allow me to work remotely and create in places of spiritual, philosophical or cultural importance. When I started this work, during the misery of the lockdowns I found myself in Athens and through close contacts in orbit of Sophie who was living there with her girlfriend at the time. I had brief but unique experiences of her in private in a time the public world was shut down. And before she passed this world. I still struggle to understand what happened there, in a way her death was a nuclear bomb that rippled out not only there but in communities where she was revered and that I was somehow entangled into that horrific event was disorientating for a long time. But in some way. I feel that there were messages around her passing. That not only me but other people saw felt and perceived. Very spiritual moments that are difficult to communicate. In context of messenger; many of the artists involved are androgynous and are huge fans of her. While collaborating we talked, shared and processed her loss into the work consciously or subconsciously. Her presence and spirit touched so many regardless of her physical being. And I felt because this work was written in that era, people involved all love and adore her and grieve her and also she was mercurial (Virgo). In memory of her I want to carry what inspired me in her message and legacy into my own art (of unity consciousness, synthesising more unique and contemporary sounds, to enjoy pop again after rejecting it since a teenager) and to also process the personal tragedy of witnessing and absorbing so much pain in that moment in time. I don’t think I am alone in saying this and so many of my community of collaborators share this, that when Sophie died, their art changed. Something shifted. They got some upgrade or raging fire to create authentic work. Maybe that speaks to a sentiment that she was more than human. Maybe she was. I believe this.
The Virgo version features all visuals created by 3D artists. How important is the integration of visual art to your music, and how do you feel this enhances the listener’s experience?
This project is an AV project. Every track released has a visual piece. Some are collages of diy film I create as I travel and others I collaborate with artists I love that I also enjoy to support as well as ai experiments and sequences that explore esoterica. I am nostalgic to the album or record sleeve art. So I attempt to create a full visual world to accompany my music people can explore like a theme park. I’m always adding content and I like the idea that it becomes a kind of fantasy world people can enter than to release videos formally and commercially. Some are abstract, others more produced and others visualizers, A.I experiments and visual poetries.
In contrast, the Gemini version is built from footage captured during lockdowns in various cities. How did these urban landscapes and symbols contribute to the mood of this version, and how did you decide on these locations?
There is something captivating to me about their impossible opposites. Athens, the western construct at the fall of the west. Also of mathematics, computation (antikythera mechanism). The Greek language to me before learning it to speak was like the matrix. Being surrounded by maths and mathematical symbols. So it captivated my sci-fi imagination especially during the dystopian backdrop of the pandemic and pharma which is rooted in the letter phi in Greek. With Berlin, the ground zero of World War Two and the current teasing of ww3. Also the balkans where the tension between the west and Russia/Middle East is permiating the air constantly. Egypt and Israel/Palestine the exodus path out of slavery that is a story that transcends its dogmatic roots and bleeds across religious divides. There is an electricity in these places in these times that feels very ouroboros. Sometimes even very strong spiritual symbols of an impending end to the current modality. A finale.
Your work has a strong narrative and symbolic depth. How do you balance creating a story with maintaining musical fluidity? Do you see the visuals and music as equally important in conveying this story?
Yes to the visuals being important but also no. This is the challenge to make it work without visuals and with this I sometimes fail and sometimes succeed. If I fail hopefully I inspire someone to do it better than me. Because the symbolic themes are often more abstract than logical i work with more sonic and visual poetry. I like films where sequences create moods than strict story telling. So it washes over you but full of information that you dont necessarily need to pay attention to, to receive. Also, I purposely incorporate a visual ADHD advertising propaganda aesthetic to reflect this commercial information bombardment era but with themes that relate to the messages in the sounds. So that also influences me in how I create sound and visuals and how formats of showcasing art is in a hyper metamorphic state with artificial intelligence. I am anyway a graphic designer who makes art. So visuals are always important, also fonts. I make all my own fonts and typography for the project too.
You often experiment with genres, from ambient pop to electronic. Do you see this release as fitting into one genre, or does it resist classification entirely?
I resist classification. To my detriment. But genre to me is like gender. Creative expression is alchemy of gender and genre… so to me it is impossible to ever classify myself or to trap myself in an identity. To me, giving something a genre or gender pollutes the intention of the artist into “what are their metrics?” and it drives artists to deny the vulnerability of their authenticity to instead play to classifications. Often driven by fears of not being legitimised by a genre subculture. But I also respect that others really love music categorisation. Just not for me. I’m allergic to that. I think we exist in a time where in an abundance of material by talented artists, we are strangled by such rigid formatting of genre into playlists, labels and curated events. I don’t know where we lost our curiosity as music consumers. I find a lot of platforms, because of their way of formatting content, sideline the innovators in pursuit of maintaining followings. But I guess the good part of that is that there is a real underground again and some things people have to dig to find. Which is always the best way to discover things! Digital record stores maybe :)
What message or feeling do you hope listeners take from the Virgo versioon versus the Gemini version? Are they meant to be experienced differently?
Yes. Virgo, to accept yourself fully, work consistently at perfecting yourself and taking care of yourself and others and to judge and compare to others less . Gemini, to play and pay attention to all the signs symbols synchronicity’s, random events, quantum entanglements and to have fun to work to turn chaos into order… in the mess of contradiction is always a quantum truth to discover!
www.krisvango.com / @kris.vango
Videos:
Work: https://youtu.be/q-NKqNtW6Nc
Spica: https://youtu.be/qW-Qd592qQs
I Dissolve: https://youtu.be/2BmFuTa1IoU
Videos:
Je Pense: https://youtu.be/PoCXT5tVZMM
Batteries: https://youtu.be/QYZsdaRHtIY
No More Harm: https://youtu.be/iSMIfBw8CGI
