Interview with P•A•L

Recently Aufnahme+Wiedergabe rereleased Christian Pallentin / P•A•L first full length entitled Signum, one of the first Ant-Zen albums, cult German label, still alive and fresh.  Maschinenfest, one of the most importants Industrial music festivals and the most relevant rhythmic industrial festival, took place in Oberhausen only one week ago and we’ve asked the artist to talk about his music. He had a lot to say. This (FLUXInterview #55) is our interview to P•A•L!

Hi Christian, it’s a pleasure to talk with you about the rerelease of your album Signum! Your project P•A•L doesn’t need to be introduced to our readers, they already know about it but it would be good to give us some additional elements in order to better undestand what you want to express with your music and what P•A•L is about. Signum was released approximately twenty years ago and your sound, as well as that of Ant-Zen, has evolved a lot in the meanwhile. Tell us something about this album we can’t only know from listening to it and reading the “booklet”.

Signum was the result of two years of work. I started the project P•A•L in 1993, releasing a few tracks on compilations followed by a vinyl 7“ and being part of the Zyklus D Vinyl LP with three tracks in 1994. Signum can be seen as a conclusion of the most important tracks I did until mid-1995, so strictly speaking it was not an “album”, it was more like a collection of tracks which were already released plus exclusively recorded material to be presented to listeners on CD format.

Let’s talk about P•A•L before P•A•L existed. Which music did you use to listen and to play to? Tell us what was your music and cultural path through which you’ve become who you are.

I was born in 1966, and since the age of three I love music, which covered all kinds of styles and genres between regular Pop tones to Rock. In 1979 I was very much into common “Hard Rock” sound, followed by the discovery of 60’s Psychedelic Rock and later on Electronic Music, especially the “Berlin School” subgenre (Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream…), and – of course – also Kraftwerk. At the beginning of the Eighties I fell in love with Jazz – and then came (classic) Industrial Music like TG, Cabaret Voltaire and SPK. In 1996 I formed a band, the sound can be described as some sort of “Experimental Rock”. This band split in 1988, and I started to release a few cassette tapes on which I especially explored the possibilities of Sampling – due to the high costs of decent Sampling equipment these possibilities were rather limited. In 1993 I decided to buy better equipment to make recordings on the highest possible level – recordings which were suitable for a record or even CD release. In these days I met Salt who started Ant-Zen as a cassette label and who asked me for a compilation track. So I needed a name for my  project – and I chose the acronym of my second name (Pallentin) – P•A•L was born.

Although in the last years I’ve become passionated about your music and that produced by labels such as Ant-Zen or HANDS and others, I prefer not to talk about fixed music definitions as technoise or rhythmic noise. I imagine you consider them silly categorizations, although I think using some of them can be useful for readers in order to understand what they’re going to listen and to buy.

Categorizations are necessary, but being limited to one specific category is a “dead end”. Ant-Zen f.e. can not be defined as a “rhythmic noise” label, as it has released a huge variety of styles from experimental ambient to even Rock-oriented material. And it is just the same with my own project: Of course my most well-known material is the rhythmic, distorted one, but if you listen to Signum from beginning to end you will find way more to discover. A “general categorization” is important, so I describe P•A•L as an “Industrial” project and new listeners know the general direction. But at the end of the day there are only two important categorizations concerning music: Good and bad.

How would you define your sound? In which percentage it’s noise, techno or industrial?

In the beginning, the rhythmic, noisy part was more important as it is now. During the last releases I turned more into ambient soundscapes, although the “power noise” ingredients are still visible. There were also explorations into the IDM sector, especially on the M@rix release. So, a general definition is hard to give, but if you label it “Industrial”, I am fine with it.

With FLUX we try to underline relations between music and society, landscape and culture. Do you think there’s a particular relation between Ant-Zen music and a particular context or do you think it could have happened anywhere?

Art is – or should be – always a result of influences of all kind. So if we keep Ant-Zen as an example, the label would be another one if it would be not based in Bavaria/Germany. Yes, it could have been happened almost anywhere, the general direction would be the same, but many details would have been different.

Reading the album notes, you’ve cited a lot of different music and not music influences and this is interesting. How they have influenced you?

I think you mean how they have influenced the sound of P•A•L – well, not necessarily in a “direct” way, but f.e. in a way how this music was generally recorded, how rhythmic accents have been set, how certain mood were generated. I never wanted to be a “copycat” copying projects I like. These influences are more “subliminal” and without these, my sound would have been different even if the influential sources are not audible.

Some months ago I’ve read an old interview of yours in which you were talking about techno music, if I remember well. Today we talk about techno industrial, and there are a lot of artists moving towards this direction, or who have rediscovered their techno roots. What do you think about this phenomenon? Do you like it?

What I like about it is the fact that some artists have discovered the Industrial origins just a few years ago, simply because of they are young at age. So they treat these origins with a very different approach than my generation did. If you are influenced by Industrial and turn into techno, the result is quite different than in the opposite case.

Going back talking about music and society, subcultures, etc… I’ve started to follow with great interest your festivals, and I’ve been very happy to come back to Oberhausen for Maschinenfest! I’ve noticed people going to these festivals feel part of it, buy music, merch, are updated about their favourite labels. It seems to me something unique. How could you explain me this phenomenon?

Well, this is not a new phenomenon at all. If you read about festival culture starting already in the 1950s in Jazz (Newport), emerging in the 1960s in Rock (Monterey Pop, Woodstock…) and continuing from the 1970s to present, the basics you describe have always been the same. Concerning the “Industrial” genre: What is special about Maschinenfest in my opinion is the fact that this festival is beyond any ideological boundaries – in the Industrial genre there are quite many festivals which serve a specific patronage. At Maschinenfest you will find the entire spectrum of contemporary electronic music, and even if visitors do not like some of the projects performing, the spirit is there – a positive spirit.

One thing I like about your music is that I consider it quite “positive”, music that stimulates thought in  a different way from those industrial music artists talking about pessimism and negative topics (I consider myself an optimistic person!). Do you agree with this thought? It seems to me that, during the festivals, all the people are friendly too.

Yes, I agree concerning the festivals, and I really like that fact. Talking about my music, things are a bit different. You can find any kind of mood while listening to P•A•L, from aggression to melancholy and sadness. But I try to keep things more “positive” than I did 25 years ago, maybe a question of age and experience..

What do you think about Italian industrial music scene? Do you know about it? Would you like to play in Italy in the future?

I know a few projects which I really like, f.e. Bad Sector and Sigillum S – yes, sure I would like to play in Italy, and I even played there once, in Vicenza, 2002.

A new Blade Runner movie has just been made, have you seen it? I ask you this because in a part of industrial music, Blade Runner has been considered a source for a lot of samples. Have you ever used any?

I haven’t seen the new version yet – of course I really like the original movie, but I never used any samples from it – it is used a bit too often by so many projects in my opinion..

Analogic or digital gear? What do you think about it? I’ve recently bought an Arturia synthesizer, and I would like to buy a good drum machine. Some people think analogic is better than digital some others not, some think it should be a mix. What do you think about it and what would you suggest?

Suggestions are hard to give – as a musician you have to feel confortable with your equipment, no matter if it is analogue or digital. I always used digital equipment, in the beginning it was MIDI-controlled hardware (Akai Sampler, Kawai K4, Yamaha DX7-II, Yamaha CS1X synthesizers), now I only use software, my favorite one is Propellerhead Reason. It is not a question of “better” or “worse”, the result is important. As an example: For my track Intercøurse I only used a digital delay pedal and a microphone..

It’s been a pleasure to interview you, I hope you’ve liked the questions. Greetings from Italy! If you want, greet our readers!

Thank you for the interview – best wishes to you and to all open-minded listeners in Italy and world wide!