OM Gossip #14

Interview with Night Foundation, new tapes

“Souvenir” by Florida-based artist Night Foundation will be out next on OM. Edition of 80 tapes / around 40 remaining.

Richard Vergez is the person behind Night Foundation. He released one of my favourite albums on Psychic Liberation, does his own label Noir Age and works as a graphic artist doing stunning collage work that resembles John Heartfield - but as with his music, his prints and collages aren’t noisy and wild; they are assembled rather carefully and leave just the right amount of gaps to power-fuel your imagination. I sat down with Richard over the last few days for a short interview about his work.

Richard, you work as a graphic artist, do a monthly radio show, release music under the names of Drowning The Virgin Silence and Night Foundation, and release music by others in various formats on your own Noir Age label. What drives you to produce so much stuff?
I'd say my desire to produce comes from restless ideas and the realization that there are pieces missing in this world that need to be filled in. It brings me great satisfaction to create something that didn't exist before. My music projects have grown and amassed over the years as a result of constantly listeing to new and different music. Music brings me pleasure but it is also a form of research into why artists make the decisions that they do. Doing the radio show mixes is an exploration of the endless combinations that can be constructed from recorded music. Juxtapositions and chance meetings. 
With my label, Noir Age, the focus is to take this research that I have done over the years recording and listening, and switch to the other side of the tracks. The majority of the reading that I do relates to music history and music design. So I have great interest in how it all works or doesn't work. And especially creating artwork to represent each release. Starting the label was an experiment to take what I have learned and apply it in real life. It also brings me great joy to be able to work with talented artists from all around the world and not be confined to just the small nothingness of the boring sunny, seaside town that I live in. Where I was once only a musician sending my demos to labels with hope for doing a release, now I am the label receiving the demos. And I do release some demos that I get if I really resonate with the music. I'm not interested in seeking out big names just to sell tapes. The music needs to mean something.

Interesting what you say about missing pieces that need to be filled in, because one of my favourite things about Night Foundation is how reduced the songs are - like they are moving in circles around a void, playing with the notion of absence. You always record on analogue equipment, right?
The missing pieces can be filled with absence as well. Inserting these silences within the music is very important to me, to create space for everything to have its place in the song. The "void" you mention is definitely present, something that reflects the obscure sorrow of our lives. 
Making music on the computer is very boring for me. It's like playing a video game, which I don't care for. Analogue equipment is just so much more physical. As well as using normal objects like metal or glass amplified through a contact mic to construct "musical" sounds. The computer tries to make everything too perfect. I am attracted to the occasional errors that arise, it's all very human. 

That's good, I like that. The music is essentially human. And it works outside the confines of space and time. Can you tell me a bit about the old reel tapes you used and the found sounds which can be heard on the tape version of "Souvenir"?
The album was recorded on an old reel-to-reel tape. Something I got from a charity shop that already had something recorded there. So that slips in from time to time in between tracks.
Here in Florida, the bug and train sounds at night are a big event. As well as strange radio transmissions. Always worth recording because they constantly fluctuate ever so suddenly. They are the spaces between events worth remembering. Also, towards the end, it’s the sound of a giant, beautiful wind chime I recorded. Then some fireworks from a rooftop and my dog walking bravely through the night. Souvenirs from a past-mind.

You also released a new Night Foundation tape, Reflection - is there a relation between "Souvenir" and "Reflection"? Are your albums made as separate entities, where you follow one special idea? Or do they relate to each other?
I'd say these two recent albums are somewhat of companions as they feature similar instrumentation and were recorded during the same period. And both touch on this idea of nostalgia and existentialism, suspended in a dream-like, hypnagogic space. 

Tape will be out next friday, february 24th.

Btw OM alumnus Savvas Metaxas started a new label with two friends. It’s called Dasa Tapes. Last week, they released a ridiculously fantastic album by Stefan Christoff & Lori Goldston (yes, the same Lori Goldston who also plays Cello in Earth). You should definitely check this out. Golden Drones from the punk equinox. As it seems, there are still some copies of the 70-tape-edition left!

We also have 4 tapes left from Savvas’ Transmitter tape which came out right around the time when the world went to sleep during the first days of the pandemic - bad timing, but the four compositions are - for me - among the best stuff we have ever released.

Also, OM houseband DRNTTCKS have another new tape out, it’s kind of the weird sister of Nein+Nein and revolves completely about mushrooms. Mama Was A White Birch, Daddy Was A German Oak is out in an edition of 40 on Grisaille.

End transmission #14.
Ambassador Kaputt