PlayRec: What is the meaning of the album title "Nolite Te Bastardes Carburondorum"?

Edwin: For some time last year, I occasionally recommended the American drama "The Handmaid's Tale" to people around me. The name of this release is not only an extension of the author Margaret Atwood's imagination of the world of politics and religion, but it also has a contemporary meaning. "Nolite Te Bastardes Carburondorum" appears from the first season of the series. The protagonist, June, found this text in her wardrobe when she was entirely desperate. The title of this album is not only out of my awe of the women in the story, but it also refers to a current and universal meaning: if one knows what happened in Hong Kong last year, the meaning is self-evident.

PlayRec: From your own bandcamp page (auditoryscenes.bandcamp.com), this appears to be one of the ones in this series since "MUSIC FOR FUNERAL"?

Edwin: Since 2019, the covers of many of my works are simple. When I made "MUSIC FOR FUNERAL", it was at the beginning of a year, so I decided to change the design. They are consistent in sound processing. When it comes to "MUSIC FOR FUNERAL", I want to give the work additional information or space for imagination beyond the sound.


PlayRec: The title and cover of the series seem to have religious connotations?

Edwin: This is a question we discussed roughly before. Yes, in recent years, I have been thinking about the issue of religion, or more precisely, the issue of Christian faith. In fact, in the past few years, many relatives who are Christian in my family passed away one by one, and it makes me thinking about many issues of life and death, religion, and belief. The contradictions and conflicts in it are difficult to explain in a few words. Therefore, I deliberately put some thinking into the cover design as a process.
I met NERVE (Steve Hui) a few months ago and told me that my recent works have a religious characteristic. I think so. When I first created this batch of works, I was also thinking about whether to make a relatively complete work to present this kind of thinking. However, I temporarily put this idea aside, or it is not the time yet.


PlayRec: From "Chaos in Cosmos", you've been composing music that are about an hour long each and have a very deep sound, is there anything you'd like to share with us?


Edwin: In my interview in "Dedication" in 2018, I mentioned the influence of Celer on me. I think it is not only a musical influence but also an influence in my mentality of creative process. Celer mentioned in different interviews that the “music as a diary'' creative methodology had hugely influenced my creative practice. Maybe I don't want to put too much unnecessary pressure on my music creation, and I don't want to be too inflexible with my creation. So I regard these works as a diary or a state at a particular time. This is one of the backgrounds.
My approach to music (except for field recording) has always been something about  ambient/drone. In 2018, I found a relatively suitable method for me, which is to slow down the sound sources at 20 times speed and superimpose them to form a fascinating sound flow. The creation of slowing down the speed of the sound source is not new, and the creation of this series is another kind of remix, strictly speaking. But, in terms of length, I prefer to create one to two hours of sound experience.


PlayRec: In fact, I feel that this music is more or less related to the current situation in Hong Kong since "Chaos in Cosmos", right?

Edwin: Well, yes, after all, sometimes it is difficult to make music or create without being connected with our environment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PlayRec：標題取 Nolite Te Bastardes Carburondorum 什么意思？

Edwin: 在去年的一段時間, 我都偶爾向身邊的人推薦美劇《使女的故事》（The Handmaid's Tale）, 不單是展期了作者 Margaret Atwood 對政教合一世界的想像, 而且它更是有一種當下現實的意義。「Nolite Te Bastardes Carburondorum」出自於劇集第一季, 女主角在絕望的時候在她的衣櫃當中發現了這段文字。這張專輯以此為題, 不單是出於我對故事當中女性們的敬畏, 而且它更指涉於一種當下和普遍的意義: 如果瞭解到香港去年發生種種的事, 當中的意義不言自明, 盡在不言中。

PlayRec: 從你自己的 bandcamp 頁面（https://auditoryscenes.bandcamp.com）看，這張似乎是自「MUSIC FOR FUNERAL」以來這個系列的其中一張？


Edwin: 自 2019 年以來, 我很多作品的封面都是很簡單的去做。而剛剛做「MUSIC FOR FUNERAL」的時候剛好是一年之始, 就決定改設計了。在聲音處理上, 它們都是始終如一。而到了「MUSIC FOR FUNERAL」我想在聲音之外, 給予作品額外的資訊或者想像的空間。


PlayRec: 這個系列的標題與封面似乎都具有宗教的意涵？

Edwin: 這個是我之前跟你提過的問題。是的, 近幾年都在思考宗教的問題, 或者更確切的是基督教信仰問題。其實在過去幾年, 家裡很多有基督教信仰的親屬都一一撒手塵寰, 令我思考很多生死、宗教與信念的問題, 當中的矛盾與衝突也很難以三言兩語講得明白。因此, 我刻意將一些思考放進封面的設計上, 就當作一種過程。
幾個月前踫見NERVE跟我說, 說我的最近的作品有一種宗教性。我想也是吧。其實一開始創作這批作品時, 我也在思考要不要做一個相對地完整的作品來呈現這種思考。但後來我暫時將這個想法放在一邊, 或者還未是時候。 


PlayRec: 從「Chaos in Cosmos」這張開始，你就開始進行每首曲子時長均在一小時左右、聲響非常深沈的作曲了，關於這個方向有什麼想分享給大家的嗎？

Edwin: 在 2018 年我在《Dedication》的訪問提到 Celer（https://celer.bandcamp.com）對我的影響，我想不單是音樂上的影響，而更是一種心態上的影響。Celer 在不同的訪問當中都提到的「以音樂作為一種日記」的創作方式深得我心，或者我不想給自己的音樂上的創作太多不必要的壓力，也不想對於自己的創作過於執著。所以我將這批作品當作為一種日記，或某一個時候的狀態。這是其中一個背景。
一直以來我在音樂上（除了 field recording 之外）的取向是做一些偏向 ambient/drone 的東西。在 2018 年，我找到一個相對合適我的方式，就是將音源以 20 倍速放慢，並再加以疊加會構成一種很有意思的聲音流動。將音源速度放慢的創作不是新的事，而這個系列的創作嚴格來講是另一種 remix，只不過是在長度上我偏向是在一至兩小時的聲音體驗。

PlayRec: 其實我仿佛感受到自「Chaos in Cosmos」以來這些音樂與香港的現狀有關？

Edwin: 嗯, 是的, 畢竟有時做音樂或創作很難不跟身處的環境有所聯繫。

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edwin Lo is an artist and researcher working across video, image, installation, sound and video game. By utilizing sound as the focal point of his practice, his practice concerns the individuation of sound as medium, as aesthetics source, and philosophical reflections. 

Since 2008, Lo’s works are widely presented in various local and overseas exhibitions, festivals and residencies such as Para/site (Hong Kong), Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism Architecture 2009, FILE 2010 – Electronic Language International Festival (Brazil, 2010), EMERGEANDSEE Media Art Festival (Germany, 2010), Hong Kong InDependent Film Festival 2010 , City University of Hong Kong (2011), Braunschweig Project (Germany, 2013), RPM: Ten Years of Sound Art in China (United States, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, 2013), Around Sound Art Festival (Japan, 2014), Palais de Tokyo (2014), K11 foundation (2015), Tokyo Arts and Space (2017) and Loop Barcelona 2019.

In 2014 and 2016, Lo presented two solo exhibitions “Time spent, lost and regained…” at Goethe Institut Hong Kong in 2014 and “Traces and Scenes” at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, United States in 2016. In 2017, he presented his solo project “OBJEKT” with sound art organization Singuhr in Germany. He recently was the research resident of Tokyo Arts and Space research residency in the summer of 2019 in researching the electroacoustic composition of Jean-Claude Eloy in Tokyo. 

Lo lives and works in Hong Kong.

auditoryscenes.work

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

羅潤庭
現為聲音藝術家。其創作實踐涉足於錄像、圖像、裝置、聲音和遊戲。通過將聲音作為他藝術實踐的重點，他的藝術實踐涉及聲音作為一種媒介、美學的源頭和哲學思考的個體化。
自 2008 年以來，羅氏的作品在本地和海外的各種展覽、藝術節和駐地項目中廣泛展出，例如 Para / site（香港）、深圳和香港城市建築雙城雙年展 2009、FILE 2010 – 電子語言國際藝術節（巴西/ 2010年）、EMERGEANDSEE 媒體藝術節（德國 / 2010年）、2010 年香港獨立電影節、香港城市大學（2011年），布倫瑞克計劃（德國/ 2013年）、RPM：中國聲音藝術十年（美國、香港和上海 2013 年）、AROUND 聲音藝術節（日本， 2014 年）、巴黎東京宮（2014 年）、K11 基金會（2015 年）、東京藝術與空間（2017 年）和巴塞羅那循環藝術節（2019 年）。
在 2014 年和 2016 年，羅氏在 2014 年在香港歌德學院舉辦了兩個個人展覽《時間的流失、失去和重新獲得……》，並在 2016 年在美國芝加哥的 Experimental Sound Studio 舉辦了《痕迹與情景 ── 向 鈴木昭男 致敬》。 2017 年，他與德國聲音藝術組織 Singuhr 合作共同舉辦的“ OBJEKT”個人項目。他最近於 2019 年夏季擔任東京藝術與空間 (TOKAS) 駐地的研究員，研究 Jean-Claude Eloy 在東京的電子音樂的創作。

羅氏現於香港居住及工作。

auditoryscenes.work