Anton Lambert is a musician who has a residency in Het Bos in May as a solo artist. You can listen to the results of his residency during Vruchtbare Grond in May.
Is there a specific environment or material that's integral to your work?
Sound, in all its forms and functions. A major part of my artistic practice is to record, collect and archive all sorts of sounds which I mould and modify; ranging from pure field recordings to heavily granulated and deconstructed textures. I like to work with recorded sounds and manipulate them, until the origin of the sound is barely recognizable and becomes a musical element. With these elements and different sonic qualities, I aim to improvise and create spatial (live-)compositions, drawing from concepts as chance, probability and random or noise-based algorithms. This archive of sounds are taken from different environments and sonic spaces that intrigued me, there is not so much a specific environment I like to work with.
Tell us about your techniques for overcoming creative blocks.
Hard to say, they come and go as they please I believe. Trying too hard to overcome them has often the opposite effect for me. Nevertheless, the first thing I would do in such case is to go for a walk and look for a point where I can stare into the distance as far as possible and listen to the sounds around me.
How has your style changed over time?
Somehow I feel my style or creation process has never changed drastically, only developed or evolved organically over time. As most of my work revolves around improvisation, which is in itself an ever changing and evolving practice, I believe it grows with you as you practice and develop your playing constantly and often subtly.
What’s your background?
Musically, my background mainly lies within the broad jazz and improvised music idiom, although I’ve been more active in performance and installation art lately. For me it all started with the cello at the age of six, later I moved to the double bass and then during my studies I discovered the endless possibilities of recorded sound which brought me to electronic music. When I was 18 I had to choose what to study and back then I was in my last year in high school at an art school in Ghent, where I took classes in architecture. The choice to go study either architecture or music has been one of the biggest dilemmas of my life. I’m still fully convinced and happy of choosing music, but I do believe that certain aspects of architecture and fine arts in general are still seeping through my music and my artistic practice.