Ambione Foundation (AF):

- Please tell what was you beginning of activity in ambient music? Who or what was a “symbolic sign” that make you start to create ambient?

Michael Bruckner (MB):

- Generally speaking, I want to remind of two facts concerning me and my music:

a.) I am an amateur musician, not a professional, which means that most of the time I’m working as a printer and designer to earn a living for my little family, or do household cores or spend time with my wife or my daughter, and other things. So it’s not possible to dedicated the bigger part of my energy, creativity and time to my music like I wish I could. Also I’m not a wealthy person, and I can’t afford just any equipment I would love to work with - actually the few equipment I own is quite some years old and always on the egde of falling apart.
Being an amateur also means that I never had any formal musical training or education (apart from school, where I was musically not very brilliant…) - I’m completely self-tought.

b.) It’s true that my focus and main field of activity is ambient music; but I’m also interested and active in many other musical directions, both as a listener and as a composer/producer/musician. The complete list of music and styles I like (or at least partly like) and produce is very, very long and also contains music which appears to be quite the opposite of ambient (like Hard Rock, for example…).
To explain all my ideas and thoughts regarding music and art here is beyond the scope and intention of this interview, but it’s important to me to stress that I’m musically very open-minded and in favour of transcending barriers or frontiers between musical genres rather than building them…

Many influences came together to trigger my interest for ambient, some in childhood, some while growing up…to many to mention them all.
About 1991 I did start to practice meditative yoga, which also included extended mantra chanting and meditating to the sound of a tamboura. When I started to produce music in 1992, I did not intend to become an ambient musician, but rather to do melodic rock/world music in the style of Mike Oldfield or Andreas Vollenweider. The repetitive and minimal elements of the indian music and my occupation with meditation and spiritual ideas though did inspire me to do quiter tracks with less and less “action” in it, so soon I started to produce purely atmospheric “sound scapes” without calling it “ambient” or knowing much about the concepts behind that musical genre.

Within this yoga thing I also met a classical cellist, Christoph von Erffa, who had a strong interest in microtonal music and gave me an introduction to that, which did open my mind for avantgarde music…

Around the same time, someone gave me the book “Through music to the self” by German modern classical composer Peter Michael Hamel, which is about different traditions of meditative music and deals a lot with the quality of sound (as opposed to melody) which has been a big influence - as well a Hamel’s composition “Organum” (for church organ and sea shell!), which to my mind is an ambient masterpiece without being labeled “ambient”…

One or two years later, when I started to study design, a good friend (Klaus Chmielewski, a great musician who did help me on some tracks…) gave me two CDs: “The Shutov Assembly” by Brian Eno and “The Pearl” by Brian Eno and Harold Budd, and introduced me to some of Eno’s intellectual concepts, and there, finally, the bridge was built to the “real” ambient movement…

Finally, still one or two years later, a girl I knew introduced met to The Orb and Future Sound of London - I was immensly impressed and from then on took new electronic music for serious (throughout the 90ies - when it “took place” - I somehow did manage to completely ignore the “techno revolution” and all electronic styles that developed from that…I guess I had always heard the wrong examples and felt that techno or dance was only cheap, sterile music for the masses…so I still had quite a lot good music to discover…).

AF: -Your music can be named as “atmospheric”. Do you agree with it or how can you name you personal style in your own way?

MB: - I agree to the term “atmospheric”…though I’m not shure if I have a “personal style”. This is hard to see for me from the “inside”, as the one who’s doing it. This is something my listeners have to decide. I can say that it did happen to me again and again that I first did a track without any idea like “I want to sound like so-and-so…”, but when I played it to friend a.) he said: “That’s like “Outland” by David Bowie (an album I did not know before) and when I played it to friend b.) he said “That sounds like Neuronium.” (a band I never had heard of before). On the other hand, in some cases I tried to sound like other musicians, and in nearly all cases, I did fail completely…

But of course, all music I ever heard is somehow in the pot where I cook my soup in, I can’t escape that. Without input, there’s no output.

In addition to “atmosphere”, the element of “story-telling” is important to me. I love books, and I love also music that tells a fascinating story, and usually try to achieve that as well, I try to activate the imagination of the listener.
Another idea is what J.R.R. Tolkien referred to as “secondary creation” - the attempt to create an alternative world…or cosmos…through art.
While these things (atmosphere, story telling and secondary creation) apply to all of my music, in the case of ambient there’s one more aspect, and that’s introspection (or meditation, if You like), the attempt to enable the listern to turn inside and have an encounter with his inner reality…
AF: - How usually do you create your tracks? Do you have your special muse or you can imagine of any case and start to record?
MB: -I don’t have one single strategy I follow all the time, this would be boring. Rather there’s a reservoir of possibilities (or: techniques) I know and which can combined in many ways. To give some examples:

Sometimes I use a simple sound and invent a chord progression with it. In the next step, I play that progression with 20 different sounds, then I mix and fade between these layers of sound to achieve a satisfying “evolution” of the different sound colours. Sometimes, at this point the track is finished. Sometimes I add maybe noises…or processed beats…or spoken words…or synth lines…could be anything - and the track is finished. Or I take the result and send it through five different combinations of sound processors, and mix the mixdowns like I did with those first 20 sounds. And this game can go on endlessly, until I decide: now this is a finished track or:
this crap will never be any good, and delete it.

On another day, I just improvise with a sound I like, pick four minutes from a fiveteen minute jam and think: isn’t this a wonderful track?

Big fun is also trying to play some jazz with traditional sounds (though it does not “work”, since I’m not a brilliant jazz player…), reverse the result, pitch it down three octaves and send the resulting file through a combination of resonant filters, endless echos and tons of reverb. Chances are good that You end up with a fascinating ambient drone…

Some people also recommend to let a cat walk across the keyboard…obiously, these are the brilliant jazz pianists (who don’t know anything about ambient…)
AF: -What is your favourit equipment? Do you prefer hardware or use VST`s also?

MB: - As said at the beginning, I can’t really afford my favorite equipment, and I did not have the chance to test the most stuff I’m interested in. On the other hand, I did learn a lot and had a lot of ideas by trying to produce similar sounds like the expensive equipment with my cheaper possibilities (usually after listening to sound examples of some new synth on the CD of Keyboards Magazine…). Sometimes great fun…
So far, I have chiefly worked (and still do) with Cubase 5 (VST = the old Cubase…) on a Mac G4 with a quite a big collection of freeware-VSTs and a couple of commercial (and probably “better”) ones. Among these, my favorite clearly is the Absynth, a great tool. I also have an older version of Reaktor, but I didn’t do very much with it, because the processor of my G4 is to slow for the more complex patches and often crashes.
Rather than using Synth A for the Bass and Synth B for the pad etc. I use Cubase like a big modular system by combinig effects and layers of different VSTs to sounds which are far more complex than a lone freeware snyth could be. It woorks good, but I can’t use this technique live - the risk that it’s getting too complex for the processor and the computer crashes is too big.
Another standard tool for me is Reason 1.0 (the oldest version), which is very handy for composition and programming beats. It’s also better for live work because it needs less resources.
But my “secret weapon” - especially for experimental and ambient music - is the Metasynth, a great tool that can render pixel pictures into sound…or music…the possiblities that result from that are innummerable. If someone is interested, he can look for it in the net (too much to tell here…).
I’d love to use all kinds of hardware - especially to be able to play live, something I hardly do because of lack of reasonable equipment. My biggest favorit here is the “Spectralis”, which was developed by J?rg Schaaf, a German sound designer and a great electronic musician. It’s an unbelievable combination of an analog synth, sequencer, sample player and filter bank. Sadly, I can’t afford it, so I planned to buy the Waldorf Blofeld - I always dreamed of using one of the big Waldorf Synths like the Q - but when I just was about to order it, it became evident that I needed the money for something else…

AF: - The name of your tracks is a prolongation of your music or it..s just a number of words without any “secret” mention?

MB: -Good question…since I produce a lot of tracks, I have sometimes trouble to find a good title. It’s quite easy to find the title for a song (from the lyrics…), but with rather abstract instrumentals, it’s not so easy. I know musicians who just number their tracks… To make it more confusing, I usually have funny working titels for the tracks and give them their final title when I produce the album cover and need one. As a result, I don’t know the titles of a lot of my own tracks.
For example, one of my projects-in-work-folders at the moment is titeled (believe it or not) “Rather Mussia” - which is an anagram of “Mother Russia” - with four unfinished tracks in it which are called “Rather Mussia 01″ or “Rather Mussia 02 Ambient”…and so on. By now, I don’t have any idea how the tracks in the end will be called.
On the other hand, I have collections of titles that came to my mind somewhen, but without an existing track…
Usually, I try to find a “good” title, that gives an idea of the feeling of the track, without revealing too much and leaving something open for imagination (”ambient” titels, if You like…).
One of my favorite own titles, by the way, is: “Two vertical flippoints disconstrue a verbator by ensuading it’s nash…” - by which You can see that humor is also a part of my “soup”…

AF: -What is you favourit way to record tracks. Please, describe your standart way of recording your music.
MB: -Ah - well. I already did answer this in question 4…

AF: -Do you practice any kind of “field recording” or just use only digital samples?

MB: - Sometimes I do record kitchen tools or other stuff from my appartment…or I produce noises and non-musicial atmospheres with Metasynth or other equipment…or I use digital samples (I’m talking about noises like car traffic, areoplanes, waves…nurses…cats…etc).
I don’t walk around with a recorder or a microphone and record my environment.
Which leads me to the remark that I don’t think that Eno, when he came up with the original concept, had “field recordings” in mind when he spoke about ambient - rather his goal was to create an ambience - or acoustic environment - for special places (the famous example is: for airports…). So he did NOT go to an airport and did record the planes and elevators and people there, but he intended to play his - ambient - music there…(so he did not take, but give something…somehow this seems to be an important difference for me…).

AF: -What do you think of ambient “lifestyle”? Can you say that you are an ambientologist or you just a composer that creates such a unique soundscapes?

MB: - If I imagine some “ambient lifestyle” - at least, in a narrow sense of the word - to me it does not seem to make much sense (I’m sorry…), and I’m not shure what Your idea is, or how this lifestyle should be like.
On the other hand, I always associate ambient music with meditation, or introspection, and if “ambient lifestyle” would mean that the practise of introspection is integrated and respected in the whole process of human life, I guess that would be a good thing. Personally, I also associate calm music with being peaceful, and music which one must give a close listen to to comprehend it with intelligence, and of course I’m also in favour of more peace and more intelligence, and if these aspects were integrated in any lifestyle, I’d think: great. Next, I’m an environmentalist, and here, to be honest, things start to be a bit difficult for me. From a superficial look, from the similar meaning of the words “environment” and “ambient”, one could think these two would go well together. But the problem is, for creating and spreading electronic music, we need high tech and we need a lot of energy, thus depending on the very things that are the main cause for the world’s environmental crisis. If I were consequent in this regard, I’d stop to produce electronic music right now, and play flute in my garden. Obviously, I didn’t do that so far, but I pay with a bad consiousness for it…
So, I’m afraid I’m not an “ambientologist” - rather I’d call myself an “integrationalist”. I believe that every aspect of human existence - or way of expression - or “style” - is beneficial if it is at it’s right place and “used” in the right way. On the other hand, if any aspect is overly stressed, and the other aspects are neclected, this will have negative effects (like, say: taking strong medicine which can save Your life when You..re ill can ruin Your health when You don..t need it…).
So, if we say “we love ambient, and hate dance (or rock…or anything…)” that’s the same nonesense to me than if anyone would say “we love country music, and we hate ambient…”
I think, mostly these categorizations are due to the fact that - as young people, while growing up - we chose a musical style to identify with, to give us a stronger feeling if identity, and also the feeling of being part of a group or “movement”, so we can say we’re a “rocker”, “punk” , “raver”, “hippie” or whatever…and most people most of their life stick to the music the liked when they were 16 years old…and also the music industry can more easily place and sell their products when everything is categorized. But I’m personally not interested in putting up more frontiers - I’m in favour of exploration and mixing of aesthetical concepts, in other words: in creativity.

Of course, in the case of ambient, in order to integrate it better into human culture, there has to be a lobby, there have to be people who invent it, people who play it, people who present it to the world, who play it in radio shows, organize events and promote it - in other words, people like You!
So I think it’s wonderful and important to have a strong ambient “scene” and ambient activists - I just want to remind of the fact that just because ambient is a great, interesting, rich and fascinating kind of music it doesn’t mean that other music isn’t excellent as well…

AF: -Do you have any wish to collaborate with any of present ambient artists? If yes, who will it be and why?

MB: -I often fantasize about collaborating with all kinds of musicians (though it’s usually difficult to really do it, because of lack of time and lack of money…). And the reasons are - in general terms - more or less the same:
a.) because it is fun and generally beneficial to do anything (not just producing music) not alone, but with people You like…
b.) because in the creative exchange things happen or are possible, and ideas come up, which just wouldn’t happen when one works on his own
c.) as most people, I have some talents, but also a lot of limitations, and with collaborating with people who are talented where I am limited, together we can achieve a better result…
d.) when people are better than me, i can hope to learn a thing from them, or two…
e.) of course, if I would collaborate with someone who’s more popular than me, that also would be promotion for me…
Actually, my main interest wouldn’t be to collaborate with ambient artists in the first place (for I can cover that aspect sufficiently, I think…), but rather with singers or instrumentalists which add something I can’t do myself; for example I hope to collaborate with a cellist one day, and maybe an clarinetist, and form a trio for small live appearances.
Now, You did ask for names:
First of all, I would love to do much, much more music with my wife C?cilia, who’s a wonderful singer and piano player (but unfortunately producing music is not her main interest, which always seems like a big waste of talent to me…Sigh!), and also all the others I mention on my myspace profile and with which I collaborated with in the past - but I wish it would be possible much more often:
the astonishing, multi-talented Klaus Chmielewski, and my two B4 SUNRISE bandmates Wolfgang Bechtluft and Reinhold Kr?mer (at the moment, we try to re-activate the band after a longer break, but apart from a single session three weeks ago, nothing much happened…).
Then I would love to do something with a - former - friend of mine, an excellent guitar player, Wolfgang Kornberger, but some years ago we had some misunderstandings, and since then we don..t have any more contact (next sigh!).
Then, since I’m active at myspace, I discovered virtually hundreds or more excellent and fascinating musicians, and if I had the opportunity, I would collaborate with many of them. At a few occasions it did happen: I did some beats for an ambient musician from Florida (he had changing project names, the most “stable” was De la Usi), but in that case, it didn’t work very good, I did something else than he expected… Then I did a track with an excellent musician from Vienna, Austria: Drug Music, he’s really special and unique. This colaboration will be released online somewhen in the near future. Also together with a wonderful british artist, Chris Picken (project name: “Man Lying Down”) I’m working on a longer track, it..s still “work in progress” though, but very promising…
Also wonderful would be to work with Robin Shaw, a great guitar player, also from England; on the one hand, he plays excellent fusion (or jazz rock) in the style of Al di Meola or Joe Satriani (I LOVE virtuoso guitar playing!), but with a very personal tone, on the other hand, he creates wonderful ambient soundscapes - with his guitar, but You would never guess that, it sounds different from other “ambient guitarists” that use loops in Robert Fripp-style. Robin is simply wonderful, if I ever would do something like a big tour with a live band, he would me my first choice for a guitarist…
To finally name a few more famous, or successful musicians (and maybe that was what You..re question aimed at…):
I would love to collaborate with J?rg Schaaf, a great german musician, sound designer and co-inventor and producer of the SPECTRALIS, an excellent synthesizer/sequencer combination (I already mentioned it in question 4…). I also got to know J?rg a little closer via myspace, and he appears to be not only a great musician, but also a very nice guy and kind person.
Who else…? I once imagined to send tracks to famous musicians so they can contribute, and then the whole thing is released completely anonymously (quite likely I will never do that…or if i did, no one would contribute, so I can tell here some of the people who were “on the list”):
Jan Garbarek, Kate Bush, Wolfgang Tiepold, Massive Attack, Mike Oldfield, Robert Fripp, Nils Petter Moelver…in other words: every musician I mention on my mypsace page…and actually still much more - I definitely have a big heart when it comes to music…

Finally, of course, I’d love to work with Klaus Schulze - as You now, among all those hundreds of excellent musicians, he’s my chosen hero and biggest inspiration (at least in the field of electronic music). As You probably know, for many years he had a side project named “Wahnfried”, where he did collaborate with different musicians, sometimes popular, sometimes rather unkown (J?rg Schaaf, for example, was one of them…). It would be the one big thing for me to produce another Wahnfried-album with him. Of course, this idea is on the same level as…I don’t know…becoming tzar of russia. Completely beyond my reach…but it’s still a wonderful dream.

AF: -Can you say that ambient is a music of underground, for some blessed people who understand this kind of music or it is a wide opened music style for anyone?
MB: - One of my favorite writers, the classic american horror author H. P. Lovecraft, did write the following in his famous essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature” (1927):
“It’s a narrow, but important, part of human articualtion (or expression) and will in the first place be cherished by a limited audience with the corresponding sensibility…”
To my experience, this is completely true for ambient music as well. And in an interview, Robert Rich said one year ago:
“I doubt that experimental music of any kind will ever have the chance to be a big commercial success…”
I know people who love ambient, people who enjoy to listen to it from time to time, people who think it’s boring and simplistic, and people who can’t bear it at all. Who’s right and who’s wrong?
If a person loves death metal, he might ask: “Is death metal only for some blessed people who understand this kind of music…”?
But I dicussed that already in question 8. I just like to add that an interesting inspiration while thinking about the reasons for different stylistic preferences is the theory of prenatal matrixes as suggested by Stanislav Grof, a psychologist and consciousness scientist from Poland, who later did move to the USA. But to intruduce that here would be far beyond the scope of this interview…

AF: -If you will have any chance to change your present situation in music, maybe to change your music prefferes, what style will it be?

MB: -It would be wonderful to be independant in material matters and have the freedom to concentrate completely on art (but again, this is a wish similar to recording with Klaus Schulze or becoming tzar of Russia…). The first thing I would do were to buy equipment for live performances, to start to rehearse more and give concerts.
Since I already work in several “styles”, You could expect “more of the same” from me, just better, I hope.
On the other hand, as I wrote above, I see a conflict between electronic music and my “green” ideals, so if I really had a lot of money, I would try to find a way to produce something like ambient with acoustic instruments like hangs, sound bowls, gongs, pipes, singing saws….but to really put that to practise I’d need some kind of ensemble, or even orchestra. Maybe in the end it would be something similar to a javanesian gamelan-orchestra, I don’t know…
But all this is far, far away, and to say the truth, it’s quite more likely that my poor equipment will collapse completely one day and I won’t produce any more music at all. Maybe then, I will turn back to writing (something I did earlier in my life) or painting or pencil drawings. Or finally do some sports, which would be good for my health.

Time will tell…

Interview taken by Tim Traum special for Ambione Foundation (2009)