La Petite Mort with Fine Cut Bodies
Attila Fodor, aka Fine Cut Bodies is one of the renowned veterans of the Budapest electronic music scene. With his label Chi Recordings he’s done much to shape audience taste into a deep and abstract form. He’s always everywhere, from tiny gigs to big festivals, in Hungary and beyond. You can also find him on his taste-making radio show on the Hungarian national MR2. On December 17th he presented his visual eargasm live show at an amazing party which also featured Dave Tipper. We had a little Q&A with Fine Cut Bodies about the debut of his live show.
This is your first A/V show presenting your new music. How did the new tracks come together with the special mood of the visual show elements?
Actually the two parts integrally formed together. The melancholic mood in my music originates from harmonies burned into me in the ‘80s when I was sitting in front of my computer at night, programming C64 demos and listening early Vangelis, Jarre, Kraftwerk or Oldfield. Sometimes I keep trying to overshadow this melancholy, but it always floats back on to my music through interesting sound design solutions, and organic noises as a kind of musical base. That’s how the idea came to my mind to create and A/V support to my music which could make full use of this atmosphere.
How is your live show compared with other known A/V shows?
There are fascinating technical solutions on stage. I had some shows in Australia and I’ve met some very promising endeavors. For example the Mindbuffer guys developed intelligent agents, creating a generative musical base and connecting visual worlds. We don’t compete with them forcing all of the already existing stuff into one production; we had a given mood and we wanted this vision to transfer to the audience in a visually enjoyable way. With relatively simple tools but lots of background work, my team created this abstract world. The team included 3D guru Dániel Mécs, system developers Dávid Mórász and Márton Boros, and illustrator András Czakó.
How can you describe the style of András Czakó?
I was so amazed by getting a team together who are totally keen on the early 8bit world. We had fun with everything from ASCII to SID. András and the rest of us also draw much from the aesthetics of that geek scene, reflecting on it.
How exactly does the music and animation come together on the technical side?
In the sequencers there are a lot of programmed things which trigger the VJ station. The visual crew were working as if we would be a band. They know the tracks well, all the stories happening within the songs. So it’s not an improvisation.
Is it easy to go on tour with this show?
This is exactly our goal, and yes it is possible because we don’t need much technical equipment.
Published December 19, 2011.