Señor Coconut and his Orchestra
Around the World with Señor Coconut
Essay Recordings AY CD 17

Señor Coconut, the man, der Mann der Tausend Aliase, hat wieder zugeschlagen und alle überrascht. Nach "El Baile Alemán" (gewidmet den deutschen Elektro-Pionieren Kraftwerk), "Fiesta Songs" (eine fröhliche Sammlung populären Liedguts, u.a. "Smooth Operator", "Beat It", "Smoke on the Water") und "Yellow Fever" (eine Hommage an die japanischen Kollegen des Yellow Magic Orchestras) kommt jetzt nun der vierte Streich, an dem der musikalische Ritter der Kokosnuss bald ein Jahr in realen und virtuellen Studios gearbeitet hat. "Around the World" ist eigentlich ein schlichtes Popalbum, wäre da nicht el Señor alias Atom™: Der einfache Weg interessiert ihn nicht! Wenn man schon Perlen des internationalen Pops covert, dann sollte, nein, dann muss man sich mit einer starken Idee selbst einbringen. Den Adelsschlag erhält man dann, wenn sich die Gecoverten sogar an den Aufnahmen beteiligen, wie z.B. beim "Yellow Fever"-Album die drei Mitglieder des Yellow Magic Orchestras: Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi sowie Oscar- und Grammy-Gewinner Ryuichi Sakamoto oder diesmal der legendäre Kopf der Band Trio Stephan Remmler. Und damit wären wir mitten im Geschehen. Für "Around the World" hat er wieder aus Welthits "Elektro-Latino"-Songs gebastelt. Und wieder hat Señor Coconut erst einmal das Großorchester, mit dem er nun schon seit vielen Jahren seine Konzepte bei stürmisch gefeierten Tourneen auf den Bühnen umsetzt, aufgenommen, um später dann im eigenen Studio in Santiago de Chile die Aufnahmen auseinander zu nehmen, neu zusammen zu setzen, Spur für Spur chirurgisch zu behandeln und die Coconut-immanente Magie einzuflößen. Als Sänger standen ihm sein Frontmann Argenis Brito, der Crooner Louis Austen (ja, der Wiener Frank Sinatra!) und erwähnter Stephan Remmler zur Seite.

Atom™ hat wieder die Perspektive eines Aliens eingenommen, der von seinem fernen Orbit Chile den Globus als einen fernen Ort und nicht als Heimat wahrnimmt. Atom™ ist Böhme, ein Kind von Heimatvertriebenen aus Sangerberg in Böhmen, sich selbst hat er vor Jahren aus seiner zweiten realen Heimat Frankfurt und seiner Techno-Szene, deren wichtiger Motor er war, vertrieben. Klingelt es? Bohemus, Böhmen wurden aber auch die Zigeuner genannt, die am Hofe Friedrich V für Musik und gute Laune sorgten. Kurfürst Friedrich V heiratete mit Siebzehn Elisabeth Stuart, die Tochter von James I, und zog mit ihr aufs Schloss zu Heidelberg. Um sich herum versammelten sie eine illustre Schar von Künstlern und Alchemisten, die später mit ihnen zog, als Friedrich V zum König von Böhmen gewählt wurde und in Prag residierte. Dem König war keine lange Regentschaft beschieden, doch der Begriff Bohemien überlebte dafür umso länger. Henri Murgers widmete dieser schillernden Szene seinen Roman "Scènes de la vie de Bohème", auf dem wiederum Puccinis berühmte Oper basiert. Jetzt werden die Dinge klarer: Atom™ ist also ein digitaler Zigeuner, der forschend durch die Welt unserer Popkultur zieht und sich einiger Perlen annimmt, denen er dann sein ganz individuelles Gepräge gibt. Oder ist er doch ein Alien, der beim Zappen im Äther fündig wird? Im Orbit war er ja auch schon mit seinem Kollegen OMFO (Our Man from Odessa) unterwegs, der sich als digitalen Schäfer sieht, der seine Herde durch die Weiten der Milchstraße treibt. Gemeinsam überlegten sie sich auf "We Are the Shepherds": Wie kann eine Hirtenmusik im Weltraum klingen, wenn die Flöten und Lauten durch Electronica, Theremin, Synthesizer und Sample-Sequenzer ersetzt oder erweitert werden? Die Gegenwart ist bestimmt von einer globalen Heimatlosigkeit, in der wiederum eine ganz neue Ästhetik möglich ist. Der Mensch, befreit vom kulturellen Ballast seiner Herkunft, bewegt sich autonom durch den Orbit der Klänge, die er schafft. Dabei benutzt Atom™ die Technik des mash ups oder culture clashs: Ein österreichischer Crooner singt auf einen Schweizer Cha-Cha-Cha (Pinball ChaCha), ein Japaner, Toshiyuki Yasuda, programmiert die Computerstimme auf einen brasilianischen Bossa-Nova-Klassiker (Corcovado – Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), diese Stimme geht wiederum ein Duett mit Argenis Brito ein, einem venezolanischen Sänger, der in Berlin lebt. Ein Thema, das sich durch alle Señor Coconut Alben durchzieht, ist der Mambo, der wiederum ist ein von Dámaso Pérez Prado entwickeltes Kunstprodukt. Und erneut haben wir es mit einem Heimatvertriebenen zu tun: der Kubaner Pérez Prado lebte, arbeitete und starb in Mexiko und produzierte für den amerikanischen Markt. Er war derjenige, der Stereotypen verschiedenster Provenienz zusammenführte und damit "Latino" überhaupt erst vermarktbar machte, was letztendlich dazu führte, dass jener Mambo in den Jazz überführt wurde oder bei uns in populären Schlagern der 50er/60er auftauchte. In "La vida es llena de cables" clasht ein Latino-Bigband-Arrangement mit zeitgenössischem Reggaeton-Rap und von Atom™ entwickelten Aciton-Sounds – Aciton ist ein Hybrid aus Acid und Reggaeton. Der Titel "Around the World" von den Franzosen Daft Punk gibt den Rahmen dieser Ausnahme-Produktion, es ist der rote Faden, der sich durch das Album zieht, die Klammer: Electronica, die wieder auf ihre akustischen Füße gestellt wird, denn der kreative Prozess von Señor Coconut ist keine Einbahnstraße.

Gedanken von Atom™ zu seinem neuen Album

AROUND THE WORLD Bei Señor Coconut bekomme ich eine Menge Ideen von außen heran getragen - sei es von Fans, Freunden oder anderen Musikern. Mein Freund und geschätzter Kollege Original Hamster erwähnte irgendwann einmal "Around the World" von der französischen Band "Daft Punk" und seither geisterte dieser Titel in meinen Gehirnwindungen. Parallel dazu gibt es aber noch eine ganz andere Geschichte, die allerdings mit "Around the World" zusammenfällt: Thomas Baxter, der Sohn des legendären Exotica-Musikers und Komponisten Les Baxter, fragte mich 2006, ob ich Lust hätte, einen Titel seines Vaters zu remixen (VOODOO DREAMS findet sich als Bonustitel ebenfalls auf diesem Album). Beim konzentrierten Hören und beim Beschäftigen mit Les Baxter fand ich eines seiner Alben mit dem Titel "’Round the World with Les Baxter". Das Thema "Around the World" begann sich bei mir festzusetzen. "Around the World" - sei es von Les Baxter, Señor Coconut oder von anderen interpretiert, reflektiert sicherlich immer nur ein subjektives Verständnis der Welt - im besten Falle die Sicht einer gewissen Kultur oder eines Kulturraumes. Die Welt von Les Baxter ist ebenso unvollständig wie die von Señor Coconut, definiert durch den Zeitpunkt und Ort unserer Existenz. Als der Titel des Señor Coconut-Albums dann feststand, war natürlich klar, dass Daft Punks "Around the World" das Leitmotiv werden musste. Der Titel taucht daher auch dreimal auf dem Album auf, als Einleitung, Interlude und Abschluss.

SWEET DREAMS Nachdem mit "Around the World" das Thema und Motto des Albums feststand, war klar, welches das Auswahlkriterium der Songs sein musste: Grundvoraussetzung war, dass jeder Titel aus einem anderen Land stammen musste. Selbstverständlich spiegelt sich hier die Welt von Señor Coconut wieder; diese befindet sich auf dem amerikanischen und dem europäischen Kontinent. Ein Titel, der mir seit Jahren schon für eine Señor-Coconut-Produktion vorschwebte, war "Sweet Dreams" der britischen Eurythmics, schlicht und ergreifend, weil dies rhythmisch und melodisch ein perfekter Cha-Cha-Cha ist. Das entscheidende Kriterium bei Señor Coconut ist immer ein rein musikalisches: "Fällt mir etwas Interessantes ein?". Bei "Sweet Dreams" war das der Fall. Interessanterweise hörte ich auf einmal zunächst unbeachtete Textzeilen sehr deutlich, die einen kuriosen Querbezug zu "Around the World" herstellten: "I travelled the world and the seven seas... Everybody's looking for something..." Die Reise um die Welt reflektiert den Zustand der eigenen Psyche (in diesem Fall der von Annie Lennox...). DADADA Vor ein paar Jahren hatte ich das Vergnügen, einen Remix für Stephan Remmler anzufertigen. Wir waren daher lose in Kontakt. Zum einen mag Stephan Señor Coconut und zum anderen brachte mir die Arbeit an dem Remix "Da Da Da" zurück ins Bewusstsein. Ich stellte fest, dass sich auch "Da Da Da" für einen Cha-Cha-Cha auf fast schon aufdringliche Art und Weise anbietet. Rhythmisch und melodisch war klar, wohin die musikalische Reise gehen sollte. Ich fragte Stephan, ob er denn nicht auch Interesse habe, zu singen, und er stimmte sofort zu. Ich denke, kaum ein deutscher Titel der 80er Jahre war so emblematisch und auch so deutsch wie eben "Da Da Da". Die geniale Einfachheit macht den Song meiner Meinung nach zu DEM Repräsentanten Deutschlands auf "Around the World".

KISS Wieder war es Original Hamster der mich auf "Kiss" aufmerksam machte. Zusammen mit Argenis Brito übertrug ich den Text von "Kiss" dann ins Spanische und die Entscheidung war getroffen, dieses Stück auf das Album zu nehmen. Das eigentlich Faszinierende an diesem Song ist zum einen, dass er im Original keine Basslinie besitzt und dass er zum anderen (hier fand sich der Anschluss zu "Da Da Da") durch seine Reduziertheit besticht. Auf musikalischer Ebene fand ich mich herausgefordert, diese beiden Aspekte in ein Señor-Coconut-Gewand zu überführen: Der "gespielte Witz" ist daher, dass es bei meiner Version ein Bass-Solo gibt (im Original wurde es von einer Funk-Gitarre gespielt), als auch, dass die eigentlich nicht existente Basslinie in meiner Version von drei Instrumenten gespielt wird: Marimba, Upright Bass und drei gestimmten Congas. Der typische Coconut-Groove und das neue Arrangement adaptieren die Rhythmik des Originals, erzeugen aber plötzlich den Eindruck afrikanischer Rhythmus-Pattern. Für mich schließt sich hier der Kreis zwischen dem Afro-Amerikaner Prince (Rogers Nelson, der kurioserweise den Nachnamen eines schwedischen Sklavenbesitzers trägt) und Kuba (Perez Prado stand Pate bei den Horn-Arrangements).

CORCOVADO In Tokio lernte ich einen Musiker namens Toshiyuki Yasuda (aka "Robo Brazileira") kennen, der mir ein paar seiner CDs überreichte. Beim Anhören stellte ich Parallelen zwischen seinen Produktionen und meinem Album "Midisport" aus dem Jahr 2002 fest, auf dem ich brasilianische Musik in Stücke schnitt und verkehrt herum wieder zusammensetzte. Als ich später mit Toshiyuki in Kontakt trat, erzählte er, dass ihn mein Album in der Tat sehr beeinflusst hatte und erst auf die Idee gebracht habe, synthetische brasilianische Musik zu spielen. Mir gefiel seine Weiterführung meiner Idee so gut, dass ich ihn bat, für die Señor-Coconut-Version des brasilianischen Klassikers "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)" eine synthetische Frauenstimme zu erzeugen. Brasilien darf in in der Welt des Señor Coconut nicht fehlen und selbstverständlich ist die Kompatibilität zwischen Bossa Nova und Bolero oder Cha-Cha-Cha mehr als offensichtlich. Wie in den 60er Jahren häufig vorzufinden, schwebte mir bei diesem Titel ein Duett vor: Gesungen teils auf Englisch, teils auf Portugiesisch entwickelte sich eine sinnliche Romanze zwischen Argenis Brito und "Robo Brazileira" als wäre es das Natürlichste überhaupt!

QUE RICO EL MAMBO im Original von Perez Prado ist DER Mambo-Track schlecht hin. Es war auch wirklich an der Zeit, Perez Prado nicht nur als guten Geist, sondern ganz direkt auf einem Señor-Coconut-Album erscheinen zu lassen. Sein Einfluss auf dieses Projekt war von Anfang an immer von großer Bedeutung. Auf sämtlichen Señor-Coconut-Alben gibt es Prado-Zitate und er ist wohl meine wichtigste Inspirationsquelle. Interessanterweise ist Perez Prado absolut kein Vertreter lateinamerikanischer "Standards", sondern zeichnet sich eher dadurch aus, dass er sich diesen Standards permanent verweigert hat (außer jenen, die er selbst erfunden hat). Perez Prado-Stücke fallen durch ihre unkonventionellen Arrangements und Spielweisen auf, aber auch durch ihren Witz und Einfachheit. BMG Mexiko bat mich vor zwei Jahren einen Remix von "Que rico el mambo" anzufertigen. Selbstverständlich sagte ich zu und wollte als Entlohnung für diesen Remix das Recht, meinen Remix auf dem nächsten Señor-Coconut-Album veröffentlichen zu dürfen. Es wäre mir eine große Ehre gewesen "feat. Perez Prado" auf dem Album zu lesen. Doch leider lief alles anders als geplant: Ich machte den Remix, alle waren zufrieden, der A&R-Mitarbeiter von BMG Mexiko wurde gefeuert, und der neue A&R denkt immer noch darüber nach, ob das Prado-Remix-Projekt überhaupt das Licht der Welt erblicken soll. Wie dem auch sei: Ich hatte meinen Teil des Deals erfüllt. Auch war die Produktion von "Around the World" schon so weit fortgeschritten, dass mich die fehlende Entscheidung der BMG Mexiko zu "Plan B" zwang: Ich lies das Lied komplett neu einspielen, mischte es ab, simulierte dabei den Original-Sound und remixte die Version schließlich – et voilà!

PINBALL CHACHA Ganz wie bei "El baile alemàn" oder "Yellow Fever!" wird hier ein im Original elektronischer Titel akustisch neu interpretiert. Dieses Stück ist von der Schweizer Band Yello (Yello? Fever!) und war schon immer ein Cha-Cha-Cha. Damit erklärt sich eigentlich von selbst, warum dieses Stück auf dem Album gelandet ist. Von Yello Anfang der 80er Jahre mit Hilfe eines der ersten Sampler produziert, spielt die Original-Version mit eher "Exotica"-typischen Elementen wie gesampelten Vogelschreien und Urwaldgeräuschen. Diesen Ansatz versuchte ich in die Coconut-Fassung zu übernehmen und weiterzuführen: Die Coconut-Version klingt nun wie das Original, während die Original-Version von Yello nun wie ein Cover aus den 80ern tönt. Die Stimme von Louie Austen trägt bei meiner Version nicht unwesentlich dazu bei.

WHITE HORSE Und wieder bekam ich eine Idee zugetragen: Diesmal war es Argenis Brito, der mir den Titel ans Herz legte. Nachdem mir Uptempo-Titel fehlten und ich mir "White Horse", im Original von der dänischen Combo Laid Back, perfekt als Merengue vorstellen konnte, wurde mir klar, dass ich diesen Titel covern MUSSTE. Mit "White Horse" ist eigentlich Kokain gemeint ("If you wanna ride, don't ride the white horse..."), eine Substanz, die im Kulturraum des Merengue starke Verwendung findet und ohne Zweifel auch für die Nervosität dieses Rhythmus verantwortlich ist. Señor Coconut liebt Merengue, wie man seit "Beat It" und (Achtung: Querbezug!) "Riders on the Storm" weiß. Wie so oft bei Adaptionen angloamerikanischer oder europäischer Themen durch lateinamerikanische Künstler wird die Coverversion zum Zerrspiegel der kulturellen Missverständnisse. Das "White Horse" wie auch schon die "Riders on the Storm" werden wort-wörtlich genommen. Die Doppelbedeutung verschwindet und alles, was bleibt, ist ein Pferderitt und Peitschenschläge.

LA VIDA ES LLENA DE CABLES Mit diesem Titel von mir betreibe ich Geschichtsfälschung und repräsentiere arroganterweise auf "Around the World" Chile. "La vida es llena de cables" (Das Leben ist voller Kabel) erschien ca. 2001 auf einem Album von "Los Samplers", einer Latino-Fake-Combo. Die Band aus fünf Latinos schloss sich zusammen, um gemeinsam die Musik zu machen, die ihnen vorschwebte, die aber jeder einzelne allein nicht produzieren konnte, da ihnen das Equipment fehlte. Ich stellte mir vor, jeder dieser Musiker konnte sich gerade so einen gebrauchten Sampler aus den 80ern leisten. Nun, um komplexe Musik erzeugen zu können, mussten sich eben fünf zusammenschließen, um genügend Speicherkapazität für dieses Vorhaben zu sammeln. Genug der Parallelwelten! "Los Samplers" gibt es natürlich nicht, und ich bin kein Chilene. Die Originalversion im Stil eines digitalen Son (also einem Downbeat-Rhythmus) wird hier zu einem Uptempo Guaguanco (verwandt mit Cha-Cha-Cha und Mambo), der Mittelteil ist im Stil des Aciton gehalten. Aciton ist ein Hybrid aus Reggaeton und Acid, ein Kunstprodukt des Surtek Collective. Das stammt wenigstens wirklich aus Chile und besteht aus Windungen meiner Kabel mit denen von Original Hamster.

MOSCOW DISCOW Wir kehren zum Startpunkt zurück: eine Reise um die Welt. Die belgische Formation Telex produzierte "Moscow Discow" Anfang der 80er. Interessant sind hier die Parallelen, thematisch wie auch klanglich zu Kraftwerks "Trans Europa Express", welches ja schon auf Señor Coconuts "El baile alemán" gecovert wurde. Zeitlich und räumlich nicht nur mit Kraftwerk im Einklang, sondern auch mit Yello; ebenso die musikalische Herangehensweise: Original und Fälschung. Ausgewählt wurde dieser Titel wegen all der Querverbindungen und der Tatsache, dass dies ein feiner Cha-Cha-Cha/Rumba ist.

TRACKLIST

01 AROUND THE WORLD (intro) - Vocals: Argenis Brito
02 SWEET DREAMS - Vocals: Argenis Brito
03 DA DA DA - Vocals: Stephan Remmler
04 KISS - Vocals: Argenis Brito/Louie Austen
05 CORCOVADO (QUIET NIGHTS OF QUIET STARS) - Vocals: Argenis Brito and Robo*Brazileira
06 AROUND THE WORLD (interlude)- Vocals: Argenis Brito
07 QUE RICO EL MAMBO - Vocals: Argenis Brito
08 PINBALL CHACHA - Vocals: Louie Austen
09 WHITE HORSE - Vocals: Argenis Brito
10 LA VIDA ES LLENA DE CABLES - Vocals: Argenis Brito
11 MOSCOW DISCOW - Vocals: Argenis Brito
12 AROUND THE WORLD (outro)- Vocals: Argenis Brito
Bonus tracks
13 DREAMS ARE MY REALITY - Vocals: Louie Austen
14 VOODOO DREAMS

1, 6 & 12: T. Bangalter & G. E. P. de Hormem- Christo/DISCOTON MUSIK EDITION
2: A. Lennox & D. A. Stewart/DISCOTON MUSIK EDITION
3: S. Remmler & G. Krawinkel/JUST US MUSIC PRODUCTION
4: Prince Rogers Nelson/UNIVERSAL/MCA MUSIC PUBLISHING GMBH
5: A. C. Jobim/UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING
7: D. P. Prado/PEERMUSIC (GERMANY)
8: B. Blank/D. Meier/ Neue Welt Musikverlag
9: T. Stahl & John Guldberg/UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GMBH
10: Atom™/Freibank Musikverlag
11 D. Lacksman, M. J. V. L. Moers/M. H. R. L. Moulin/ DISCOTON MUSIK EDITION
13 V. Cosma/J. Jordan/ SARABANDE
14: Les Baxter/ ROLF BUDDE MUSIKVERLAG

BIOGRAFIE SR. COCONUT

Interview with Senor Coconut by Philip Sherburne www.philipsherburne.com
Santiago (Chile), April 1st 2006

1.) To start off, could you tell us a little about the new album – the title of it, who you're going to be revisioning this time, and how the concept came about?
The album will be called Yellow Fever, it will contain 10 cover versions of YMO songs plus 10 interludes and little intersections which will be my compositions and will contain the contributions of various guest musicians from all over the world, such as Akufen, Schneider tm, Nouvelle Vague… who else.

2.) Dandy Jack?
Dandy Jack, Mouse on Mars, Towa Tei. All the sounds, then – we managed to invite the original YMO members to play and sing on the songs, so there's huge list of guests and contributors. How the idea came about, well – with Señor Coconut, when I'm going on tour and giving interviews and meeting people, there are always a lot of suggestions made – people come up with their ideas, you know, who should be next, and even sometimes fans will pass me self-made fake Señor Coconut albums; there was this one guy who came up to me and said "You have to cover those songs," and he'd made a CD with a sleeve he'd photocopied and stuff. SO there's always people saying, you should do that, you should do this. And in fact Señor Coconut is a very inspiring project to many people in that sense, because of the cover versions and the whole exotica cover version genre allows you to do so many things. And there's a lot of possibilities, whom to cover. So when I was thinking about the next album, there were actually a lot of options, and there are still a lot of possible albums. It was just a matter of finding the right moment for the right project, talking to Argenis and to the management, it was just a question of feeling what could be the most interesting. To me, on a musical level it was all equally entertaining, it could have been anything, basically.

3.) You started Señor Coconut with the Kraftwerk covers…
No, actually I started Señor Coconut with an album called El Gran Baile, which was a bit different, it was more like merging what I was doing back then – cut and paste electronica – with my interest for Latin music. So I started to cut up Latin loops…

4.) So the first one wasn't covers, just your compositions in a cut-up Latin style.
Exactly, and more track-oriented, like cutting up Latin music in a track style.

5.) So then the Kraftwerk cover project was the one that gained you the most notoriety, then Fiesta Songs had Sade, Michael Jackson, "Smoke on the Water," etc.; this time out, were you specifically interested in another project that would allow you to cover the work of a single artist?
The thing was that after the Kraftwerk covers, I didn't want to do the same thing over again, make a Depeche Mode album or whatever. I saw the concept more loosely, and I just wanted to have an entertaining collection of music, mainly being inspired by a series of releases from the '60s and '70s from Latin artists, who did basically that, just threw together their favorite songs and covered them, mixed them with their own stuff. It was quite a relaxed concept. And I felt like after Fiesta Songs it could be more entertaining to go back to that one-artist concept, but since I don't really like to repeat myself, I wanted to expand it on a musical level too. I think Yellow Fever for that reason is like a blend of the last three albums; it has these cut-and-paste kind of track interludes between the songs, which are very abstract and programmed but played by guest musicians and then cut up. So production-wise it's like a blend of the last three albums, which was my way of making this album entertaining, of finding a new approach and going to the next level.

6.) Why YMO? Are you a longtime fan? Were they influential to your own musical upbringing?
As compared to Kraftwerk, they were. I sort of missed Kraftwerk, I was too young when they were famous, and when I really got interested in music, it was the last album – so I missed them [in their prime] and got into them for different reasons. Which doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate them, but they weren't really important for my musical socialization. On the other hand, when I was like 16 or 17 and I started to listen to non-commercial electronic music, I got really interested in industrial and noise and that kind of stuff, and then for a short period into Electronic Body Music, and then techno came up. And house and acid and all that. But all the music I listened to had a very similar attitude, a very similar feeling – like the European electronica was always a bit dense, and especially EBM was a bit dark and aggressive, and even I would say that commercial electronica like Depeche Mode and the new wave stuff had a depressive, melancholic feel to it. And then a friend of mine, around '85 or '86, gave me a mix tape of YMO and Sakamoto and Hosono and other Japanese artists of that time, which were released on Alpha records…. it was like this bubble around Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was after YMO's success, and it was more about their solo works. And what really struck me was that the attitude was totally different; it was a totally positive understanding of music—sometimes funny, and always very positive, in a futuristic sense, but without the futurist pathos. Not "we are the future," just a very modern Japanese attitude. The Japanese, I would say, are not very philosophical about progress, they just do it. While Europeans are always very reflective about it. The Japanese just do it; they always had the newest equipment, the newest sound, they recorded digitally in the '80s, and all that was a very positive feeling. And that was really a switch the first time I listened to Japanese electronic music, it was a really different horizon to me. I was like, wow, that's a different approach – and I think it triggered a lot about how I perceived my own work back then, the possibilities and especially a certain attitude towards making music.

7.) I think you can see a certain degree of a sense of humor in YMO; or if not humor—although there was a record with comedy sketches interspersed between the songs, and for instance on "Pure Jam," the lyric "This must be the ugliest piece of bread I've ever eaten," there's a sense of absurdity that seems very different from the European sense of darkness you're describing.
Exactly, I think that was the point of it, and also something I realized just recently when investigating the histories of the memberes of Yellow Magic and their backgrounds, that for them exotica was a very big influence. And a totally different type of music than what I listened to or what I knew. They did rock and blues in the early days with Japanese traditional music, and finally when I started listening to Japanese music, I started listening to Martin Denny—it was a totally different thing to me, I never connected those. And then I realized that for YMO, Martin Denny also had been very important. They covered Martin Denny; also Hosono once showed me a picture of him and Martin Denny; he's such a big fan he once flew to Hawaii and visited him. And then I realized there was a certain synchronicity with the exotica approach, which they sort of merged with their Japanese background—the production, the melodies, it's all a very traditional perspective on music. So suddenly there were lots of pieces of the puzzle falling together, which I found quite impressive.

8.) How did the members of YMO respond when you approached them with the project?
I made two albums with Hosono in the mid '90s, '95 and '97; the project was me and my friend Tetsu Inoue from New York, and Hosono, and it was called H.A.T. I knew Hosono from before and he was visiting me in Santiago when I had just moved here in '98; he came here and we recorded parts of the second album here, and I visited him in Japan, and every time I'm in Japan I try to see him. It's not a frequent contact we have, but it's still a contact. And also a couple of years ago Sakamoto was inviting me for one of his projects, and last year at Sonar Tokyo, because they played as Sketch Show, I met all of them, that whole YMO bubble, like their management, and a lot of people that were involved back then, had been A&R, studio, production, publishing… So I met all these people, and I'd say it was in the pre-stage of Yellow Fever, where I was just sorting out ideas for what would be possible. And when I started working on the record, it was a bit difficult to get in touch with them because of the management topic in Japan; you have to go through management and even though I was in personal touch with them, I could not approach them on a business level. So we had to go through labels and managers and A&Rs, and it was a very long process where nothing happened, actually. Until we just contacted Sakamoto directly, in parallel through his management, and everybody was really into it, and I sent them a couple of demo mixes and they said, Yeah, great! It's really entertaining, and if we can participate, if it's possible we will.
I think it's a bit in their line of musical history; it's kind of like twisting it again. They covered Martin Denny and all this background and transformed it into futuristic '80s pop, and now I'm transforming it back into the original thing. I think they find that entertaining too.

9.) How did you select the songs to include? Was there a process of experimentation to determine which would be more adaptable to the Coconut style?
This time it was a bit more difficult than the times before; for instance on the Kraftwerk covers, it was very much just a musical decision of trying to imagine the flow of the album, and saying ok, how many fast songs, how many slow songs, how many cha-cha-chas compared to the number of cumbias. That was more the perspective because there were so many songs that worked that in the end it was more like a stylistic process. The next album was a bit the same; I had a long list of songs and it was more about finding the right mix for the album. While on Yellow Fever, it was a bit more complex because not all the songs had been composed by all three of them together, but they were usually separate compositions—one song would be only by Sakamoto, one only by Hosono, one only by Takahashi—and there were very few mixed compositions where all of them are involved. So that was one concern, trying not to just pick Sakamoto songs or just Hosono songs; and at the same time it was important to get the songs I liked and had selected transposed into the Coconut style, which was not possible for all of them. And at the same time, I needed to get an interesting flow on the album, so they were three parameters that were really difficult to match up; it was quite a headache at times.

10.) And one more factor to think of, there were singles and hits in certain territories, so the record company wanted to include the singles and hits and the better known songs. So it was a very difficult selection to make, trying to have it be well done on a musical level but also to satisfy the needs of the original record companies and also trying not to offend the musicians because there weren't enough songs from each of them…. which in the end happened, because there are four Sakamoto songs, and then three and three Hosono or Takahashi songs. But they were the best I could do, bearing all these parameters in mind.

11.) Listening back to the originals after hearing your versions, I was struck by how many Latin elements were already there, implicit in their original rhythms. From your acquaintance with them, do you think they were aware of it at the time? Was that an explicit influence?
I think that they're very good musicians and very well-informed musicians with long histories of making and listening to music, and they have a huge knowledge of musical styles; I think all these bits of information you just have subconsciously available when you want to make a groove or something. It's not that you say, ok, is that syncopated or not, it's more like, does it move or not? Does it swing or not?

12.) How did you go about creating the versions this time? What sort of studio technologies did you use?
Let me tell you a bit about the development of the last albums. The first one was basically sampling from CDs and programming; there were no songs involved so it was just cutting up tracks. Also very few vocals. On the second album it was about songs, but I didn't have musicians available, or didn't want to, except for the vocalist, so what I did was the same as the album before, I just cut up my record collection and recombined Kraftwerk songs out of the bits and pieces, so it was all programmed in the end. On Fiesta Songs, I didn't want to repeat that method; it wasn't really entertaining to simply do over again with Sade or Elton John. So I went to record musicians in Denmark, I just brought my laptop and a little audio interface and I went to a friend of mine in Denmark who wrote parts of the scores for some songs; mainly I called the musicians into the studio and we recorded slices. They never played together; and it was all very unorganized in the arrangement. And since there were no written scores, I mainly just sent them what I wanted to hear. It was like, here in the original we have that part, and I want the tenor sax to play that part. So they'd have to listen to it and play it. So afterwards, on my hard drive I had bits and pieces of what I wanted—a tenor here, a trumpet there—and when I got home I realized after recording, which was done really quickly, in about a week, that I had missed out on some parts; there was the tenor for the A and B but not for the C part, so I had to make solutions, basically invent the final arrangement, combining it with samples again from Latin records, which I usually use to create a certain texture or atmosphere, or for the groove for example I'll take a sample from Tito Puente and cut all the recorded material to the groove of Tito Puente, so while recording the percussionist doesn't really have to think about groove, he'll just play more or less to a certain swing, and then afterwards I would cut up the whole song towards a certain groove.
Having done that, which was a step forward in my opinion, I didn't want to repeat myself again on the new album. So this time I found someone in Germany, Norberg Kramer [???], who's also playing the vibraphone in the live band, and I asked him—he's a studied classical percussionist—I asked if he'd be interested in writing the scores for the songs. So he listened to the songs, and first transcribed them, because there were no MIDI files available, and based upon the transcription we talked about which style we would like to cover and which kind of arrangements we would like to do. So he did really complex horn arrangements, so the whole thing was much better thought out. Like, how many instruments do we have, which instrument is playing what, in which section… The voicing is quite real, I would say. Where on Fiesta Songs there was a very basic voicing. My knowledge of voicing, and especially horn voicing and arrangement is nonexistent, and it's a very complex thing to do.
So he did all that, so the whole arrangement foundation is much more advanced than on the last record. So it makes it much easier for me to think about different parts of the arrangement; it's all there, and now I can fuck it up again. That's where I'm going back to the first and second Coconut albums and saying, now we have a nice-sounding, well done horn arrangement so let's play around with it; I can focus now on totally different things. I don't have to make it sound good because it already sounds good; now I can get into the depth of the arrangement. Which also means I can rearrange what's there in the original recordings, but combine it much much more with sampling. That's what I didn't do too much on the last record, because of the amount of work I had to invest on the arrangement itself.
The idea is to achieve a certain complexity in the compositions, which again is a step forward compared to the last albums.

13.) Is part of this learning curve a result of having gone through the live experience with Señor Coconut and the big band, since you had to translate what you'd originally written by sampling for a live band?
I would say it has to do with my personal interest in learning new things and making new sounds, making new music I haven't done before. I'm getting really bored if I have to repeat myself in a certain production method or musical approach, so it was basically, ok, if I make a new record, what's in it for me? It's not just about making music and selling a record, that's not the point; the point is to make it entertaining to me and to learn something from it. That's why we decided this time to produce it this way.

As for the recording method itself, I flew with my laptop and a little ProTools audio interface to a little studio in Cologne; it was basically a rehearsal space with a little recording cabin, basically you had a pair of speakers and the computer and a good pair of microphones, and then we had musicians coming in from Denmark and Germany and recorded first the rhythm section, then the bass, then the horn section, etc. etc.

14.) So your raw material—is it essentially a full, Latinized version of each YMO song that you're now re-editing and rearranging, or do you just have discrete pieces?
We listened to all the songs after the recording session, and they sound—some more, some less—the way I wanted them to sound. But there are some more unorganized songs on the record, where it's not clear where to go, and then there are some that are almost ready. With some of the songs, it wasn't clear while recording them what the groove would be, exactly, and I knew that I had to find a sample to accommodate the whole song. And every now and then I even have to change the entire bass, because the bass was in the wrong rhythm—so I'll use the notes of the bass, but adapt it to a Tito Puente, say. Which is a lot of work.

15.) You mentioned earlier the many collaborators on the new record—what are they going to be doing exactly?
I had the selection of the songs, and before recording I had distributed them across the album, as in the album will start with song X and finish with song Y, trying to get a flow of the album so not all the cha-cha-chas hang together, for instance. And then my idea was to get little interludes, a bit inspired by that record of YMO where they had these funny little sequences and monologues in between; and my idea that the theme of the interludes would basically be, "What is Coconut?" It's all about Coconut. So I went with a microphone to interview people at parties, friends of mine, just "What is Coconut?" out of the blue. And they'd talk, and I used some of their conclusions, which was very much improvised speech, I'd say. I'm trying to get a sort of mysterious concept, I would say—the whole album is about something, which I don't know what it is, but it's more or less about defining Coconut, and that whole twist which is going on. So you have these Yellow Magic songs which are Latin Japanese hybrids, and in the middle you have these cut-and-paste interviews which are explaining, not in a logical sense, but giving hints as to what the whole Coconut concept is about.
As an example, we have a Sakamoto song, "Music Plans," which ends with the lines, "Making music, what a plan, breaking music." And then there's another song that comes after that, and I had to fill that gap. So I was inspired by the phrase "breaking music," and so I said to Burnt Friedman, The working title is "Breaking Music"; I'll give you a little rhythm, and you just break it, and this is the interlude.
All of those collaborators, they're not all equal, they don't have the same backgrounds, so I tried to find their place, what could they do, what would fit, in which interlude. Which was not clear from the beginning; it depended a bit on how the songs came together and which interlude fit for whom. For Akufen, for example, I had this little track which was called "Disco a Go-Go/Coco a Go-Go," which fit… well, you'll hear later on when it's finished; it has references to the song before, which is "Tong Poo," and perfectly leads into the song after it. So I just gave him a Latin disco beat which I chopped up in a very rough and quick way, and I said ok, your song goes in between this song and this song and it's called "Disco a Go-Go" so you can just go ahead and chop it up further… It was very much trying to see what he could do, what fits with his taste and his way of working.
Marina, for example, from Nouvelle Vague, is a vocalist, not a musician in the pure sense, so I invented a dialogue between a man and a woman, and I said, ok, your part will be the left channel, and on the right channel there will be Towa Tei—in fact, his voice computer—responding. So I invented a dialogue; it's a bit like, you know the song "Mucha Muchcacha" from Esquivel? It's a little conversation going on for like 30 seconds, and then the song continues. So I was very much inspired by that; I had a little song and basically they're talking about the song—"Mambo Numerique," a digital mambo, so basically they're saying "It's a digital mambo!" "Yeah! It's nice!" And she speaks French and he speaks Japanese; so I had this dialogue invented in English, and I said to Marina you translate it into French; the BPM is that, try to send different takes, one more sensual, one more serious, etc. And I said the same to Towa, who programmed his vocal program which speaks Japanese; I sent him the dialogue and some parts that Marina had done, and he finished it and I threw it together.
It's stuff like that; trying to find little spaces for all these people.