Bang & Olufsen's Sound Matters journal #5

Make Beautiful Music

The Journal, issue 05 — p 6. Music in zero gravity: the incredible Ron McNair / p 10.

Sound Matters? Yes it does / p 18. The Art Of Impossible / p 24. Small objects: Big sound

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The Art Of Impossible / p 18

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What matters? Sound, of course. / p 10

Sign up to our newsletter here beoplay.com/culture Smaller objects, bigger sound / p 24

Table

Jazz karate in space, and more.

The inspiring Dr McNair / p 6

Tokyo vibes in grey and black / p 8

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Come and say hello in person here B&O PLAY, Gammel Lundtoftevej 1B, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, sunny Denmark – if you arrive near midday you might be able to join us for lunch.

Visit beoplay.com Be friends @beoplay #beoplay

Contents 2

Ideas in collaboration: Mark Farrow / p 26

Behind the track and inside the studio / p 14

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The Journal Issue 05

The Journal Issue 05

SIGN UP Welcome to the fifth issue of B&O PLAY’s The Journal, our regular publication featuring stories about artists, designers, musicians and creatives from around the world who we feel an affinity with.

Editor’s letter

B&O PLAY is more than headphones and speakers: we are very proud of what we make, but think that the values of great design and sound instilled in our products also reach out into contemporary culture.

We have a strong history and tradition reaching back over 90 years. But this will never get in the way of our vision: open-minded and forward-looking, listening in to hear the future, and to make sure it sounds (and looks) beautiful.

The issue you currently hold in your hands is part of that mission. In the next year we’ll be publishing quarterly issues devoted to all the people and organisations we work with, focusing on the programme of events we’ve developed for the coming year with our friends at Ace Hotel, A/D/O, MoMA PS1 and others, all to celebrate the now as well as future.

beoplay.com/culture Dance into the wee hours or immerse yourself in cutting edge art, design and culture, supported by B&O PLAY. We’ve partnered with Ace Hotel on Ample Frequencies – adventures in new music and sound art, as well as throwing some great parties across their London, Los Angeles and New York properties.

We’re working with A/D/O on the multimedia Future Series installation events.

We’re collaborating with MoMA PS1 on the – Between 0 and 1: Remixing Gender, Technology and Music – through February and March.

Check the above link for more info.

We hope you can join us at some of our events, or follow them online, and be inspired.

Henrik Taudorf Lorensen Head of B&O PLAY

Executive Editor — Henrik Taudorf Lorensen / Editor — Nathaniel Budzinski, NRB@bang-olufsen.dk / Design and art direction — Studio C, studioc.dk / Contributors in material and/or spirit — Jens Jermiin, Jonathan Lowth, Travis McMichael, René Christoffer, Blandine Laure Minot, Lærke Lykke Grøn-Christensen, Marianne Christensen and everyone at PLAY HQ. Photos and additional support — Casper Sejersen, Tova Mozard, Alistair Philip Wiper, Mark Farrow, Elliot Kennedy, Lasse Kusk, Angeline Woo, Seze Devres, Brogan Chidley, Emil Hartvig and the folks at Ace Hotel.

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We recently teamed up with organiser and DJ, Garth Trinidad and The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Downtown Los Angeles, to celebrate the legacy of astronaut, scientist, musician and all-round polymath Ronald E. McNair with A Party Called Ron McNair in November. Below, Trinidad tells us about McNair’s legacy, inspiring people through collectivity, and, of course, putting on a good party.

A Party Called Ron McNair B&O PLAY x The Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles x Garth Trinidad kicked off a series of free dance parties celebrating technology and audio/video musical experiences this November.

Further parties happen on a bi-monthly basis.

To get updates on the next soirée, sign up at beoplay.com/culture

It’s fair to say that Ronald E McNair had a passion for all that life on this Earth – and beyond – offered up: he was a DJ, jazz saxophonist, fifth degree black belt in karate, astronaut and laser physicist, among many other things. Born in South Carolina in 1950, McNair pushed boundaries early on: in 1959 he refused to leave his racially segregated public library until they loaned him the books he wanted. The police and McNair’s mother were called in – Ron stood his ground and was allowed to borrow the books. The library is now named after him. McNair went on to graduate as high school class valedictorian, and continued his academic successes through to achieving a PhD in physics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1978, McNair was selected from a pool of over 10,000 people by NASA for their astronaut program. His first space voyage was in 1984, making him the second African American in space. Tragically, McNair’s life was cut short when the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986, killing all on board.

But the inspiring legend lives on: LA-based DJ, music editor and event organiser, Garth Trinidad has worked with us and Ace Hotel to kick off a series of parties celebrating McNair’s legacy of collaborative investigation, adventurousness and creativity. Below, we chat with Trinidad about the roots of his interest in McNair, and how he has been influenced by this scientific and cultural pioneer.

How did you came across Ron, his life and work?

Garth Trinidad: My DJ and production partner Mateo Senolia (aka novelist, screenwriter, Marcus Guillory) was the 1991 recipient of the Ronald E. McNair Omega Scholarship at Jesse H. Jones High School, given by the Rho Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity – a chapter of which McNair was an active member when he lived in Houston.

Black heroism is a recurring theme in our ongoing dialogue and narrative as a DJ/production team.

For example, Mateo has produced music that has featured the words of James Baldwin, and our first series of parties in LA were dubbed Jim Kelly, after the iconic 1970’s film star and martial artist.

What first grabbed you personally and creatively about Ron? Dr McNair is a phenomenon. In my mind he’s a black boy’s childhood dream come to life, a fantastic storybook tale. His achievements and his iconic

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NASA images have been imprinted in my mind and served as a quiet inspiration for years, like a cool uncle you look forward to hanging out with. As a DJ, his musings as a jazz musician combined with his work as an astronaut and laser physicist spoke volumes. His legacy has become part of my personal ‘why’ – when I play music on the radio or in public, I try to take people out of this world.

The notion of mixing art with science is now very relevant to contemporary culture: was Ron ahead of his time? How do you think people relate to him now?

Like most great achievers, be they artists or academics, I don’t believe they are ahead of their time – rather so many people are stuck in boxes of tradition, expectation, insecurity, and so on. Dr McNair broke free and cast a rainbow of infinite possibilities for the world to see. His legacy as artist and scientist reverberates across the galaxy, making sense and affecting those of us who are tuned in. For the US especially, this reverberation cuts through the noise of junk food social media culture and beckons us to focus on real progress, whether personal, professional, spiritual or otherwise.

Collectivity is extremely important to music and how we celebrate many important life events. Literally: parties can change our world. Tell us who you hope to reach with with A Party Called Ron McNair, and what do you hope they get out it?

There is nothing like the intoxicating feeling of rhythm, song, colour, all coursing through our bodies and senses in unison. I grew up inspired by my own experiences which led me to create some of the most memorable events and parties in LA. There are pockets of like-minded collectives across the country and around the world waiting for this event – everyday people that think and groove independently, discerning music connoisseurs, cinefiles, science lovers, dance floor junkies, etc.

Simply put, I want A Party Called Ron McNair to inspire people – to think, to dance, to make new friends and reconnect with old ones.

Photograph / Getty Images

Parties Change The World / Ron McNair

“ So many people are stuck in boxes of tradition, expectation, insecurity, and so on. Dr McNair broke free and cast a rainbow of infinite possibilities for the world to see.”

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Tokyo Sounds / post-industrial subcultures, gothic, darkwave and nightlife energies. Experience one of many urban environments emanating out from futurefacing Tokyo.

Japanese culture maintains a forward-looking mentality that’s deeply informed by tradition, as well as the exuberant embracing of Western subcultures – reinterpreting and making them their own, literally turning them on their heads. Earlier this year we launched our wireless H7 headphones, and this inspired some of our friends in Tokyo to wander out into their urban surroundings: they discovered a post-industrial subculture that celebrates the gothic psyche, channels darkwave and nightlife energies, and is embedded in the built environment. Here, creative director Lasse Kusk, producer Taka Arakawa and musician Ena give impressions of the Tokyo cityscape and soundscape.

Orchestrations Of Beauty And Madness “Tokyo is a city of contrasts and flavours more than anywhere I’ve ever been – you often feel overwhelmed by the visual palette of its contrasts. But when you close your eyes, you can find the same layers of complexity in the sound of the city. An orchestration of beauty and madness at the same time. This is what I believe subconsciously connects us to the city and each other.”

– Lasse The Shadows And Light In History “Here in Japan we have a society that shares responsibilities, like in a village culture… And there is also a hidden darkness – there is always shadow and light in history, and we have found an aesthetic in that. We feel stuck in the past and use darkness as a way of expressing a feeling towards the future.” – Taka “I agree with Taka here when taking about connecting to the past. He makes a beautiful reference to Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s book In Praise of Shadows, that book is one of the most important witnesses in understanding Japanese aesthetics today. ” – Lasse

Listen to an exclusive soundscape track by Ena beoplay.com/tokyo_sounds

“ Tokyo is a love/hate relationship for me.

I bring in energy to it but won’t be trapped by it.”

– Taka

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beoplay.com/H7

Creative Direction — Lasse Kusk / Photos — @shotbykusk / Sound — ENA / Product — Beoplay H7 / Him — Ko Nakano (Agency jungle-tokyo) / Her — Luu Cheng / Clothing — @tasjapan @byhnewyork / Styling — @tasjapan

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City report

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Generative Translations “So much recent Japanese culture comes from Western culture. At the same time there’s always some misunderstanding that happens when we interpret it.

Misunderstandings can make for a weird feeling, but sometimes interesting things happen in that translation. I think this is the main aspect to how we have built up our recent culture. We import it, but can’t help changing it into something else.”

– Ena Technological Discretion “Fashion has been done in so many forms and now the only way to develop is through the use of technology.

Everyone relies on technology, so much that we don’t look at real things anymore.” – Taka “I believe that technology will remain a natural part of our society while at the same time become more and more invisible, and integrated into our surroundings. The challenge for designers and engineers today is to follow basic human behaviour while creating adaptable artificial intelligence. The holy grail here is technological discretion.”

– Lasse

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Sound Matters / What would it feel like to suddenly be able to hear after forty years of deafness? How exactly do our brains decide what’s noise and what’s meaningful? What is the sound of life itself? Meet Tim Hinman – the man behind our podcast series which tries to answer these profound questions through sonic storytelling and placing listening at the centre of experience.

Photographs / Emil Hartvig

Interview

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The Journal Issue 05 “Umph, umph, umph, umph, umph, umph…” Tim Hinman is relaxing in his apartment building’s courtyard in central Copenhagen. With a humorous twinkle in his eye Tim beat-boxes along with the distant electronic drum sound of an urban festival that’s just kicked off in the Danish capital – the sound of which will define the city’s soundscape for the coming week. As the evening fades we sip ale imported from his native Britain and speak about the ideas behind Sound Matters, the podcast series he writes and produces with B&O PLAY – with the second season of episodes set to launch in late November. It’s an eccentric way of expressing his love for sound of all types: “I’ve been interested in and working with sound in a number of different capacities for over 20 years now… so when B&O PLAY asked me to work on developing a series with them investigating a shared love for the world, or worlds, of sound, I jumped at the opportunity, especially as it allowed for such a broad amount of subjects to be featured.”

Music is, of course, an important element of Sound Matters, but more often than not it’s just the doorway into a deeper sonic journey. Across the series, Sound Matters meets a number of key figures in the culture and practice of sound, like the influential field recordist and bio-acoustician Bernie Krause who started out studying classical composition and was part of the legendary folk music band The Weavers in the early 1960s; another episode looks at how one musician-therapist uses the music that people love, that is embedded in memories and dreams to help heal them after traumatic events; another investigates how neuroscientists are trying to understand the mystery of what exactly is going on in our brains that makes it possible to hear sounds, filter out only the most important parts, and understand what they mean through all the noise of our world; other episodes listen in on the practices and cultures of sound art, field recording the soundscape, and what exactly makes the difference between a good sound and a bad sound.

This rich diversity of the places, scenes and cultures where sound is an important, even necessary ingredient, represents Tim’s long-running and wide-reaching involvement in all things audible (as well as, of course, B&O PLAY’s love for sound). “I started out playing music and trying to be a rock star but then needed to get a real job, so moved to film, and then radio. I moved to Denmark from London in 1996, and since then I’ve been involved in dozens of experimental audio productions at the Danish National Radio – from sound art and compositions to straight-up documentaries, from poetry and spoken word pieces to radio dramas. From 2009 I also produced my own and others work exclusively for the online digital magazine Third Ear (thirdear.dk). Oh, and I also teach radio and sound to journalists, techies and artists!”

This insatiable interest in sound, how it makes us feel, remember or forget, comforts us or excites us, and how creative practitioners use it, is what got B&O PLAY interested in Tim’s work. And even though it feels like the first series covered a massive range of subjects and ideas, there’s seemingly nothing that sound doesn’t affect. As the evening sun fades over a festive Copenhagen I ask Tim what listeners might expect from a second series? He’s cagey, and says with a mischievous look, “I can’t say exactly, but expect acoustic archaeology, the sounds of the stars, and much more in between…”

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Sound Matters

Series 1, episodes 1–8 01 THE SOUND OF LIFE ITSELF We kick off our podcast series with the ambitiously titled episode “The Sound Of Life Itself ”.

We meet the influential field recordist, bio-acoustician and musician Bernie Krause, and find out how Krause became a founding pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology.

02 MUSIC & MEMORY & ME “Without music we’d simply be something other than human beings.” Birthdays, weddings, festivals, funerals and more – pretty much every important human event is marked by music, and our brains take it all in, no matter how distant or vague those memories become.

Meet Paul Robertson, violinist and professor in music and medicine, who has spent years working with people suffering from dementia and brain damage, and find out how he uses music to heal people.

03 ZOMBIE MOVIE PIANO MUSIC A zombie growls, a piano plays – get into a cinematic frame of mind: get comfortable in your seat, take that first handful of popcorn and meet film sound designer Peter Albrechtsen who tells us how he makes movies leap out and grab at you using sound, and musician and composer Neil Brand who plays live accompaniment to early, silent films.

04 BRAINS, CARS & TIGERS There’s a problem with your brain… well, not your brain specifically, but there’s a problem when it comes to neuroscientists understanding how your brain works when you’re listening to things. And the closer we look at the brain, the more complicated it gets.

What exactly is going on in your head that makes it possible to hear sounds, filter out only the most important parts, and understand what they mean?

05 NEW EARS & STRANGE ROOMS It’s all too easy to take the sense of hearing for granted. Unless, of course, you were born deaf and never heard anything – just like Jo Milne, who was deaf until she was forty years old when she had cochlear implants and could suddenly hear the world.

We visit Milne a year after and find out how her life has changed profoundly.

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06 SNOWFLAKES & METAL HAMMERS What’s the sound of snow falling? This might sound like a riddle, but for composer Yann Coppier snow and ice are materials for making music and art. In this episode we focus our ears on the specialist field of sound art – speaking with Coppier about his time recording in Greenland and how he makes that country’s natural sounds part of his art. Also, Danish artist Jacob Kirkegaard, whose interest in the sonics of Chernobyl, our inner ears and Ethiopian metal hammers informs his art.

07 ANIMALS OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW Have a listen to the sounds going on outside your window: a car passing by, maybe an airplane flying overhead, a few birds chirping away in a tree?

This episode is a lazy man’s guide to exploring the sounds of the natural world – specifically noises of the animal kind. Meet radio producer Colette Kinsella, who lives in the middle of Dublin Zoo and records the nocturnal sounds of the animals, and Greg Budney, Curator for Collections, Development and Outreach at the Macauly Library – the largest archive for biodiversity audio and video recordings in the world.

Hinman and Third Ear’s prestigious Prix Europa for “best digital audio” 2016.

08 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY There’s not much that’s more annoying than to be forced to listen to a bad sound – but what do we mean when we call something a bad sound, and is it understood in the same way by different people? In this final episode of our podcast series, we find out how our brains are wired to differentiate between the good, the bad and the ugly audio of our world.

Put your headphones on and listen to all episodes of Sound Matters here beoplay.com/soundmatters Stay tuned: Sound Matters series 02 launches in late 2016.

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The Journal Issue 05 Just another day at the office with Plan8 in their Stockholm studio. From left: Bali Harko, Calle Stenqvist and Karl­Johan Råsmark

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Collaborative Class / So many people asked about the song we commissioned for our A1 speaker launch video that we had to catch the next plane to Stockholm and chat with Plan8, the collective behind “Out Of School”

Photographs / Tova Mozard

Interview

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P Calle Stenqvist, Bali Harko and Karl Johan Råsmark are a busy trio of musical Swedes who work at Plan8, a dynamic group of seven composers in Stockholm specialising in music and sound design.

We met up with them at their production space – a former fire station turned into recording studio.

Many of you are involved in different types of music making: chart pop and folk music and more. But how do a team of composers go about making a track together for a project like the A1 video soundtrack?

Calle Stenqvist: Usually, for a bespoke composition like the one in the A1 video, we get a brief from the client’s creative director. It’s often pretty abstract and describes the overall feel of the piece, especially how it’s meant to support the visuals. It’s my job to decode this, ask the right questions so that I can translate it into something meaningful in music terminology. Then we sit down as a team and talk about what we need to create. After that either Bali or Karl Johan takes over and starts fleshing out the track.

In the case of the track we made for the A1 video it was Bali who did the groundwork, and then Karl Johan and I came in later to add different pieces to the puzzle, like lyrics and vocals for the chorus.

Bali Harko: Yes, the collaborative nature of making music is really exciting, and it can be really frustrating when you’re stuck with your own ideas and can’t find a way out. Most of the time though we’re too busy to be several composers working on the same piece through all stages of the creative process. But we jump in and out of each other’s compositions a lot.

I’m interested in how the track for our A1 video came about: were you thinking about specific moods, activities or scenes when you made it?

Also, does the song have a name?

Calle: With work like that it always starts with the brand and the story we are trying to tell in the film. To me, the A1 film is about the poetry found

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“I’ve always been interested in how all these sonic pieces come together to sound like one song”

Listen to “Out Of School” at beoplay.com/A1_school

in everyday life. Little beautiful moments that make you feel alive. The song needed to feel warm and positive but have a stroke of melancholy and emotion to it.

Bali: Calle put together a video with some nice stills of people hanging out during the summertime, childhood memories and warmth to set the mood. So I wanted the song, and especially the vocals, to kind of hug and envelop the listener – for me, the vocal is like the little voice we all have in our heads – warning ourselves not to do something stupid, questioning, reminding ourselves of things n– but here it’s telling us to try and see (and hear) the little details in every moment… how you’re nallowed to lose yourself in the little things once in awhile and not overthink. The song itself is called “Out Of School” because I related it to the feeling of when you finish high school and look back with a mixture of nostalgia and melancholy, while still being positive and excited about what’s to come. It all came pretty naturally once I put myself in that mindset…

Karl Johan Råsmark: … exactly, Bali said it!

What are your creative backgrounds? Did you all come out of a conservatory or school, or are you self taught?

Bali: My dad is a musician and also a luthier, so it started with him giving me a violin that he had built for me when I turned six. Then he started teaching me how to play. I went to several music schools from age seven until I was twenty-two, studying jazz and contemporary guitar playing, and also music law. I started recording bands that my friends were playing in during high school, and that’s how I found music production. I took a few production classes when I lived in Los Angeles, but never anything extensive. It was just a natural step to go into it since I always played in bands, and have always been interested in how all these sonic pieces come together to sound like one song.

Karl Johan: My musical path took off as a result

of early violin lessons, and singing and playing a lot in church while growing up. This gave me the musical foundation I needed to start exploring other instruments on my own. As teenager I was all about playing in various bands. My interest in music production started then as we recorded a lot of demos. Later, after I graduated from high school, I started studying at the Songwriters Academy in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, and after that I moved straight to Stockholm to try and make it as a music producer. And that’s what I’ve been doing since.

Calle: I was brought up in a musical home where singing and playing instruments was part of everyday life. I went to several music schools and eventually started producing myself. I was always technically interested and started fiddling around with recording and DJ equipment. When I finished university I rented a studio space and started taking on music production jobs, recording bands and writing my own stuff. Soon it grew and we started Plan8.

What’s the voice in the A1? Who is it singing in that robot-like vocoder voice – and what are they singing about?

Bali: It’s me! I recorded myself singing the lyrics kind of softly like a lullaby. I then vocoded it, doubled it and pitched it just to make it really hug the listener. It was important to make it feel comforting while being big and surrounding, and the vocoder did that in a nice way, I think. The intro is pretty basic, so the effect helped out a lot. The singing at the end is myself and Karl Johan doing the chorus in full voice.

But wait a minute... you haven’t answered the full question: what exactly is the voice singing about?

Bali: It’s a secret. You’ll have to listen very closely to figure it out…

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You photograph a lot of different subjects: industrial, scientific, and architectural projects.

What do you find interesting about them?

I love going behind the scenes and seeing things that other people don’t get to see – I feel nextremely lucky to be able to do that. I’m particularly attracted to the industrial and scientific work because I get to explore the insane solutions that human beings come up with in order to solve problems.

The architectural stuff I do tends to be a bit more quirky, but I still take exactly the same approach towards the subject matter. I am not a conventional architecture photographer and am more interested in finding the work of eccentric, nearly-forgotten architects that were doing things out of the box, showing their work in new ways.

How did you start out shooting these subjects?

About five years ago I came across a couple of photographers who worked for “big industry” in the 1950s and 60s – Wolfgang Sievers and Maurice Broomfield. They were photographing big oil refineries and manufacturing plants at a time when the companies that owned them were proud of them instead of ashamed, as they tend to be today. I was totally amazed, it was like a lightbulb moment where I knew that was what I wanted to photograph from now on. So I started researching like crazy, and trying to talk my way in anywhere I could in order to build a portfolio – over the last few years a lot of my time has been spent learning how to get ahold of the right person and how to convince them to let me in to their facility.

Is it usually difficult to gain access?

It can take a lot of work to get into some places – sometimes I reach a wall where I get the wrong person to deal with who just doesn’t understand what I

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am trying to do. But like I said, I have got quite good at it over the years.

One of the easiest places I got access to was a place I thought would be the hardest: the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. When I was just starting I planned a trip there to take their regular tourist visit, but I also sent an email to the press office asking if there was anything I could see that the other tourists don’t get to see, anything at all. To my surprise they replied saying I could have an afternoon being shown around on my own.

What’s your favourite of your projects?

One that really stands out was photographing the building of the Maersk Triple E in South Korea - the biggest container ship in the world – for Wired magazine. That was just epic, seeing these huge blocks of ships being lifted around and put together like bits of Lego.

And of course making The Art of Impossible book!

How did The Art of Impossible come about?

I remember Bang & Olufsen from my childhood – my grandad had a B&O TV – and it has always been on my radar as a really interesting company. When I moved to Denmark I became even more aware of it and it was obviously exactly the kind of company I would like the chance to explore. Through a friend I arranged a meeting with someone very senior in the company and pitched them the idea of doing this book. To my surprise they went for it, and went for it all the way – I was really allowed to make the book that I wanted, with very little interference.

The company has so much history, with so many iconic products – I wanted to show all of that but in a way which hadn’t been seen before, and different from the glossy marketing.

Photographs / Alistair Philip Wiper

Interview

Alistair Philip Wiper / The photographer and author of The Art Of Impossible: The Bang & Olufsen Design Story tells us about his fascination with heavy industry, shooting CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and scouring the B&O archives for product prototypes.

Form 2i, designed by Steve McGugan, 1985 (part of the MoMA collection), on the acoustic Head and Torso Simulator (HAT) doll.

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Inner workings of BeoLab 14 subwoofer

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Listening to the future: a worker listens for mechanical noise being made by BeoVision Avant sound system unfolding.

Every television set is checked like this, as only the human ear can decide if it sounds just right.

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Precious anti-reflection coated front glass for BeoVision Avant 55.

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The Art Of Impossible The Bang & Olufsen Design Story is published by Thames & Hudson

Acoustic model for BeoLab 90.

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Small Objects, Big Sounds / The award winning Danish designer, Cecilie Manz tells us about boiling ideas down to their essence and making good objects in our age of ever handier proportions.

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Find out more at beoplay.com/A1

The objects that surround us are ever-smaller, especially technology. How do you see the role of the designer changing within these increasingly constrictive parameters?

I think designers always need to be able to adjust and react to the different situations we find around us. We’re quite used to it, it’s part of our job! But at the same time we also need to be calm and reflective – so much changes so fast in this field and it’s not all good. Sometimes it’s progressive to stand still and observe rather than react wrongly.

I’m very dedicated to minimalism and love small objects. It pushes both me and the developers to perform twice as good. We just need to be aware of the limit where an object becomes absurd or non-functional: where buttons are uselessly pin-sized, and umbrellas are so collapsible they fit snugly in your front pocket but don’t help at all when it rains. That’s just stupid.

I guess it’s just about using your senses: when and what to work on, what to make and what to put out into this world that’s filled with so many different objects and choices.

How does your creative process work? Many of the pieces you make look as if the materials have almost come together themselves naturally – how do you know when a piece is finished?

I start all projects in the same way. When I get a brief I read it carefully and boil it down to the essentials: okay, you need a long wooden table, or a cup, or a portable Bluetooth speaker, then work outwards from there. This is not to cut away the important details but to find the essential ones, to find out the functionality I should start to sketch in reaction to. Then comes model work – seeing everything 1:1 plays a very important part in my practice. Maybe the model is made out of cheap cardboard in the beginning, looking horrible, but it brings you further in the process and the nnext sketch is more detailed, so is the next model.

Through the process I have meetings with the client, share computer drawings and so on. But everything revolves around my work table, with the models, the material references, colour samples and other components.

At a certain point in the process you have the feeling something is right, a character has been made. And this is the first step in the long process of finalising a design. Being able to sense that something is just right is important. Then comes all the unavoidable adjustments and corrections in the manufacturing stage with a lot of ping-ponging back and forth. My most important job is to keep my eyes on the character of the object through all the stages, to preserve its spirit in the sometimes muddy final sprint towards the deadline.

Could you tell us a bit about how B&O PLAY commissioned you for our A1 speaker and what aspects of it you’re especially proud of?

You could say the path towards ‘smaller’ already started with the Beolit12 speaker. While working with that I had the idea of a smaller version – the Beoplay A2 – and B&O PLAY luckily had the same thought. The A1 was a natural step following the A2: even smaller and better sound in a more compressed space.

The shape itself, the flat cylinder, was quickly

decided on from very early on in the process. We wanted it to feel smooth and soft in the hands since you handle it a lot. In and out of your bag, hanging loose and getting a characterful patina from being used in everyday life. I’m very happy about the A1’s smooth appearance. It’s almost like a sanded stone with no sharp edges, even though it’s made of two joint materials: aluminium and polymer. And of course the great job done by the acoustic technicians. They managed to develop a new speaker component inside that creates an incredibly rich sound with a very even volume.

I’m sure you’re asked this a lot, but how did you realise that you wanted to be a designer? And how do you keep developing creatively like you do?

Very early on I knew I wanted to work with my hands. I have always been fascinated by objects, materials, surfaces. But furniture and product design came in the loop by chance or mistake, I really didn’t have any ambitions in this direction until I started studying and became completely hooked.

Now I can’t think of what else could make me this happy working with, I really love my job!

I sometimes take on projects or even invent tasks for myself that don’t look very promising in any rational or economical way. But it’s very important to maintain the joy and playful approach towards my work. It could be a one-off piece for an exhibition or an experiment that’s doomed to fail – it doesn’t matter, these breaks are crucial to keep me in motion and challenge myself differently.

A fine balance: Cecilie Manz’s Copenhagen studio

Photographs / Casper Sejersen

Interview

The Journal Issue 05

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The Journal Issue 05

The Journal Issue 05

Manic Street Preachers and others, and found out how he started his career in record shops and the legendary Factory Records in Manchester, and his work with bands, brands and artists.

3.

Studio visit

Photographs / Elliot Kennedy + Farrow Studio

Ideas Come From Anywhere / We visited the London studio of Mark Farrow, designer for the Pet Shop Boys (whose new album Super launched earlier this year with B&O PLAY as audio partners), Spiritualized,

4.

1.

1.

Pet Shop Boys, Leaving.

12 inch single cover.

2.

The black shelves.

Where new work is displayed when it arrives at the studio.

3.

Spiritualized, Let it come down.

Vacuum-formed CD packaging.

4.

Pet Shop Boys. Yes. Limited edition vinyl packaging.

2.

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The Journal Issue 05

5.

The Journal Issue 05 You’ve worked with bands, brands and all types of companies and people. How did you start out as a designer?

I was always drawn to the way things look. This began to manifest itself as a teenager when I nreally started to enjoy music. I was never going to be a musician but that couldn’t stop me from ndesigning record covers for them.

I grew up in Manchester which is hundreds of miles from London, where the music business was. nMy chances of getting to work with musicians were pretty slim in theory, but I was lucky because Punk happened. It was short-lived but Punk’s spirit of independence meant that bands and small labels appeared up and down the country, and I had what I believed was the best one of all to aim for: Factory Records.

I was about eighteen years old then and working for small ad agencies and design companiesdoing dull work. But at the weekend I worked in a small record store, the unremarkably namedDiscount Records. It was a tiny shop with walls covered in home-spun indie record sleeves. Smallas it was the shop was kind of the centre of the universe for anyone into music then. Tony Wilson, who founded Factory Records, along with Rob Gretton who managed Joy Division (later new Order), as well as designers Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett all used to frequent the place, so it was a real hotbed for me as a kid. I had formed friendships with lots of the ‘customers’ (we were all just hanging out really) and a bunch of them formed a band, The Stockholm Monsters. They were offered a deal with Factory so they asked me to design the cover for their first single, Fairy Tales, and that was it, I was up and running!

You’ve worked with Pet Shop Boys on their new album, as well as many of their previous albums and tours.

How did you start with them?

The work I was doing for Factory was an amazing experience and gave me a real sense of freedom and a belief that I could achieve anything I wished, given the opportunity. But at the same time there wasn’t enough work to sustain a career. I hated what I was doing at my day job and realised I had to move to London to be able to get the work I wanted. So I applied for a job with a London-based design company called XL. They were hot at the time designing for the ZTT label and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. My folder of flyers, posters and Factory single sleeves did enough to get me the job and I moved to London. XL was an interesting set up inasmuch as it had three divisions: design, film and music management.

The latter was run by Tom Watkins and he had recently signed a band called Pet Shop Boys.

5.

Pet Shop Boys, Introspective.

Album cover 6.

Pet Shop Boys, Disco 4.

Album cover 7.

Roisin Murphy, Hairless Toys.

One of four promotional posters for her album.

7.

He felt they would like the minimal aesthetic of my work, and he was right. The first thing I worked on for them was a 10 inch remix sleeve for “West End Girls”, which went on to reach number one in the charts (not because of my sleeve I hasten to add).

Obviously music is a very important part of your personal life. How important is listening to music in your professional creative process?

Music’s constantly playing in the studio, so it’s very important in that respect – I’m not sure we’d manage without it!

In terms of it relating to a project we are working on, it’s always good to hear what it is that you’re designing for. A concept for an album’s design can come from the music but it’s just as likely to come from the album’s title or a conversation with the artist. When we did the packaging for the Spiritualized album, Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space, the idea came from something Jason Pierce from the band said in our first meeting: that music was medication for the soul. We designed the album to resemble oversized prescription medication packaging, with each of the 12 songs contained in their own three-inch CD. These had to be popped through foil in a vacuum formed tray in order to play it, so it was literally like taking a headache pill.

Ideas can come from anywhere.

6.

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MAKE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

Behind the cover, literally: a Beoplay A9 prototype, from Alistair Philip Wiper’s The Art Of Impossible: The Bang & Olufsen Design Story – turn to page 18