{"id":3759,"date":"2022-05-11T08:57:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T07:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=3759"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:44:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:44:04","slug":"een-front-motel-mozaique-livesessie-sacrificial-chanting-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2022\/05\/11\/a-front-motel-mozaique-live-session-sacrificial-chanting-mood\/","title":{"rendered":"A Front & Motel Moza\u00efque live session: Sacrificial Chanting Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Front recorded two live sessions in collaboration with Rotterdam festival Motel Moza\u00efque. Alongside <\/strong>Katy J Pearson<\/strong><\/a>, our video team captured Sacrificial Chanting Mood in the industrial art complex Brutus ahead of their stage debut later that day. Afterwards, we spoke to founding members Alicia Breton Ferrer (The Sweet Release of Death, Neighbours Burning Neighbours) and Doortje Hiddema (Euroboy, Rats On Rafts) about the inception of their collaboration.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: <\/strong>Ruben van Dijk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alicia Breton Ferrer and Doortje Hiddema speak their own little language now. \u201cDo you still have a fliepje<\/em> for me?,\u201d Breton Ferrer asks. Hiddema answers: \u201cYes, and I also have this old fliepje<\/em> of yours that I can work on.\u201d The verbal chemistry of their collaboration is evident, but it was never a condition. In fact, the first few songs took shape without the two ever having had an actual conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was just the most intangible feeling. Breton Ferrer and Hiddema \u201cknew of each other\u2019s existence,\u201d but \u201chad never had a conversation longer than ten minutes.\u201d They had mutual friends and were mutual admirers: the glum noise of The Sweet Release of Death and Neighbours Burning Neighbours, and Breton Ferrer\u2019s slightly more playful solo record on the one hand; on the other, the slipshod slacker pop of Real Derek and Euroboy. Almost simultaneously, the two reached out, laying the foundation for a future collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breton Ferrer: \u201cAt that point we decided to write a song together, then two. We thought: we\u2019ll each send the other person two fliepjes<\/em> and just see if they can work with that. That\u2019s how it started. One of us would send the other this guitar part, and then had to wait and see. It was just so easy. Even then, we never really talked to each other, right?\u201d Hiddema nods in agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Together, we moved into this new, darker territory. And I was like: oh, so this<\/em> is what Doortje is like!\"<\/p>Alicia Breton Ferrer<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Solely based on mutual trust and minimal communication, and made almost entirely through WeTransfer, an album called Sacrificial Chanting Mood<\/em> emerged, to be released in September through Subroutine imprint Glove Compartment. And even though the album doesn\u2019t necessarily exist right at the confluence of both worlds; it does reflect clearly that which Breton Ferrer and Hiddema most admire in each other\u2019s music. \u201cI always love it when there\u2019s a certain everyday sadness to music,\u201d says Hiddema, \u201cEspecially if it\u2019s done in a refined way and it\u2019s incorporated in the music \u2013 and not too on the nose. I think Alicia\u2019s really good at that, and does it in a way that\u2019s very unique to her.\u201d Breton Ferrer: \u201cI feel the same about your music! The way in which you can say everyday things and then feel there\u2019s something underneath - rather than it being this literal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s funny,\u201d Breton Ferrer continues, \u201cis that I always had the feeling your music was much lighter, much more poppy. And I thought: given the heavy nature of both The Sweet Release of Death and Neighbours Burning Neighbours, it would be cool to explore that lightness a little more. But I feel it\u2019s become something entirely different. Together, we moved into this new, darker territory. And I was like: oh, so this<\/em> is what Doortje is like!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sick\u2019, one of the songs on Sacrificial Chanting Mood<\/em> played at Brutus, speaks to the collaboration in many ways. It\u2019s a dark song, dealing with sickness and the frailty of existence, something with which both Hiddema and Breton Ferrer have struggled during the early months of the pandemic. At the same time, it\u2019s a meaning born from sheer coincidence, as Breton Ferrer sent a guitar part with some gibberish vocals to Hiddema, who then turned the gibberish into words, \u201centirely phonetically\u201d. \u2018Warm Hands\u2019, the first song in the session below, isn\u2019t actually on the album. Hiddema: \u201cActually, that\u2019s a demo Alicia recorded that I think is fucking awesome and that I really wanted to be included in the liveshows.\u201d And so it happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these first live shows, Sacrificial Chanting Mood has entered a new chapter. The first two gigs - at Motel Moza\u00efque and Roadburn the next day - had already been booked before Hiddema and Breton Ferrer ever even played in one room together, let alone formed a band to bring their songs to life. Hiddema: \u201cIt was quite nerve-racking. We both had a real existential moment of crisis, where it was like: oh my god, I\u2019ve made this music, but what if it\u2019s not going to work out when we actually play together, what if that very specific kind of contact you require isn\u2019t there?\u201d Breton Ferrer: \u201cTwo or three weeks before our first shows, we were still rehearsing some of these songs for the first time. So you\u2019re constantly suppressing this feeling of panic: we can do this, these people are amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage, their collaboration is much more than just Euroboy plus Alicia Breton Ferrer. It\u2019s \u201ca together thing,\u201d says Hiddema. And so now that the first shows have proven that, yes, it actually works, the band looks to the horizon. To the album release in September, to more shows, and more fliepjes<\/em> to be exchanged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cinematografie:<\/strong> Jason Hornung, Koen Bouman en Peter Marcus
Opname:<\/strong> Jasper Boogaard en Daan Duurland
Mix:<\/strong> Daan Duurland
Montage: <\/strong>Peter Marcus
Master:<\/strong> Jasper Boogaard<\/p>\n\n\n\n