After their acclaimed apparitions on OOH-sounds, Santé Records, and Zoë Mc Pherson’s SFX, Glass is back at it with their biggest work to date in collaboration with Comic Sans Records. The two French producers behind the electronic music duo Glass—Etienne and Hugo—celebrate the release of their recent album ‘Anxiety Prime’ as a rather spontaneous response to the very particular time we are living in at the moment, a personal testimony of our environment. Therefore, the album is a physical exploration of socio-political violence and the ambiguous nature of our fragmented personality in modern society. “‘Anxiety Prime’ reflects on the often unpleasant and intense feelings towards our surroundings regarding politics, isolation, environmental issues, and so on. It shows the complexity and ambiguity of our reactions to the overwhelming amount of information and advertising content which washes over us every day, ” the duo explains. “It’s a very fragmented record torn between the constant search for entertainment and instantaneous aesthetic pleasure, a heavy sounding piece to saturate our brain with, and our desire to go further into our sonic experimentations.”
Coming from instrumental rock or post-punk backgrounds, Etienne and Hugo met through the local music scene in Caen. Over the years, they started to make all sorts of sonic experiments together and discover their mutual interest in sound manipulation, synthesis, programming, OST, A/V collaborations, and experimental music before becoming Glass. “We have composed music since we were kids, so it has been part of our daily life for so many years. It became a central part of ourselves, even if we are not professional musicians from an economic point of view. Experimental music and music, in general, aren’t much valued nowadays,” they tell us, “while our style and practice are constantly evolving with us, they come from years of experiences trying to find a compositional framework that matches our personality and interests.”
Every collaboration between the duo blends their different production styles, stacking a “ridiculous” amount of sonic and rhythmic experimentations before keeping only small sound fragments, like a rich and atmospheric collage of information. “There’s this never-ending conversation between us. We are constantly learning from each other by tossing ideas back and forth and slowly shaping the outcome in this process. It forces us to step outside of our comfort zone and allows us to refine our practice by exploring new territories,” Etienne and Hugo tell us, “we intentionally decided to work separately from each other in our own studios, allowing us to delve into long and detailed sonic experimentations and build up a very intimate relation to the composition process.”
As a result of their collaboration with Comic Sans’s artistic director, the experimental writing of the duo blends new influences from underground club culture and mainstream musical trends into a playful and hybrid sound experience, utilizing every tool at their disposal from cutting-edge techniques like Max/MSP programming, machine learning to random internet sound sampling, voice experimentation and eld recordings. Hundreds of heavy processed sonic fragments come together to form a multi-layered, deep, and eclectic composition.
The album’s stunning cover is another conversation entirely. Designed by Sara Bastai, Virgile Flores, and Inés Maestre, the artwork speculates on an apocalyptic future where humanity has lost its connection to nature. “In this scenario, our society lost the ability to reach essential resources, like breathable air, water, earth, and fire,” Sara, Virgile, and Inés tell us. “The cover shows a close-up of a sweaty face hiding the rest of the body laying down in an empty, ambient space that allows them to reconnect with nature.” During their creative process, the three designers were encouraged to interpret the music freely without any restrictions. “We highly valued the collaborative side of this project and hope to build upon this concept in the future. Allowing them to explore and interpret the music in their own way also changed our own perspective on our work,” Glass states. “This has created a collaborative environment in which everybody added to the project.”
Next to ‘Anxiety Prime’, the duo has recently participated in ‘Xquisite Force’, an A/V collaborative project initiated by SFX inviting different artists, designers, and musicians to create sound and visuals in response to the final fragments from the previous participant’s work. The founder of the platform, Zoë Mc Pherson, contacted Glass at the end of the project, asking them to connect the two initially divided parts. “Working on the composition without knowing the outcome was a very stimulating challenge, but we absolutely loved this experience! It allowed us to connect with an inspiring community of artists, especially with Lucia Bertazzo. She was responsible for the animation for our audio during the project. After this experience, she has also designed the artwork for one of our radio shows on Rinse France.”
At the moment, the duo works on a new live show for ‘Anxiety Prime’ while also experimenting with some unreleased material from their past releases on Santé Records and OHH-sounds. “We hope to collaborate more with other musicians, artists in the fields of video, installation, or OST, or any designers in the future,” the duo states. “Collaboration brings us a lot. The result is always something that we could have never created on our own—and that’s what keeps us excited!”
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COLLABORATIONS TO LOOK AT:
Body Of Content by Croatian Amor and Varg2TM
JUICE by DÆMON, Xzavier Stone, and Modulaw
The Heart Pumps Kool-Aid by Mari Maurice (More Eaze) and Seth Graham
Unison by Paraadiso (TSVI & Seven Orbits)
4 Tunes by Nazar, DJ Brodinski, and Shapednoise
Godrime by Emmadj (Coming soon!)
