Image courtesy of Gaussian Curve.I’ve long dreamt of an ambient evening on the harbour listening to the Australian debut of Gaussian Curve. Jonny Nash, Young Marco and Italian electronic pioneer Gigi Masin came together in 2014 to producer their debut LP Clouds in a single afternoon on Tako Reyenga and Jamie Tiller’s Amsterdam label Music from Memory.Delving into Gaussian Curve reveals a wealth of music that spans more than three decades; left-field, disco, cinema music and beyond. Young Marco of ESP Institute blew me away with his Biology EP earlier in 2014 and Gigi Masin was elevated from cult status when Music From Memory issued a retrospective of his deeply emotive music titled Talk To The Sea in the same year.Gaussian Curve will make their way to Australia this month for the RBMA Weekender, playing Bradley’s Head Amphitheatre in Sydney and alongside Chicago house icon Larry Heard in Melbourne’s Town Hall. Club roots and minimalist influences make Clouds a defining soundtrack to increasingly strange and fast times — I spoke to Jonny Nash about how to take it slow.Hi Jonny, where are you?
I’m back in the UK. I’ve been a little bit here and there for the last year or so but i’m back at my folks place for a few weeks at the moment. Just doing a few gigs around Europe and preparing for the Gaussian tour.Where in the UK?
It’s a small village between Manchester and Liverpool called Dunham-on-the-hill. It’s very small but nice and rural so getting a bit of rest in before a whole lot of travelling.Bradley’s Head Amphitheatre is certainly an incredible venue.
It looks fantastic. Tako (Red Light Records) showed me some photos maybe six months ago. We’re all very excited to be playing together in these great locations.Clouds is an extremely iconic album of recent memory and I can listen to it in very polarising states. How do you see it being consumed?
I like to the think all this music and the music with Gaussian Curve has this power and stillness. It’s often the case. Sometimes I’ll play solo live gigs and if the setting and atmosphere isn’t right it can really get lost. But on the flipside, if you really give this music time and yourself a moment, it has the potential to connect with you in a really profound way. That feeling when you’re making it, it’s not really conscious as such but you’re trying to tap into something, whatever it is. This kind of stillness or a deeper truth or honesty.The unsaid emotion.
Gigi calls it a ‘noble sorrow’. I see all this music as quite hopeful but maybe there’s some sadness in it too. A lot of people say that it works in these different kind of ways and that’s amazing. In a world where everything has to be the fastest the loudest, it’s nice to remember the different kind of energy you can get when you slow it down. Close to silence almost.Do you see Ambient as background music as well as something to listen to consciously?
I love music that works in both of those ways. You can tune in and out. I like how on the surface some of the tracks like ‘Impossible Island’ have this element of coming across as quite light but if you tune into them more, you realise there’s a lot of depths and layers in there. I like music that can function in both of those ways. It just can be there in the background when, but when you choose to engage with it, there’s a lot to go into. I like that the Gaussian Curve stuff can be listened to in that way.Where would be your dream place to play with Gaussian?
Outdoors is really nice. I think anywhere outdoors with a good crowd who are engaged with it.We’re playing with Larry Heard in Melbourne and that’s a bit of a fantasy line-up for us. For both Marco and I, in terms of dance music and beyond, he’s really one of our biggest influences. When I first met Marco I remember him talking about Larry Heard and listening to records together. That feels like some great kind of fate that we’re playing with him and we’re really excited about that.Why do you say fate?
I remember I had a chat with Marco years ago and he was playing one of the ‘Sceneries Not Songs’ albums by Larry Heard and we were just talking about the melodies and stuff. He’s always been this reference that we maybe both have and in some way, has influenced both our work. It’s very fortuitous and we’re very much looking forward to playing with him.Are there any other key contemporary artists you’re influence by?
Gaussian is kind of the sum of all our influences. It changes from time to time. At the moment i just watched the Werner Herzog film about the mountain climbers and the ski jumper, The Ecstacy of the Woodcarver Steiner. I’m trying to work on a record that’s sort of a soundtrack to that at the moment. But it really changes.How do you like to relax?
Oh God. Read a book, go for a walk, listen to music. Around here it’s really nice, there are loads of little country lanes and fields so that’s pretty cool. At the moment I’m making music pretty much all the time so there’s not much on/off. That’s relaxing for me as well. I’m not a renaissance man as such. I tend to just make music and chill out.How long are you in Sydney?
It’s a really short time unfortunately. I think we get there and we've got a day or so to acclaimatize and do the Sydney gig, and then go straight onto Melbourne.Gigi Masin will conduct a site-specific performance inspired by the Sydney Harbour environment, followed by a set from Gaussian Curve and support from Tako and Jamie Tiller, this Friday September 9, as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Weekender. Tickets available here. They join Larry Heard in Melbourne September 10.
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I’m back in the UK. I’ve been a little bit here and there for the last year or so but i’m back at my folks place for a few weeks at the moment. Just doing a few gigs around Europe and preparing for the Gaussian tour.Where in the UK?
It’s a small village between Manchester and Liverpool called Dunham-on-the-hill. It’s very small but nice and rural so getting a bit of rest in before a whole lot of travelling.Bradley’s Head Amphitheatre is certainly an incredible venue.
It looks fantastic. Tako (Red Light Records) showed me some photos maybe six months ago. We’re all very excited to be playing together in these great locations.Clouds is an extremely iconic album of recent memory and I can listen to it in very polarising states. How do you see it being consumed?
I like to the think all this music and the music with Gaussian Curve has this power and stillness. It’s often the case. Sometimes I’ll play solo live gigs and if the setting and atmosphere isn’t right it can really get lost. But on the flipside, if you really give this music time and yourself a moment, it has the potential to connect with you in a really profound way. That feeling when you’re making it, it’s not really conscious as such but you’re trying to tap into something, whatever it is. This kind of stillness or a deeper truth or honesty.
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Gigi calls it a ‘noble sorrow’. I see all this music as quite hopeful but maybe there’s some sadness in it too. A lot of people say that it works in these different kind of ways and that’s amazing. In a world where everything has to be the fastest the loudest, it’s nice to remember the different kind of energy you can get when you slow it down. Close to silence almost.Do you see Ambient as background music as well as something to listen to consciously?
I love music that works in both of those ways. You can tune in and out. I like how on the surface some of the tracks like ‘Impossible Island’ have this element of coming across as quite light but if you tune into them more, you realise there’s a lot of depths and layers in there. I like music that can function in both of those ways. It just can be there in the background when, but when you choose to engage with it, there’s a lot to go into. I like that the Gaussian Curve stuff can be listened to in that way.Where would be your dream place to play with Gaussian?
Outdoors is really nice. I think anywhere outdoors with a good crowd who are engaged with it.We’re playing with Larry Heard in Melbourne and that’s a bit of a fantasy line-up for us. For both Marco and I, in terms of dance music and beyond, he’s really one of our biggest influences. When I first met Marco I remember him talking about Larry Heard and listening to records together. That feels like some great kind of fate that we’re playing with him and we’re really excited about that.
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I remember I had a chat with Marco years ago and he was playing one of the ‘Sceneries Not Songs’ albums by Larry Heard and we were just talking about the melodies and stuff. He’s always been this reference that we maybe both have and in some way, has influenced both our work. It’s very fortuitous and we’re very much looking forward to playing with him.Are there any other key contemporary artists you’re influence by?
Gaussian is kind of the sum of all our influences. It changes from time to time. At the moment i just watched the Werner Herzog film about the mountain climbers and the ski jumper, The Ecstacy of the Woodcarver Steiner. I’m trying to work on a record that’s sort of a soundtrack to that at the moment. But it really changes.How do you like to relax?
Oh God. Read a book, go for a walk, listen to music. Around here it’s really nice, there are loads of little country lanes and fields so that’s pretty cool. At the moment I’m making music pretty much all the time so there’s not much on/off. That’s relaxing for me as well. I’m not a renaissance man as such. I tend to just make music and chill out.How long are you in Sydney?
It’s a really short time unfortunately. I think we get there and we've got a day or so to acclaimatize and do the Sydney gig, and then go straight onto Melbourne.Gigi Masin will conduct a site-specific performance inspired by the Sydney Harbour environment, followed by a set from Gaussian Curve and support from Tako and Jamie Tiller, this Friday September 9, as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Weekender. Tickets available here. They join Larry Heard in Melbourne September 10.