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MALTATODAY 19 April 2020

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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 APRIL 2020 4 THIS WEEK MUSIC The Malta-born, UK-based underground musician Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capitol K, speaks to TEODOR RELJIC ahead of the release of his upcoming mini- album Birdtrapper, which follows from its Malta-inspired and in many ways Malta- crafted Goatherder by offering a richer complementary soundscape to accompany the more primal beats of its predecessor 'It's no shock to see the system Your previous album, Goatherder, was made up of songs brought into being from instruments constructed out of found objects across the Maltese land- scape. Birdtrapper feels very much like a technologically-enhanced follow-up to Goatherder's raw primitivism, while still very much retaining resonances to the previous work. Could you talk a little bit about the ways in which the new album was constructed, and whether or not it serves as something of a mirror image to the previous one? They do work as a mirror or contin- uation of each other, yes. I had a vague idea for a trilogy in mind… a very clas- sic sequence of 'primitive, merchant, modern'. The source material for a lot of Birdtrapper came from the same sessions as Goatherder, and I put them aside as the primitive was my focus then. I spent a long time developing them af- terwards in my London studio and once the collection took shape, I made further trips back to Malta to write a few more pieces that would complement and com- plete the album. The narrative idea of using bird trap- pers and hunters as a theme came early, as an analogy for the people's interac- tion with the land and a contrast to the idealised idea of nature as a human-free zone. It was also, probably, an instinctual statement on the intertwined dynamics of trauma, cruelty and pleasure. An example would be the track 'Scarred Land'. There's an old farm which I've been walking by all my life. I was shocked to suddenly find it full of diggers ready for development, so I climbed the wall with my little saw and collected a stack of reeds (all farms grow them for fencing and trel- lises), I made a couple of flutes and per- cussion from them and they emitted this screaming painful timbre. I then spent a few years then returning to the record- ings, like a process of mourning and res- olution. Other tracks started by placing a mic in the yard at home or on the roof and improvising with the bird song from my neighbour's roof (he has a large col- lection...). In a previous interview, you've de- scribed Goatherder as 'calm' when compared to your more 'relentless' previous work. While Birdtrapper certainly feels a lot less 'lo-fi' than its predecessor, I would say it still retains an immersive or meditative quality. Was this an important element for you to maintain, and what kind of overall effect do you hope the album will have on the listener? I use theatrical, magical play to create. These pieces conjured a darker and un- settled message. If they work meditative- ly, I'm pleased to hear that I've managed to convey balance and harmony through them. After a good summer spent raving, I found a fresh love of dancing and want- ed this record to work in that way, so lots of work went into subtle shifts in fre- quencies, beats, and low frequency. One big difference to this album was in the mix. Goatherder was almost untouched, but with Birdtrapper I've manipulated everything: channels are run multiple times live through many layers of analog filters, outboard compressors, hot di- odes. Lots of altering reverb spaces. I made them with the alternative dance floor in mind. How they will work now, I cannot say. I feel I'm releasing them in- to a very different world than the one in which they were made… These are tough times for everybody, "The narrative idea of using bird trappers and hunters as a theme came early, as an analog y for the people's interaction with the land and a contrast to the idealised idea of nature as a human-free zone"

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