Music Questionnaire No 6- Caroline Kraabel

Caroline Kraabel is an improvising saxophonist who has been working with
extended techniques (employing simultaneous voice and sax for example)
to produce a new language for the instrument. She is also the founder of
the utterly amazing Mass Producers a 20 piece all woman
saxophone/voice orchestra, who have recorded a CD and an analogue LP,
and a new one is promised featuring the voice of Robert Wyatt.

She works in several duos and groups with msuicians like John Edwards,
Veryan Weston, Maggie Nichols and Charlotte Hug.

Her work often carries a strong philosophical purpose or intent, and
reflects her long standing interests in electricity, amplification, the
experience of "live" music and gender issues in music.

She was the editor of the magazine Resonance 10.2 devoted to the
interface of music, place and technology.

She is responsible for the long running Resonance FM show "Taking a Life
for Walk" which in many ways encapsulated the pioneering and spirit of
the station.

Her own website is here.

Who are you?

Caroline Kraabel

Where are you based?

London

What instruments do you play?

Saxophone/voice

What is your current or most recent project?

Getting my children settled at school

Name a record that had a big effect on you in your youth-

Horses

What was the last record/CD you played-

a private cd of microphone experiments I had been trying out.

List three records or CDs by artists other than yourself we should
all hear-

"Curandera" by
Susan Alcorn.
I'm sure there are others but I can't think of any just now.

Describe a live performance that had a big effect on you-

verbal description of live performances seem futile to me.

Your favourite live venue-

the streets

What's the strangest place you've performed in/at?

streets? Anechoic chamber? Tunnels? A person's head and face? A car?

Tell me about a great experience as a performer-

see above re: descriptions

Is improvisation important to you?

Yes.

Name three heros or heroines-

Maggie Nicols, John Edwards, Walter Benjamin.

What is your favourite city?

London

A couple of favourite books-
Arg!
Illuminations
La Chartreuse de Parme
A la recherche du temps perdu
the immigrants
wide sargasso sea

A couple of favourite films-

seven samurai
la regle du jeu

What makes you laugh?

don't know

Is there a pop song you feel sentimental about, and can you name it?

lots of pop songs make me feel sentimental, and sentimentality seems to
me to go along with the dislocation created by the commodification and reproduction of music - a matching distortion of emotions in time, intensity and object.

My favourite pop song is "Shipbuilding", as sung by Robert Wyatt.
I don't think it makes me sentimental.