"Pieces Of A Coloring Puzzle"

Interview with Udi Susser, member of the great Israeli band of avant rock, Ahvak.

By Sergio Vilar 

To begin, I would like them to count us about your musical trajectory and the projects in which have intervened before forming Ahvak.
We were all born on the same day in an isolated igloo in the south of France 23 years ago. It was a cold stormy night… Owls barked aimlessly at innocent Greek statues hoping to win their 13 minutes of fame under the Hollywood moon. But what did it all mean? Roy has been into electronic music for quite some time (and still is), and has released 2 CD’s besides Ahvak so far: “The Best of What Dreams are Made of”, and “Thin Lips” with Ishay. Ishay has been in a Death Metal band and survived to tell the tale. Yehuda has been drinking cocoa for a fairly large portion of his life. Dave is a fish farmer in Denver. Udi Koomran has been a sound engineer for many many years and is a member of Present as well. I have been playing music for as long as I can remember and have made several home produced tapes before Ahvak.
   
How would you describe your music?
In a nutshell: We try to combine elements of 20th Century classical music (pre as well as post WWII) with rock, computer technology and middle eastern music into something which even though is influenced by past genres attempts to move forward. 
  
Do you believe that Ahvak belongs in particular to a musical scene?
Naturally we tend to get labeled under the “Avant Rock” tag for fairly obvious reasons, as any music which lacks a certain degree of conformity tends to get the aforementioned label, especially if there are 20th Century avant garde influences thrown in. Also, there is no escaping the fact that 2 of the band members have been involved in bands with similar such labeling. Belonging to such a scene is neither here nor there, as while it provides the potential listener with a framework of reference it doesn't limit the creativity in the slightest because the very definition of the genre requires one to move forward and be unexpected in this sense. The moment it becomes predictable it (a) loses viability and (b) is not considered “Avant Rock” any more, or at least shouldn't be…
 
Internally, how are you distributed the work as for the composition and arrangements? 
The compositions are written mostly by me and Roy in the form of written out scores and arrangements without much room for improvisation. That being said, once the pieces are presented to the band various changes are made through rehearsals, for instance the odd solo may be added while another is omitted, and other bits and pieces may be altered. However, once we enter the studio, the computer becomes a fully-fledged compositional tool as well (apart for the obvious samples, loops, eq changes and other such technicalities), for instance we will create new parts out of bits taken out of other pieces, convert sounds into rhythms etc. etc. Because of the covertness of this technique, the computer may be less of an overt fixture but it is nevertheless a vital piece of the puzzle.

Do we speak then of “Ahvak”. Which is the general idea of the album?
There is a vague lyrical thread regarding communication and the lack thereof, and the music tries to convey this to a certain extent. But by the very nature of the music it is open to interpretation and subjective coloring by the listener, and indeed, it is only when the music combines with the listener that the full composition is formed. As such, dictating a rigid general idea would castrate the music into being a half-baked manifestual mutant that none of us would like to meet on a dimly lit closed alleyway. And yes, I know there is no such word as “manifestual”, but it does sound nice doesn't it?    
 
Did you compose the songs with some previous idea it specifies, or did you simply let them to leave natural form?
This question would be answered differently by the different composers. As for me, I usually have a previous idea that slowly simmers in my mind (sometimes for many months) until it is ready to be written out. At that point I layout the complete structure of the composition and only then I fill in all the missing bits. Roy on the other hand is far more intuitive (and prolific) in his methods. The final results of these apparent disparate techniques actually complement each other nicely into forming a cohesiveness which is not without a degree of variety.
 
Could some comments make on the songs of the album?
I don't know about comments, but a few anecdotes: “Vivisection” is not about animal experiments (at least as far as I know…), “Bertha” is not a woman, “Moments” refers to a compositional technique, “Dust” is 16 minute long, “Cement” has something to do with the Beverly Hillbillies, “Yawners” got its name from the lyrics which were written for it but were ultimately dropped, and “Ironworks” has something to do with Fibonacci.      
 
How would you say that your musical development will continue in the future? Will you continue in the same address or do you plan to incorporate new elements?
The future projects within the framework of the band will be a continuation and development of what we have already done, probably with a few more computer compositional techniques thrown in, because this is where the real innovation lies. This isn't to say that we will abandon note composing per se (we won't) but we will try to bend and break the rules further so as not to sound the same, because if we did this whole thing would be a rather pointless endeavor.

What can you be about your current individual careers?
Roy, as stated above was and is interested in electronic music and song composition and has several projects going on at any given moment in time. Outside of music he is head of the Open University web designing team. Ishay works closely with Roy on all his projects. Outside of music he works in computer security systems. Udi Koomran is a very busy sound engineer and producer. I am a rather busy psychiatrist and as such don't have any spare time at the moment for any other projects apart from Ahvak. Dave Kerman needs no introduction. And Yehuda is still drinking cocoa.    
 
How is the progressive atmosphere in Israel? How would you describe the scene?
There actually has been a bit of a progressive boom in the last few years following the start of the Israel Progressive Forum on the net a few years back (which is also where this band got together). Apart for us there are quite a few new bands covering everything from RIO to folk to neo to symphonic including Sympozion, Hot Fur, Ashqelon Quilt, Trespass, Sanhedrin, Mr. Toad, Sussita and Eggroll to name a few, some of which have released CD’s to some acclaim. There is even an Israeli progressive label now  MIO. This is not to say that Israel is now a bursting cauldron of everything progressive as this is still a decidedly fringe movement, but it is a movement nonetheless, which will hopefully sustain itself.   
 
Does a good acceptance exist to this music or is a very minority phenomenon?
As stated above, it is still largely a self-contained minority phenomenon.
 
Do I suppose that it should not be easy to maintain an artistic activity in a region in permanent state of belligerency, Not?
Creativity cannot be stopped, but it can be channeled into different areas that are subjective to the changing realities. Artists paint and composers compose in wartime as well, but the effect on the final creation can't be escaped even if it is only subliminal. In the eyes of some, the actions of our army in the occupied territories are immoral; in the eyes of others the Palestinian terrorism is just as objectionable. Even though obvious solutions seem to be apparent, the warring sides (especially ours) seem to be constantly interested in evading, postponing, counter striking and wall building. There is much to be desired in the leadership of both sides, but we can only try to change things from within at election time. So obviously some of this frustration and anger is channeled into creation, even if we are not always conscious of it.   
 
Thank you to respond us. Do you want to add something?
Thank you for your interest and for giving us the opportunity to share some of our thoughts. We thank any fans in Argentina who enjoy our music, and hope to perform over there sometime…

www.ahvak.com

Nucleus interview: 05/04/04