BAND OF THE WEEK: Avi C. Engel
Step into a whole new world - with Avi guiding us by the hand through a great interview.
Typically, these Band Of The Week articles are based on a current or forthcoming release - it’s not impossible that I’ll just pick an artist without any kind of good “excuse” for it, but I find it benefitial to the featured artists themselves if they actually have something new to promote. Such is also the case with Toronto’s Avi C. Engel, in the form of the extraordinary ‘Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film)’ album that was released in the first days of January (and the only reason it wasn’t included on yesterday’s The Devil’s Month selection was purely because I knew this BOTW was reserved for them already), but please be aware that stepping into Avi’s world of music and art - they do all the quirkily beautiful artwork for their releases too - is akin to discovering a magic portal behind your cupboard leading to a whole new universe. A mere glimpse at Avi’s Bandcamp page shows, at current count, no less than 36 releases. Some are albums, some are EPs, a lot of them are the result of improvisation, there are also some covers, several collaborations, an immense conceptual exploration throughout, from fantasy to dedications to loved ones, contemplation of nature or esoteric poetry, and despite notable differences between them, rarely does any song settle on an easily pigeonholable genre. “Experimental” is the usual catch-all for this kind of thing and a very hit-and-miss way to discover stuff, but Avi’s delicate elegance while fluttering in and out of folk, ambient, singer/songwriter and gorgeously evocative, cinematic sonic landscapes, ensures they stay far above the mediocre throng populating the underground under that often misleading guise. There’s something crucial right there on the little Bandcamp description - “I'm not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die.” Once you get comfortable in their own little universe, that’s exactly what Avi’s music feels like, and bear in mind that doesn’t mean it all sounds alike as I explained above already. It just feels that you are transported to that particular new world, as you do, for instance, when you listen to any Paysage d’Hiver album, just to compare it to something completely different musically but with so many other points of contact.
Hey, know a really cool way to start this trip into Avi’s dimension? Aside from staring at all those beautiful album covers they make? Check out the video for one of ‘Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film)’s coolest songs, ‘Bones Beguiling’.
It’s eerie, it’s cute, it’s gloomily beautiful, and we mean both the visuals and the music. There is indeed a more atmospheric nature to this album when compared with some of Avi’s discography, as if it is indeed a real soundtrack. It was reportedly written during a spell of sleeplessness and depression and its initial objective was to soothe Avi’s mind, and after only a couple of listens it will become very clear that it does that job very well even with your own mind. The way images just pop up in your mind with a deceptively minimal effort, often just with the use of a fragile vocal line and a flimsy, barely-there melody, like on the sublime ‘Where Does A Moth Go?’, is nothing short of astounding. When talking about Gossip Collar on yesterday’s column, our lovely wordsmith Andy Cairns used this analogy: “Perfect for this time of the year, trying to see through frosted windows, at a series of dark evenings yet to reveal themselves.” He won’t mind if I steal those words to apply them to this album, as they also describe its immediate impact perfectly.
‘Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film)’ is now out on Bandcamp. You can order a tape from Shaking Box or a CD from Somewherecold Records.
You can find Avi C. Engel on Bandcamp, Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube, Patreon and Spotify.
Check out our interview below.
I really like this bit on your Bandcamp, where it says that “I'm not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die.” Is this really how you approach writing, and does this sort of continuity between things make it easier somehow, as you kinda always have a starting point, so to speak? Or is the whole creation process more abstract than that?
Avi C. Engel: Thanks - that quote was the first thing I ever wrote about my own process that rang true to me, so I’ve kept it up there. Also, yes, it is more abstract than that; I’m not consciously writing one continuous song and keeping track of where it ends and the next one begins. It all flows organically from the same source, and builds on ideas that have come before, hopefully going deeper and closer to the essence or bone (or whatever you want to call it) over time.
It does feel nevertheless that you’ve developed your own kind of musical language over time. I can obviously think of a few artists I could compare you with, but only based on a few vague reference points. You sound very unique and that is a priceless thing for me. Do you consciously do anything to actually cultivate this sort of individuality, of not really mimicking anyone else?
Avi: I’m affected by all the sounds, stories, and images that I take in, but I only want to use my voice to put my work across. I find comparisons are often pretty superficial and flattening of nuance – even just the basic fact that people are still stuck comparing artists to other artists who they think have the same gender or vocal range. I’m a non-binary person, and people are missing or ignoring that when I’m grouped exclusively with “female singers.” My physical voice is just one element of the work. The words, the way I use my voice, my guitar playing, the way the music interacts with the voice - these things are all much more interesting to me than whose vocal timbre might be incidentally somewhat similar to mine. And individuality isn’t really something I cultivate consciously, it just is. Other people can observe mine and I’ll observe theirs.
Having said that, are there any artists that are important for your creative process, someone that you have in mind often, for any reason?
Avi: I don’t write with other artists in mind, but listening to music and reading are very important for me. I just finished ‘The Empusium’ by Olga Tokarczuk, which I thought was brilliant. I’m drawn to a lot of music that might seem on the surface very removed from what I do. For example, a couple of my recent finds are a compilation of Ecuadorian music from the 60s, called ‘The Paths Of Pain’ by a label called CAIFE. I also really like the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha. I love listening to music with great vocal harmonies, and during a deep Bandcamp dive I found this album I love called ‘Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul from the new South Africa’. I definitely don’t seek out people who I think sound like me… and I don’t even listen to my own music very often after I release it. I’m mostly absorbed in the process of making it. I also think the most wonderful thing about music is how permeable its boundaries are, if boundaries even really exist in music. It’s the opposite of borders and nations and rigid categories of all sorts - all the things that divide and tear us apart.
I went down the rabbit hole of your Bandcamp (I wasn’t familiar with your previous work, I confess) and I really fell in love with some of these past releases (‘In The Fog’ has been on repeat a few times, for instance) and also their artwork! Since the “excuse” for this conversation has been ‘Nocturne…’, however, how do you feel that diverges from your previous stuff, did you do anything different from your usual on it? I do agree with your assessment of it, that it is very soothing – I get exactly the same vibe from it.
Avi: Thank you! I’m glad it came across that way for you. ‘Nocturne…’ was less intentional than a lot of my albums, I was not feeling well when I started working on it, and running on very little sleep. Many of the songs started as musical mantras, trying to coax my mind into a flow state. I don’t see my music as ambient, more hypnotic (at times), and this album has a lot more of that hypnotic quality in it than some of my albums.
Are you happy with the reactions to the album? I see from your social media that it seems to have been generally very well received so far.
Avi: I don’t really know. The people who write about my work tend to be people who like it. I don’t rank other people’s work, and I don’t relate to that mentality. I keep making work, some of it people respond to more positively, and even among the people who like it, different songs or albums stand out for each of them.
Would you like to talk a bit about the lyrics on this album, and on the way you write lyrics in general? There is a very poetic vibe to them and I think they’d work very well even without the music.
Avi: Thanks for picking up on that. The words are very important to me, and I do think of them as some form of poetry, with a musical dimension. Once they are locked in with a melody, I find it difficult to read them without hearing the music, which is kind of a barrier to publishing anything on a page. I guess I could have accompanying sheet music or something, ha.
Do you have any release in your catalogue that you’re particularly fond of, or that you feel has been decisive in any way, a turning point of sorts?
Avi: I think the album ‘Their Invisible Hands’ was a turning point for me in two ways. First: I finally felt more confident about recording myself at home, and even though the album is rough around the edges, I was happy with the sound of it. And second: while I was writing that album I had just gotten interested in birds, and started doing some nature stewardship volunteer work, which sounds small, but was actually really significant in my life. It gave my days a different shape, and shook me out of a very isolated mentality.
I love the ‘Bestiary’, I have to say. Can you continue adding to it please? There are many more beasts that would deserve your treatment, I think!
Avi: Thanks so much. I can’t promise anything! But it’s funny you should ask about that album in particular, because I have thought about doing ‘Bestiary Chapter II’ at some point. Stay tuned.
How is usually the starting point from a practical point of view of your songs? Do you have an instrument that you like to create with more, a guitar line, a beat, a phrase, is there something that usually kickstarts it?
Avi: They used to mostly start from the words, but now I find they can start from any element of the song – sometimes words, sometimes a melodic phrase, sometimes a percussion part, even.
How is your relationship with live shows? You seem to not have done them in a while?
Avi: I played live often from the early 2000s to 2020, so for about 20 years, and stopped because of covid. I changed my name in 2023, so you wouldn’t find any record of my playing live under the name I go by now. I toured around the East Coast of the US, and played in Montreal and Toronto a lot. I started showing my visual art in 2023, and I have an exhibit coming up in February and March in Toronto, at a place called RAID Gallery. The show is called SPOROPHORE.
Are you happy with your current format of releasing music, to put it like that? Do you work well on your own, and fully independently, is this how you foresee your future as a musician to continue?
Avi: I didn’t set out to be fully independent, but it became clear to me early on that if people were going to hear my music, I would have to release it myself. I had no idea what I was doing at first in terms of promo and logistics, and the landscape for independent artists has totally changed in my lifetime. It can be discouraging at times, but I have no experience of doing things differently. For all I know, getting “signed” to a label earlier on in my life would have been a nightmare for me. I’m stubborn and can’t stand being told what to do artistically, and also I’m prolific by nature - both of those things could easily conflict with the corporate album cycle. I’ve had, for the most part, really great experiences working with independent and boutique labels, so if things were to continue this way, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would be nice to have wider distribution for my work at some point, but I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish with the resources I have.
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