Encounters: CFCF & Jean-Michel Blais

With dozens of single and EP releases on labels such as Vancouver’s 1080p and New York’s RVNG, and five albums to date, Montréal-based producer CFCF’s synth-led work often plays with received notions of taste and kitsch within pop music. His conversation partner for this edition of RBMA Radio’s Encounters is accomplished pianist and composer Jean-Michel Blais, who released his debut album, II, on Arts & Crafts in early 2016. With his emotive performance style and avant-garde composition techniques, Blais bridges the gap between the ambient and modern classical genres that CFCF finds a deep kinship with, but with his own distinct ear for detail and ideas for the future. In this excerpt from their joint interview in Blais’ Montréal apartment, the two artists discuss some of the lessons they took from their initial collaboration and capturing nostalgia in their own music, as well as opportunities for further combining their electronic and classical tastes.

Mutual Intimidation

Jean-Michel Blais

I found it so interesting the first time I heard [CFCF’s music], ’cause it brought me somewhere I forgot existed. Like, music I was listening to when I was younger – having some cheesy chords sometimes, really nice sounds, something more electronic. I was like, “Really?” It brought me to this minimal place, too. Sometimes I work so hard to make something happen musically. This guy just allowed himself to go on for a long time –“Oh, here’s this little keyboard coming in” – and it’s just this happening.

I had to check more than once, too, ’cause it feels like on The Colours Of Life, for example, the music’s so different from other ones. This kind of non-stop, dance-y mood was like, “What the fuck? How will I mix that with my piano?”

I had no idea how the encounter would be. I think what I like the most was how you treated the sound. If the sound he’s treating was my piano, [I knew] something really interesting would happen. I think that’s the way I discovered you.

CFCF

I thought [Jean-Michel’s music] was beautiful. I feel like I go in waves with solo piano music, where I get really obsessed, and then I go completely the other way and only want to listen to electronic music and stuff. I just loved it a bunch, especially because it’s so different from a lot of the other piano music that I had tended to listen to, which was stuff like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carla Bley and Paul Bley and ECM – kind of jazzier, more subdued. [Jean-Michel’s] was subdued as well, and really melodic, but also had all these really great classical flourishes and was really romantic and playful at the same time.

It also has that element of it being this portrait of this Montréal apartment that we find ourselves sitting in right now… You hear the Hasidic children in the background, and the music has these German influences and all these classical influences from throughout time. Then there are points that are very poppy and points that are more subdued, or maybe even just bouncier. It plays through so many styles. As an album, [II] is really a great listen and it’s just really involving, emotionally rich music. When Cam [Reed, of the Arts & Crafts label] asked me if I’d be interested in [collaborating], I was kind of intimidated, because you’re a pianist and I’m just a twiddler. I twiddle on my computer and just try to make things sound good the best that I can with a lot of time to adjust and edit.

Jean-Michel Blais

You were back from the Grammys and you thought I wouldn’t be intimidated?

CFCF

I’m sure I was trying to play it cool. I don’t know – all that kind of stuff feels like a weird coincidence. The fact that I did that remix at least gave me some confidence that we could maybe do some stuff together that could be interesting. It gave me a little bit of confidence that I wouldn’t be walking into it blind, and not know how to interface with your approach to music.

Jean-Michel Blais

It’s a nice thing, too, that I listen to a lot of electronic music. It's not in my piano, but it’s-

CFCF

In your brain.

Jean-Michel Blais

You’re a kid of the 21st century. It’s everywhere, somehow. I always thought it would be nice to mix my piano with some electronic guy or girl that would work with me. It wasn’t coming out of nowhere, this crazy project. It’s more like this is what I wished would happen, and it’s there, so let’s see.

The Possibilities of Improvisation

Jean-Michel Blais

The Colours of Life is really interesting. First, just because the aesthetic of the portrait, the front cover. It’s beautiful. It’s what attracted my attention. I like the idea that it’s a long track with the same beat… I went through this and it really brought me back to this soft spot when I was younger: those sounds you would hear, that it feels like this album shares. It’s comfortable because it brings you back to somewhere you’ve been. It’s hard to describe.

CFCF

It’s nostalgic, but it’s like a weird, transporting nostalgia.

Jean-Michel Blais

Exactly. It brings you back there. It’s like a guilty pleasure, I would say. You know?

CFCF

Those tracks, literally what I’m trying to evoke is memories of commercials for Club Med that had been recorded on VHS in between something else that was being recorded. These weird, faded media memories of utopia or something like that.

As far as songs of yours that spoke to me early on… The thing is, I only had your one album that you have officially released.

Jean-Michel Blais

Because there’s only one.

CFCF

There’s only one. After we met, you sent me a lot of stuff that hadn’t been released or that you’d scrapped. On your album, the track “II” is a two minute track that’s a very driving, emotional thing, but then it kind of fades away into more pastel, solemn, soft… It’s kind of like the sound of a nice salon that has curtains blowing in the wind, you know?

Those are the kind of things that I’m weirdly drawn to. I feel like a lot of the music I’ve tried to write has been trying to express little small moments like that, and I can feel that in the music. It’s right there in the cover and all, so it’s like you’re in your own room. It really feels like an album that’s trying to express a place, and so that song in particular has this wonderful drama to it that is like the drama of small daily life. I really love that about it.

The improv tracks on the record, too, and some of the ones that you’ve sent me that weren’t on the album, are really striking because you really sense the movement of your hands and your ideas flowing directly from you. When you improv, it doesn’t feel like you’re trying to write. It doesn’t feel like you’re struggling to find the next idea. It is just this unusual thing that’s happening, like you just know what’s coming next without even thinking about it, and always come up with something really beautiful.

Jean-Michel Blais

I think that’s what’s nice about improv, too. You hear a lot in a musician, like in an instrument. What is he or she going to do with the mistakes? You’re not sure where that person is going, and it’s fine, because that’s a part of creativity. It’s not just always knowing exactly what we’re doing. I’m glad you hear that. Instead of saying, like, “it feels like he’s not sure what he’s playing.”

CFCF

Not at all. If it’s an improv, it’s just different from playing a composed piece. You’re really just exploring ideas as instinctively as possible, so you end up surprising yourself with something really beautiful. You wouldn’t be able to do that if you didn’t know how to play piano. It’s not like you don’t know what you’re doing. You just are loose. You’re letting the piano do the talking. You’re not trying to express something you’ve written. You’re trying to do more of an off-the-cuff, in-the-moment expression.

Future Collaborations

Jean-Michel Blais

I have many ideas of what’s going to happen between you and I…. Music is often about working around a project, and then it’s over. It will be over at one point. As I said, I wanted to do some stuff with electronics… I would like to keep on working with electronics for sure, maybe with you. We’ll see.

CFCF

You might feel more confident yourself, also, when you’re composing, to just say, “I really like this melody that I’ve written, but that would sound really good with an interesting synth sound.”

Jean-Michel Blais

Exactly. I never want to lose contact with the original piano instrument, but we have so many tools now to treat it differently than to just have the instrument on it’s own, so why not use them, and how? It certainly is opening. It gives me sounds and texture possibilities. Maybe we could keep on having tuna sandwiches and talk about music and play together.

I stumbled into this... How is that called?

CFCF

Ableton? Ableton Live?

Jean-Michel Blais

The square machine.

CFCF

You were having a lot of fun playing with the Ableton Push.

Jean-Michel Blais

Damn. I couldn’t stop.

CFCF

Introducing a pianist to the Ableton Push! I actually find it a little bit difficult to play on it, because it feels like a toy, and I can never remember where specific notes are on the damn pads. You were just like, “Okay, so it’s here, here,” applying your same analytic piano player mind to these velocity-sensitive rubber pads, and just going insane on those.

Jean-Michel Blais

I remember the practice was over, but it was like I couldn’t stop.

CFCF

I couldn’t tear you away from it.

Jean-Michel Blais

I’m sure that’s going to leave a trace.

CFCF

Yeah, definitely, start incorporating it. That’s an interesting idea. If you became more and more comfortable with that, kept playing the piano and also had this electronic control element where you could do some things that are not possible as just a pianist, or even just being tied to acoustic instruments. There’s probably some pretty interesting things you could do with it even as a solo artist.