Machinals Tarantulae ist ein französisches Elektro-Industrial-Projekt, das 2014 von Justine Ribière gegründet wurde. Das Kernstück der Musik ist die Viola da Gamba mit ihrem charakteristischen, etwas verträumten Klang nach Vergangenheit. Nach dem ersten Album Tabularium (2016) entwickelte sich das Projekt weiter und wird seitdem von Miss Z (PUNISH YOURSELF) unterstützt. Das Duo kreiert einen kraftvollen, dichten und dunklen Elektro-Industrial-Sound mit magischer und eindringlicher Atmosphäre. 

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Justine und Miss Z verweben mit ihrer Musik mittelalterliche und ätherische Elemente mit roher, energiegeladener Elektronik – faszinierende Klangerlebnisse, die es unbedingt zu entdecken gilt. Bandgründerin Justine hat unsere Fragen beantwortet.

How did the project come into being? What made you decide to start Machinalis Tarantulae?
The project began with the desire to explore the viola da gamba musically and to use it in ways other than the Renaissance or Baroque repertoire. I wanted to make the viola da gamba a hybrid instrument linked to the past and anchored in the present through a certain musical aesthetic.

How did you get into mixing the viola da gamba with electronic sounds?
The viola da gamba is my musical interface, my tool: the mixture with electronic sounds was done in a rather obvious way according to my musical desires. When you consider the instrument as an interface, it opens the fields of exploration and the possibilities by trying new things (electrification of the viola da gamba, effects on it…).

How did your band name come about, and what does it mean to you?
Machinalis Tarantulae evokes for me the spider, but the mechanical spider. The fact of playing the viola with effects pedals at the feet… This way of holding the instrument while becoming one, too…
It also comes from my attraction to certain musical traditions from southern Italy, trance like pizzica or tarantella: these very old dances and trance music used for healing (spider bites). The links between music and trance have interested me for many years.

Foto: © Tanguy Le Gal (l), © Brice Bourgois (r)

Can you tell us a few things about the connection between you two and your journey into the music?
We work a lot from a distance thanks to the magic of the net… I send the tracks to MissZ, then we agree on the structures and contents validate together. That’s why when we rehearse, we do quite intense sessions over one or more days.

If you had to describe your music in terms other than music, what would you say?
I would like each piece to be like a visit to a kind of museum, a cabinet of curiosities. There is this thing of discovering each piece as a particular entity with its history, its colors, its materials. Like memory-objects gathered in one place, at one time. There are also a lot of images and colors for me in our music.

What are your first musical memories?
An old memory: I am 6 years old, and I play the violin for an audition: the piece is in pizzicati, without a bow: there is a kind of weightlessness.

Which instrument will surely NEVER be heard on an Machinalis Tarantulae track?
Transverse flute

What are you looking for in music?
Exploring, sharing, and suspending time. Freedom.

Which person, artist or incident inspired you when you first started making music?
There are many. I liked to go towards those who have or have had the audacity to crossbreed, to crossover. Those who did artistic explorations by mixing the arts. Those who proved that we can do anything: everything is possible. In all musical styles.

How does the visual aspect relate and reflect your music?
Everything is connected. It seems to me that the visual identity follows the musical identity of the project: it is a whole. We use this vintage atmosphere, dark curiosity cabinet. When we perform, we use hyper dynamic lights to follow the dense and violent side of the music.

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Foto: © Chymer (r)

No alcohol is no solution either. What booze combination will definitely dissolve all your troubles and issues?
A good guttural voice.

What impact has your surrounding on your music?
I think everything has an impact on our music – life in general gets into the music to give certain tones, certain glints and shades that would be different if we were other people.

Which sort of mood produces the best song?
I don’t know if it’s the mood. It’s when you’re in the process of creation where there’s no space or time and you know that at that moment whatever you do it works … In the same way, at other moments you also know when it doesn’t work! For me it’s like “another“ state: it’s more in the practice, the experimentation and in the doing than an emotional state.

What are your plans for the near future? What do you wish for?
I hope we’ll be able to release the third album which unfortunately came in the middle of the pandemic… and concerts!!!! Otherwise, I think what I’m hoping for right now is Peace in this crazy world.

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