Victor Bermon interview by Simon Hampson

Victor Bermon’ debut for the Hefty label, Arriving at Night, opens with a strummed electric guitar, panning from left to right. There is an electronic stutter reminiscent of Four Tet and then suddenly the track takes off with a jazz saxophone and drumbeat.

It is a fitting introduction to the work of Perth artist Harry Hohnen. He is a master of letting sounds drop in and out of the mix, surrounding a core rolling vibe. His songs work incredibly hard to slip into the background, lulling the listener into a trance-like state. And yet Arriving at Night is an incredibly emotive record.

It is the sound of joyous times with friends, yearning, quiet Sunday afternoons and leafing through memories. It is new flavour of acoustic jazz, dipped in electronic soul and sequenced rhythms.

Victor Bermon’ sound is right at home on Hefty, with its strong roots in left field electronic and its geographical locale in Chicago. The label has previously released Victor Bermon tracks in its Immediate Action series and on their History Is Bunk compilation (to celebrate the label’s tenth anniversary).

It was a useful link when Hohnen got to finishing his record. “[It was] a foot in the door. They were definitely interested in hearing anything I did,” he says via email, “but it wasn’t a sure thing – any new work is always evaluated on its own.”

“I sent a selection [of songs to Hefty]before going travelling in December, 2005, and January/February, 2006. I was in correspondence with Hefty while I travelled – they had suggestions and I had ideas about changing certain things. When I got back I added a few tracks to the album.”

“The whole thing was ready to go mid last year but the crux of the album was done in a two month burst of activity in late 2005 before I left.” Like fellow Hefty group Solo Andata, Hohnen was at the University of Western Australia at this time. “I had lots of exams and papers due, but I had ideas and what felt like some breakthroughs in my approach to producing. So for a while I was using every spare moment to sit down and try things out.”

I wonder if there is an impetus behind Hohnen’ compositional process, but in typical self-effacing style he denies it. “Generally I have no defining moments of inspiration. I’m just attracted to particular sounds and have an urge to recreate that, or try to capture a similar mood. If I have inspiration it’s hard to locate where that comes from exactly; just experiences I guess. It’s all for fun though – it’s an exciting process.”

This concept of process seems to be evident in most of the songs on Arriving At Night. Victor Bermon pieces build from an initial idea whilst elements swirl around that sound.

Let’s wind the clock back for a second. Prior to Victor Bermon, Harry was producing under the name Fotel Folyamat. You may have seen him pop up on the Traum label in this guise. More recently, he has been collaborating on the excellent Miller and Fiam project, with another Perth export, Dave Miller. Presenting a totally different flavour, it was this project where I first heard Hohnen’ music.

Miller and Fiam first released a 12 inch EP on Background Records in 2003 (the excellent label out of Germany, run by Andy Vaz) and then followed it up last year with a full length on English imprint Expanding Records. In this project, Hohnen’ soft jazz lines are complimented by Dave Miller’ minimal rhythms.

And so, 2007 rolled around and the Hefty label put out the Victor Bermon full length. The timing was perfect – it was a superb follow-up to the Miller and Fiam release and showed Hohnen’ compositions in their own light.

Which brings us back to those guitar strums. Hohnen seems to start a lot of his songs with guitar. It almost seems like a traditional composer working with sequencing software. Snippets of instruments are used alongside drones and soundscapes.

I asked him how the instrumental side of the record was constructed. “I recorded things at a friend’s house – double bass, guitar, accordion, bouzouki. The recordings all sat there on my computer until I found a way to bring them into the fold. Then it’s just a matter of mixing and matching and giving things time.”

Time is a key element of Arriving At Night. Each song draws you into its sonic world. I have had many occasions where I have drifted away into Victor Bermon’ loops and sounds. ‘We Face Each Other’ centres around a cyclical guitar part. Sounds come in and out of the mix – the slight, rhythmical drums, a little piano in the background – creating a sense of flux and flow that moves throughout the record.

Unfortunately Hohnen has no plans to tour the Victor Bermon work. “I came close a few times, but me playing solo would be a pretty uninspiring affair unless I had some projection or something. I wanted to tour with some friends, but these things are hard to organise – the funds especially. I was also focused on another trip I had been planning for a while and wanted to follow through with that.”

“I’ve been away from my equipment for a long time (overseas) so haven’t done much recently. Before I left I was working on an album with a friend and we’re going to get that rolling again soon. But that’s about it – I’m quite distracted at the moment so these things happen slowly!”

Victor Bermon’s Arriving At Night is available from Hefty/Creative Vibes.