Kris Vango is back again, with new music, giving us a more relaxing, ambient and pop version of Virgo or a more electronic and crazy version of Gemini compared to the last Messenger/Mercury.
We have had the pleasure of speaking with him and this has been the result.
Your new project features two versions of the tracks: the Virgo version with 3D visuals and the Gemini version with real-world footage. What drew you to such distinct visual concepts, and how do they complement the music?
In all honesty the idea was born later in the process of this work. As I had many tracks with multiple versions and collaborators who loved the version that I didn’t. it became obvious there were two contrasting flavours. As with the two signs associated with planet Mercury. One is air and mental and one is earth and body. The Virgo edition is more about a curated sonic work where the visuals are loops and more an accompaniment, not making a statement or speaking any opinion and 3d because there is an imaginative fantasy element to Virgo to me. Whereas the Gemini visuals are a barrage of symbols, images and communications that speak to a more mental communication of the work than sonic. Sometimes intentionally overloading and imposing. As Gemini’s can be (I am one so I can attest to this).
You’ve described this release as a tribute to Sophie. How did your interaction with her influence the electronic elements of this project, especially in comparison to your previous work?
I would say it captures a time in which her presence on this earth became impossible to understate in her untimely death. Every artist involved in this project is influenced by her and was deeply affected by her art. When making the music we would talk, cry, laugh and process her passing. Her message, art and legacy extends far beyond anyone who knew her of which there are many. It is incredibly bittersweet to be grateful I encountered her but that she is no longer here, I know many still are processing her loss and she left a hole in a community that struggles for representation, hope and empowerment. I was merely in orbit of her in the months before she passed. I don’t have a happy story to tell. It is one of mostly tragedy. But her presence altered my DNA and I think that’s something universally spoken by those who encountered her. In all honestly I battled a lot with how much I reference her in my work as my work is autobiographical so I also didn’t want to avoid it as well. I also bottled up a lot of the tragedy in that time, which made me angry for a while, I only recently truly expressed and processed properly. Her passing changed me. Her legacy inspired me. It can’t not be a homage. I’m still figuring that out even to this day. The track Still Processing on Virgo edition is a way for me communicate that from my heart and not in words. But also death in general (I’ve also lost a few more people since Sophie). As well as Angel Leaves which I composed moments after hearing the dreadful news. I find it hard to listen to them but maybe by sharing their context they can also help others not in just processing Sophie’s death but also grief and death in general. There are sprinkles of her, maybe to keep her alive, around the work and I think we will continue to hear those sprinkles everywhere around music immortalizing her importance to pop culture and music production for some time.
The Gemini version includes clips filmed during lockdowns in Athens and Berlin. How did the limitations of the pandemic affect the creative process, and do you feel this restriction shaped the mood or aesthetics of the version?
It did a lot. My experience of the pandemic was witnessing the robocops in Athens bashing innocent families for walking outside. An experience in a bus in Germany filled with identical masks where a homeless person who was unmasked was death-stared by an entire bus and not helped or offered a mask. A family member suicidal on the phone in Australia during the extreme lockdowns there. Just inhumane and rough things. How fear changed us. Also how quickly we can adapt, both positive and negative, how fear drives us to other, to separate and to blame. So I found a way in the work to try and explore and process that. Feeling alienated, restricted, suppressed and with a backdrop of a post-truth world, where information is a bombardment and hard to filter fact from lie. To also document these monumental events that touched on difficult history. Berlin. The place of World War Two. Bringing in curfews for the first time again since Hitler. Athens the birthplace of democracy during draconian lockdowns. In those places the pandemic and its restrictions felt more potent, at times close to violent. How we found ourselves at war over binary divisions or oppositions. How we got lost in political ideology and algorithmic echo chambers when we were required to look beyond, unify against a common problem and transcend othering and listen to others perspectives. It was also when meta happened. While living in Metaxeurgio in Athens. During the birth of the “metaverse” in the country of the oldest known computer - the antikythera mechanism. So much happened in that time and it felt very “matrix”. Like the digital world and the physical world were morphing and upgrading to some new thing. For me. It felt like the pandemic accelerated division and segregation. And I believe in unity. So it became this project. A musical and visual documentation of the pandemic, urban decline (I am currently adding shots from San Francisco and Silicon Valley and the American election results to the Final cut to release in November/December as a film) and the disharmony between a growing indigenous decolonisation movement on the backdrop of a globalist techno corporate colonialism. A big question that came from this, is are we now in the next frontier of colonialism? Not anymore land. But peoples bodies. Body hacking and transhumanism? Are we perceiving this threat?
The Virgo version leans into a more chill-ambient-pop vibe. How did you develop this sound, and how does it reflect the visual choices made for the 3D artistry?
Virgo version is about self care, softness and taking time. So it is more micro managed. The mixes. The curation. The sonic journey. And the visuals are there to simply translate the music to something non invasive and sweet. This to me is the sound of Virgo. Iconic but understated. So I approached with that intention for the sound texture, mixing and mastering. The 3d art to be totally honest was last minute because I needed to get this work out. It holds a lot of negative experiences relating to the times it was written. And the Gemini version is an editing nightmare. So I wanted the Virgo version to be more chill and less hyperactive. Also to balance the my chaotic process for the Gemini edition.
Many of your visuals contain symbols, language, and icons. Could you expand on the themes and messages you’re communicating through these symbols in the Gemini version?
The world is a code. Gemini is the code breaker. The Gemini project is like a visual book more than film. I know some people reading might not love astrology. So in science, Gemini represents gas/air expanding. Something that must be contained. Like thoughts (we can think anything but what is necessary to think about). So it is a madness that Gemini contains and translates. Or finding a way to contain the element of air/gas. This is the mythology of Hermes, Thoth, oden, Moses etc. Messengers. Translating and organising expanding chaos into code, language, dance, expression, genre, gender, communications. So we can understand, identify and perceive our environment. Gemini is the binary intellectual construct and taking the purple pill meaning transcending red and blue, this and that oppositions that are stalling us from protecting each other from a shared evolution into the AI era. Also the link between the lower and higher mind, represented by theta in greek - Thoth, theology, thesaurus and so on.
Sophie was known for pushing the boundaries of electronic music. How did she influence your sound and how does this release reflect that evolution?
I think all those that are trying to imagine a world with less segregation division and suffering respects Sophie’s boundary pushing and artistic vision. To embody deeper wisdom through a pop aesthetic. To pay attention and synthesise the sounds of a world in metamorphosis into music. To go deeper into our artistic process and uniqueness. To encourage those around us creatively and to discover themselves through art. Those earmarks definitely motivated this work and inspired by her legacy. I pushed myself toward pop in this release in a way that I was shy to. I was a lover of pop growing up but became bitter and serious because of bullying and isolation. Finding solace in metal, punk music and dark techno as a teenager. Her influence actually helped to heal my fear to be cheesy, maximalist and not be afraid of pop. Which actually reconnected me to a part of myself I’d forgotten to love.
The duality between Virgo and Gemini is a fascinating concept. How do you see these astrological archetypes playing out not just visually, but also sonically, across both versions?
Virgo is about the steadiness and awareness needed to bring something into manifestation in a physical way. Working with finite materials. Gemini is about reaching up into the mind to explore what possibilities there are to understand, communicate, identify something and bring it into some form of expression. Written spoken etc. To me, Virgo is intentional and methodical where Gemini is experimental and scientific. So that was the application to the records. Gemini is in a state of play and discovery, it is ok with not knowing what it wants to be, a circus hall of mirrors of the mental trickery, endless chaos to meander. Whereas Virgo is intended to be played and it’s more of a classic album and intentional thought. So Virgo edition is the album. Gemini edition is kind of a compilation of process, thought bubbles, adhd meanderings, musical experiments, visual poetries and unformed ideas.
What’s next for you in terms of blending electronic music with visual storytelling? Do you see yourself continuing to explore this intersection in future releases?
I plan to power through the planet albums by end of 2025. I have them all written just unmastered and some unmixed. Mars Uranus Jupiter Neptune, an album for the dwarf planets and a bunch of sound experiments for Saturns moons. I feel it is necessary to get the work out there as a singular piece than to drag it slowly through the music machine as I have written a lot of music. After this I plan to work more in soundtracks and also work on my own films. I have some work lined up in 2025 for this and also to explore binaural sound and healing which I am working with an institute to experiment in medical settings. The planet music is my contribution to music that I felt was a nice concept piece that can inspire others and contribute to conceptual works - which I love. I will create a live show and tour it all at the end for a bit where I can curate some solar system journeys and then focus more on music and sound in medicine / film as this feels more where age and maturity will call me.
www.krisvango.com / @kris.vango
Videos:
Spica: https://youtu.be/qW-Qd592qQs
I Dissolve: https://youtu.be/2BmFuTa1IoU
Videos:
Je Pense: https://youtu.be/PoCXT5tVZMM
Batteries: https://youtu.be/QYZsdaRHtIY
No More Harm: https://youtu.be/iSMIfBw8CGI
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