INTERVIEW TO Julien A. Lacroix
(aka Moloch Conspiracy, α Ori, Ninurta)
https://soundcloud.com/molochconspiracy
https://soundcloud.com/alpha-ori
https://soundcloud.com/julienalacroix2
This time we make an interview to the french electronic and dark ambient composer Julien A. Lacroix, who started in 2002 to compose under his own name, and later in 2017 under different monikers.
- Which are the concept behind your music, how you categorize your own music?
First Say, hi Cian Orbe blog! Glad to talk about my musical projects. My music is really connected to the emotions inside of me. They obviously evolve according to the themes I want to evoke the context in which they are developed. These sounds are in the genre of the soundscape but I try to make it evolve towards more near to classic musical concepts. I also like to practice other genres such as electronica, ambient, experimentation.
- What are the differences between your different music project: Alpha Ori, Moloch Conspiracy and Ninurta?
- Moloch Conspiracy is oriented towards the dark ambient with instrumental and folk roots but turned towards the experimentation and the ambient. It is a project that is often conceptual and cinematic. I make music that is rather dark and ethereal, horrific and functional: it's accompanying music.
- α Ori is a more spontaneous kind of music, sometimes made in a hurry and directed towards the electronica, the experimentation, the aberances and the glitches.
- Ninurta on the other hand is a horrific but completely spontaneous music project. It's Moloch Conspiracy wanting to stop thinking.
- In what year did you start making music? which was your first band/project?
I started recording with a pc around 2002 to make my first experimental music cds around 2004. I can remember having recorded casiotone sessions on a fisher price cassette recorder in the early 1990s!
- Which inspiration you have from the place where you live? There's some inspiration from your country in your music?
Nature and history imprint atmospheres that inspire me rigorously. I love to visit unusual places and historical places. I also feel completely trapped in a digital matrix. Video games and films also inspire me a lot.
- Which are your favorite music projects and visual/plastic artists who inspire your work?
Musicians with whom I have spoken on the internet inspire me. I am also interested in all music except jazz. I also try to detach myself from models or inspirations. I listen to a lot of French variety, old death metal, music from video games and movies. I admire Toru Takemitsu who I discovered recently. Yuka Kitamura inspires me a lot too.I'm an huge fan of Fromsoftware's games...
- Talking about Moloch Conspiracy, from where comes all the inspiration for create dark ambient music? why create dark ambient and not ambient, new age or space soundscape music?
Moloch Conspiracy seeks to define coherent atmospheres linked to places and characters. I feel free to create sound spaces in which very different sounds intervene. My brush is my cello, my brush is my computer mouse. I also like to use recordings made outdoors. I believe that dark ambient gives me a temporality, a format and themes in which my sensitivity flourishes.
- Talking about Alpha Ori, from where comes all the inspiration for create IDM, Glitch, dark electronic futuristic music? conceptually and musically talking.
α Ori emerges completely from reality. It's a project that feels suited to the artificial and an imaginary closely linked to digital culture, games, the internet ... That's why I turned to idm and a more futuristic aesthetic. in a way. The beauty of its sounds is to bring together cold and mechanical universes that can embody a form of human emotion. I love being confronted with these sounding voices. I rarely get the chance to make this type of association but I like “Transient”, a track I use the voice of Mist Spectra.
Link : https://archive.org/details/alpha-ori-interdimensional/08+-+Transient.wav
- How do you see the current Experimental and dark ambient music scene?
I often see it in a negative light. Many musicians make accompanying music without harshness and depth. If you paint a monochrome in large format you have to add subtleties that many artists ignore. There is also an interior dimension which is not limited to manipulating sound libraries invented by others at the risk of lacking originality.
- Do you play live performances?
Yes ! But only in my living room because I have the chance to practice the guitar with my partner. We play classic. This project is completely detached from what I record.
- Which is your favorite song and album created by yourself?
I don't know, I'm rarely happy with my music. When this is the case I owe it to others because I prefer pieces made with other musicians. When I have finished a project I turn to the next one. Impossible to turn around and listen to my music again even if it happens sometimes! Lately I enjoyed a piece of a project that I just finished that is completely different from the rest of all of my projects.
- Tell us about the concept & the creation process of your latest album as Moloch Conspiracy "The Inner Fear " released by Distorted Void label.
I collaborated for this project with a friend that I have IRL (In Real Life). He is in the difficult practice of Zen Buddhism and moreover a singer of metal. I asked him to make voices to give a soul to a story that is more dystopian and underground. This album evokes the reminiscence of cults in a destroyed society ... Distorted Void is a great label. I love the artists and albums on this little Russian label.
Link : https://distortedvoid.bandcamp.com/track/vertical-horizon-of-darkness
- Tell us about the underground music scene in France or in your zone. and which are your favorite artists from your country?
For me underground music is about computer keyboards. I very rarely go out to see concerts. I don't usually like it except when it comes to classical and acoustic music. In France, for a long time, so-called underground creators have been sponsored by the state. They are official artists who make outdated music. Fifteen years ago I loved seeing math rock and post rock concerts. There were often small, interesting groups performing in medium-sized metropolises and towns.
- Any anecdote that you want to share with us in the creation of some track?
Yes. I have sometimes had the chance to make music with musicians from the internet. I would like to pay tribute to them all because they sublimated these moments of solitude and creation. My music and my existence owe them a lot. I have met people with elusive personalities who were capable of artistic flashes while wanting to remain anonymous; sometimes by posting superb music and deleting it the next day.
- Any news for 2021 in your music project?
I'm focusing on a Moloch Conspiracy album in the same state of mind as the previous one but developing different sounds. I am experimenting with new techniques. I should also be working on "Elements 2". I plan to make a series of albums on this theme. The first is completed but not yet published. I should release this project under my real name ... I develop different atmospheres with a lot of cello and piano but also by keeping an experimental fiber and sound recordings. It is an ongoing tribute to the forces of nature. Also would be great make a new collaboration under alpha ori moniker with any of the projects of Sábila Orbe.
- Any other thing that you want to say to your listeners?
Thanks to Sabila and Mist Spectra for bringing this blog to life and giving voice to a musician in the shadows. And thanks to any person who like and appreciate my music work.
Alpha Ori / Julien A. Lacroix / Ninurta in Cian Orbe.
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22%CE%B1+Ori%22
https://archive.org/search.php?query=ninurta%20filmy%20ghost
https://www.discogs.com/es/search/?q=Julien+A.+Lacroix+CIOR&type=all
