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From the Scene: Claude Meier talks about Garn

Claude Meier12-18-20253 min. read

In the "From the Scene" format, musicians from the Moods cosmos have their say. They give an insight into their work and their processes. In the current issue, Claude Meier talks about his compositional work with Garn.

What goes around comes around'. My name is Claude Meier. I'm a bassist, composer and environment healer and caretaker and I like to talk about my compositional work using the example of the band Garn."Loopwheel" is a method of producing fabric using a cogwheel process in which the cotton yarns are knitted around a cylinder. It takes almost 20 times longer to weave the fabric for a T-shirt on a loopwheeler than on a modern machine. The slow speed of the cogwheel machines means that the cotton yarn does not experience any tension.The only tension exerted on the fabric by these machines is gravity. The machines are reliable, but not perfect. The small irregularities in the material are an essential part of the characteristic look and feel of the textiles. In this sense, this means for us and our music: good things take time, perfect is sometimes also imperfect and 'what goes around comes around'.First there is a snippet of melody sung into the cell phone, a softly plucked bass line recorded on the computer, a chord sequence loosely played and notated on the piano, or a mood, a sound that you want to trace, written down on a piece of paper. These ideas are collected and listened to, played and read again and again. Over time, the ones that I want to pursue further crystallize. Then I think about what else is needed for a good song? What do I write down? Is it monophonic, polyphonic, who in the band plays which part or which part is not played? How free should the piece remain?In Loopwheel, the bass line was in the Afro 6/8 part first. This also serves as the melody here. In the parts A, B - A2, B2, which is played in a kind of quasi time, the slow heavy fifths of the bass play a leading role. These slowly revolve around themselves. Above this, a five-note motif is played by the saxophone in A, B. This is taken up again in the last part of the piece and appears again before the solos and at the end. This completes the loop. A sustained melody over A2, B2 serves as a transition to the original part C. The musical colors and textures are provided by the guitar and the drums.It is important to me that the sound is at the center. Is the composition rough, smooth, does it have corners, can these remain, or should the piece come across as calm and modest? The more I deal with the composition of the piece, the more concrete the title becomes. It refers to a mood that is in me or in the environment. The title fertilizes the composition. It should complement the piece and tell a story with it.
"Durchzogen" alludes to the current world situation, "Beat the coin" is a reference to Bitcoin. "La Bestia" is the name of the train that immigrants take when they want to travel from Mexico to the USA, a back-and-forth ride into the unknown.There is a background to every piece, which is reflected in the composition, the feeling and the way the music is played. This gives it a different depth and allows the band to tell stories - which will ultimately inspire you as a listener.

Yarn in Moods

  • Release Tour «Loopwheel»

    • Garn

      Jazz
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