Synaesthetic_Tapes 04 / Kit Sebastian
Ranging from Kitchen Sink Realism soundtracks to Soviet Disco, Kit Sebastian’s Kit and Merve curate a playlist reflecting on the aesthetics inspiring their music and chat to Synaesthetic Magazine about their latest release.
Born from the shared loved of cinema of members Merve Erdem and Kit Martin, Kit Sebastian has been one of the most exciting musical projects to emerge from the UK over the last year. The duo’s debut album Mantra Moderne is a kaleidoscopic voyage into Turkish psych, Brazilian Tropicalia and retro European pop with a distinctive jazzy and cinematic vibe mirroring the members’ multi-cultural heritage. The band talk their passion for discovering vinyl oddities, experimenting with film photography and releasing the deluxe edition of their debut album.
Synaesthetic Magazine: Kit Sebastian, musically, is the result of a varied and heterogeneous multitude of influences. Can you guide us through them and the themes you face in your songs?
Kit Sebastian: We try to build a degree of universality through our music. The international nature of modernism as well as the comparative similarities of world folk culture inform us. Merve's experience of growing up in Turkey, studying in Rome, living in the US and now in a multicultural area of London, and K's experience of living in an area of France where the remnants of the past still seem more dominant than those of the current might undoubtedly have had an influence.
SM: How do you come across the music you collect? Is mostly an online affair or do you like to dig for records in flea markets and stores?
KS: It's different for each of us. K buys records in rural French car boot sales and junk stores whilst Merve likes discovering music through records stores, online music platforms and chatting with people whose music taste she loves.
SM: Kit Sebastian have a fascinating aesthetic that you reach not only through fashion, but also by playing with film and photography. How important is the relationship between music and image to you?
KS: They are inseparable, Stockhausen - disparagingly - said that people listen with their eyes today. It is especially important to us as we love cinema, video art and soundtracks, so a way we consume music is through watching films. We go to the cinema a lot more than concert venues. The aesthetic is what informs our music: internationalism and a 'Harmonices Mundi' approach to music. Our photos and films are as important as the music, and soon we'll have some exciting news that is as important to us as a new album.
Kit Sebastian - Lorenzo Ottone
SM: Kit Sebastian is your first major musical project. You had an extraordinary response from the press and the audience. Were you expecting such enthusiasm when recording your tracks or was it a long time coming for you?
KS: We had no idea or expectations, and whilst we were planning to contact record labels, in the back of our minds it was bound to be lost in the galaxy of Soundcloud and Youtube.
SM: What brought you to issue an expanded edition of debut album Mantra Moderne?
KS: We brought two tracks from the very beginning of our recording days: one that was testing the then new studio (‘Rain’) and ‘Kozmos’ that was initially composed as the soundtrack to a trailer announcing our album. Then we added a brilliant cover of ‘Senden Baska’ by Natureboy Flako and some remixes. Additionally, the album cover may be of interest, as they are the contact sheets of our first photo shoot before anything happened, for us it's funny to see them out at least.
Kit Sebastian Mantra Moderne - Deluxe Edition is out now via Mr Bongo.