Today we have more music to share with you. We speak to Toechter, three very talented musicians Lisa Marie Vogel, Katrine Grarup Elbo and Marie-Claire Schlameus .

It's a playground of sorts where the three women collectively research the possibilities of their string instruments – viola, violin and violoncello. Pushing hard on the boundaries of sound design with their bows and strings, toechter’s debut album Zephyr is thus born, capturing the force and synergy of the band through twelve tracks of mesmerizing electronic-acoustic music.

• Katrine Grarup Elbo

• Marie-Claire Schlameus

• Lisa Marie Vogel

Hello ladies, tell us about how you met, inspirations….etc.

• Katrine: First time we met was in a dream 150 years ago. Though it probably sounds like a bit of a cliché, the greatest inspiration for me in this project is working with Marie-Claire and Lisa. I love diving into our work or jam sessions, letting our united research surprise me and take me places I would have never experienced alone or with others. To me, the body of work originates from the fruit of our collaborative forces coming together.

• MCS: Yes I agree- It was just a natural sort of thing when we first got together, because we all had a mutual understanding and an interest in what each individual was doing. As a band our greatest inspiration was last year Ela Minus. She writes music with analog instruments and knows how to build themselves. She wrote an incredible electronic album and is an inspiration in the way of encouraging you to stick with the analog set-up. We listen a lot to music of our friends and are following the community of the cities we are living in (Berlin, Helsinki and Denmark)

• Lisa: Yes - working as a group shows so many different facettes and I find it very inspiring when members of a group complement each other - everybody is fulfilling different roles.
  We met for the first time in the end of 2018 - we partly knew each other from before and we realized that we were sharing a similar wish to explore the possibilities of our string instruments together with electronics - AND we wanted to do that as a group, not as solo artists.

Tell us a bit about your creative process? What was important for you while composing "Zephyr” and creating visual content for the album?

• Katrine: Up until the release of Zephyr, our focus as a group has been put entirely on researching the use of our string instruments and our abilities to play them, deriving from our classical backgrounds. We wanted to create something together as a group; to curate a safe playground where the ideas flow between us and a joint creativity arises. All sounds presented on Zephyr come from either the instruments, our effect pedals, or ourselves, so in that sense our work to this point has been very dogmatic.

• MCS: Yes the dogma pushed us as well to an individual creative process with the instruments. Creating Sample libraries, sharing sibelius files or Ableton projects, i-phone recordings...we collected a lot of output that we would discuss regularly, surprise each other with and make plans if it could be something for the album or other collaborations. We are lately signed with the publishing company Random Noize Musick which gives us space to write for toechter but also for collaborations. The video team we have with Scott Jennings, Camille Blake and Theresa Baumgartner is a blessing. It is an amazing team of beautiful talented human beings

• Lisa: We also regularly shared spotify-playlists - that was a wonderful way to follow each other's creative journey.
  When we were looking for a video team we wanted to collaborate with someone whose artistic voice speaks to us. We wanted to give all possible freedom to them to create visual material in unison with toechter’s music. And yes, we couldn’t be happier with the result! <3 (We also chose on purpose not to be part of the video shoot)

What are the themes you touch on with your new work/music?

• Katrine: One theme, to which we all seemed to constantly return during the genesis of Zephyr, was the entering or transcending into other worlds or spheres, be it through symbolism, rituals, or dreams. Last Summer, we spent one night in Berlin reading tarot cards, which in my experience introduced us to a new, wordless communication between the three of us, simply by offering another, less rational, intangible frequency. Without sounding too cultic, this somehow mirrors the way we can communicate through music and music making.

  On a less esoteric level, I guess one could also argue that we aim to transcend the cultural habits of the string instruments by adding layers of electronic effects, by claiming our space as both composers and performers, and by crossing over and lending from all genres that inspire us.

• MCS: Themes are also everyday things, dreams, people that surround us, other people’s music.

How has this year changed your creativity (and how do you see the world changing moving forward?)

• MCS: I think I learned a lot of things and generally slowed down- and that gave space to focus on what is really important to me while being surrounded much more by the family.

• Lisa: As a band we were forced to learn to work remotely since we were living in three different places most of the time during the lockdown. We had to find new ways to channel our common creativity, to exchange inspiration and to work together without being in the same room. Personally I agree with Marie, especially the lockdown-time gave time to breath and to focus on the things that are really important - and that helped my creativity enormously.

Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so how can it be improved?

• Katrine: Without getting too political it is quite obvious that the way music is valued in comparison to other art forms is problematic. Nobody would steal a book, walk openly into the theatre without a ticket, or expect to get unlimited private access to Sofia Coppola’s latest film on the day of its first showing. So, something drastic happened when music transitioned from having a physical place in the world to floating out of your mobile phone whenever you want it to.

• MCS: Buy more stuff directly from the artist.

What does well-being mean to you?

MCS: I got to balance music, relationship, and family. I'm happy when these three things work.