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Lego
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Denmark’s Goodiepal brick by brick
by LORRAINE
CARPENTER
 Go
ahead and call him Goodiepal, Mainpal Inv or Kristian Vester, you know
this Copenhagen-born, London-based tech-noid better than you think.
His album, Narc Beacon, may be obscure but perhaps you’ve seen
trailers for The Matrix, Charlie Angel’s and Minority Report,
or ads for Hitachi, Nokia, and Universal Music, all scored and/or sound-designed
by our ’pal. Since plugging in his Commodore 64 way back when,
Vester has crafted the sweetest and strangest sonic curiosities, most
recently dub versions of his own ad jingles. The Mirror spoke to this
dabbling Dane about Sonic Youth, musical bricks and the folk rock dream.
Mirror: Are you the Goodiepal
or Mainpal Inv right now?
Kristian Vester: Oh, I’m just me. I’m the
Goodiepal and I can be the Mainpal, I can be whatever you want.
M: I read that you’re
working on a “new musical language”?
KV: Those are big words. It’s similar to the
work I did for the Danish toy company Lego. It’ll be a musical,
brick-based game. That’s all I want to say about it for now.
M: What did you do for
Lego?
KV: I was a conceptual developer for the Mindstorm
robots, but I dropped the project two years ago. There were a lot of
cool ideas but Lego thinks the kiddies only want American and Japanese-style
toys. I think kids are ready for action. I mean, most baby toys today
make electronic sounds, it’s electronic all the way, so what Lego
has done is not that advanced.
M: I know you’re
into music boxes-any other sonic oddities of interest?
KV: I’m somehow fascinated with music that shouldn’t
be recorded at all, music that should just exist. Some German churches
have advanced harmonics in the bells and I think that medium should
only play in that area. I mean, in Strasbourg they have a beautiful
bell tower, but if you want to hear it, you’re going to Strasbourg.
M: I hear you like folk
music.
KV: I think of Goodiepal/Mainpal as folk rock-that’s,
of course, a joke. I play the lute and recorder, at least well enough
to impress the ladies, but my big interest is still in electronic recording
techniques and manipulating sound. I am into folk music at the moment.
M: But when you say folk,
you’re talking about the idea of regional or personal music, not
folk the genre.
KV: Yes. For example, Sonic Youth present Manhattan
as underground and fashionable and rock, but the weird part is that
if they send out the message, “We’re from Manhattan,”
and the world responds, “We’re from Manhattan,” there’s
no dialogue.
M: Right, okay.
KV: So if I answer you now, “Right, okay,”
and I laugh when you laugh, in two minutes you’re pretty tired
of talking with me, but that’s what’s going on. Some music
happens and people respond with the same music. My music speaks of Scandinavia-not
in a stupid, romantic way, I’m not trying to sell Sweden or Denmark
or Norway-but I try to make intelligent music that doesn’t
pretend to be from somewhere else. :
With Kevin Blechdom at Casa Del
Popolo on Sunday, Sept. 1, 9pm, $8
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