Award-Winning Composer Mathieu Karsenti Discusses His Album ‘Bygones’

Mathieu Karsenti is a multi-award-winning music composer for film, TV, and stage. Some of his clients include BBC, Paramount, Disney, Netflix, PBS, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky1, Nickelodeon, and Bravo. His recent album release titled ‘Bygones’ is a well-structured project, comprising of eight compositions.  Providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere of ambient chamber music, Bygones weds a sense of calmness with intimacy and propinquity. Perhaps my interpretation is fed by the news this is his fond farewell to London, his adoptive home for the last 27 years. We had the pleasure of speaking to Mathieu about the album as he embarks on a new chapter in his life.

Hi Mathieu, a pleasure to speak to you once again about your work. The Occhi Team wishes you the very best as you embark on a new and exciting chapter in your career. For readers unfamiliar with your background, please share with us how you got into music?

I first picked up a guitar as a shy 15-year-old, learning to play Beatles’ songs, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Velvet Underground whilst studying Applied arts and Fine art in Nîmes, France.
I then came to London to pursue design and got into playing with a band as the lead singer/guitarist and songwriter during the Acid Jazz era. At home, I grew up hearing a lot of Blues, 60s Soul, R’n’B, Arabic, and French music through my parents and Jazz, soundtracks through my brother who is a vinyl collector, curator, and DJ. My best friend also introduced me to Mozart, J.S Bach, Debussy, and Ravel. Fast forward a few years and I delved deeper into Soul music, becoming a big fan of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and many more. I then studied production and engineering at Pointblank in London and produced UK Soul artists for a while before getting into TV work. Studying at Berklee online gave me a good foundation for scoring film and TV projects and I slowly built my career from that point on. Then back in 2017, I felt I needed to explore personal projects away from picture. After having worked on a variety of film and TV shows, I needed to understand who I was as an artist and music maker. My music releases have a different purpose but technically they present the same musical ideas: counterpoint, multi-layers, textures. It’s me being an artist composer rather than a music designer.

How different is your approach to TV as opposed to film; is one more complex than another?

I would say it all depends on what subject matter I work on. With TV, nowadays I have less opportunities to score a whole show than I used to; often you might have one composer creating a theme track and library music is used to fill in the rest of the show. There are exceptions of course, such as in Netflix shows where a composer has the opportunity to score everything across many seasons. The last TV shows I worked on were in Entertainment and there my role was musical director, arranger, vocal coach, and musician rather than composer; so it’s very different from my usual work.

With film, I personally find I can really explore musically how best to tell the story. I have more time, there are more nuances, more emotions to convey and I am also able to look for the musical identity of the film using the right instrumentation and with dialogue from the director.

That being said, there are similar ways of working whether one scores TV or film drama.

Of the many projects you’ve worked on, which have been your proudest achievements and why?

I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed all of them for various reasons. The sense of achievement comes when I’m aligned with the director’s vision and when my music can elevate the film creatively. It usually takes a lot of dialogue and back and forth but it’s teamwork and it’s creative. For instance, I loved scoring ‘Kathmandude’ for Jacob Kirby because I was able to blend sound design, Indian/Nepalese influenced music with acoustic guitars and strings. Jacob’s approach is collaborative and it’s a great working environment for someone like me. More recently, I scored Edward Robles’ ‘Violator’, a short documentary about his father’s life. The subject matter was very personal for Edward and it was an honor to support him through the storytelling. Again, the collaboration, the exchange of ideas, and the challenge is one I find exciting.

Similarly, the feature film ‘Drastic Measures’ by Wade Alexander was a very interesting project that enabled me to explore more sound design ideas rather than melodic ones. I incorporated that approach in my releases, so it’s nice that my work to picture ties in with my work away from picture in a cohesive way.

Your approach to film composing seems instinctively polyphonic and multi-layered, which creates a deeper understanding of a scene or the psychology of a character on screen. Has your formula evolved over the years as filmmaking has changed?

Thank you for noticing! This is my natural way of approaching scoring; polyphonic and multi-layered. I think it stems from my love of music by Ennio Morricone, Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, and many other legends. Their music always operates on various levels whether rhythmical or contrapuntal and it makes sense in the context of film. With my work, I’ve tried to emulate that, often in a simpler form and more abstract, less melodic perhaps and recently with the inclusion and exploration of sound design in my scores and releases. The filmmaking demands are very different now than they were even 20 years ago. Not every film will need a symphonic sound and some film won’t need much music at all! We’re now at a stage where we have all these tools and we’re able to create these amazing sonic and visual experiences. And I think good storytelling is more relevant now than ever. As for myself, I don’t think in terms of formula, I think in terms of what the film needs and what I’m able to bring creatively to the plate. Music to picture is functional music and my multi-layered approach is flexible enough to be applied to many types of visual projects. I also don’t ever want to be stuck in a formula, I would never get any work and would miss out on some incredible creative experiences!

Let’s talk about Bygones. This stirring suite of eight neo-classical impressions is your fond farewell to your adoptive home of London. Please tell us more about the project.

I composed Bygones during the London lockdown. When the pandemic hit, it wasn’t much of a change for me as I am always at home composing and so I thought I would just continue doing that. But my friend James Murray who runs Slowcraft records got in touch randomly to see if I had any music that could fit his Lifelines series on his Ambient/Electronic label. I set to work listening to that genre more intently and ended up composing an E.P (‘Downstream Blue’) for him as well as a bunch of tracks. Some of these formed the basis of ‘Bygones’ as they were similar in tone. Of course with my background in film and TV and my classical edge, I added guitars and strings (played beautifully by Violeta Vicci) to natural sounds. I realized I loved blending sounds and noises in a creative musical way with chords and melodies, it just flowed naturally. This, added to my reaction to the pandemic and a need to reflect and meditate, sounded like I was at times under a blanket listening to sounds coming from outside. The overall effect is this kind of kaleidoscopic blending of sounds, echoing life from outside, inner visions, as well as a clear desire to paint an abstract version of my life in London.

You’ve lived in London for twenty-seven years. Firstly, how long was this project in the making? Secondly, why have you decided to leave now?

So my decision to leave London for pastures new was brewing for quite a while. I’d come to the conclusion that I’d done all I could do in this city and experienced as much as I would that it was time to leave and see the world. That decision got hurried with the pandemic, not seeing my family in France and being on my own in London.
London is a great city for many reasons but it can also be a tough one if you’re an artist. Many musicians and artists come to London to mingle, meet like-minded individuals, etc but opportunities to make a decent living are few and far between. I was lucky enough to have had many great opportunities and to build a solid portfolio of TV credits there. It is also a city that reinforces your individuality and it makes you tough and resilient, a bit like New York. With Brexit looming and an ever-shrinking UK film industry added to my burgeoning work with U.S-based filmmakers, I decided it made sense to leave London.

As lockdown progressed, an idea was slowly coming together with these tracks: a look back at my 27 years of living and working in London. This ‘London Book’ was coming to an end and this would be a fitting farewell to the city. As with most of what I do, my reaction is often abstract, more open-minded, more ‘impressions’ than a direct dramatic one. My music has always been ‘painterly’, being a painter myself, and so this time blending sound design, lots of reverb, and score was akin to using watercolors as opposed to oils.

I must stress that it is like a fond farewell to a family member. One I’ve hated and loved in equal measures, but who has given me so much, so many experiences over the years.

The move brings pastures new. This undoubtedly is an interesting chapter in your career. Will your move coincide with a noticeable change in the direction or approach to music?

It probably will. I’m not sure if it will be noticeable because I don’t sit there and take notice. I like to follow my heart and where creativity takes me. I like the idea of being like David Hockney or Picasso; flowing my creativity into whatever pool of exploration that’s interesting to me at that time. Musically, it will probably always be neo-classical film scores blended with some kind of sound design but I’m always curious to pick up a new instrument and see what I can do with it.

As I get older, I seem to be more and more influenced by nature. To me nature is truth, it doesn’t lie and its abundance, its complexity, and its presence is something that constantly inspires me wherever I am.

What project/s are you currently working on?

As I mentioned before, there are more tracks from those ‘lockdown sessions’. They can easily form another album that may or may not be released via Slowcraft. I’m keen to explore more vocal arrangements with these and other sonic ideas I have been playing with.
I also have a couple of projects on the go: one recorded before lockdown with Kora maestro Josh Doughty, and some ‘Nocturnes’ for woodwinds and strings with George Millard and Violeta Vicci. My film and TV work have taken a backseat at the moment until the world opens up again post-pandemic, and I look forward to scoring more creative projects as soon as!

Where can our readers find out more about you?

• http://www.mathieukarsenti.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/mathieukarsenti
• https://twitter.com/MathieuKarsenti
• https://slowcraft.bandcamp.com/album/bygones
• http://www.mathieukarsenti.com/music-2
• https://www.instagram.com/mathieukarsenti/

We wish Mathieu best wishes and continued success as he starts a new chapter in his life and work.

Images: Courtesy of Mathieu Karsenti

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