Ryan Pollie - Academy Of Light Interview
What is Academy Of Light and how did you initially get these musicians together for this mighty project? How did you meet everyone and how would you describe everyone's chemistry and the ways everyone influences the music?
Academy of Light is a 25+ Collective of musicians in LA that are currently performing intuitive based ambient pieces. I had recently completed my third solo ambient album, “The Fridge 2” and until then had enjoyed creating works in this genre as a solo meditative practice. However, I missed the collaboration and communication that comes with playing in a band - so I decided to try and round up a group of performers to come over on a saturday and give intuitive group music a try! My work in ambient and instrumental music is often very different from songwriting in the traditional sense - a lot more freedom and improvisation rather than structure and arrangement. Although social media often is a bummer, it allowed for word to spread quickly and for the collective to grow both musically and in number. I think our first composition consisted mostly of people I had collaborated with already, bands I have produced, recorded, or played live with. I think because the music is so free and open ended, there was less a pressure to curate anything specific from a production stand point and different / new perspectives were something I began seeking out. As a producer I’ve become more comfortable with needing control in a studio environment, and I’m also accustomed to working with new bands and new people a lot, so this project felt pretty natural. We recorded over a period of about a month and a half, meeting weekly to create. The number of performers would at first fluctuate and then grow. One session was female / non binary players only - I set up the mics, but actually left the house while the recording took place.
How did the name come about and what does it mean to you? What is the collective’s process and approach to music and how do you keep so many people, like an orchestra, on the same page, or in a direction that is part of the vision?
I’m a big Premier League fan, and I knew that Sunderland’s ground was called “Stadium of Light”. Every team has an academy, and I learned that theirs was called “Academy of Light”. To me that was such a wild groovy concept for a football club, and sounded more like a band name. To me the name was this inside joke with myself at first, but has really grown to represent the project. It sounds kind of studious and serious while at the same time connoting a sort of hippie thing. Our process was to me a perfect combination of effort and effortlessness. I had specific thoughts in terms of the vision - I wanted it to be at least as acoustic as electronic, and I wanted it to be modal and centered on one key. This was especially important when featuring our sitarist who will be on second album. We would start with about a minute of silence, not really knowing who would start or when we would finish. I would engineer best I could without really knowing what instruments people would be bringing to play. Not everyone had headphones, so I’d say about half the ensemble usually was only playing to what they could hear in the room. There were definitely certain intervals we naturally avoided, and the intention was usually to create something that someone could drift away to - and felt certain dissonances would pull you out of that experience. A few of the great ambient artists came up as north stars like Eno and Basinski, the latter of which we’re lucky to be able to call a supporter of the group. I like the idea of an orchestra with no conductor and no sheet music. That sounds thrilling to me.
What are some of the experiences you’ve had performing live with this outfit compared to your past projects? I understand you were inspired by the likes of the German composer, Peter Michael Hamel, correct? How did his work influence the sort of direction, or atmospheric environment you wanted to provoke?
You know it’s fascinating, I was familiar with Hamel’s music and only when the sessions were completed did I read his fantastic book “Through Music to the Self”. The pages were so validating to me and really made me feel at home in this great tradition of intuitive music. While AOL felt like this wonderful new energy in our lives, this practice of improvisation around a tone center is as old as music itself and is actually more representative of global musical traditions than western popular song. It was very very new for me, but Hamel’s book really confirmed that I was picking up on a tradition that was only personally undiscovered, but so present - especially in spiritual music.
Tell me about the band’s debut “Open Air”. Compared to your solo work, how did you want to approach this material with your friends and were there some things you wanted to achieve, express and explore?
Open Air was actually the final and largest Academy session to date. There were I believe 20 of us present, and I knew in the back of my mind that this would be the closing chapter. Hamel would argue that the ideal number of players for intuitive modern music is small - but of course I hadn’t read Hamel yet. I wanted to push the limits of my recording expertise and also see if that many people could make something coherent and potentially calming. It was a truly wonderful session, we finished with a walk around the neighborhood - Spring was fully in bloom. I’ll never forget that day, a high point of my musical journey thus far. Compared to my solo work, I would say that both in creation and in the promotion of the album, it feels way less stressful. It feels like we have each other's back and almost cherish the memory of being all together as much as the artifact, the recordings. Since then, many new members have joined to be part of the live ensemble - and that door feels very open to anyone who “gets it” and wants to be part of that expression.
Are you guys planning to tour, or play any gigs soon? Is there anything you would like to further share with the readers?
Haha, tour feels very difficult with so many members - but we’re certainly open to it. Right now we’ve been mostly showcasing the work in Los Angeles - and our next show is October 22nd at the Resident downtown. For the readers - I wouldn’t want to guide anyone too hard, but the feedback we’ve heard so far is that the piece is great for meditation, walks, cooking, dishes, stretching, studying - maybe certain things where lyrics or lots of chord changes would require too much of your ears. To paraphrase Brian Eno, we want to create something that can be walked into easily, and walked away from easily. Something pleasant, that’s just there.
