Wrekmeister Harmonies “Ultimately it’s way more important that I gather incredibly talented people to help me convey my message. There’s no way I could do this on my own.”

Wrekmeister Harmonies is an evolving project. Leader J.R. Robinson started working under the name in 2006, creating “sonic templates” in various museums around the world, culminating in Wrekmeister Harmonies: Recordings Made in Public Spaces. And then the project morphed: On their full-length Thrill Jockey debut You’ve Always Meant So Much To Me, Robinson wrangled musicians from Yakuza’s Bruce Lamont to the elusive Jef Whitehead of Leviathan to create a crushing, sprawling work.

With Wrekmeister Harmonies’ newest album, Then It All Came Down, Robinson — joined by an entire cast of ensemble players including Codeine’s Chris Brokaw, Ryley Walker, and Chanel Pease of Pulseprogramming — drew inspiration from the films of Kenneth Anger, Arnold Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, and, above all, a Truman Capote interview conducted with Manson family associate Bobby Beausoleil (who, incidentally, had been cast as the titular character in Anger’s Lucifer Rising before the project mostly fell through). Tiny Mix Tapes sat down with Robinson (over pancakes!) to talk about the new work, performing in cemeteries, and the myriad issues that arise when trying to perform ensemble pieces on tour.


Tell me about Then It All Came Down. Your album titles are so haunting, and I know there’s a story behind this one.

I read this essay by Truman Capote [“Then It All Came Down”] that he had conducted with Bobby Beausoleil, who’s kind of like the lynchpin in the whole Manson cult family. As a kid, I read Helter Skelter, the Vincent Bugliosi book, which was very fascinating. I was so inspired by this Capote essay about the duality, about how Beausoleil could be equally really handsome, really charming, and then, with just the slightest change of his face, he would become this really devious and sinister person. I wanted to delve into that, and the musical piece that I came up with was kind of my reaction to that, which was this concept of light into darkness.

Yeah, I read that Truman Capote essay. It’s fascinating.

I think he was looking for the same thing in Beausoleil that he found in the Clutter murders [the focus of Capote’s book In Cold Blood], and he was just drawn to Bobby’s beauty and exterior. But then he got close to Bobby and saw that he was a very fucking scary person. I think that terrified Truman Capote.

And some parts of Then It All Came Down are meant to emulate pieces of Beusoleil’s life, right?

There’s some direct correlations through the piece that would be hard to miss if you read the essay. Like having Ryley Walker do his imitation of Beausoleil’s guitar playing, strumming away on the acoustic guitar, just kind of doing his thing. And Chanel Pease came up with this really amazing keyboard part, because that’s what she does. She’s an amazing keyboard player, an amazing vocalist. We gave her the essay and she read it. I told her what I was looking for, and she came up with this beautiful vocal line. And then I had [vocalists] Lydia [Lane Stout] and Kate [Spelling] come in, and I wanted to utilize their voices as the sirens, like how Beausoleil had these women around him, lured them in. The rest would be representative of the chaos of everything that happened, all the explosive violence. The metal dudes just completely obliterate any concept of, “There will be a good ending, there will be a turning back,” because there certainly isn’t.

Right now we’re looking for a space, a site, a place, a venue to perform. I don’t want to play this stuff in a concrete box, a club. If you put all this in a concrete room, it’s very stifling. Musicians are cramped up on top of each other, there’s no separation between some very sensitive acoustic string parts and bombastic, heavy parts.

The project as a whole has evolved from what you were doing originally, in museums, and now it’s this big collective thing that you perform in cemeteries! How’d that transition come about, and will there be another transformation in the future? Will the project morph again?

I think just working with different people all the time and not keeping a static, fixed lineup is very much the key, especially when doing these large format pieces. To me, it’s a logical extension to start working with different people. I recently worked with the guys from The Body, and Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten.

And the composer Olivia Block, right?

Yeah, and Olivia. To present this thing in different cities, there’s no way I can fly nine, 12 people out to wherever. I’m going to have to work with who’s available elsewhere. And luckily, I’ve been fortunate enough to know a lot of really talented people, and a lot of really talented people have agreed to work with me.

So for that piece – with Olivia Block and Alexander Hacke – are you envisioning that you’ll tour behind it, with different players in each city?

Yeah, right now we’re looking for a space, a site, a place, a venue to perform. I don’t want to play this stuff in a concrete box, a club. If you put all this in a concrete room, it’s very stifling. Musicians are cramped up on top of each other, there’s no separation between some very sensitive acoustic string parts and bombastic, heavy parts. Also, if I’m asking you to come out and give me your hard-earned money, I want it to be the best aesthetic experience.

Are you seeking out more unconventional spaces for performances? More spaces like the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago, where you’ve previously played?

Yeah, we’re about to do a show in the crematorium/cathedral [at Bohemian]. It’s a beautiful space, a huge dome with wings on either side that are just packed with urns. At last year’s cemetery performance we played Then It All Came Down. I’ve got a relationship with the people there because I’ve [performed] there a couple of times, so it makes sense for me to do it there.

I wanted to utilize their voices as the sirens, like how Beausoleil had these women around him, lured them in. The rest would be representative of the chaos of everything that happened, all the explosive violence.

Yeah, I was at that cemetery show. There were these really confused-looking people who just happened to be wandering through the cemetery, plus all these people there to see you and Silver Apples, which I thought was funny.

I think it’s a nice option if you want to go see live music outside. You don’t have to go stand in a dirt field with a thousand sunburned, drunken people. It doesn’t have to be a street fair situation where people are sweating on each other and throwing Italian sausages at each other. There was a beautiful sunset, a beautiful moonrise happening. I was really happy.

There’s so many moving parts when you perform these big, sprawling pieces live. What do you see as your role in these situations? Are you conducting?

I see my role as running around doing my Leonard Bernstein routine. I can play during the majority of it, but there’s a lot of moving parts, like, who stops and who starts when? It’s impossible for me to keep playing – well, not impossible, I just haven’t figured it out yet, I haven’t figured out the way to continue to play and also tell other people when to stop and when to start when there’s, like, 30 fucking people, and a choir. I think my role as a musician in this is important, but ultimately it’s way more important that I gather incredibly talented people to help me convey my message. There’s no way I could do this on my own.

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