German seven-piece discuss improvisation, their influences and the incoming debut album, due for release December 4th via Fuzz Club
Carving out a shape-shifting blend of driving Krautrock, vivid psychedelic pop and percussive techno sensibilities, Leipzig seven-piece Flying Moon In Space are the latest to join the fold here at Fuzz Club. Born out of live improvisations which are known to last hours at a time, they've clocked-up nearly fifty shows in their home-city alone as well as support slots with The Holydrug Couple, Elephant Stone and The Sweet Release of Death and a couple of headline tours around Europe.
With their self-titled debut album due for release December 4th, and having just shared the latest single ‘The Observer’, we spoke to the band about their beginnings, influences, creative approach and what we can expect from the new material. You can pre-order the album here and find out all about it below...
Can you tell us about the band’s inception?
“Flying Moon in Space formed in 2015 as a ‘superband’ consisting of members from other Leipzig bands including Dolphins, Lovely Heroin, Creams and Hologram Hug. To find a format besides everyone playing their usual set on stage, we just played as many shows possible in Leipzig (we’re currently at 48) to develop our individual live show with four electric guitars, a bass, drums and a very unique singer, based on improvisation. Without knowing what will happen on stage, our live-shows turned into very special happenings, sometimes lasting for several hours.”
How would you describe your sound?
“Musically you will find Flying Moon in Space somewhere in-between motorik krautrock, Psychedelic and some driving uptempo electronic music. It is a spacy journey through driving kraut aesthetics, orchestral walls of reverb and some technoid spheres.”
You’re now gearing up to release your self-titled debut album, can you tell us a little bit about that?
“We developed the whole album Flying Moon in Space during our live shows in 2019 so they really capture a certain moment for the band. We got to that point where we took the live-material to a studio of a friend’s in Leipzig to record our first full-length studio album with it. We put together what we were playing live before, taking ideas from those jams and working them into songs together as a group.”
What would you say are the biggest influences on Flying Moon In Space?
“Of course there is a relation to early Kraut formations like Can or NEU!. Reducing tonal changes to a minimum and combining it with constant, almost never-ending rhythmic patterns gives you a chance to really dive into the music. But it’s not just the repetitive sounds that we all know and love from electronic music that are capable of taking you somewhere else. I think sound-wise we’re influenced by 80s/90s bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth in the same way as we are by experimental electronic pioneers like Brian Eno and Klaus Schulze.
Contemporary music also plays a certain role in everything we do, groups like HEALTH and A Place To Bury Strangers are big influences. What definitely encouraged us to stay together as a band with seven people are more orchestral acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Sigur Ros. Whilst listening to this kind of music you see there is a need for each single instrument in every track. We gain our main influences during live experimentations with different rhythms, layers of sounds and other textures. The energy that comes up playing live with that amount of people takes our perception of music to another dimension. ”
You’ve just released another single from the record titled ‘The Observer’, which seems to circle around a chant of ‘play now!’. Can you tell us a little bit the meaning behind the track?
“The post-industrial burnouts of today know that the answer is always more R&R. All work and no play is a recipe for disaster. We grow old at a desk eight hours a day and then death comes with a bitter kiss. If you’re lucky enough not to lose your inner kid, all you really wanna do is play now. Before the final act, when all is said and done, time will tell that fun has no age.”
Prior to ‘The Observer’ you announced the new album with the track ‘Ardor’. Clocking in at eleven minutes it’s one of the far darker and more intense songs on the record. How would you describe this side of Flying Moon In Space?
“Sometimes there comes welling-up from the deep, a sensation so intense that it can only be described with sounds and mutters. Like a burning, pulsating fire turning heat into energy, energy into movement, movement into action. ‘Ardor’ is about exploring near volcanic explosions of primal gusto, melting senses and forming new edifices out of the magma.”
Photo credit: Walther Le Kon
