Tryphème

Can you please give us a little intro about you?

I am Tiphaine Belin, and I am a human and musical being.

Where did you wanted to go with your latest album, Aluminia?

It always slips through my fingers, I generally don’t know what I’m doing, there’s no point where I understand what I’m doing, rightly so; otherwise I wouldn’t do it.
It’s really hard to put words on music, because it confines it! Music is a language which we can’t translate faithfully.
But everyone is free to interpret!
I did try to put some words on my own tracks, to describe it, but I was not satisfied, I prefer to let them keep their secrets.

Can you tell us about your track, In A Cyber Spiral, my personal favourite from Aluminia?

Nearly all the synth parts are made with a Waldorf Microwave II which a friend lended me.
I used a tremolo effect on both lead synth and choir voices, producing a jerky and swirling effect, which gave it its name.
Several drum parts are made with a Korg Electribe ER1, notably the break.

Which one is your personal favorite?

LAVA for its rebellious spirit.

What was you first musical epiphany?

The discovery of the DAW Ableton Live was a key moment, because until this time I used to express myself almost entirely with photography, my first love.
So yes, I was roughly playing bass guitar and synths/drums machines, but I never composed any music piece up until then.
With this new medium, this new language, it was like a cataclysm!
A new aspect of my personality started to express itself.
I remember having that rush of happiness and excitation while creating a music named « sunny or not sunny », a few hours after installing the program.
I could see all the possibilities opening up to me at that moment, and I felt a deep bliss.

Your music always made me wonder if you weren’t coming from some magical land. Then I saw that childhood photo of yours (see above – right). Were you raised by elves in an enchanted forest? And, apart from riding ponies, what were your occupations as a kid?

Elves & enchanted forest… it’s almost that!
I grew up in a region named « Drome des Collines » in the south of France, and the landscapes are magical .
I was home schooled, I studied in the morning, and I spent my afternoons playing in the forest.
Sometimes, I went all day on an adventure with Señorita, my blue-eyed pony.
My parents put a cell phone in my back pack, and I was galloping away, crossing forests and rivers, totally free…

What was you best live?

There were 3 important ones, but if I had to choose only one, that would be Vision Festival in Brittany; I was playing after Terry Riley, the sun was setting, and the sea was quietly breathing behind me.

What’s you favourite context to play?

When the sky is orange, or when the moon is full!
But also in small crowded venues, as I am closer to the people, to easily spread emotions and music.

That set for LYL radioshow is amazing. Seems to be something you do a lot. What do you like about them?

I deeply enjoy to share my musical discoveries, when I love a song, I feel the urge to share it with the rest of world! And I love as well when people send me theirs, it touches me a lot!
By sharing a music we love, first we keep it alive, but we also offer a piece of ourselves.
With my show « Dame de Coeur », I try to create a bubble of trust, a place leading to confidences.

I love how you talk about the emotions generated by each track in that set, taking the listener onto an immersive journey. How much does this say about the way you perceive and the way you create music?

An emotion is something uncontrollable/irrepressible, it’s in motion, continuously seeking for existence, sometimes despite our will, and that’s why trying to describe them is my sneaky pleasure.
Thus, there is no doubt my way of apprehending emotions has an influence on my compositions, which describe the indescribable.

What equipment do yo use and what is your connection to it?

I’m using lots of hardware, because I love the contact with the machines, to rotate the knobs in order to sculpt waves, come across serendipity…
I really see that as chemistry, full of happy coincidences.

About last year’s album, Thank God For Air Emotions : you’ve talked about your hyper sensitivity, and how you’re now thankful for it. In what sense does it drive your creative work?

I’m constantly in motion, as every other living being, and at the present time I no longer have the feeling to be so hyper-sensitive… sensitive yes, I don’t think it’s very comfy to be hyper-anything, it may be better to push towards balance, but it’s a practice of a lifetime.
To define myself as such, and I may have been for a while, well it actually did influence my music in a certain way. And I like that, I am grateful.
But in the end I believe that, in order to stay free, I prefer not knowing what I am.

If there was a videoclip for Chimera, how would it be?

I think it would look like this picture I recently took (see below), some objects would quietly be floating around in the orange sky, the wind would gently blow in the leaves and in the grass.
Maybe it could rain at some point.

To finish, any track you’re obsessed with at the moment?

I recently have been strongly moved by a Peter Greenaway’s movie named « The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover », and there is this Michael Nyman’s music « Fish Beach » which appeared during a scene of nameless beauty, and now it is engraved in me, like a tattoo.
Each time I listen to it, I feel again those contradictory emotions that the movie brought to me… such beauty and poetry in the midst of violence.

Tryphème is an electronic music producer. You can enjoy her music on soundcloud, spotify, deezer, listen to her radio shows on mixcloud, and follow her on instagram.

Photos credit
1 Brian Ravaux
2 Unknown
3 Brian Ravaux
4 Tryphème’s mom
5, 6 and 7 MONXY
8 Album Cover Thank God For All The Air Emotions by Adem Elahel
9, 10, 11 and 12 Thryphème.