ODDA 5

Beginning his Career in fashion by producing soundtracks for maison Martin Margiela’s earliest runway shows, Frederic Sanchez has since continued on an all out audial colonisation of the industry’s heaviest hitters. Working alongside houses such as dior, Prada and Valentino, Sanchez has carved a career from creating worlds within sound that manifest the essence of fashion. for the Paris native however, this is one of many artistic avenues he has explored; also creating films and exhibiting sound installations in the world’s most hallowed galleries and museums.

ODDA — You have had long-standing collaborations with the industry’s most respected names; what attracts you to working with designers of fashion?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — I found affinity with fashion through its laboratory of ideas. I am attracted to wor- king with fashion designers, because they also create through their five senses.
ODDA — You have said that your sound works best with a minimal aesthetic; how would you define the ‘aesthetic’ of your sound??
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Minimal and poetic.
ODDA — over the course of your career, the music industry has encountered significant changes; have you felt the reverberations of this?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Since I began working in the late 80’s, the most significant change has been the growing importance of internet.
ODDA — are there any designers you have not worked with whose visual style you particularly admire?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Comme des Garçons.
ODDA — how do you translate the mood of a collec-
tion into sound?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Its created through long term work and conversation with a designer. I get the inspira- tion and then find the bridge between mood and sound.
ODDA — do you feel vision and sound emotionally engage with an audience on different levels? What makes the mix of the two so effective?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — It’s true that vision and sound elicit different emotional responses, but I have always found that sound changes the perception of an image. I think that’s the essence of my work.
ODDA — What are your most trusted pieces of techno- logy that you use in the composing process?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — My computer and Nuendo software, which I use for audio sequencing.
ODDA — You have exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries and museums, how did the process of creating installations differ from your work in fashion?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — My work in fashion is comple- tely about collaboration, whilst creating installations is about putting myself out there on a 3D blank page.
ODDA — are there any projects you have always wanted to realize?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — I’ve always wanted to write a book.
ODDA — Your most recent film was ‘le soldat sans visage’; what was the creative process behind it like?
FREdERIC SANCHEZ — The film was commissioned by Johanna Chevalier, who is a video art curator. She asked me to choose a piece of classical music and create a video inspired by it. It was a challenge, but I finally got a chance to put images to music myself.
ODDA — do you think there will be any more moving- image works in the near future?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Yes, definitely, I’m always working on different projects.
ODDA — Your work seems to follow in the footsteps
of greats such as stockhausen and Jean michel Jarre; how did you find your own niche in the world of elec- tronic music?
FREDERIC SANCHEZ — Perhaps it has to do with the fact that nothing was predestined. I have always just followed my own path with all the cultural and personal influences that I’ve turned into sound.