Speaking of art as the reflection of time, and its ever-changing expression and conceptualization we always find means to see the beauty and make peace within the forever existing dysfunctions of life. As we recall glorifying the traits of the art of navigation & compartmentalisation we often also experience the cracks and the emotional flood gates opening and blending with one another leading to a space of unfamiliar grounds which roots for innovation and discoveries. On the idea of time as to past & present, we recently landed in the world of O FUTURE, a sonic art space cultivated by Katherine and Jen who told us about their creative elements and artistic practices touching on the subjects that you’d understand well enough only by listening to their tracks.

My very first question is to enquire a bit about your individual lives before you found one another and collaborated plus how you first met for this creative outlet, what made you finalize this name? What was growing up like? What events made you pursue your crafts and what are your academic backgrounds exactly?

Katherine: Originally I’m from the farmlands of the Western Cape of South Africa. I left the country after spending two years in Cape Town, studying at AFDA achieving a BA in scriptwriting and acting. Growing up I was encouraged to pursue all the arts as I was super shy and introverted yet excelled in this sphere. Since I was a pale and lonely kid with a speech impediment I would spend most of my time watching movies, reading books, and drawing. Films started my wild fantasy and dreaming of living in America and meeting charismatic ‘cool actors’ and somehow trying to become one of them. The acting was a sense of accomplishment, revenge, and power over this deep shyness and a sense of ill-fitting. I moved to New York after being auditioned and accepted into the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory. (2.5-year MFA). I met Jens at my final graduation since the performances were open to the public. Shortly afterward I signed with management and arrived in LA, but was doomed and uncomfortable with being an actor. It didn’t seem to fit what I actually was - a maker and a fabricator. Then my dad died suddenly which changed everything. Jens and I flew back to Cape Town which is where we started making music together for the first time. The first song I wrote was “ Death Teeth” and “ You’re Gone Now’ which were about my dad off our first record Disco To Die To.

Jens: Yeah. it’s pretty radical to just pick and change like that. But that is how she is. Which I guess comes from her acting ability. She can completely just commit to what she decides to do. That’s why she is so multi-disciplinary. If she is interested in something she tends to just go for it. I on the other hand am music-focused. I am a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and symphony composer originally from Denmark. I had a very sheltered and calm upbringing but was always practicing violin with my mother. I dreamed of adventure and studied saxophone and composition at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen and at The New School in New York like Katherine I also had a revelation after completing my studies. I realized that, as a saxophonist, there was nothing fresh there for me to discover, that I was not interested in being a player I wanted to invent. The romance of jazz is a museum to me, which is great, but I wanted to be outside of the museum and inside the culture. I moved to London in the early 2000s for a few months and immersed myself in electronic music and never looked back. And by the time I met Katherine I had already decided to move back to New York after selling my music production company and record label. I had made other people's music for 10 years and now was the time for me to make my own music. After Katherine's dad died we decided to road trip through wintery Europe (because of visa issues with the USA) with a home studio and a bunch of instruments. So most of our first album was made in a Swiss chalet loaned to us by friends.

Let's get on to your work which of course is from all directions, peculiar and somewhat absurdly romantic. The artistic direction of your music supported by visuals holds a low-key hypnotic tendency with a soft thrill. Can you elaborate a bit on your inspiration and influences?

Jens: With our practice, we want to blend these historical, classical, modern, and post-modern ideas into something actually new. I take inspiration in everything from medieval chants to trap and use all of this to try to make new sounds that can enlighten and comfort, in our continuous forward human motion as a species.

Katherine: My influences are William Blake, Francis Bacon, Jane Alexander, Japanese Illustration, Andrew Wyeth and Bergam as well as religious paintings from the 12th century and Cindy Sherman that I can think off of the top of the list, to be fair I have a list that I update everyday.… I always think about the movies Excalibur and Under the Skin and Barry Lyndon. I think of the name of O Future like a Monty Python joke or something like an 11th-century goth peasant lifting his head to the sky and crying out to the gods “O Future?!”

I'd like to know about your mental and emotional states while working on your EPs. What really goes behind conceptualizing and what the creative flow be like? Please describe the synergy and creative space that you get into while producing.

Jens: Generally how we make music is; I start with a demo track. I then email Katherine this demo (she will be in the next room normally).

Katherine: I then will write lyrics and melody at the same time. It’s very instinct-based. I sit for maybe an hour or so and find something.

Jens: Then I get the demo, and we discuss it. Then we record a second demo.

Katherine: Emotionally I always write from the inside. Most of my lyrics are either simple or strange or both and there is density and self-portrait there that I am trying to disguise in poetic language. Our conceptualization is organic. There is no pre-thinking and It's a lot like archeology we find the pieces and try to make them fit together. The aesthetics and videos that I fabricate are made in response to the audio of what we make.

It's evident from your work that you have an amalgamation of both spiritual and nihilistic philosophies coordinating with one another simultaneously with somewhat a dreamy interpretation. What are your thoughts about the current dichotomy of human emotions and life? What do you consider to be your pillar of navigation on the matter?

Katherine: Yeah. I mean Nihilism is somehow embedded in our global culture at the moment. I am not a nihilist, I have way too many emotions to actuate non-meaning. I am in some way the opposite - everything to me means everything, and I believe in making even in absurdity. But there is a soaking nihilism around us. In-action of climate change, the barbarous Ukrainian war and the unfurled terror of nontruths of republicans in America which I feel has damaged our conceptions of progress.

Jens: I am not spiritual, I am a pragmatist. But watching the now almost inevitable slow-moving destruction of the planet and culture as regards climate and politics. Honestly, it’s deeply depressing and hard to wrap your head around how we are going to survive. I am nowhere near a nihilist even though it's like a massive army invading in slow motion and nothing can be done about it.

Katherine: I am superstitious and questioning, with no religiosity. But it’s one of my biggest interests for me. Especially expressions of faith from the past… For a while, I could only talk about 15th-century nuns.

Jens: Lol. On brand.

Katherine: Let's not talk about chainmail!!! omg. In a lot of things I make visually, lyrically, etc, I always have this sense of menace and beauty. Like a gargoyle sitting on a ledge. Perhaps because this is how I feel the world expresses itself to me.

Speaking of navigation and pillars… tell us about your modes and mediums of assimilating ideas, expressions, and stories that you organize rhythmically and visually? How does it all come together and when/how do you realize its completion? Please describe the feeling and intuitive point of acceptance.

Katherine: Interesting and difficult question here.

Jens: Yes, I think for me I am much more academic in the assimilation. I have a systemized way of working which is just start working and then something will happen. The starting is the most important.

Katherine: Again, I am a maniac in terms of working. Sometimes in a disorganized way. But I also do what Jens does. I just sit down and start working and something will be made. But I also have Aspergers so fabricating for me gives me a sense of ease unlike most vertices of life. Constant making is the key for me. I need to make a lot of work to get to a final, to satisfy the fear of something hidden that I might miss.

Jens: The assessment of when a piece is done, is an ongoing determination, and one that quite frequently is no answer to. Coming from an improviser's point of view everything can always be mended and end up in different versions. Many times I get bored and just want to end it, but could obsess endlessly if I had to.

Would you be able to share about the individual triggers that you work with through your art? Please describe the matters that you are integrating with through your creative agencies for better resonance…

Jens: I always want to make something fresh and new. This is a trigger for me. A lot of people are not thinking in terms of avant-garde, while still trying to have a toe in popular culture.

Katherine: There is an incentive to be flat and branded and smooth. This is a major thing for me. I call it the “Great Flattening’. This sense that in the last few years everything is smooth, slippery, and empty.

Jens: How we deal with this is to, on one hand, be aware of the realities of life, and on the other.

Katherine: give a middle finger to it. Artists are experimenters not influencers. Also, the new promo idea that you have to share your work, opinions, and beautiful life on social media all the time is exhausting. The constant self-promotion of every single person is a wild new concept.

Last but not least what are the issues and concepts that you are looking forward to working upon next? Please tell us about your ongoing work.

Katherine: We are currently making a video with Ai Weiwei for a track we made with Ai Weiwei reciting the poem Hum Bom by Allen Ginsberg. It’s a part of the book “The Fall of America’s” 50 anniversary that sadly has renewed relevance hence it’s about the absurdity of war and bombings.

Jens: I am also in the process of composing a symphony, using electronic music production techniques for the orchestra, including building analog physical effect apparatuses for the instruments. It’s a massive project that also has a visual side to it. While Katherine will make video works for it as well.

We are also diving gently into the NFT world, creating works that combine all of our skills, visuals, and music. It is a very mysterious space with a lot of unknowns which makes It feel a lot like electronic music felt 20 years ago when most people didn’t know what it was and what its impact would be.