Corie Rose Soumah

What do you want to find out with your music?

My musical interests tend to always shift in multiple directions, and I’m drawn to explore as many facets as possible of those personal sonic obsessions I have – which somehow always concerns themselves with the end: the end of time, of a piece, or of a direction. Sound, to me, is inherently physical and visceral. With each new piece, I aim to build something that would let the ear and the body feel the music through different collages. I can not be doing music without multiplicity. It plays an important role in how I perceive life: a sort of tapisserie of many gestures and experiences, colliding together again and again and again. I also simply love being surprised by sound, which is what composing is to me: always finding ways to be surprised.

How do you practice listening?

Listening to me comes in my forms, but I tend to enjoy building my own personal ritual around it. Making sure to have a considerable amount of time everyday to listen to new albums or pieces brings me a lot of joy. I value silence as an integral part of the ritual as well. I can not listen with great attention for hours on end, or without breaks, otherwise the magic of it disappears. Silence allows me to reconnect with my environnement and see what is in front of me. This is where not so useful objects appear in the ritual: small statuettes to play around with, pencils that need to be sharpened, a cold glass of water to replenish or an unfinished booklet to bind. Those types of objects help me recenter myself into my everyday life and I can then somehow continue to work, listen and create.

When do you need music the most?

Anytime I feel that my ability to daydream is fading away and corroded with worries. Music somehow always fixes this for me.