Mambo Sandoval, interview

I. Name:
Mariano Juan Sandoval o Mambe.

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:
Azur since 2005, Mainumby Ediciones label since 2006, Minimalista País since 2008, La Luz Cadente since 2009, collaborator with Leeev´b

III. Influences:
Fellow bands (and not so fellow bands) are a really really big influence. Also other things like the sound of boats passing slowly, the voices of my family, the streets, animals, extra-musical forms and the combination of colours in sunsets, are a good influence at times. Its in those moments that I feel enthusiasm with those who give me music, and this is sharing and releasing at the same time: Kate Bush, My Bloody Valentine, ABBA, Tiny Tim, Young Marble Giants, The Ronettes (and lots of 50s pop), The Knife, Kellies, Epiref, Dick El Demasiado, Wave Tank, MALARIA!, Strawberry Switchblade, Martin Rev, Leonard Cohen, Nico, Dark Day, Klaus Nomi, Dan Deacon, Cecilia Todd, Os Mutantes, Gilda, Los Mirlos, Transito Cocomarola (and the amazing Paraguayan harp), Shirley Collins, Violeta Parra, Norman McLaren, Jan Svankmajer, Ingman Bergman, David Lynch, Jorge Luis Borges, Fernando Pessoa, William Blake, “Acéphale”, Louis Wain.

IV. What motivates you?:
What pushed me towards doing these exercises which ended in ¨music¨was something similar to an intuition, an image, a sound, an interrupting voice, and wanting to share the experience, run the risk, something naughty, something imaginative, like playing, living, trying, playing and listening again: it all came out fairly casually, like luck, trivial, even though it wasn’t through error. And it can be something so unusual, the strength which motivates one to discover oneself, to come out from the enclosed, to express oneself, to dilute oneself in the preponderance and its creative faculty, with which the conscious intelligence isn’t the motive, the incitation, but talent, excitement, temperament in the development, dreams. Trust, caring for those who are present, enjoyment at spreading the word by word of mouth, or inventing according to the situation, the majority of times with amusing results, but at other times they are proverbs or formulas. They seem to be useless sacrifices, “lets drink”, “a friend on Myspace”, “let’s fuck up” and somebody comes up with something new which changes us, pushes us forward. So we put adornments, loops, a guitar, obsessive little songs, improvised fragments, and in that moment the heart brings us a smile.

V. Friend bands:
Pretzel, Im, Betty Confetti, Omasin, Nebel Dots, Liz, Mothers Day, Los Siquicos Litoraleños, Klub Der Kang, Trampa de Osos, Good Time For Dynacom, Yon, Puffy Eyes.















VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:
The music is like something given to us, offered from the most delicious, and like one of the things that one wants most of all. One tries to give, offer respect, friendship, make it grow and multiply what one learns from the others and oneself. Because if you don’t submit (and you force it) you don’t get anything back, and in that case giving and receiving get confused. It’s basically making your instrument distribute, look for the amplification, make it something that has lots of strengths, diversions, series, combinations and in these conditions the music becomes visible and relative and one becomes multiple.

VIII. Instruments:
Bass, double bass, synthesizers and 60s technologu, ukelele, Casio keyboard, voices, delay, chorus, flanger.

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?
Particularly noisy, simple, repetitive.

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
In its oldest and most general form there’s a really long period of time that I love, in which the “scene” fills me with wonder, back then in the 5th Century B.C. Also Palestrina. And the “Lollypop generation”, those boys and girls from the 50s and 60s. Also Teutonic Post Punk.

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?
I try not the disassociate the two, even though sometimes the search to make the disassociation bring about new sensibilities. From the corporeal, the light, videos and slide projections, the optic begins to associate, motivate, generate, effect what appears to me as worth making the most of.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?
The production has been increasing in quality and quantity, displaying differing and similar forms. There are things in Argentina that really deserve to be seen and heard.

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?
I think that the locus of the musician is very important, and in some cases it’s a determining factor. In poor places there is a lot of incredible music, beautiful, transparent. In the rich and economically powerful places there are more institutions and institutionalized relationships which guarantee and support production. There is production, communication and technology in both places, even if they exist in different forms. In poor and rich places things come out of the exclusion and inclusion, or from the conditions and opportunities. There are always conditions, but through not being total, unchangeable, they constantly create opportunities. Those who are victims of an economic impotence show that they can also play music and dance, that’s to stay, what is a real subjection gives birth to a fictitious relation.