I get the impression that the recorded voices / dialogues / choruses that come from different sources and appear on "Continuous Portrait" weave a kind of story or it's rather something aesthetic? What is your opinion on this matter?
“Samples have been a heavy part of our sound since the very first song we made together. There is something really satisfying about some element of an old song or movie catching your ear and then sampling and recontextualizing it and merging it so that it adds something alchemical, but its source is unrecognizable. In the past we have tended to gravitate to samples that are non-specific and amorphous, but you're right, this time the samples we chose ended up being a bit more direct and specifically referential of certain mindsets, and ended up creating a bit of a through-line that connects the songs on the album.”
"Outlook for the Future" is a particular song on the album, conjuring up images from an old movie, along with a playful circus rhythm that exudes a certain nostalgia. Was there any special source of inspiration to compose this song?
“This ended up being our favorite song on the album, and it started with the sense of playfulness that comes from the rhythm. But really what kept us coming back to the demo was the juxtaposition of that lightheartedness with the sample of the elderly man talking about the future... It is those types of moments that we're shooting for with our music.”
"Spirit Refinement Exploder" is for me a hymn for these times where beauty takes on a very special value, with those heavenly choirs, voices, off-kilter percussion and ambient keyboards lines. What can you comment on this song?
“It feels like this is a song that probably shouldn't work as well as it does... there are so many elements and textures and strange little flourishes that I'm really happy it all hangs together. It started with just the guitar loop and the choir and vocal samples, and the beat is really where it took off. I do personally find it very warm and comforting, and I'm not sure why the sampled words ("I just don't know where I'm supposed to be") work, as they are pretty disorienting. But maybe that's why they work.”
"The Warmer the Welcome" is another great song somewhat melancholic - with elegant piano notes. What seduced you about this song?
“This was one of the earliest tracks we worked on for this album. We never knew exactly what direction to take it in, but as time progressed, we added many various sounds and samples to see what might work. It always felt substantial enough that we kept returning to it over and over, adding a little bit here and there. The Washington Phillips sample in the middle of the song always immediately gives a melancholic solace. Eventually we stripped a lot of the samples we added back and just kept the instrumentation we had written and that one sample, and it seemed to work perfectly.”
Did the pandemic have any influence on the making of "Continuous Portrait", or did it end before it started?
“It's maybe a little ironic because we are a band that wouldn't necessarily be affected by a pandemic, at least logistically because we write everything remotely. But we finished making the record in December 2019, a few months before all this started. It is a little interesting to think about how different the album would have turned out if we had written it during the pandemic.”
What are the next steps for Inventions?
“Now is the point where we return to our main projects. Matthew has some Eluvium projects coming along, and I've started writing with Explosions again. Matthew and I talk all the time, though, and at some point in the future one of us will send along a track and say "What do you think about this?“
Guillermo Escudero
August 2020