"Sublime Art never stops influencing me positively, perhaps because it was continually derided by persons around me during my youth.  Art and music are essential for every civilised society."

Francis Kuipers:

The Art of Life, The Life of Art

ALIENS IN THE NECROPOLIS (2024) is a new collection of short stories by Francis Kuipers. These tales evolved from various escapades by the Anglo-Dutch expatriate while living in Italy. Loosely fictionalized explorations mixed with almost verbatim non-fictionalized accounts of the folk music revival of the 1960s. Born in 1941, Anglo-Dutch singer/songwriter, ethnomusicologist, and composer Francis Kuipers, nicknamed `Superguitar,' was guitarist for Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso from the 1980s until the end of Corso's life. His film credits include Godfrey Reggio's Anima Mundi, Naqoyqatsi and Evidence, with Philip Glass, and musical compositions for Abel Ferrara's Mary, Go Go Tales, 4:44 Last Day on Earth and Napoli, Napoli, Napoli. His conducted radio broadcasts include series programmes for NZBC New Zealand and for RAI III Italy.

(Francis Kuipers / Photo © by Massimo Scognamiglio)

From 1992 to 1996 he directed the Music & Sound Department at Fabrica, the Multimedia Communications school founded by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani. His recorded music has been released by Red Records, Fonit-Cetra, and Gypsy Records, among others. His novel Disaster Blues (2017) was published in the UK by Barncott Press.

Interview by Michael Limnios                 Archive: Francis Kuipers, 2017 Interview

Currently you’ve one book published by Golda Foundation of Robert Yarra. How did the idea of “Aliens in the Necropolis” come about? What do you love most about the act of writing?

“Aliens in the Necropolis” is the title of one of the stories in the book. It narrates an event that happened  not so long ago in a remote part of Tuscany, when a stinking horde of beetle-like aliens streamed out of a spacecraft and entered an over 3000-year-old Etruscan necropolis. After that, they invaded the nearby town for a about a month before abruptly disappearing. The experience was so traumatic and embarrassing that local people prefer not to talk about it. Furthermore, this story reveals some of the darkest mysteries of professional tomb-robbers.

A sound environment grows on you in the same manner as a painting explains itself when you’ve learned to stretch your eyes. Stretching your ears, you gradually hear more and more. While writing you can stretch your imagination as far as it will go, and not much can get better than that!

How do you describe the philosophy of project “MIO CARO ICARO”?

MIO CARO ICARO was a multi-media event staged in a Rome cellar by artist Marco Fioramanti! I improvised on the acoustic guitar while Marco pasted wax onto beautiful wings in preparation for Icarus’ mythical doomed flight. Marco’s prophetic and totemic art is a signal from the future and, simultaneously, a timeless shamanic signal from the remote past. What we feel and hear is mostly the result of who we are and what we think, but our references are imbedded in antiquity. Ancestral art, magic and primordial music constitute our roots and continue to influence existential and fragile human endeavours. Mythical cultures still affect us constantly. For millennia, we loved pagan Stone Age music, and we still have it deep inside of us, those of us who can remember how to listen.

When you did something crazy and out of control in ancient times you were not responsible for your actions as pagan gods could manipulate humans like puppets. Possibly, life was then seen in Byzantine pre-perspective perspective. How did people see before the discovery of perspective in the Renaissance?

"Music enables one to connect to a magical state of consciousness. Once upon a time, singing was considered to be a discipline that explored telepathy and the occult significance of language." (Francis Kuipers, MIO CARO ICARO a multi-media event staged in a Rome cellar, 2023 / Photo © by Paola Spinelli)

What is the driving force behind your continuous support for your art?

In reply to your question about driving force.

‘Those who desire but act not, bring pestilence.’ William Blake said in the Proverbs of Hell. I’m drawn to artistic risk and  adventure and I’m passionate about quality. I like creative effervescence to be pumping through my veins. In contrast, there can also be flashes of doubt and a profound and clinging sense of solitude, of standing utterly alone, engulfed in blackness without idea or hope. Then, all at once, a miraculous solution springs up and everything becomes clear! The answer is often there, hidden right under your nose. Suddenly, a seemingly insurmountable problem turns out to be a guiding beacon. New York artist Jeffrey Lew used to say, ‘Art is like a monkey on your back , you can’t get rid of it.’

What has been the hardest obstacle for you to overcome as a person and as artist and has this helped you become a better musician?

I’m involved with now and the future present. I haven’t time to dwell on the past or on past obstacles, definitely not on the most painful, and I avoid nostalgia. Occasionally, I wake up clashing with windmills again, it seems some obstacles will never be overcome, and I regularly fight dragons of all kinds. Pinned to the wall near my bed there’s a postcard reproduction of Paolo Uccello’s St George and The Dragon, the version in London’s National Gallery. It serves as a reminder to me to be vigilant and remain on my guard. The dragon of sloth was certainly one of the hardest I had to slay. I fought it for ages, attacking repeatedly, but I finally defeated it and nailed its oozing and stinking hide to a wall.  After that life has been plainer sailing. As Gregory Corso happily used to sing, “Tra la lee, tra la lee, an artist’s life for me!” 

Of course, I aspire to being a better musician, it depends a lot on time, energy and emotions. Attending the school of hard knocks for years helped me eventually cope with creating music in a mad rush on a minimal budget, desperately orchestrating, not sleeping, working under threat etc.

"A sound environment grows on you in the same manner as a painting explains itself when you’ve learned to stretch your eyes. Stretching your ears, you gradually hear more and more. While writing you can stretch your imagination as far as it will go, and not much can get better than that!" (Francis Kuipers, singer/songwriter, ethnomusicologist, and composer, nicknamed 'Superguitar' / Photo © by Paolo Torella)

What's the balance in music between technique and soul? How do you want the music to affect people?

Ancient Greeks believed that each soul had a mysterious demon and they believed that theatre and art were a catharsis, something good for the human soul. Technique is a side issue for me. Being self-taught, I took techniques from here and there to form my musical style. Nowadays, I mainly just follow my flow, hoping to share music and weave a beautiful drama. I lose myself in the music and don’t worry if I have technique or soul - or a soul. How do you know you have a soul? Is an inner side a soul?  Is a spirit different? I like performing my new music and songs that people aren’t already familiar with, but I make sure the audience has a good time. A lot depends on audience reaction. When I compose for film, I create original music that I think fits the moods and atmospheres that the movie asks for, as well as enhancing and following the action and keeping viewers rivetted to the screen. I’ve been fortunate, the few film directors I’ve worked with have genius.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Sound continually conditions our thinking and behaviour. The function and effect of sound interests me. When John Ford’s movies were first released, and you could barely see through the clouds of cigarette smoke inside cinemas, audiences bounced up and down in their seats to the sound of galloping horses and charging cavalry. Rhythms in crescendo recall the sexual climax. A drum roll leads up to expectation at a circus or a public hanging. In some parts of the world men were convinced there were secret spells and rituals that could transform them, making it impossible for them to die in battle. North American Indians chanted cosmic poetry. Musicians were often magicians or shaman who located mystical power within sound. It was their task to keep contact with the supernatural. Like oracles, shaman specialised in prophecy, uttering sounds during trances that some people understood and others thought they understood.

Music enables one to connect to a magical state of consciousness. Once upon a time, singing was considered to be a discipline that explored telepathy and the occult significance of language. Like ancient Egyptians hiding the secret of embalming, it’s wise not to overly discuss music and magic. Amongst other qualities, spells and incantations require meticulous timing, uncommon intervals and pauses and persuasive modulation. They have a few characteristics in common with astute advertising and spy-talk over the ether late at night. 

"I’m drawn to artistic risk and  adventure and I’m passionate about quality. I like creative effervescence to be pumping through my veins. In contrast, there can also be flashes of doubt and a profound and clinging sense of solitude, of standing utterly alone, engulfed in blackness without idea or hope." (Photo: Francis Kuipers was guitarist for Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso)

Life is more than just music, is there any other field that has influence on your life and music? What do you think is key to a life well lived?

Sublime Art never stops influencing me positively, perhaps because it was continually derided by persons around me during my youth.  Art and music are essential for every civilised society. The self-portrait of Van Gogh with a bandage over his self-inflicted ear amputation unwittingly provided invaluable propaganda ammunition to the anti-art gang that is still so powerful today. It was predicted that I would never get a decent job and would die mad with starvation in a garret as a punishment for my refusal to live a normal life – whatever that is - and my self-indulgent desire for art and joy. Reality is constantly changing but we can’t run away from whom we are; our destiny is ourselves.

The relationship between music and other forms of art – such as painting, video art, theatre, etc. - has become increasingly important. How do you see this relationship yourself and in how far, do you feel, does music relate to other senses than hearing alone?

Most contemporary art and music I run across seems old-fashioned and already seen and heard. A pre-definition of intergalactic art and music is urgent if, one day, we need to communicate with beings from other planets. Before all the music and languages that present society does not understand are eliminated and are forced to disappear from the world and be forgotten, like those of early tribes and cultures, fish, animals, plants and a million microworlds, they should be studied and their secrets learned. Instead of resembling humans maybe specific extra-terrestrials are more similar to cows, certain insects or mushrooms.  Ancient peoples assumed supernatural beings looked different and didn’t have ordinary human voices.  A champion of magic realism, the French writer Blaise Cendrars, prophesied our present virtual future many years ago, and painter Rene Magritte warned us never to confuse a pipe with the image of a pipe.  Art should signify prophecy for change. Apart from adjusting to a new virtual global reality, artists should be preparing for an intergalactic discourse with beings totally different to us and the start of a fresh adventure.

(Francis Kuipers / Photo © by Paolo Torrella)