cloud collecting #17: No Translation (Emma Palm)
making time for creative pursuits, how sounds relate to memories + being amazed by the details of the earth
cloud collecting features three-question interviews with women and gender-expansive artists, exploring their creative processes. I recently connected with Los Angeles-based musician and artist No Translation (Emma Palm). Her slow approach has stayed close to my heart since I saw her live a few years ago, and am happy to have had a chance to sink in with her a bit more. I know for certain music and art is the way through what we’ve been going through + Emma’s creativity is a balm.
No Translation is the project of Emma Palm, a Taiwanese-American musician and multimedia artist based in Los Angeles. Her work fuses synthesizers, field recordings, guqin and vocals to craft meditative soundscapes and textures that seek to translate the in-between of identity, environment, and memory.
1. What does a typical day in your life look like, from your morning routine to your work? Do you have a set schedule? How do music and other elements of your life influence each other—do you keep them distinct or integrate them?
I like to have a balance between routine and spontaneity, so my weekday job is the foundation of the routine that I organize my time around for creative projects which I usually focus on in the evenings and weekends. I appreciate the separation of tasks and type of mental thinking between what I do for work and my creative pursuits. Inevitably though, the routine of work informs what I think about in my art, and I’ve also been enjoying finding ways to combine those worlds more explicitly. For example, I love bookbinding and work as an ESL teacher, so I created a book with my international students that featured their translations for love in their native language.
2. I’ve always loved your album Inner Distance, released in 2021 via Pure Pure Press. The description mentions that the tracks ‘sound like memories fading in and out of clarity’ and that nearly every piece includes recordings of both you and your mother. Do you typically start with field recordings, or do you add them in later? Additionally, how would you describe your methods for creating your dream-like sound?
It varies depending on the field recording. There are usually recordings that I know I want to use and I start creating with them in mind, but it’s a matter of discovering other sounds that match the feeling of how I relate to those memories. It’s a lot of experimenting with other sounds until it feels right. There’s a lot of recordings I love dearly, but I haven’t used them because I just haven’t found the right place for them yet. Other times, I’m using my synths or guqin as a starting point, and later try out adding a recording and it will either fit or not.
3. How do you cloud collect (connect to childlike wonder) in your creativity?
Slowing down and doing things with no purpose, being outside and giving myself time to imagine impossible things or be amazed by the details of the earth - like flower gazing, studying an army of ants, imagining a landscape from the bubbles in a bath. Living in a metropolitan city like LA, it’s hard to slow down, but it’s important to allow myself to be bored and let my mind wander.
Best Online places to find + support Emma:
If you are based in LA, Emma (and her partner Marc Merza) have a live scoring event coming up with the incredible Living Earth. This event is at the Philosophical Research Society and is co-hosted by Switched on Cinema. More details here.
Loved hearing these experimental creative pieces of art. The collage piece is stunning! Very inspiring and great read as always. 🫶🏻