Agar Agar discuss the music scene in Paris and what to expect from their upcoming album

Agar Agar are Clara Cappagli and Armand Bultheel, an art school duo who met whilst studying in Paris. They are masters at pushing the boundaries of expectation, utilising synth pop beats and surreal soundscapes to create a sound that entrances, but often leaves you feeling unbalanced in a mysteriously hypnotic way. Cappagli delivers her vocals with a magnetic and effortless attitude, whilst Bultheel perfectly executes the crisp synth network that takes you on a futuristic adventure that basks in leading you astray.

The unique oddness that underpins their sound is further exacerbated by their penchant for creating striking visuals: take the wonderfully obscure video for new track "Sorry About The Carpet" that sees the pair make a right mess of a carpet over and over again, whilst previous single "Fangs Out" is nothing short of a technological dystopian nightmare. It all further gives the sense that this is a pair who are fully in control of their artistic output and know how they want to present themselves to the world.

The duo are currently warming up for a summer of festival appearances in the lead up to their debut album, entitled The Dog & The Future, due to be released this September. We caught up with Armand Bultheel to find out more about what we can expect from the album and the influences that underpin their unique sound.

BEST FIT: The pair of you met at Beaux Arts school in Paris - can you tell us about your experience there and what made you both want to make music together?
ARMAND BULTHEEL: "There are two Beaux Art schools in Paris. One is located in a suburb called Cergy, a futuristic city from the 70’s. We were studying in this school and met each other there, as with other musicians. Students were often organising concerts and parties, so we had a lot of occasions to play live. For one of these events, we decided to try to play together, and we just kept doing it."

There is a lot of fantastic music coming out of France at the moment, did it ever feel like there was a scene going on in Paris?
"Yeah we agree. In fact, there are different scenes going on, that are not very opened to each other, but create that global good vibe we can feel in Paris right now. I’m not sure if this existed 5 or 6 years ago. I’m not sure if it’s due to the easier technical access to music (computers, « free » softwares), the stuff like soundcloud, or just a wave that many people want to ride. Difficult to know. Maybe people are trying to avoid working their entire life for stuff they don’t care about, and art and philosophy are the most natural answers for people that want to make things move forward."

What was the initial idea for Agar Agar?
"There was absolutly no initial idea, and there still isn’t. We didn’t know what we were doing and where we where heading to, the only thing we knew is that we were having fun making songs that didn’t exist. And we still have the same idea."

In what ways did you want to stand out from your contemporaries?
"We were not trying to stand out. I think we were just trying to make the music that felt the most natural for both of us - and we didn’t have the same influences, the same backgroud culture. With Agar Agar we experience a very empirical way of making music. Everything comes from playing that construction game together and just see what happens. Maybe it’s a good way to find new stuff, among many other ways."

Was there any particular act or maybe even a song that originally sparked your ideas?
"No, we didn’t start from something we had in common. We just played music together, showing the other what was in our minds by making stuff instead of talking. It took a very long time for us to speak about our different infuences. Actually we did it mainly for interviews."

You are currently warming up for the release of your debut album, what can we expect from it? What can you tell us about it at this point?
"We see this first album as a base of our work. Years have passed sinced our first experiences, so we felt we had to grow up by opening many different doors and see what was behind them. We didn’t want to get stucked in some stuff we made before, considering that the first EP was just early experiences we had to overpass. So we tried many different ways of making music together. This album is keeping what we consider to be our best attempts of trying new stuff. But in fact it is not absolutly different from our previous work, because it is us, and because we decided to use the same instruments – we just added a few."

“Fangs Out” came out earlier this year as a a huge exciting chunk of unapologetic experimental electro. Does this give us a good idea of what is to come?
"The album is made of tracks that don’t really resemble each other. So there is no other track like 'Fangs Out' in it. Some are in that kind of vibe though, while some others are very different because they don’t come from the same emotion, they don’t wanna tell the same things. I think we experienced a lot of different emotions, different states of mind in the period we made the album. Like any human being, our moods were changing fast, and we were learning new stuff everyday, so the different tracks of the album are reflecting that changes, I think."

There’s definitely a darkness that floats through the track, and the video broods on dystopian and surreal images. Could you explain more about where these ideas came from and where there any other messages you were trying to put across with this body of work?
"At the time we composed 'Fangs Out', we were both feeling anger. I think we were attempting to reach some kind of sad violence in this track. But then, with time, it evolved in something that also talked about stuff we feel close to, like identity and physical distortions. 'Fangs Out' is a good bad trip, an excitement and a fear about becoming something different from what you think you are."

Has your attitude to making music changed in any way?
"I think it did not change that deeply : we still make music very empirically, making sounds before making ideas. But I think and hope that we got closer to each other musically. These sounds and ideas are easier to construct for us, I think we just grew up."

Are any artists really exciting you right now?
"Osamu Sato."

When will you next be back in the UK?
"We don’t exactly know yet, but soon ! We look forward to come."