ARTIST OF THE MOMENT: Margaux Gazur
What if music wasn’t only something we listened to, but a way of connecting fragments of memory with what hasn’t happened yet? What if patience and play, experimentation and softness, were the real instruments?
That’s where Margaux Gazur lives. A French-Vietnamese sound artist and multi-instrumentalist based in Berlin, her work draws from electronic music, musique concrète, classical, and experimental jazz. She folds together acoustic instruments, field recordings, and even everyday objects, creating soundscapes that are textured, intimate, and surprisingly light. Often, she stretches her practice into other disciplines, shaping abstract sensory experiences that feel both fragile and expansive.
I first discovered Margaux years ago as a DJ. Later, at Mostra on a Friday morning, I listened as her electroacoustic world came alive—glass instruments resonating alongside looped guitars, filling the room with patience instead of urgency. Seeing her live set unfold in such a natural way filled me with so much joy that I knew I wanted to have this conversation.
Her debut album, Blurred Memories, released on Smallville earlier this year, carries the same quality: the weight of years of work, and yet an effortless approachability. Substantial, but never heavy. That’s the world we’re stepping into with this interview.
Photo by Henry Schultz
Hi Margaux, beautiful that we get to do this interview now. I saw you last time at the La Nature festival. How was your summer, and what were the high and lowlights?
Hey Theresa, the summer is going really well, nice holidays with friends and family, beautiful gigs, and lots of nature! I hope yours was great too! La Nature was such a nice festival, for the music, the people, and the woods. Definitely one of the highlights of the summer.
Smallville's 20th anniversary parties were also very special. It was my first time playing in a club after a year. I was focusing more on concerts and festivals, but it gave me a really nice feeling that electro-acoustic music could fit in this context, too.
Peradam was probably the most special moment of the summer; it’s an ambient festival in the mountains of Switzerland. The landscape is incredible, the music is beautiful, and with such a nice community. My friend Laura Fiore was playing before me, and after me was my friend Hey Yun Kim. It felt so special to play all after each other in this magical place.
The lowlights would be my wisdom teeth removal, but other than that, it's been just amazing :)
When we caught up just before your live set at La Nature, you mentioned that your music is not “per se” dance music. Can you share a bit more about that?
I am doing electro-acoustic music; I play with different instruments, objects, sounds, recordings, and so on, using several loopers and effect pedals. I want to create textures, patterns, and sounds with things you can touch and see, things that are around us. Most of all, I want to be free in my music, no genres. I like it when people can define my music completely differently; some will hear ambient, others jazz, and others deep house.
Do you ever think about who your music is for or what it should evoke, depending on the setting, or is that something you let go of completely?
I don't think about this; I never really have an idea of what I want to create, who it should be for, or what the meaning should be. I just follow my inspiration of the moment, often starting from a personal memory or feeling, this emotion will lead the composition and gives a sense to my music.
You were mainly performing DJ sets, while you were producing already for quite some years, and you are a trained musician, too. What has led you to now focus on live performances at this time? Was there an “ aha- moment" of some sort?
I always wanted to play live, but I'm not a geek, and it looked so crazy to me that I wasn’t even sure I would even be able to do it! I felt like I was not an outstanding piano player either, and I thought I would need to master an instrument to be an interesting artist. I like to try different things, and I don't necessarily have the will to go very deep to master what I'm doing. Somehow, I turned this into my way of making music, trying out things without thinking of the technical aspects and just focusing on the sound.
The first time I played live, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it just felt right! I felt better than I’ve ever felt as a DJ, so I decided to only do this. It gives me unlimited creative freedom, and that is what feeds me.
Next to your performances, you also host workshops. Participants are invited to explore their sonic surroundings differently. How do you experience the participants in such workshops?
I try to engage participants with their surroundings to be more aware and curious about our daily sounds. I bring different types of microphones and recorders that capture quiet sounds, vibrations, faraway sounds, and more. They are free to explore the area with those. It becomes a playful sensory experience, touching, hitting, and moving to create different sounds and textures, paying more attention to small sounds or being able to isolate a sound in a noisy area.
That sounds great. Let’s stick to the equipment for a sec. You’ve phased out laptops in favor of loopers, acoustic gear, and field recordings. Can you pick one incident, maybe a mistake or a happy accident, that turned into a golden moment in your setup?
This happens very often, but actually two days ago, I was setting up for a performance, and when I turned on the equipment, some of my gears were set differently than I usually would, and it sounded really good! So I wrote down the setting, hoping I could recreate it. Also, a few years ago, I recorded my little sisters playing in the living room, just made a collage of the recordings, and while I was adding each recording, I thought it sounded so nice. Today it’s one of my unreleased tracks that I like the most!
Is there a piece of gear, instrument, or plugin you feel almost emotionally attached to? Like an extension of your voice?
It is difficult to choose one as they are complementary, but I guess the most interesting one on its own is Cosmos from Soma. It is a ‘drifting memory station’: a looper with a delay, creating very interesting and unexpected patterns. It is also one of the first pieces of gear I bought. At the beginning, I thought it sounded a bit too crazy, but after some time, I found my way to use it and I have loved it since.
Photo by Elisa Cucinelli
Your love for different sound sources is palpable - very natural & traditional sources, such as making small glass sounds. It was really beautiful to witness that at the Mostra Festival, where you did an ambient set. I'd love to hear more about your artistic process in general.
Yes, I love experimenting with different materials, especially glass, metal, and wood. It all started with using traditional instruments, martial art weapons of my dad, and sounds from the streets in Hanoi. I wanted to have a larger range of sounds and be able to create with what was around me. I realised I could create so much with what was in my flat. I spent a lot of time in my kitchen, moving stuff around, hitting things against each other. I loved the sounds of it, as I think it reminded me a lot of my mom. She always spends hours in the kitchen cooking, and I've always loved hearing the sounds she was making, moving pots and stuff from my room. It gives me warm, intimate, and safe feelings. I made lots of containers with ingredients, I use utensils, and I also like to use a snail cutlery set that a friend offered me because I loved snails as a child! It has such nice sounds, and it is also quite funny. Last Christmas, when I was at my mom’s, I found a wooden frog I got from my first trip to Vietnam when I was 7; now it is in almost all my performances. I like sounds that are linked to memories.
How did that come to life for your debut album, “Blurred Memories,” which was released through Smallville this year?
It was a long process. Around ten years ago, I recorded a lot of sounds in Hanoi as a sonic memory and the sounds of martial arts for my dad’s video. I liked the sounds of those recordings and wanted to use them in my music productions. “Agata” was the first track I made like that. I only used those recordings and the voice of my friend Agathe; after that, I only made music with this approach. I felt it made my music much more personal and full of memories.
For me, each track was telling a complementary story and would need to all be released together to make sense. It was telling stories of a time in Hanoi that feels like a past life now. I let those tracks sleep for a long time; I was not sure if they were good enough, and a few years ago, I thought it would be a shame not to do anything with them, as they are special to me. I kind of wanted to close a chapter by releasing the album. I am very happy that it spoke to people that I shared a part of life in Vietnam with, but also to people I don't know and can still travel through the music. I am very thankful that Smallville welcomed this album so well.
What’s the next chapter for you -musically or otherwise? Are there new formats, collaborations, or ideas you're hungry to explore?
I am incorporating new instruments; I am in constant search for new sounds and textures in my compositions, which allows me to explore musical directions and create new stories and emotions. I'm working on some collaborations with musicians, and there is a project in particular that I hope to develop more. Hyo Jin Shin is an amazing percussionist; she plays traditional Korean drums. I feel our approach to music is very similar; we are coming from two different asian countries with our own stories, but we both use music as a way to connect to our origins.