Paul Mahoux has been played on NTS in shows including Danielle, featured first on 2 April 2024. Songs played include So(u)rcier and Cent Mille Ancêtres.

Most of the time, Paul Mahoux's music works like a micro eco-system, based on some kind of cannibalism between electric guitar and laptop computer. So… who eats who?

The computer feeds from one main raw audio material source: a very personal guitar sound and way of playing, that is either recorded, sampled, looped as it is, or transformed and processed beyond recognition. The guitar, like a virus, mutates and multiplies into the computer, bringing some organic and original qualities that would be almost impossible to imitate with other sound sources like synthesizers. How to sound like no one else…

Digital audio technology's radical audio manipulation tools and convenient ways of recording are the base of Paul's method. First, record and capture the magic of the moment by improvising, freely or around an idea. Then edit and arrange this "predated" material: cutting, repeating, looping, stretching, reversing, etc… A kind of perfect way of getting left and right brain to work in harmony, which is always a crucial problem when creating musing with a computer.

Another example of complementarity between instrument playing and computer processing is Paul Mahoux's live looping improvisation sets on guitar: how a very plain guitar sound will sound different just by being repeated and looped in real time, then mixed and stacked with more guitar, looped with the same process. The result is some very complex network of guitar stratas, with the earlier loops fading away subliminally as more guitar loops are being inserted. It then becomes a base for more live playing on top of it, and can also be manipulated in real time, muted, filtered, etc… in a more "turntablism" approach. This is great fun, for the performer and for the audience, and works very well for many styles: mysterious ambient, spacey funk, obsessive house.

Paul Mahoux was born in Paris, France in 1964. After a few years in New York City, he settled in Okinawa, a southern Japanese island. Into music since teenage years, he has a background of composing music for radio and tv documentaries, playing guitar in all kinds of bands, from freaked out jam sessions to African dance music, as well as with house or ambient DJs. His musical activities are now remixing (including some Okinawan traditional music), DJing, playing live looping sets on guitar and, of course, spending countless hours at home producing tracks or just exploring the endless world of sound. His most admired musician is the amazing American trumpeter, pioneer and visionary Jon Hassell.