Abstract

Interactions between music and a listener are always mediated. One of the most important channels of mediation is the persona. While different notions of the persona have been explored and problematized with respect to both classical and popular vocal music, studies on instrumental personae have been few and far between. This chapter focuses on French retrowave artist Carpenter Brut and breaks down representative tracks from his back catalogue in order to uncover the various methods used to construct his instrumental synthwave persona, at both the compositional and sonic levels. I develop a figure/environment approach that draws parallels between popular music and film in order to establish a working model of instrumental personae that takes into account not only the main persona of the music-maker, but also the distinct personae that each instrument creates on a track.