It’s like we’ve been in the queue waiting and the door has quietly opened. We all wander in: it’s quiet and spacious and Ambient’s Not Dead is emanating from an unseen source, 360 degrees.
With Bop as – very quiet, very zen – host.
Hello how’s life, what are you doing?
Hey Damian, all’s fine, thank you. I’m in the studio at the moment writing these words and watching Deep Medi takeover on Boiler Room.
After that I think I will continue my work on a new collaboration with Sunchase and then make a mailout about pre-order of the first vinyl release of my own label Microfunk.
What have you seen this year that’s been amazing?
I revised my views on Ikea’s lamps this year, they’re pretty amazing
What music is inspiring you right now?
Some names from my playlist:
Oneohtrix Point Never
Nils Frahm
Converge
Lapalux
Billain
Gantz
Lorn
Fis
But I still found myself listening to D&B a lot. My priority is still Exit Records, Samurai Music, Critical Music.
Tell me when you set out working on this new album?
I was working on it last autumn/winter, this is the perfect mood for working on that kind of music especially if you live in quite cold climate.
How do you personally define ‘ambience’? I mean in the 90s it had this awful ‘chill out room’ rave connotation that really applied to anything with washes of synths/whale noises. It was a corruption.
For me it’s the music that consists of no or little drums and focus more on creating a mood than groove.
What are some words about the album, of ‘Golden Ratio’, of ‘Surf’? I love that title.
… of ‘No Way From Mars’?
The tunes are made from original songs from my last album Punk’s Not Dead.
I’ve stretched the tracks and made backgrounds from them, then it inspires me to play new harmonies over it and experiment with sound design a little bit.
The hardest thing for me was to keep it really minimal and don’t add too much instruments and details, because it could really distract the listener from the main vibe. I was totally focused on creating the flow and transmitting my autumn mood in this rework.
Sometimes I was finding myself sleeping at the computer and listening to one loop and this was a good signal to leave that one for the album.
You can also found that the titles of the tracks link back to the originals. For example ‘Golden Ratio’ was made from ‘Spiral’, ‘No Way To Mars’ is obviously from ‘One Way To Mars’ and so on..
… and what is the meaning of ‘Odd Meaning’?
The meaning of “Odd Meaning” is really odd, so I can’t tell you.
What are some favourite ambient moments ON non-‘ambient’ albums? Like Pink Floyd, Joy Division, Henry Rollins, Botch, Miles Davis… you know what I mean.
Yeah I’ve got what you mean, but can’t remember something really unexpected.
But I love when ambient thing follows and combines with strong electronic beats. Like in Squarepusher’s album Feed Me Weird Things, one of my favorite electronic albums.
Do you paint? Could you paint something and get as much happiness as you would from writing a tune?
I don’t paint, but lately started to draw some easy 8 bit animation… you can found it in the video for Oak’s tune ‘Imbecile’.
I also make some video editing from time to time, I love it but I can’t compare this with the music, it’s totally different thing.
Music is still number one for me.
Thanks.
Any time.
