Ashtech Interview

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1) Which artists were your biggest inspirations?

I listened to a lot of music genres and countless artists since I was very young. I have been inspired by many artists, but not one in particular.

2) Cheshire Cat (Leftfield/Red Seal) m.c.’d on some of the tracks on Walking Target. Did you work on the vocals together or did he have a free reign?

Cheshire Cat wrote all the lyrics. He is not just a singer or an mc he is a great writer, after all that's his job.


3) Which do prefer playing the bass with Ashtech as a live group or the versatility of Ashtech dj sets?

I like to do both sets and I love the contact with the people. Of course when I play and I see people dancing at my own music, that's always a strong feeling.


4) You have shared the stage with famous artists like Tricky, Groove Armada and The Wailers. Which of the artists you’ve met so far did you most want to meet and why?

I did not have one artist in particular that I wanted to meet, I have been playing live since I was a teenager and It has been an honor to share the stage with each one of the artists I've met.

5) Are there any live shows in the near future?

I just finished my tour and right now I am starting to work on my next album. stay tuned!

6) For those unfamiliar with your music where can they hear your work?

download and physical are available via all major services worldwide, you can visit me at my web-site (see above) or on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/ashtechmusic

Swati Natekar Interview

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1. When did you first become involved in music and who were your greatest influences?

To be honest, I didn’t even realize when I got into music. Born & brought up into a musical family, I studied music from my mother Dr. Sushila Pohankar, who herself was a musicologist & PhD in Indian Classical & Folk Music. I remember giving my first stage performance when I was 10. Because of my mother, lots of famous artists used to visit us, stay with us & perform at our place, which influenced me a lot. Also since childhood, I used to listen to lot of old records collected by my parents. Even today, those recording are still fresh in my memory! Without knowing, music became my life.

2. You have worked with many established artists, who did you enjoy working with most?

Really can’t mention one name (sorry, not trying to be politically correct!), as I had the opportunity to work with so many great artists! My first recording in UK was with Ustad Zakir Hussain, one of the greatest Tabla players. As the track was already filmed, to fit in free flowing Indian Classical melody on top of it was a real challenge! But I loved doing that. With Nitin Sawhney, I got to create Nadia & Beyond skin, which was fantastic. After recording the track ‘Miracle’ with Craig Armstrong, I got the opportunity to perform live with him alongside a 60 piece orchestra at the Barbican, as well as in Paris & Brussels. While recording ‘Jakatta – American Dream’, I hardly ever thought that one day this track would reach No#3 in the UK charts.

3. As well as working with Indian Classical music and Spiritual World/Lounge fusions you also perform Ghazals. My understanding is this is a form of Arabic poetry that spread into India. Could you explain more for the readers who are a novice when it comes to forms of Asian music?

Ghazal is a poetry which can be written in Arabic, Persian or Urdu. It has got couplets and each couplet can be based on different subject. It’s a form of Light music. I have been singing Urdu ghazals since the age of 15. I had so much passionate about Ghazals, that although it’s not my language, I learnt to sing by myself. In ghazals, Urdu diction and expression is extremely important. Both my Ghazal albums ‘Dhanak – The Rainbow’ and ‘Anjuman’ are the results of my love for Ghazals.

4. Where can people hear your music and do you have any live shows in the near future?

People can log on to www.myspace.com/swatinatekar, where they can listen to my latest tracks, as well as they can buy my albums there.

Classical listeners can log on to www.myspace.com/swatiraaga

Where as Ghazal lovers can listen to the clips from my albums on www.myspace.com/harmonycreationsltd

Some of my music performances and TV interviews can also be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/ by searching on the term “Swati Natekar”

Currently, I am promoting my latest Fusion album ‘Destiny Chakra’ along with my talented team of musicians & singers. This tour has been supported by the Arts Council of England & Wales and for that, I can not thank them enough! We started this tour by performing at Purcell Room, Southbank for Asian Music Circuit, followed by a performance at London Mela 2009, which was a great success!

Our next concert will be on the 29th September, when we are opening the season at the recently refurbished popula venue ‘Band on the Wall’ in Manchester, where we will be performing tracks live from ‘Destiny Chakra’. http://bandonthewall.org/events/2557/

Also, we have a forthcoming show on the 6th November at Cramphorn Theatre, Chelmsford, where I will be presenting a show Raga2Destiny – Passage to India, which will be a journey of Indian Music starting from Classical, through Thumree, Ghazals, Bollywood, ending towards Fusion, the latest popular trend in India. http://www.gdspromotions.com/

5. Living in London has obviously broadened your musical outlook and influenced your work to some degree. I guess some traditionalists would see that as a distraction from the study of the classical form. Would you agree?

I strongly feel that first, one needs to be trained properly. Your Guru gives you the vision, which helps you to study further on your own. At that stage, I don’t think it will make much difference by living anywhere in the world. In fact these days, as there are various avenues available to listen to music at your own convenience while sitting at home, if one has determination, one can certainly progress. Probably this is why we don’t value the knowledge available to us the way our previous generation did! Talking about the determination, I must mention about one of my students, who has continued with the music lessons through skype after she had to shift to New York and I am quite proud to say that she is doing very well. In fact, just couple of months ago, when my students held a function where they all had to perform, she gave her first skype performance.

For me, living in London has played a major role in my life and music. All these years, I silently worked on the knowledge passed by my mum and also tried to create my individual musical personality. At the same time, London has given me a wider perspective, a great vision, an opportunity to listen to different styles of music & also to collaborate with them. I owe a lot to this place. Without London being part of my life, you wouldn’t have seen the same Swati Natekar.

6. Which artists are exciting you at the moment?

Every day is different for me. I enjoy listening to different genres all the time. One day, I listen to famous Classical artist Ustad Amir Khan, Rashid Khan or my renowned elder brother Pt. Ajay Pohankar. On another day, I enjoy listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s quawwali. Next day I would listen to Ghazal Maestro Mehdi Hassan or Ghulam Ali. Many times I listen to Fusion albums. Artists like Hariharan, Niladri Kumar, Mekaal Hasan inspire me a lot. I also enjoy listening to Coldplay, Zoe Rahman & Jamie Cullum.

Perpetual Loop Interview

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Perpetual Loop a.k.a. Charles Massey from Manchester. Charles is an artist who fuses ethnic, balearic, ambient, breakz and soundscapes which have appeared on compiliations and has just completed his second album. You can also catch Perpetual loop live p.a.'s and d.j. sets at various festivals and club chillout areas.

1. You used to run a promotion in Liverpool playing house, progressive & trance. Which artistsinfluenced you to work in the ambient genre?

I've always loved ambient / chill out music, I'm a huge fan of Vangelis. Voices is one of my all time favourite albums. Other people include Simon Posford, his production style is amazing. Shpongle, Celtic Cross, Younger Brother, you can always recognise his work. I love cinematic music as well, Cliff Martinez and Clint Mansell to name a few. I actually stumbled into the ambient genre when sending of 4 track demo to record labels (three upbeat and one slow). It was the slow track that caught the eye of Organic Records.

2. In 2004 along with veterans Michael Dog (Megadog/Pushmipulyu) and Joie Hinton (Ozrics/Eat Static) you appeared on the Rumour Records release “Gateway to the Sun”. What did you learn from this experience?

To be honest I was not involved in compiling the actual release, that was more down to Chris Organic and Om Records. I was just lucky enough to be included in the release with the slow track mentioned above.

3. Where can people hear your music?

Well there's Myspace and SoundSauce. There's links to these sites on my own website http://www.perpetualloop.co.uk/ . I've recently put up on my site some DJ sets I've done, as well as few recent live performances. I'm a resident DJ at Fluid radio so mixes are sometimes played there, as well as Last FM. Of course there is also sunisshiningdubnchill.blogspot.com now. :-) I've had tracks released on Compilations such as Gateway to the Sun, Psymeditation I and Psymeditation II, as well as my own album called "Universal Flow". I've also recently started to play live PA sets and are always on the look out for more places to play. I love playing live! It's a real buzz. I've play downbeat as well as upbeat chilled sets depending on the venue. To date I've played a few festivals (Offworld and waveform) as well as Inspiral Lounge (Camden) and a few times at Tribe of Frog (Bristol). My music is pitched as "psy-chill" but I think it's much wider than that and therefore I'm trying to play at a wider range of venues. I'd love to get out to Ibiza and do a few gigs there, but then again I'm sure alot of people are thinking exactly the same thing.

4. You’re currently working on a new album. Is there any new hardware or software you’re using on the project which excites you?

Well the album (Catching Zinc) is now finished, and should be getting released later this year. I actually made the decision to remove most of the my hardware from my set up. I use to have a 48 track desk, with several effect units, and a Super Bass Station, Emu Orbit and a Supernova (which I loved). Anyway most things these days can be done in Plug-in form like the Novation v-station being a softsynth of the supernova, so I sold it all. That way I have studio at home with a hefty computer, but also I can replicate the same set up on my Laptop and take that with me. What excited me the most was probably the Thor inclusion into Reason. An amazing peace of equipment. Cakewalk's Rapture is also pretty impressive. The first album was very much sample based from Reason, where this one was much more instrument driven and loads and loads of plugins over everything. I got to grip more with the production side things with this release as well and Wavelab has to be my choice for that.

5. You’re classically trained on both the cello and piano and havewritten film soundtracks. Which do you find more challenging playingas part of an orchestra or creating someone’s vision employing thecomputer as your orchestra?

That's a really cool question. Definitely the latter,as you are responsible for all the instruments and how they sit with each other, and not just one. I played the cello when I was younger and one thing that frustrated me at the time about it was that generally to play any peace of music you would need the rest of the orchestra with you. You were part of it which was great, but practicing was a bit isolated. Then I moved to the piano, basically because you can play the whole peace of music on your own with out the dependency being there. Now with computers you have the best of both words. You create the entire peace of music on your own but with the backing of 30 - 40 virtual players. Technology has really opened up the possibilities.

6. Which artists impress you at the moment?

I'm really loving the internet. It opens up your access to artists that the you would never encounter in the conventional music store. I use music-map.com allot of the time to find new artists that sound like artists I already know and like. Currently, I still love Shpongle and younger brother. Other artists are Phutureprimitive, Ted Madison, Ulrich Schnauss, Eat Static, Enoch Prusak , Chime, Snakestyle, OmniMotion and Lunar Sound, to name a view!

Mystical Sun Interview

Click the title to download a Mystical Sun podcast for Ambient : Emissions of Sonic Beauty.

Mystical Sun is an aloof ambient project from California in the United States. His releases utilize both organic and synthetic elements as well as using custom built instruments to create an ethereal exploration into sound.

Q: How significant is heliolatry in choosing the name Mystical Sun and how does this reflect the music that you’re producing?

It plays a part on multiple levels. There are several layers of meaning in the name. In studying and reading about other cultures, particularly ancient ones, the Sun has always been central. You can find winged sun discs all the way from Egypt to pre-Columbian Americas. The physical Sun is something phenomenal. There would be no us without Sun, this is all possible because of it. The name is and homage to that as well.


Another meaning for the name is more akin to the spirit of the Sun as a being, entity or life-form. Somehow our brains are networked to the Sun and in the future I think we will discover that the magnetic fields produced by the Sun have effects on human consciousness.


Hopefully the music functions like the Sun and brings people some electromagnetic nourishment.


Q: When did you first start creating music and when did you find yourself drawn towards the ambient genre?

A: Creating music is something I've seriously explored since the early 90's when the project was intentionally formed to create this type of sound.


The mission began before I was aware of the genre. It began when electronic music was more underground and less infected by pop music culture. Creating cinematic soundtracks, atmospheric worlds, and dissolving time is the mission.


Q: For people visiting California are there any festivals or clubs you would recommend?

California has festivals and clubs of all kinds and many active scenes. There is the annual Earthdance Festival and several others that happen at various times around the year. Northern and Southern California are very different and sport alternative scenes. If someone is visiting California they'll have plenty of options. I tend remain peripheral to all this activity.


The best part about California though is the land itself. California has amazing terrains to explore like a multitude of beaches, deep ocean coastlines, high deserts, sand dunes, the lowest place in the northern hemisphere, alpine lakes, rolling grasslands with dotted oaks, ancient boreal rain forests, the oldest and biggest living life-forms on Earth, lava beds, several mountain ranges, inland seas, a 14,000 ft. volcano and sister volcanoes of immense power, a mega volcano and forest river systems. To fully explore all the terrains in California would take someone several decades.


Q: When creating music what do you prefer using most hardware, software or organic instruments?


All three. My criteria is the sound first, the source of the sound isn't as important as to whether or not the sound is what the track needs. I have several acoustic, ethnic and electronic instruments and a vast sound library that I have been building up since the 90's. I mix everything "in the box" now, in the past I had an elaborate mixer/effects rig analog tape based studio. I prefer to work digitally now because it allows for maximum flexibility and the option to evolve tracks over years with no sound degradation. When I work on a track, I hear the instruments and sounds in it, before they are actually added, so my task is to find the closest sound to what I am hearing in my mind.

Q: Where can people unfamiliar with Mystical Sun hear your music?


On the internet. This music difficult to find so the best way to find it is online. The internet really helped early on, because it enabled the music to reach the distant sets of listeners who are looking for something different.

The best and prescribed way to listen to the albums is on CD or in lossless format digitally. There are settings that work best. Like a sunset ride, drive some place cool during a sunset and start the CD. Space exploring, wait until late at night, wear a full set of headphones and listen. In the background, just put the music on all day long and ignore it. I've designed utility in there intentionally.


I'd like to get across to new listeners that the music is non-linear and moves through time in a different way than other music. A different way of listening opens many doors to understanding the tracks. The tracks are growers meaning, they make more sense over time.


Q: Apart from Mystical Sun are there any other projects you’re involved in?


Not right now, Mystical Sun is all I have time for.

With the longest solar eclipse due in 2009 there are various festivals running this theme. For those with a deeper interest there is this DVD from the Exploratorium & NASA. The soundtrack is by Mystical Sun

http://www.ideum.com/portfolio/total_eclipse

Tatva Kundalini talks about Chill Om

Press the title above for a link to download a mix from Tatva Kundalini

THE IDEA BEHIND CHILL OM:

Chill Om started basically because of the frustration that I was facing a couple of years back to produce, release and promote the sound that I wanted to specialise in. The movement started 8-9 years back when I was producing music and a lot of indian major record labels ruled the music scene in the country and of course there was no space for independent music back then. Also, the majors had absolutely no idea about the global new age independent music industry that had already been existing in the worldwide scenario...the indian majors as I mentioned above were far behind in there strategies to promote new music and were not supporting good music..it seemed their final aim was to only make money...in chill om records perspective, of course money is important but not the most important thing. So basically, there was no outlet back then which could really do justice to the music and the existing labels. They were giving most of the independent artistes a tough time, so I guess as an artiste I took it upon my head to initiate Chill Om records and help support independent talent and here we are today...one of India's top independent record label promoting, producing and releasing music from great global music architects from around the world.

THE JOURNEY:

The journey for sure has been very adventurous. Considering the fact that when we started the only thing we had were lots of positive energy, passion, good music, exactly 100 dollars and a lot of support from fellow artistes who are now exclusive Chill Om records artistes...Over the past couple of years, artistes and all the crew members have made it possible for us to sustain what Chill Om intended to do and be strong and keep it going...its a label for the artistes, by the artistes and of the artistes.

INFLUENCES:

Lots and lots, life, struggle, hardships, my dogs, sepultura, slayer, massive attack, bjork, state of bengal, skazi, aluna, aerospace, vaishyas...the list goes on.....

INITIAL DAYS AND STRUGGLE:

No regrets at all..the struggle as I mentioned was of course there..but all of us have to sometimes realise that we all are born rich... you get successful in real life, when u get successful in your head...its simple...life is beautiful and simple..may god give more power to all the souls...hari om!

CURRENT GIGS:

All over india, dubai next week, then a russian tour in early june...full power full on!

JACK AND JILL:

Jack and Jill is Tatva Kundalini's next full length completely progressive record. The record is up for release in the month of July. There is going to be an all india pre-release tour for the same. I think after all the successful releases on Chill Om such as Azaad-e, the internationally acclaimed Swaraaj, the Indian Electronic Café comps, Jack and Jill for sure comes as a full live dance record that is going to establish the Indian dance movement worldwide...may the revolution keep sinkin deeper and deeper...

Hari om

Tatva Kundalini

http://www.myspace.com/tatvaindia

http://www.myspace.com/chillomrecords

A.I.A. Interview

A.I.A or Ambient Intelligence Application is a new upcoming ambient, down-tempo group from Greece who are trying to explore some new atmospheric paths...this group consists mostly from two brothers (writing, producing ,djing,...) I spoke to Konstantinos one half of A.I.A. about the project.

1. Which artists inspired you most to work in the ambient genre?

We could say, that some of the artists inspired us are Robert Rich, Jean Michelle Jarre, Vangelis Pathanasiou, Brian Eno, Ian Boddy.The sound from these artists was the first feeling, which took us inside the world of ambient.It’s difficult to say and stop only on these artists, being an influence to us. Influence is all things and all situations around us. So we would say, influence is a whole mixture of situations, feelings, nature and music and not only some certain artists.

2. For readers visiting Athens which clubs or festivals would you recommend?

To be honest there are no clubs focused on chill-out, ambient music in Athens.
Only some production teams are organizing some events where well-known artists are invited to perform live or dj’ing. There are some teams like: Art Ubber Ales, Organic Dream which try to keep the chill-out spirit alive. Regarding festivals it is a big story. After the legendary festivals in Samothraki Island, many organization teams start making efforts for similar festivals. We would like also mention the Aurora team which tries to help the Greek scene. Another festival is Mafia island fest, organized by the same people who organized the legendary Samothraki dance festivals. Unfortunately this festival is in Africa miles away from Greece. We wish them good luck with this.

3. You released your debut album "Physical Moments" on Ajana records in 2009. Could you tell us more about the album?

Well the shared vision and the basic idea of forming came to us on Samothraki Island in the year 2005. Where we performed as chill-out dj's (and not with the name A.I.A). As a part of the dj sets we used live compositions. Our audience enjoyed it and that was the beginning for creating the album “Physical Moments”. Our common vision is to create new sounds that could be listened to at home as well as a festival. It’s a mixture of sounds created and recorded live in a dj set.

4. Which artists currently impress you?

It is impossible to name the entire artists that impress us. We have a large collection from all kind of music. We can name few: Desiderii Marginis, Subheim, Field Rotation, Mike Sheridan, Bersian Quartet, Half Dub Theory, Somnia records, Ultimae records, Younger Brother, Shpongle, Kaya Project, Makyo, Niyaz and many more….  Also, some post alternative rock and ethnic sounds pass through our headphones.

5. Are there any plans to take A.I.A. on tour in the future?

Yes there are plans to take A.I.A on tour and we hope to participate in festivals during summer 2010 as a dj & live act. Nothing yet is confirmed. We still try to focus on preparing the live performance to be sure 100%, continuing to add to our studio set-up to make new tracks and more interesting sounds.

6. Where can readers unfamiliar with A.I.A. hear your music?

In a few months the official A.I.A. site will be uploaded. On there, our fans will be able to listen to new tracks, re-mixes and dj sets. Until then, our home is on Ajana records web-site and our Myspace profile (click the header to go there).

Filthy Kicks Interview

1) Your sound is a mash up of rap, breaks, drum n bass, synths, drums, gypsy violin & alluring female vocals. Collectively do you share a passion for all of these genres? Or are you gelling each others tastes to form the finished product?

I think it’s more of the latter. We all have a hugely varying taste in music. Personally I (Darren – synth / programming) listen to a lot of drum and bass and hip hop, but I grew up on 60s music, studied classical guitar and soak up world music as well. Ibrahim (DJ / MC) DJs a lot of electro and breaks and the Beats Boy is a funk man. Roland has spent years recording film soundtracks and opera, Violeta studies classical violin and Jana is a classically trained vocalist who has a healthy respect for dirty beats and bass. This mix of styles and influences definitely contributes to the varied sound of the band.

2) Considering the multi-cultural society of Britain today and popular music like Reggae initially being brought over in the 60's by the Jamaican immigrants. Are you hoping to open the minds of the younger (or even older generations) who are unfamiliar or have limited knowledge of the Klezmer music sound?

I guess although that’s a part of what we do, we’re really just setting out to make music that people can dance to. Often with bands that set out to update ‘world music’, it seems the traditional aspect of the music comes first, with the modern styles coming almost as an afterthought. For a Filthy Kicks tune to work, we try to really make the styles blend - beats and dirty synths that you’d expect to hear in a club in 2009 as well as modal violin melodies. In many ways if we can make someone who already appreciates folk tunes dance like a maniac to dirty drum and bass, then I’d consider that more of a success.

3) You’re advertising yourselves as live group. So I guess you're using hardware rather than software, as well as many organic instruments. Are any of you classically trained? Or is it more a case of being self-taught on the synthetic/percussion and passed down from parent to sibling on the strings?

We actually combine hardware and software in our live performances. I think we’re up to a count of 3 Macs for the live set-up so far… But essentially we’re combining that sound with the liveness of the drums, violin and vocals. Plus everything is performed by us – there are no loops or samples in the backing. Two-thirds of the band have had formal classical training. I think that comes through most with Violeta (violin) and Jana (vocals) who have both been to music college. Ro and I have also had classical training, but when we’re making dirty squelch noises on a synth, it’s much more about simplicity and filth.

4) Are there any album releases or gigs planned for the near future?

We’re booking gigs all over London at the moment, and will be touring the rest of the country in a few months. The next gig date will be headlining a massive Club Neurotica Valentine’s party somewhere in London. The location is so secret even we don’t know where we’re playing yet… Check our Myspace page for details of tickets for that and future gigs. As regards the album, we’ve spent a few months writing and rehearsing, and yes, now it’s definitely time to get the album ready. No firm date yet, but we have the Crave EP on Myspace as a taster. We’re hoping to have another few tracks soon, and will let you know when the album’s ready to go.

5) Which artists are impressing you recently?

The Apples – crazy hip hop / funk / turntablist crew from NY and Tel Aviv
Mud Sun – UK / Canada hip hop collabo – conscious party music
Low – beautiful down-tempo soundscapes from the US
Chase and Status – D’n’b / dubstep with basslines to die for
SKC – Hungarian euphoric drum and bass producer
K’naan – Somalian rapper now in the US
Edit – Glitch hop with ridiculously filthy basslines
Plus old favourites like Portishead, Reprazent, Prodigy, Cinematic Orchestra, The Roots, and on and on and on

6) Which artists inspired you most in forming your sound?

I think it was people like Nitin Sawhney and Talvin Singh, and also Asian Dub Foundation I guess, who were pushing the boundaries of the Asian sounds. They showed people years ago that it was possible to fuse the old and the new in inspirational and dance-friendly ways. Other bands like Oi Va Voi have been an influence along the way. Really though the major influence has been live dance music – drum and bass, breaks, hip hop. Bands like London Electricity, The Cinematic Orchestra or The Bays, who have taken the dance music template and created something new and exciting in a live context.