AudioSyntax

13.01.2020

INTERVIEW

How was the approach to psychedelic trance?

At one point I discovered electronic music and I was amazed by the strange and alien sounds that could be produced and the feelings that resulted in exposure to it.

Moving to Berlin I listened to a lot of techno and I would say that this was the first moment of trance in music.

I think music in general can produce trance like states but i´d say there is some major genres that were and are used to produce trancendental states.

Actually at first I hated Psytrance but eventually there was a moment that flipped a switch.

I loved most of all the intros and breaks and its high intensity. In my ears there wasn't enough playing around with these in between states of break and track.

So my initial approach was just to find out how my imagined music would sound like and eventually how people would react to it.

Why is your project called AudioSyntax?

I have been fiddling around with music for a while since I found out a computer can produce sounds and somehow used this name somewhere.

I don't really recall its appearance. When it came to Techno and Psytrance I found it very fitting as those genres have a pretty defined syntax as an underlying structure,

So its somewhat logical I think.

How has the result of your project been since it began?

When I started I didn't mean to be a musician. I guess it turned me into one.

It was sort of a research for me still to find out how the things in head sound when I try to manifest them.

Also it led to more side projects. I felt like it could be confusing to be confronted with too many styles under the same name.

What are the influences of AudioSyntax?

I guess the biggest influences that are not so apparent are actually my parents as they are both musicians. Growing up I was constantly surrounded by music and musicians.

There was no electronic music, we never even really listened to the radio, but I believe it set a relationship and a feeling for sounds inside me.

Then secondly the hughe impression electronic music made on me. Firstly mostly Idm kind of things as I was really looking for abstract experiences.

So to name a few artist it was Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, Autechre, but other genres as well... there was Clouddead/THemselves, Amon Tobin, James holden, Thee more shallows, Brian Eno, Bach, Beethoven, Barrios, Arvo part, All kinds of music really.

there have been many others with not so big names but its a while back and I don't remember them unfortunately.

Another thing is a sensitivity to sound and Ambiences in general, I can get inspired by the beating frequencies of two ceiling Fans. Phase shifting of the patterned noises from running engines. But also imaganation alone, like what would things sound like that actually make no sounds, or are not audible to us. Feelings, Planets. Atoms. Molecules.

Last but not least There is also Psytrance involved. I really liked long sets like Psykovsky and Goa Gil are playing. I did a lot of learning by listening I guess so there is certainly some Dark whisper, Megalopsy, Kindzadza, Furious,.. the things I came first in contact with.

Recommend 5 psychedelic artists to readers, please

I want to say something before.

I think psychedelic ( as in revealing the soul, or maybe touching it ) is a subjective state of being, in this case triggered by music.

Ofcourse there are Artist affiliated with that Style of music but I suggest that good music in general has this effect.

This might seem obsolete but there are still people how don't know about aphex twin so:

1.Check out aphex twin ( maybe the druqs album as it has a wide variety on its two discs )

2.if you like hitech ? Try out listening to J.S.Bach violin partitas ( and compare the fast pacing violin to the fm lead on your favorite track )

3.Amon Tobin ( its like bathing in Sounds )

4.Burnt Friedman ( I've only discovered him myself but I think its very interesting )

5.Agustin Barrios Mangoré - ( confession) this is actually one of my all time favorite albums ( if classical music is not your thing try listening only to El ultimo tremolo and la Catedral )

How was the creation of the project AudioSyntax?

I was making techno music under that name, but when darkpsy hit me I just switched and started anew. But kept the name.

As I mentioned it was for my own sake at first.

What record labels do you belong to?

The first Label that showed interest was Jellyfish Frequencies from the US and also anomalistic records, my first releases came out there. Then Alice-D Records, since I became friends with Manuel Bellini, he also released my first Album.

When I started plying in India I got in Contact with Postmodern Music and also started working with them.

Lately I've started collaboration with Painted Chaos Project from Poland.

What artists have you collaborated with AudioSyntax?

I started getting into Darkpsy with Oroboro and at one point we created a Project called "Knusperjungs" but somehow there are no releases as of yet, but we have played gigs togehter.

At one Point Iranian Producer Sepehraka hit me up to collaborate and I really loved the samples he send me. It quickly turned into an Ep that we released on Alice-D records under the Pseudonyme of "Sephax" ( obeying to the trend that a new project is made up by merging the names of booth projects :-DD )

There was quite some jams here and there so I hope I am not forgetting anyone.

Oroboro, Mirror me, primitive sound, psykovsky, varazslo, Haemogoblin, Menterama, Saturnin, Nyctophungi, Hans Dunkelkammer, Merlin Genschel.

Most recently I've picked up collaboration with Kvnvndrum from the US, we actually formed a new project called "Cronos"

Tell us more about your series of 7 albums Xhakrik Rhizoma, please..

Xhakrik Rhizoma was an interesting experiment

I wanted to experiment with conceptual limitations, or to phrase it differently at this point I was interested in the effect that a pure overall tuning of a track would have.

So I thought I take these seven colors and make a track for each color and try to tune every element to the root note when possible.

The rot note was derived from taking the frequency length of the respective color and dividing it until it would appear in the audible spectrum.

In theory you can take all kinds of frequency for that. Things like that have been done before for example by Hans Cousto. He published a book about the subject Called

"Die kosmische Oktave" ( the cosmic octave) where he created some formulas to convert frequencys for musical application.

The experiment upscaled immensely when another thing came to my mind: that the beat, as it is periodically, can be treated like a frequency as well and could be tuned into resonance with the root note.

Just this left me with some BPM´s that wouldn't be in my typical BPM range and I would have to decide for a slower or a faster version.

So I thought why compromise and I took all bpms that seemed interesting to me, roughly in the spectrum between 20 and 250 bpm.

I remade all 7 tracks with the samples produced for the initial track of each color. So the ambience and tuning of that track was preserved but at each bpm unfolding a different story.

If we assume that these colors correspond to chakras and interact with them I thought of the varying speed as tools to, calm down the chakra, focus or balance the chakra, and stimulate and excite the chakra.

In theory this should leave you with a set of tools to apply in each moment to balance the overall being or proceed into experimenting with your desired energy.

However its still a subjective work of art and can be enjoyed plainly from its musical aspects without any esoterical notions.

One interesting thing that appeared is that each color series of tracks can be mixed seamlessly into each other as they are sharing the root note and matching bpms, despite their various styles.

If the question is asked like this i´d say that you ask yourself what place would you be like in the scene ?

If I take myself as an example I am basically just doing what I like and its a blessing that I seem to share that with a lot of people. But there was nothing to attain in the scene.

What I am trying to say is maybe just do your thing and you will create your place, eventually this place will be given to you.

Somehow you have to show your music around of course. In times of the internet we are kind of lucky because music finds its way to the people who want to listen to it.

Tell me about your 2 new albums, SIMPLEX & REDUX?

Simplex & redux was another conceptual approach

I still have a love for dark simple techno music and I tried to lean somehwhat into that genre by producing a series of tracks that use some of the characteristics of that style.

Like a quarter note base or in some cases even no base but a very long tailed kick with a side chained reverb.

And not too many changes.

When the first tracks were done I thought it was still way on the trance side of music. So I simplified the tracks further by taking out the typical fm leads and replacing them with more stable percussive grove patterns as they are common of techno music.

There was one funny saying that appeared in the discussion with other artists.

The difference between trance and techno is basically wether you use reverb or delay. Even though that's far too simple to explain the matter it holds some truth if you think about it.

I have another distinction that I like to make. If we take these styles of music as modes of meditation they each have their way working on the listener.

In techno there is a lot of space fir each sound and generally there are not so many sounds and no drastic changes. So this gives space to the listener to exist in this "emptiness".

Also the stable grove is like an ever repeating moment that actualizes just this simple present moment with each beat. It gives room to enter in this presence by submission into this

Eternal moment.

On the other hand trance has a characteristic of ever changing flow, rarely resting it always feeds new information to the brain. While there is of course music that makes use of booth elements especially the faster, darker and twisted styles have a tendency to over challenge the brain until it sort of breaks free from its urge to understand and follow, or anticipate each movement. This puts the brain into a transcendental state by almost bypassing all analyzing of information and just existing in this flow of momentary sound.