The atmospheric flush of vintage production is met by enigmatic synth lines and warm, cinematic pads. Golden Age Of Dereliction is the latest album by Hidden Rivers. Read our discussion with the artist below!
Describe your sound in three words
Nighttime somewhere alone
Tell us a few things about your upcoming work. What is the main idea behind it?
It’s a collection of tracks that I’ve been working on over the last few years. I always have a lot of things in progress at one time, and I pick up different things at different times. So it could be that some tracks were started five or six years ago then picked up more recently to be refined, taken apart or used as the basis of something else. Working over long periods like this helps me to gauge the direction I want to take my music, I never delete anything, so I have this large collection of sketches and unfinished pieces I can turn to for inspiration.
The idea for this album was to try and incorporate more influences from the kind of music I was listening to in 90s and early 00s. I was really into underground dance music at this time, whether it was breaks oriented dnb/jungle or detroit techno or whatever, I feel like this was a really special time. I wanted to bring some of this feeling to the music, because I think this was the most inspiring time for me as a music listener and I still love a lot of those productions. The important thing to remember is that I’m not trying to recreate those sounds or make genre specific music though, what I want is to just allow all these influences to come out in a subconscious way, not to think about it too much and to just follow what feels right. I know it’s going well when I feel those emotions I felt when connecting with music so deeply back then.
You release your music exclusively on your own netlabel since 2005, Serein. What are the advantages/disadvantages from such an artistic decision?
The advantages are that I’ve built up a great audience, so I know people will take notice when I put out a new release. I also have full control over what’s said, how the music is presented and so on. The downsides are that this can get a little bit like an echo chamber – it’s me doing everything so it can get a little claustrophobic if that makes sense. I would like to release on other labels, it would be good to mix it up a bit.
If you had to choose one Synthesizer (analog or digital) which one would it be?
That is really tough, but I’d definitely choose something versatile if I could only have one. Probably something software based, the one that comes to mind is Diva made by U-He. It’s an analog modelling synth with a semi modular architecture, so you can swap out filters, oscillators and envelopes based on different classic synths (think classic Roland, Moog, Korg, Oberheim). As with all of U-he’s stuff, you can get pretty deep with it if you want too, so I think this would be my choice.
When it comes to live perfomance, realistically , is Electronika a genre that can be performed live? And what you be your dream performance venue?
I’m not really sure how I would perform my music live. Maybe if I had some time to think about it I could find a way to make it interesting, I mean, I think something visual alongside could really bring it to life, perhaps a collaboration with a visual artist to make it something really unique as opposed to just sweeping a filter occasionally!
Your sound has nostalgia elements. If a time machine could take you anywhere (past/future) for a day, when/where would you go?
It’s true, nostalgia is a really powerful motivator for me, but I also enjoy wondering about what music will sound like in the future, and especially what music might sound like now if modern music had branched off in another direction – this idea of sliding doors. I allude to this in the press release for the album; “This isn’t a one-dimensional tribute or celebration of music’s past, rather, an imagining of a present day offering in some alternate reality, where technological ideas and ideals branched off in another, slower motion direction on the cusp of the millennium.”
I think it would be interesting to see what my town would look and feel like in the near future, say 200 years from now. Would it feel like a linear development from now, a mix of old architecture alongside modern technology? Would it be in a state of advancement or of decay? Would the streets be busy or desserted? I’d love to experience these leaps, century by century if I could.
In which place or state of mind do you imagine people might listen to your music?
Somewhere where you can be alone, in peace, to just let it wash over you.
What is the story behind your name?
I really like that feeling when you’re out walking and you come across something, off the well worn paths, that feels like you’ve just discovered it for the first time. It’s a similar feeling I’m looking for in music, when I start the process of creating I am looking to discover or hear something in a new way. Sometimes just slowing down a sound can give it a totally different colour. So it’s a metaphor for the music taken from walks and just being lost in my own head, daydreaming.
We really liked the concept of FORECASTS. What would be your favorite mixtape so far (if any) listeners should definitely need to listen to?
Thanks. I can’t pick one, each has something special so I think the best thing would be to just choose one at random and start listening. The idea was to discover hidden (there’s that word again) gems from other peoples collections, so just dip in and see what grabs you.
Thank you!
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