Nite Kite is showcasing a genuinely atmospheric synthesis where haunting acoustic piano sounds meet steady electronic arpeggios. Welcome to the new world between neoclassical music and electronika. Read our discussion with the artist below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Melancholic, nostalgic, familiar
Balancing between acoustic and electronic sound, what comes first in your music? The melodic theme or the atmosphere?
My creativity is triggered by a combination of an alienating mood and the instrument I am messing around with at the moment of that mood. If it is my upright piano, a more structured melody or chord sequence will arise, when I am behind my synths, a more vague and abstract atmosphere will be the start of a new composition. A lot of musical tampering happens before I will make a new song out of it. Often I do not keep new ideas/compositions, not because I don’t think the ideas are not valuable, but because I love the idea of volatile creativity.
What made you gravitate towards electronika?
I got an abandoned MIDI-keyboard from an ex-girlfriend when I was seventeen. Not knowing what I could do with it, I connected it to my computer and discovered software synthesizers and Ableton Live. Although this was the start, it still took a few years before I developed a strong love for electronic sounds and music. Together with a natural attraction to acoustical instruments, a harmonious symbiosis between electronic music and acoustic music is what gets to me.
Favourite pianist?
Tord Gustavson. There is something modest, almost apologising to his playing that adorns a musician or person.
If you had to choose one Synthesizer (analog or digital) which one would it be?
If would say my Fender Rhodes, but it’s not really a synth, so for a synth my Moog Mother 32, it was my first analog synth. And although you think you know it inside out, the semi-modularity and versatile sequencer allows to discover completely new worlds with this little (literally) friend and still surprises me after all there years. Like many Moog synths it nicely interacts with acoustical instruments, when using it as a subtle element, but still when you exaggerated the sounds, it will still blend with acoustical instruments..
If the music of Nite Kite was a film, which film would that be?
Particularly hard question this one. I would say a Yorgos Lanthimos movie like The Lobster or Dog Tooth. Or The Man Who Wasn’t there from the Coen Brothers. Or Le Samurai from Jean-Pierre Melville. Movies which feel familiar but alienating at the same time, not really sure if it’s the future or the past, melancholy and nostalgia are always present.
How do you relate to the music scene of Brussels?
I have an infinite love for Brussels, but it’s not a given. Its beauty is hidden and it takes time and effort to develop a connection to the ways of this city, and to the music scene. After having left for six years, I’m quit distant from what happens here, but it’s slowly growing again. The ambiguity and stratification of this city (I can go on for hours about this topic :-)) has a strong influence on me as a person and how I make music though.
Listening to your music we are left with an aftertaste of sweet melancholia. We are wondering where do you draw your inspirations from and also what makes you happy and keeps you going in the day to day life?
Through travelling, education, many interesting encounters I found a lot of beauty in life. I learned to appreciate beauty in life in simple ways; by having a forest walk with a good friend on an autumn day, by meandering through my own neighbourhood, by missing the train in a god forgotten town, by meeting a beautiful stranger in the park. And with a simple and open approach to life, every day has surprises to offer. And I will challenge life and myself and do things to be surprised regularly; actually talking to strangers, walk for hours in the city without goal, go across Europe by bike. In this world however, where everything goes very fast and consumption, materialism and competition are omnipresent, my pleasant approach to life seems to cause feelings of nostalgia and melancholy within me, but I actually embrace them gladly !
Thank you!
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