photo-in-deathdisco-summer-2016

Teo Tsalmpouris is an accomplished graphic designer and the mastermind behind the electronic/idm project Aevin. Before his 28th live appearance as support act to legendary Architect (Daniel Myer), at Death Disco, he was brave enough to chat with me til very late! The outcome? Proceed reading this one if you wanna know how on earth Plaid, Alexander Dietz, Initiative 2045 and…. “DOOM” relate to Aevin!  

So Teo, welcome to Last Day Deaf! Would you like to introduce Aevin project to our readers?

Hey Chris. Thanks for having me on Last Day Deaf. Aevin emerged as the need to wrap around a single word, the music I write. Genre wise, it sounds like electronica. Probably slipping on the dark side of things.

Your debut release ‘Demystification‘ was self-released back in 2014. Which were the main influences for this one? Music-wise and non music-wise?

I would have to admit that one of my main influences back then was Architect. Naturally, I’m greatly honored to share the stage with him on the upcoming live. It felt that there’s a story to tell in all of his tracks. Soundscapes which were very vivid and tangible. ‘Consume Adapt Create‘ was very inspiring and inspired. Totakeke was another artist who stood out in my playlists. His music motivated me to think outside of the box, try new things, don’t be scared of experimentation. Besides that, ‘Demystification‘ as the title suggests, was the process I put myself through to get out of the closet and share my music with the rest of the word. Each track was a parallel study of a musical idea; whether was sound design, ambience, irregular timing, and so forth.

Spot on! I was about to ask how you feel sharing the same stage at Death Disco with Daniel Myer on October 28th, but you were faster! In any case what should we expect from you that night?

I’d like to think that this is going to be the best Aevin gig yet. A lot of head-bagging, dancing and good vibes!

Looking forward to this one then! Going back to your discography, how did the cooperation for you 2nd album ‘The Aftermath‘ with the awesome German label RAUMKLANG MUSIC come to life?

The whole course of the Aevin project builds on little coincidences, or good timing if you will. I had attended the live of Architect – BasementgrrrZinovia at Death Disco (Athens). I wasn’t aware of Basementgrrr music back then; but I loved how it sounded. Also, it made a huge impression that Ralf (Basementgrrr) wasn’t using a computer laptop for his live gig. Everything about his setup was hardware based. So, I had an urge to learn more about it.

After a long geeky talk with Ralf, I decided to share with him a couple of my tracks. He instantly suggested me to contact Dirk Geiger, owner of RAUMKLANG MUSIC, and send him a demo. I still remember the excitement of that day.

And the mastering by Mr. Alexander Dietz?

I haven’t met Alex in person, although we were in touch during the mastering process, so I have this notion of the crazy scientist in his awesome lab doing magic with sound, basically taking something that sounds OK and skyrocket it!

You are also a skilled and accomplished graphic designer undertaking your artwork. Would you want to leave this on somebody else? Just to see how he/she ‘gets’ your music?

Absolutely. I’ve already thought about it a few times, even for the cover of ‘The Aftermath‘, although I designed it after all. From time to time I may stubble upon a fellow designer artworks and thinking “wow, this dude would have designed an awesome cover for an Aevin album”. I’m pretty sure my next album might not feature my artwork… Will see!

Lets go back to your latest great offering ‘The Aftermath‘. Listening to this while having this interesting live chat, I dare say that ‘Avatar D’ is one of the stand-out tracks. An excellent sample of idm full of mellow parts… Any info about this gem?

There’s this Russian organization that works with artificial intelligence, it’s called Initiative 2045. So what they have done, was to lay out a detailed plan of the staged in which AI will approach human form. Avatar A, B, C and the last ultimate Avatar D. Which will be a holographic avatar of a person.

So, the particular song places us in a not-so-distant future where, well, I guess technology will be aligned with human intelligence, for better or worse.

The cinematic element is more than pervasive in ‘The Aftermath‘. Would you be keen on soundtracking any sci-fi, horror or other genre movie like Disasterpeace successfully did 2 years ago for “It Follows”?

Sounds like a rather challenging thing to do and yet very inspiring. I would definitely like to compose for the needs of a movie. Soundtracking is playing a significant role in the story telling, so it’d be a great honor to do that. Spread the word! haha

‘Pigeon Whisperer’ is an audiovisual opus inspired by Nikola Tesla. Even legendary duo Plaid included this as part of the promotion for their album ‘The Digging Remedy‘! Not bad for a newcomer, right?

Still can’t believe that actually happened…

Well you should….

I do my reality check frequently and this is definitely on the list! ‘Pigeon Whisperer‘ is just one these songs I had to work on and revisit a hundred times. Leading to self doubt of whether this is worth it. Until the demo export 12345 where you suddenly shout out loud “YES! It’s done!”

inthestudio

I suppose you like video games. If so, which are your favorite ones? Survival horror ones? FPS?

I’d say I’m more of an FPS guy. Not sure if it’s about shooting things, as sometime I just get carried away and wonder around. Loading “DOOM” for the first time, back in the day, and hitting the up arrow key was such a blast. Apparently, I took the memory lane. Oh well !

Well you should definitely keep an eye on Last Day Deaf’s column about Retro Games!

Woh that’s great! – Now I can’t help not to think about my beloved Amstrad 6128!

Haha… its getting pretty late..Thank you for this one Teo. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Apart from the collaboration track with Conjecture, what should we expect from you in the near future?

If everything goes as planned, a couple of my track will be released in some upcoming compilations. In the meantime, I’m working on new music, which may eventually form an album, but it is soon to tell. And last but not least, I will take part in a few events during the winter, which makes me pretty excited.

Thanks a lot Chris for having me ! it was a pleasure. 🙂

Christos Doukakis