Interviews
"Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)" electronics by TheMute | Interview
TheMute is back with an experimental, cinematic electronic journey, "Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)".
Nick "TheMute" Chalntoupis" is the man behind many remarkable releases in the dark wave, dark electro spectre, and not only in these genres, by taking care the quality of their mixing and mastering. Perhaps most of you already know that. TheMute is his own music project, where he lets himself loose and he creates his own soundscapes.
"Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)" is his new release, a 3-track EP, in which he actually expresses his inner thoughts, being alone in studio during the lockdown and experimenting with his new setup. "Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)" came out on April 1st, via A Man Out Of a Man and it is available in digital format. While listening to "Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)" Nick is guiding us to a trip through experimental electronic arrangements, taking the listener to paths leading from darkness to light, creating images with his synths and modulars.
"Chaotic Fluctuations" starts this journey by getting straight into this situation with an ambient approach and some sound and modular variations. "Radioactive Decay" is another part in this sound oscillation into this low tempo cinematic ambience with strong beat drops, intense when needed, feeling like looking for an escape towards the light. "Quantum Nature" is the closing track, where we find an amount of experimental modulations with psychedelic elements finishing this trip.
"Multiphonic (Μουλτιφωνικ)" was produced, mixed and mastered by Nick Chalntoupis at SoundCave Studios, Athens. All artwork in TheMute releases created by Nota Lada who manages to assimilate and depict Nick's sound in an image.
While listening to his sound experiments, Cleopatra Kaido had an intersting chat with TheMute about his music explorations.
ES: Hello Nick. Welcome to ElektroSpank online music magazine. I am glad to have you here. Tell us a few words about your new EP Multiphonic (Μουλτιφώνικ) and give us some emotions from the whole process of producting each song.
Hello guys, very happy to be here with you, Multyphonic is my fourth personal release, and it's out now through bandcamp from the label Man out of A Man.
I've produced it this January through the lockdown here in Athens, after finishing some big commercial projects, so I've had the time and the peace of mind, staying for days alone in the studio, working on new ideas and sound. Because of the lockdown i didn't have any clients on the studio, so I made a new setup for my analog synths, modulars and some digital ones and my playground was ready for action.
ES: Which of these emotions would you say that is more obvious in Multiphonic (Μουλτιφώνικ)?
Speaking of emotions I would say that is a dark and esoteric release, but the melodic, cinematic and the harmony textures give a little bit sun and hope in the end.
Tech wise it was some Dreadbox stuff, various modular, Yamaha, Clavia and vsts from Native Instruments and Steinberg. Recordings were done in the Cubase 11 through my Metric Hallo interface.
ES: I see that you have used Greek characters in both of your releases, Ωmega and Μουλτιφώνικ, what is the concept behind using such characters?
Yes you are correct, I like a lot playing with grammar and spelling , changing letters and meanings to words .It has also to do with Nota (www.notalada.com) that does all my artwork stuff, she likes that also. For this release the inspiration for the name came from a good friend of mine George (Lowtronik check his bandcamp also) who kindly give us a costume Greek font he made inspired by the handwrite of Bost!
Got to mention also, that my first release was called An Abyss and it was a spelling trick and a homage to one of my favorites places Anavyssos , a place near Athens and by the sea that I get most of my inspiration.
ES: You are also a producer and recently even more musicians trust you, regarding the production of their work, when did you start producing? Was it something you were dreaming of, as a child?
It came as natural result, I've been working as a mixing ,mastering engineer and sound designer in various studios for the past 15 years and for various labels and channels, but for the last four years me and my brother teamed up to make our studio, SoundCave Studios Athens .Here now I've got my personal space and the pleasure to work with bands like: Meat Injection, Paradox Obscure, Dead Clouds, Three Way Plane, Regressverbot , Grey Gallows and Isolated Youth (just to mention a few) and also do some sound design and composing work for brands like: Dreadbox, Inertia Sound Systems, Native Instruments, Online Music Foundry and Steinberg.
Yes you can say it was a dream I've had as a child, I was always into music, spending most of my time in the conservatorium practicing piano and studying music theory but after that came punk, metal and the virus of producing music using the studio and the synthesizers.
ES: Everyone talks about the quarantine and how much it has affected our lives. What do you have to say about this situation and to what extent did it affect you?
Yes the thing with the quarantine (and our tragic and criminal government) had an effect to all of us ,missing our friends, jobs, hugs, live shows, bars and also tragic effect the loss of the people who died. For me had a softer effect because I was always, let's say, a studio rat and managed to finish of projects that I had left in the drawer , so new releases are coming also. Let's hope we will go through it safe and have our lives back, in the near future.
ES: During the quarantine many bands, released new music, are there any specific albums that inspired or influenced you?
Yes you are right! I don't listen to music as much as I want, because in my spare time am always interested into new synths, techniques and in general things that help me to go my craft one step forward. Also I work a lot with bands, so out of the bands that I working with, the three new releases that I enjoyed and got inspired in the quarantine were Athens Computer Underground, Black Harbor and Pera Sta Ori new stuff.
ES: Thank you Nikos for this interview, before we close our conversation, would you like to tell something else to our readers?
Thank you very much guys, it was a pleasure !
Info:
https://manofman.bandcamp.com/album/--10
https://themute2.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/nikolasthemute
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7nKq6ZEKfL2TtafmzbZ6g
