Followers of ambient music will no doubt know Ario as the man behind Astral Industries, the revered label that fuses reissued work with new releases from some of the most exciting artists in the genre. Despite the challenges thrown up by 2020, this year alone has seen AI releases from Multicast Dynamics, The Chi Factory and Waveform Transmission, among others, and 2021 already promises to be even more prolific for both the label and its boss.
Yet London-based Ario is just as much a DJ in his own right, with a sound that evades neat categorisation: drawn to the “deeply ritualistic and primal” side of drone, yet partial to the occasional dance floor set, he is reluctant to get too concrete when discussing his own music. His Patterns of Perception 77 is designed to challenge the listener – built on the belief that, contrary to what many may think, an ambient set is not necessarily designed to soothe and subdue.