Sri-Lanka born, Sweden raised, the enigmatic Kalawila has an affinity for the uncertain, drawing inspiration from unconventional experiences and remote travels. Through his time in Berlin, he realised techno was a modern way of describing a fundamental feeling dating back to ancient times. He explores this feeling within his DJ sets and productions on the likes of Bossmusik and his own label Mountain Explosion Device, examining textures and the void-like space between spaces. We are happy to present the first Patterns of Perception mix of 2017 – a forward thinking, uncompromising affair from the immensely talented Swedish artist. Kalawila's links: SoundCloud Facebook Resident Advisor Mountain Explosion Device - Bandcamp

02.12.2016 @ OHM Berlin From the magazine For this chat, Ben takes us on a journey through the Dutch techno scene and explains why storytelling is essential to his music. Read the interview Tom as he takes us through his early influences and current inspirations, and explains why friendship is the key for collaborations. Read the interview Selected listenings Ben Buitendijk Tom Liem Facebook / Resident Advisor

Ten tracks that represent our current sounds and inspiration. Compiled by Tom Liem and Ben Buitendijk. Artwork taken from Ben and Tom’s split EP on ESHU. Selected by Tom Liem From Piano Nights. [PIAS] Recordings, 2013. Beautiful doom jazz for lonely nights reflecting on the day or a period of time. - From Together is the New Alone. Mille Plateaux, 2001. He’s my hero seriously – his ambient works are so good. Very minimal with maximised impact. - From Liquid Swords. Geffen Records, 1995. Wu Tang forever! - From Kering#004.  Kering, 2016. To me Ivano is the craziest producer in Holland right now. Forget about all the popular ones you hear about. Ivano is a true wizard and master of the arts. - From The Jungle Planet. Sleeper Wakes, 2013. Mills is still so far ahead of anyone else. This whole album is just one sick trip. I recommend listening to it on some magic mushrooms. Selected by Ben Buitendijk From Untitled. Office Recordings, 2016. Baaz’s Office Recordings has been on fire recently. - From the Bad Signal EP. ESHU, 2015. ESHU, besides being good friends, put out great music. - From Painting. Tape Records, 2016. I’m a big fan of Deniro (obviously :D) and his label Tape Records is one to follow. - From the Drai EP. Stratosphere Recordings, 2001. Tikita has put out some super nice records and the next one is a re-issue of one of my all-time favorites. - From Undulating Frequencies.  Spazio Disponibile, 2016. Everything Donato Dozzy is involved in is great. Spazio Disponibile no exception. Full Playlist:

As both a co-founder of the famed Breakfast Club after parties in Amsterdam and a member of the ESHU records crew from Nijmegen, Tom Liem is a DJ and producer whose profile has been steadily growing in recent times. Known for his hypnotic, groove-driven techno sets, Tom has taken a slightly different tack for his contribution to our series, sharing a fascinating ambient mix, packed with textures, rich melodies and a few unexpected twists and turns. Catch Tom at Patterns of Perception at OHM Berlin on Friday, December 2. Tom Liem's Links: SoundCloud Facebook Resident Advisor ESHU - Facebook ESHU - SoundCloud ESHU - Bandcamp Breakfast Club - Facebook

With a deep appreciation for hip hop, it’s no surprise that Tom Liem has developed a taste for funk and groove. These days, the up-and-coming Dutch artist has switched to electronic music, but his passion for hip hop has more than left its mark. Ahead of his appearance at Patterns of Perception on December 2, Tom takes us through his early influences and current inspirations, and explains why friendship is the key to collaboration of all kinds. Tell us the Tom Liem story – how did you get here? Good question! When I was younger I grew up listening to hip hop records that my cousin had. KRS-one, Das EFX, A Tribe Called Quest and of course my biggest influence, The Wu Tang Clan. I guess the journey began here and I got into DJing through hip hop actually. I began as a scratch DJ and then I found out that you could actually match the record with the pitch. After that it was like, yeah let’s mix it up. But once I became friends with the ESHU Records crew in Nijmegen, everything fell into place. It’s here that I’ve learned the art of the trade and where I sharpened my blades, ready for battle. You’ve now released music on ESHU and also collaborated a lot with the other members. How did you all meet initially? I was actually booked in a local club called Doornroosje – it’s one of the oldest clubs in Holland, or at least the longest running club night. That’s where I met these guys and they were all pretty much the same as me, and also listening a lot to hip hop. From the start, it was kind of like we’d always been friends. There was a connection right away. Did your early love of hip hop influence your taste in electronic music? And how would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard of you before? Yes, definitely. I tend to prefer more old school sounds where there’s a lot of jazz influences and there’s a lot of funk in the tracks. That comes definitely from hip hop music. In terms of my overall sound, I always try not to stick to one genre but rather give a blend of my own personal taste, whatever that may be. But if I have to describe it in words, I guess it could be deep, tribal, psychedelic or even spiritual comes to mind. The sound of your tracks is a complex trip – each one seems to have a story to tell. Can you tell us a bit about your production process? I’m not a person who sits in a studio a lot. I’ve found that the best way for me to produce music is to come up with an idea first of what type of sound I want to express. This can come from many things, like a certain production technique, an instrument or a simple melody I’ve heard. For me it’s best to work as fast as possible so I always try to set up my studio in a way that allows me to express myself really fast, or else I will lose the idea. This makes it more difficult, but to me it sounds more human in a way. I’m not a guy who spends hours and hours perfecting a track, I like to make it then and there in a brief moment. And I don’t really care if it’s perfect or not, as long as the vibe is good. The way you build the sound during your sets is quite unique, incorporating experimental sounds without losing the dance floor atmosphere. What are the main elements of putting together a set in this style? Mostly the groove is where I focus first. It has to be funky so I set some basic boundaries for myself in track selection, and within that frame I can experiment with more abstract sounds. But to be honest, for me no sound is experimental. I like it all as long as it’s something I can relate to. I try to keep an open mind to all sounds and not constrain myself to a certain type of sound or a certain trend. For my sets, I also usually add a third deck just to be more versatile. You are also one half of J&L, your project with Jocelyn Abell, and have collaborated on other projects like the collectives ARC# and Dilated Pupils. What do you like about the collaboration process? All those projects were with the guys from ESHU Records. I won’t go into the studio with just anyone but if it’s a good friend and we’re on the same wavelength in terms of music, it’s so much more fun than sitting alone making tracks. You really feed off each other and give each other inspiration. It’s a little game of give and take, cause and effect. You hear something and you can react to it. For me, it’s much more fun than working alone. You’ve recently relocated to Berlin but you’re still firmly rooted in the Dutch techno scene, having co-founded the Breakfast Club after-parties in Amsterdam. Tell us about Breakfast Club. Are you still involved with them remotely? Yeah I’m still very much involved, just doing everything over email now. We started as an after party but because we serve breakfast, it became more of a daytime event. What we see is that 50 percent of the people continue dancing from the night before, and 50 percent just wake up to go. So you get this really interesting mix of people who have just woken up and people who are still partying. I think that’s a good energy to have, it really works. And we do a big buffet so people can eat bananas and brownies and fuel up. For the recent ADE party, you played at Breakfast Club alongside artists like Mike Servito, Sebastian Mullaert and Dino Sabatini, to name a few. How was this experience? What do you look for when curating a Breakfast Club party? It was such a nice day! I think the Sunday is always particularly special during ADE. Last time we had Donato Dozzy playing a hybrid set and everyone was losing it. They were totally freaking out. This year it was not quite the same but it had its own vibe as well. A highlight for me was Dino Sabatini’s live set, as well as Sebastian and Ulf of course. Dino really had the people hypnotised. When we try to figure out these line ups, we are always looking for a nice balance in music style and energy. There has to be a continuous line in the whole day. That’s very important I think. Tell us a bit about your mix for Patterns of Perception. How did you approach it? The idea behind the mix was very simple: I wanted to create something that wasn’t too distracting or too demanding to listen to. To me, it feels more like a floating mix. It’s easy to the ear and you can lose yourself quite easily in it. I also tried to hold on to the principal of a beginning, middle and end piece. I really enjoyed making this mix so I hope you can hear it and enjoy it. Finally – what’s on the horizon for you? What’s next for Tom Liem? 
I’m working on a new EP and we also have a new EP coming out as J&L on Deep Sound Channel. That EP is three original tracks, two are more for the dance floor and a third one is basically just a kick with a melody through it. It’s not easy listening. Either you’ll really love it or you’ll hate it, it’s a very psychedelic track. Tom Liem plays at Patterns of Perception at OHM Berlin on December 2.

In a country where the ravy end of the techno spectrum often prevails, Ben Buitendijk’s deeper, experimental sound has earned him a solid following. Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Ben has found success with a string of releases on Dutch labels ESHU and Ogun Records, plus the inclusion of his track Colourblind on a collection from Field Records. This year, he took the step of founding his own label, a move that will give him the creative space he craves to release his unique productions. You can get a taste of Ben’s sound at the Patterns of Perception party at OHM Berlin next week, where he will play along with fellow Dutch artist Tom Liem. In the lead up, Ben takes us on a journey through the Dutch techno scene and explains why storytelling is essential to his music. Hailing from the Netherlands, a country with such an ingrained culture around electronic music, it must be easy to fall into the techno world. How did you discover the art of DJing and producing music? Actually it’s kind of a weird story. I’ve always liked electronic music – obviously it’s really big in Holland and there’s dance music and house on the radio everywhere. My parents were already listening to house but it was mainstream top 40 house. In high school, some friends sent me some music – some EDM at the time – and I went to my first party. I liked it so I went again the next month and I heard the exact same set. That was when I started to look a little bit deeper and after awhile I ended up here. At the beginning it was just about collecting music but slowly it just grew more serious: more gigs, better gigs, nice labels to release on. You’ve described your sound as having “no boundaries for genres or styles”. With such a wide ranging palette, what is your production process like? It’s always different. Sometimes I don’t have any ideas and I just jam something and see what happens. Sometimes I have an idea for a beat and start with that and then hopefully ideas for the rest come along. Sometimes I start with a sound or even a technical idea. My productions use a lot of effects and processing, but for example normally you would use a compressor during the mixdown. I can use it in the wrong way but it still gives an interesting sound for me. That’s also where ideas and inspiration come from: what if I put this setting like this? It shouldn’t work like that, but somehow it does sound cool. That’s usually what gets my flow going. In my productions, there are really no boundaries for anything. I do whatever I feel like and then if I like the sound, why not? I keep it. Does a similar idea of breaking the boundaries of different genres and music styles apply to your DJ sets? What do you look for when selecting music for a set? In theory, yes. I buy records from any genre and any style as long as I like them. But if I’m playing a techno party, I might bring a house record but I’m not going to bring house house. As a DJ, I try to limit everything I do to whatever suits the party, the crowd and the club. I think every record has its time and place, where it will work and where it will fit. Those are the things you have to keep in mind when you’re packing your bag. Even then you sometimes have surprises and you wish you had taken different records, but that’s part of the job. In the end, it’s not about the tracks you play. You can play banger after banger after banger, but after three of them there is no rush anymore. You can play really deep for three records then you just put a little more energy, and suddenly, although the track isn’t a banger at all, it becomes a banger because of the order you play it in. It’s more about the story you tell. Every record is like a tool and if you structure them the right way, you can build something that’s more than just a few records mixed together. You play primarily on vinyl. What does this format give you that digital doesn’t? Every type of equipment has good DJs and bad DJs. But I notice for DJs who play digitally, they focus more on sound and less on storytelling because they can make every track fit perfectly. For vinyl DJs, you can’t play that tight so you need to tell more of a story. It’s a limitation but you have to solve it or do something else to make up for it. You can have two tracks that are totally different styles but they still work together and they create something extra. Playing with records, I become more concentrated because it requires more concentration, and that’s what I really like about it. We recently got to hear your remix of Abstract Division, and another of Janeret’s Air. What do you enjoy about remixing others? What do you look for in a track when deciding to remix? It differs for each remix and each track. For Janeret, I really like his music and his originals so it was nice to work with his samples and try something out. With Abstract Division, I heard the original and I heard the synths that I use mainly in the remix and right away I thought, about what I could do with it. So when they asked me for a remix for their album, it was really easy to decide. It’s interesting to hear the same sounds and bring to it a different vibe or different output. I don’t like to do remixes that are completely different from the original. You might as well just do an original then, you know? Or sometimes you have a remix that is more or less the same but just with a different kick. There should be some recognisable parts but it should be different. That’s also the fun part of it. You started your own label, Oblique Music, earlier this year. What was behind that decision? How do you know it’s the right time to start a label? Basically I had some tracks ready. I’m still in contact with some labels but the tracks didn’t fit the label or the guys who ran the label wanted something different. So I had the music but I didn’t have a place to release them. I work at a distributor called Triple Vision and my boss suggested I start a label. So some of those tracks are really old, even from 2012. But I will say that I take my time to release them. It’s the advice that I give to anyone who is starting out: patience is the most important thing. What has starting the label taught you about the music business? Does it give you a new perspective on your own productions and the music you make? It’s really different running a label to making music. Normally I wouldn’t think about that side of things myself but now I’ve really learnt to think about how to build an EP. You can throw four tracks together but it’s important to think about what people are actually going to buy. But when producing I try not to think about it this way. Someone told me recently that I should try to make music with this in mind but I like to have the freedom just to let the creativity flow in whatever direction it goes. At the moment, I don’t really aim for a label or certain sounds when I make something. In the moment, if I feel like making this, that’s the direction I go. With this rich texture and spacey atmosphere we find in your tracks, where do you think that your music can be best appreciated? What is an ideal place to hear your music? Every track has its own place and time. Let’s take the tracks from my EP for example, because they’re all really different. The first one was this kind of dark and hypnotic techno track. That one has to be in some dark club, not too big, with a good sound system. Just some place where you get separated from the outside world. The second one is more dubby, more groovy. Actually I would like to hear it on the beach. At a beach party, outdoors, with good weather. What can you tell us about the crowd in the Netherlands and the sound in general? What are the best clubs that you’ve played at lately? For me, I would say that I play a little bit deeper than what’s popular in Holland but we do have a pretty good scene focusing on the more harder to listen to sounds. There is a healthy scene below the big clubs and the big parties. With regards to clubs, Radion in Amsterdam had a weekender in March. I was playing from 7 in the morning until 10. It was perfect for me because it was the afterparty vibe and people were having a lot fun. It was a crazy vibe, one of the most fun gigs I’ve played anywhere. To be honest, before that happened, I didn’t expect that in Holland. It’s also possible here, you just need to find the right moment. Earlier this year, you released a split EP on ESHU Records with Tom Liem, who will also play at Patterns of Perception. How did you start working with the ESHU guys? It actually just grew from something really silly like a comment on SoundCloud and a message. I put a track on Soundcloud and someone commented on it, suggesting the ESHU guys. I looked them up and was completely blown away by what I heard. I was favoriting every track and commenting on everything. I wanted to send them a demo but I didn’t dare! After awhile, I got a message from them that they liked my music, then I went to see their first live show and met them there. We started to hang out together and make music. To get that feedback from them at that point already, it was a great boost of motivation for sure. Lastly, have you and Tom played on the same bill before? What can people expect from hearing you both at Patterns of Perception? I have played with Tom before once, as Dilated Pupils together with Ivano Tetelepta and Jocelyn Abell (from ESHU Records) as well. Other than that, I’ve heard him play quite a few times and I know his music so in that sense I know him pretty well. With the whole ESHU crew, I notice when I play back-to-back with anyone, it’s like someone else is playing with my bag and I know every record. It’s really easy to play together because we have the same taste and style. It will be nice to play with Tom this time. Ben Buitendijk plays at Patterns of Perception at OHM Berlin on December 2

As both a DJ and producer, Refracted is coming into his own. The past year has seen him release the lush Through the Spirit Realm LP on Silent Season, secure slots on the summer festival circuit and hit the studio to work on a host of new productions, to be released on his own Mind Express label and elsewhere. His career has taken him from his hometown of Majorca to Berlin, a city which has allowed him to pursue music more actively and to carve out a space of his own within the techno scene. Refracted took the headline shift at the September edition of Patterns of Perception, treating us to three hours of intense, intelligent techno which weaved masterfully between various tones, textures and emotions. To help us relive the night, we are happy to present an hour-long recording of his set. Refracted's Links: SoundCloud Facebook Resident Advisor

23.09.2016 @ OHM Berlin From the magazine Prior to his appearance for Patterns of Perception, Refracted reflects on his path to music and gives a glimpse of what’s to come. Read the interview Selected listenings Artefakt Refracted Facebook / Resident Advisor

Ten tracks that represent our current sounds and inspiration. Compiled by Refracted and Andreas Maan. Selected by Andreas Maan From the Moderskärlek EP. Trolldans, 2014. This Svreca remix of Claudio PRC on Troldans morphs from its noisy opening into a hauntingly restrained final few minutes. Listening to this track is like lying at the depths of the ocean and watching the sun beginning to rise over the water’s surface above. - From Eco. Hypnus, 2014. Hypnus records in general, and Jana Sleep specifically, are my inspirations as a producer right now. Everyone Is Waiting perfectly defines her sound: slow, sparse, ominous, yet somehow still luminescent. - From the Faynot EP. Ensydaen Records, 2013. I couldn’t resist putting a second Svreca remix on this list. I hadn’t heard of Ajtim before I found this remix, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on him. Notime’s icy beauty is mesmerising. - From Circular 10. Circular Limited, 2014. Devennue has been making some great deep techno, and this BLNDR remix on Circular Limited is a favourite. This track moves at such a controlled pace, yet pushes forward so insistently. - From Mayfield. Hypnus, 2014. The second Hypnus release on this list is all about its intense, brooding atmosphere. What little unfolds does so slowly, but insistently, as sounds dance lightly across the surface of this track’s dark core. Selected by Refracted From Lost Recordings #1 – Why? + For Whom?. Cosmic Recordings, 1996. Steve Bicknell is a timeless genius in my opinion. He has so many great classics but this one is especially well-fitting to my style of sets. - From S100 EP. Stockholm LTD, 2011. I love the depth of this track and how it slowly evolves. It’s a nice warmup track to start filling the floor. - From the Squadra Quadra EP. The Bunker New York, 2016. One of my favourites from 2016. Mind Bomb. - From Faith Is Fear. Dust Science Recordings, 2007. Perfect track for closing a set or for a break midway. Love it. - From Mind Express 002. Mind Express, 2015. Sorry for the shameless plug but I’ve been closing nearly all of my sets this year with this one and it was hard not to include it. Full playlist

As both a DJ and producer, Refracted is coming into his own. The past year has seen him release the lush Through the Spirit Realm LP on Silent Season, secure slots on the summer festival circuit and hit the studio to work on a host of new productions, to be released on his own Mind Express label and elsewhere. His career has taken him from his hometown of Majorca to Berlin, a city that allowed him to pursue music more actively and to carve out a space of his own in the techno scene. Ahead of his appearance at Patterns of Perception this Friday, Refracted reflects on his path to music and gives a glimpse of what’s to come. You hail from Mallorca in Spain. How have your hometown and home country shaped your sound and perception of music? Mallorca is a wonderful island full of beautiful landscapes and amazing waters surrounding it. My love of nature and the sea have probably led me to feel more attracted to organic sounds and textures instead of a more clinical sound design. This, in turn, shaped my own idea of “good” sound throughout the years. Once I started working on music I had a clear vision of the type of sound I wanted to pursue. How did you found your way to music and to Berlin? During my teenage years, I was very lucky to have access to techno parties every weekend. Angel Costa, the local resident and promoter, would keep bringing all the big names to the island and I would be on the front row every day. After these events, I would always scour the internet to find tracks and new artist names. It was an obsession that really shaped my taste and throughout the years of non-stop listening I refined it. If it wasn’t for Angel, I don’t know where I would have ended up. Berlin came many years after that. After completing my postgraduate degree in London and working in the completely uncreative and mind-numbing corporate sector for a couple of years, I decided to put my hard-earned money to use and bought a laptop with Ableton and a Machinedrum. I was hooked. Soon after that, I was packing my bags, I left everything to go and pursue my newfound passion for music production. Berlin allowed me to live on short working hours and I needed that extra time to work on my music. You have a singular sound which is rich in its diversity – from the ambience of your LP Through The Spirit Realm, to the hypnotic techno featured on your own Mind Express label. Can you tell us a bit about the artistic vision that drives your productions? Honestly, there is no clear artistic vision. At least not at the beginning of the creative process. Once I start jamming and things flow in a certain direction that I like then it might happen that I get visions of the track being played in certain environments like an outdoor festival or a dark warehouse. This puts me on focus and tends to shape the overall sound and texture of the track. I like using this trick and not to overthink too much about concepts and thoughts. To me, it’s all about the creative process and I think some people get too hung up on abstract concepts which then aren’t even heard in their music. For the album, it was completely different. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do with it. In my opinion, albums should tell a story not just be a collection of tracks. I took this idea and decided to tell a story with it. At the time I was reading True Hallucinations, a book by Terrence McKenna and experimenting with certain substances. This was deeply inspiring and shaped what the overall story for the album would be. After that, it was just a matter of focusing on what each chapter should tell and how it should sound. I’m pretty happy with the result and look forward to starting the next one. You’ve just returned from DJing at the much talked about Parallel festival in Spain. How do you go about preparing for your DJ sets, and does your mindset change when putting together a festival set versus one for a club setting? Preparing for a DJ set, I like to look at the whole lineup and where my slot is. I also pay attention to the club and past events the promoters have organised. This gives me an idea of the sound and intensity I can play. Then it’s all a matter of careful listening and selection. I like to take a week at least to do this. I don’t like to play the most usual tracks so it takes a bit of extra time to find and think about something more personal. The mindset definitely changes depending on whether it’s a festival or a club event. Especially if it’s an outdoor festival like Parallel. I really believe the primal aspect of techno fits perfectly in a natural environment. Nothing beats a well-tuned and powerful sound system outdoors where there are no concrete walls or air conditioning vents to impact the flow of sound. Thinking about this while preparing for a festival set is really inspiring. Sometimes I have even produced tracks to play specifically at a festival. I just get in this mindset which really takes me to the spot and then the creativity just starts flowing. There seems to be a lot of recognition building for what you are doing. What’s in the pipeline for you now? Mind Express 003 is soon to be pressed and I’m again collaborating with another track on the next official CD mix from PoleGroup made by Reeko. There is also an EP coming out on a big record label at the beginning of next year. Shortly after that Mind Express 004 should follow and then maybe it’s time to start thinking about a new album.

Italian duo natural/electronic.system. have been a force within techno’s underground since 2004, gaining respect through their much revered podcasts for cult websites such as mnml ssgs and Smoke Machine, as well as their international DJ sets, including at Labyrinth in Japan. After a mesmerising set at the Patterns of Perception opening party at OHM in April, we are pleased to have natural/electronic.system. provide the next instalment of our mix series. natural/electronic.system's Links: Facebook SoundCloud Resident Advisor

Italian duo natural/electronic.system. have been a force within techno’s underground since 2004, gaining respect through their much revered podcasts for cult websites such as mnml ssgs and Smoke Machine, as well as their international dj sets, including at Labyrinth in Japan. After a mesmerising set at the Patterns of Perception opening party at OHM in April, we are pleased to have natural/electronic.system. provide the next instalment of our mix series. We caught up with Antonio Giova and Valerio Gomez de Ayala to have a brief chat about the mix, their inspiration and how they started to collaborate as teenagers back in their hometown in southern Italy. Firstly, thanks a lot for putting together such a compelling mix. How was it recorded? Thanks to you guys for inviting us to make a mix! As you probably know already, we are now based in different cities (Antonio in Berlin and Valerio in Rome). When we can’t spend time together physically to prepare a mix, we usually start by putting together a track selection, then we begin to try to mix the tracks in our home studios, speaking about the sequence or how the flow of the mix should be. When we come up with an organic sequence of tracks that fully satisfies us, the mix can be recorded using turntables and CDJs. Was there a specific concept or idea behind it? This mix was inspired by the time spent with the Patterns of Perception crew for the party we had in April at OHM in Berlin. We really felt at home, so we felt totally free recording this one… everything was flowing in a very natural way. Before our event at OHM.  You are known for being extremely careful selectors. Do you follow any particular process when choosing records? It’s more related to our personal taste and musical vision, emotions, images evoked in our minds, vibrations… you know, when you expose your body to some sort of audio signal you can provoke different responses. You could say in the end that we just select tracks that make us “vibrate” in the way we like… You have now been collaborating for more than 10 years. How did you meet in the first place, and what made you start DJing together? We were in the same class at high school in Portici, our hometown near Napoli. At that time I (Valerio) was collecting records and I shared this exciting thing with my good friend Antonio. He loved it and together we started to buy and listen to a lot of different stuff and that was probably the time when we shaped our current musical aesthetic. The rise of the internet at that time boosted our curiosity and granted us access to an endless flow of musical information. I mean, not everyone is so lucky to have great record stores in their neighborhood or stores with the music we were interested in. Then in 2004 we decided to found the natural/electronic.system. duo. Our first gig ever was at the Old River Park between Napoli and Caserta, it’s a pretty famous place in our area. It was a 12 hour long Easter event and we played a 2-3 hour DJ set on a very small stage but a lot of people enjoyed the music! Photo courtesy of mnml ssgs. Your name implies a strong influence by nature. How did it become a key theme in your sound? Are there any other major sources of inspiration? Nature and art have always been our main sources of inspiration. We come from a country where you are surrounded by history, art, amazing landscapes and great food everywhere. Our education was based on these things that are inseparable from nature… it’s in our blood, in our roots, in our local traditions and we try to bring a bit of this flavor into our music. You are first and foremost known as DJs and only recently released your own music on vinyl (Body 2:2 Mind on Tikita) for the first time, receiving a stellar review by Resident Advisor. Is production something we can expect to become a bigger focus for you? We have been into production for a long time, but to have a competitive studio to work in you need money to spend. We both have a day job to pay rent, records and equipment and we work on music mostly in our spare time so that’s mainly why the process was slow. We were also aiming to create a particular “n/e.s.” sound in the studio… we wanted to bring something “new” or at least something that sounded different from the rest. Not stuff that sounds the same as all the music going around. So over a couple of years we came up with some interesting things and yes, for sure, we will concentrate much more on musical production in the future. This seems to be a pretty exciting time for natural/electronic.system. What else is on the horizon for you both? Yes, indeed. We have some pretty exciting gigs coming up, like on August 28 we play an ambient event at the Funkhaus in Berlin with a beautiful lineup with artists we really respect. Same story for the Parallel festival near Barcelona early September, which is in its first edition but is very promising: an open air event in the forest of Spain with a very well selected line up… this will be a lot of fun for sure! Production-wise we are working closely with Karim from the Tikita record label. We have a solo EP coming up soon on that label and are working on some material for other labels too. To stay in sync with natural/electronic.system., follow them on Facebook and SoundCloud