Text by CLOT Magazine
Aeondelit, a Colombian music producer, takes us on our next mixtape trip into the sonic landscapes of anime and video games.
The producer has just released his second full-length album, Vestigios (Unguarded, 2022), which tells a lucid, captivating story of heritage, transformation, vulnerability and healing. The release will include the artwork created by Petra Hermanova and will be accompanied by limited textile pieces by Diane Esnault. Listening to Vestigio enthrals you in a net woven with the fourth-world meanders of Jon Haswell and the dramatic serenity of Vangelis.
Aendolit’s practice explores themes related to technology and the human condition in sound while focusing on the creative use of sample manipulation techniques and digital sound synthesis to deepen the idea of a dialogue between computers and humans and how both influence each other.
The music Aeondelit produces is strongly influenced by the rocky surrounding of his hometown Manizales in Colombia and fuses electronic sensibilities, ambient streams and Avant-percussive rhythms that build his sound identity. On Vestigios, he comments that the memories of past generations, the lives that burn within him, are the pillars of who he is. These constitute longings and traps, sin and strength, the temple that breaks down and rebuilds.
The different dimensions of consciousness converge in the mind, which constantly tells us who we are, synthesising and projecting our contradictions. The pain that comes with getting in touch with our vulnerabilities opens the doors to healing through confrontation. Vestigios is the bridge between the temporal and the eternal, the crystallised remnant of pain caused by transformation and recognition of the convulsive underworld of our psyche.
For this mixtape, he’s prepared a selection of anime and video games, which have always been a key influence in his creative process; this mix is a compilation of his favourite anime and video games soundtracks of all time.
You are about to release your second album, Vestigios. Could you tell us more details about this? Maybe how was the intellectual process behind the album’s inception?
It’s supposed to feel like a conclusion. In this album, I found a way of communicating difficult ideas and feelings to put into words, building a narrative that would allow emerging these states of feeling in the most natural way possible.
I read some passages from Eduardo Galeano´s Book of Embraces that made me think of what we conceive as identity and, from there, how we relate to the world. So, I wanted to expose myself a bit, digging into my mind and revealing some contradictions and chaos resulting from these explorations.
And what were you exploring with it at the technical level?
Basically, two opposite elements in nature represent the contradiction: water and fire; these are literally used as a sample in the arrangement of the songs. On one hand, for stylistic purposes, but also because it derives from the symbolism resulting from the search.
The random aspects of the virtual synths that I use for composing are a representation of the relation between chaos and the desire for control. These limits or inabilities are also opportunities as I see them; they show us different ways to develop our own creative process.
We’ve discussed before the relationship between a musician and modular synths and the symbiotic interactions between the human and machine. You also mention that you are interested in technology and the human condition in sound. Focusing on the creative use of sample manipulation techniques and digital sound synthesis to deepen the idea of a dialogue between computer and human. What is your relationship with the machines you use and the sound you achieve then?
The experience of creating music with a computer is something that I feel particularly strong due to the various generative processes of musical sequencing that it provides me. I conceive this semi-random process as a dialogue between the machine and me. Another interesting aspect of this dialogue is the non-recognizable sounds produced by manipulating the waveforms without harmonics, which can then be modified with additive synthesis, for example.
All of this feels extremely physical and overwhelming.
Your music, you also say, is strongly influenced by the rocky surroundings of your hometown, Manizales, in Colombia. Do you use field recordings as well? And what are your other main inspirations for your productions these days?
Yes, I like to be outside in nature, surrounded by the sounds and the silence; I like using these field recordings as textures in my compositions. Another big inspiration is the soundtracks from the anime series and video games I consumed in childhood. I think there is a bridge between my context here in Colombia and these audiovisual works that defined my identity as an artist.
There is a sentence describing Vestigios as The memories of past generations: the lives that burn within me… that made me think about some of the Magic Realism novels, where things are mirages and haunting versions of the tapestry of reality throughout many years of existence. How much influence do you think where you are from has on your practice? And also, how did the idea to include textile pieces by Diane Esnault come about?
I love that observation, and it’s also an important question. Yes, we are conditioned by society, family, our experiences, and even our genes. But conditioning doesn’t mean that we are programmed; it means that our past influences us, but we have the opportunity to choose in the present. I think this is the main message behind ‘Vestigios’.
On Diane´s textile pieces, it was an idea that emerged in a conversation with the unguarded team about creating something physical addition to the tape, so the textiles pieces sounded great to give the music and the artwork an interpretation through the materials and Diane’s creativity.
How do you cope with technology (screen/digital) overload?
Well, I guess the world is becoming more intangible. As Byung-Chul Han mentioned, informatic fetishism made us infomaniacs; digitization ends the paradigm of things and subordinates it to information. So I’ve come to understand that reality, maybe it has to be that way for some reason, and it’s ok.
