Avilente
by Mister Mime
19th July 2021
Berlin-based Avilente’s ‘Along The Shores Of An Infinite Memory’ takes us through a poetic and pensive passage of ideas of universal karmic memory, akashic libraries, and quantum physics alike.
Believing in the premise that as conscious beings, we receive and give back into this ocean of memory and this cycle repeats endlessly, this ambient downtempo journey is a sonic visualization of standing and drifting back and forth along the shorelines of the infinite cosmic memory.
MM: Why did you decide to call yourself ’Avilente’?
Avilente: I had been playing in a couple of bands in my early 20s, and I was just sort of breaking out into creating a solo project for myself. I vaguely remember scribbling down the name in a notebook and creating some kind of logo for it in the classroom. It just kind of stuck in my head thereafter and I decided to name my ambient project Avilente.
I like to pronounce it "aavi-lant". Other folks usually read it as "avi-len-tay". I guess it doesn't really matter as it's just a fictional name that brings together a certain kind of ambient music and eventually the name resonates with the sound of the music.
MM: Why is the album called “Along the Shores Of An Infinite Memory”?
Avilente: The album was conceptualised in 2014 or so, and at the time I was really enchanted by ideas I'd come across that explored the possibility that everything in nature has a kind of memory associated with it. In a way, we humans are the way we are, because the cells in our body remember how to be human, and similarly, even inanimate things remember how to be themselves, both at a macro and microscopic level.
This idea can be found in various philosophies and mythologies, some of which include the "Akashic records" and more recently in the works of Rupert Sheldrake under the term "Morphic Resonance". While mainstream science shies away from viewing the universe in this way, I found it an interesting way to look at reality.
Projecting forward from that line of thinking, I visualised that we are all standing at the edge of a shoreline, along the shores of an infinite memory, drifting both forwards and backwards in time endlessly. As conscious beings, we receive and give back into this ocean of memory and this cycle repeats endlessly. Quantum Physics seems to also point towards a universe like this where consciousness is the very fabric of existence - Of course, a topic of hot debate among the scientists if this is really the way it should or if it should simply be kept mathematical ;)
MM: Are there any stories behind any of the individual tracks, their names, or interesting incidents, challenges that you faced during the making of the album that you would like to share?
Avilente: The individual track names, if written continuously, are akin to a poem.
Connecting fields radiate the shoreline,
Spiral in two Streaming Visions through the aetherwind,
Triangulated Bliss as far as the eye can see,
Infinite Stillness traversing the Everglade.
The individual tracks were also written from the very beginning to seamlessly flow into each other. All in all, it’s an “album experience” and I most often heard the album from start to finish (and hope my listeners do to)
The album was conceived in 2014, and the tracks were mostly sketched out within half a year or so.. However, that was also around the time that I started getting deeper into my professional career in the audio industry, and started working for a company called Umlaut Audio who were in the business of building Sampled Instruments for Composers.
During this time, I completely paused working on the album and focused exclusively on building up my skills in the Music Technology world and I wasn’t really able to devote time to finish the album.
One thing led to another, and at the end of 2017, I applied to work at Native Instruments in Berlin. I got a job there and relocated to Berlin in 2018. This was a period of transition and I gave up my studio in India and had to start from scratch again in Berlin in a new city on my own.
In 2019, once I had somewhat settled in and built up a home studio setup again, I decided to finish what was started years ago. This was the toughest part as I had get back into the flow of the tracks again. Luckily I had archived the projects well enough so that I could resume without much difficulty. It still took a while until I was inspired again to really shape the tracks and take them forward while retaining their essence.
There were many times where It seemed like I would abandon the project altogether and simply starting a new album made sense. However, a friend and collaborator Gabriel (a.k.a Tarac), decided to help me mix the album and give it an additional perspective by doing additional production on it. This really helped the music take its final shape and I was really happy with what Gabriel was able to contribute towards the music with his production and mixing skills.
MM: Can you tell us a bit about your musical background and how your journey began?
Avilente: Sure, I’ve been a musician about 16 years now so It’s a long story but I’ll try to keep as concise as I can.
I grew up in a relatively non-musical household and my initial years were mainly focused on academic proficiency. My parents were into Indian film music and most of what I listened to growing up was the music of A.R.Rahman, apart from the popular music that played on the radio and so on.
I picked up the guitar at school when I was 15, and practiced quite intensely the first few years.
I played in the school band for a bit, then with a bunch of friends at college doing covers.
I kept practicing my chops and was getting more into Hard Rock and Heavy metal by the time I was 18. That’s when I started attending more gigs and soon chanced upon a new band that were on the lookout for a lead guitarist - They were called Eccentric Pendulum and were playing exactly the kind of progressive metal I was hoping to play.
After a successful audition (where I impressed the bassist with my Neo-classical Shred skills), I was officially part of the band and had a pretty fun stint with them writing music, playing gigs and touring across the country. We also released an album and it was a great learning experience to be part of a collective of musicians.
Parallely I also wrote more spacey, progressive rock tunes inspired by the likes of Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Pink Floyd and so on.. I formed a band with my friends and we were called “Farmer”.. We wrote quite some songs and played some gigs but weren’t really a super-serious outfit and didn’t do an album or recording of sorts, apart from a few bootlegs.
All along, I had been getting deeper into the world of music production and electronic music, and was fascinated by the possibilities of sound manipulation and songwriting potential that stood outside of the norm of having to write music in a way that a band could play it. I loved the prospect of a blank canvas that I could paint any kinds of sounds upon and do so independently within my own time.
I didn’t see a future for me as a live musician and decided to leave both bands I was playing with at the time to focus purely on developing my skills as a producer and also learning how to play the Piano, both of which offered me the prospect of more musical independence and a possible career path into the world of music production. I also decided not to pursue a traditional job right after my Engineering degree and my father supported me for a couple of years to just follow my passion for music and see where that got me. That was probably the best decision I made in retrospect, as that paved the way for all the things that led me to get where I am today.
I started writing music for The first Avilente release “From Clear Spaces within” around 2012 and managed to complete that for a release by 2013. It was generally well received and helped put me in front of an international audience.
This period of my life was highly creative, yet also mentally taxing as I was suddenly faced with the challenges of trying to find a sustainable income source from being a full time musician/artist/producer. The album didn’t do so well in terms of sales and I was brought back down to reality in terms of what It means to be an independent musician in today’s music industry.
I spent the next few years continuing to write music as Avilente and also formed an Electronica project called Klypp with a singer from another band in the scene. We wrote music together for a couple of years and released one EP called “Manifest”. We toured a bit and it was a good stint, however we parted ways due to some personal differences in 2015.
The pressure on me to be financially independent was mounting, and I decided to pause my musical adventures in favor of working on my career in music technology. During this period, I played with friends and still kept practicing music but without any specific musical releases in mind. Touring and being a live musician was also not on my radar as I didn’t find that fitting with my way of life anymore.
Since 2016, I’ve mostly resorted to being a musician in my own time, without necessarily seeing myself progress in a career in music as such. I’m happy today to know that I can make the music I really want to make, in my own time, without having to succeed financially from it.
These days, I play a lot more real instruments, and during the 2020 Pandemic period I learnt to play a whole host of new instruments - The Vibraphone, Cello, Kontrabass and some percussion. I’m currently working on a Solo Piano Album that I hope to release sometime in early 2022.
MM: Can you talk about how you conceived your signature sound ? And also how being in Germany has influenced your music?
Avilente: My signature sound is mostly inspired by the sound of Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Chill Out and Deep Ambient Music. I was also inspired by a number of deeply spiritual experiences I had that influenced my perspective on life, music and the cosmos. The music of Avilente is a way for me to journey through my ‘inner space’ and help others explore these inner musical worlds along with me. I believe in the healing and transformative power of music, serving as a focal point for spiritual experience. I’d like to think that my music can help people enter these states.
Being in Germany has helped me become more at peace with myself for who I am. In India, I felt a constant need to justify myself as an artist / creative person amid folks who were only really interested in my career path. Here in Berlin, I can be whoever I want, while being accepted just for that and not have to feel this general pressure from society to be a certain kind of person. The music scene is nice here as well - with a mix of multiple styles outside of techno. I go to concerts sometimes and some of them have been very inspiring, especially the ones I’ve attended at the Funkhaus in Berlin.
My music as Avilente however continues to be inspired by time spent on my trips in Nature, admiring the beauty of the world and finding deeper meaning in all things external and internal.
MM: Would you care to share any techniques, workflows, instruments, etc. that you believe are unique/essential to your musical process and shaping your sound?
Avilente: As far as tools go, I use Ableton Live for most of my production work. On top, I use REAKTOR and KONTAKT based Instruments from Native Instruments to find the right kinds of sounds in Software. For Effects, I find the Valhalla plugins to be amazing especially for the delays and reverbs. Additionally, I play a bunch of ‘real’ instruments and ideas that I come up with on those tend to make their way into the electronic music as well in some form or the other.
As far as workflow & technique is concerned, this really depends. I don’t have a set process as such - The way I wrote “Along the shores” is quite different from the way I wrote “From Clear Spaces Within” ..
However, with my upcoming Avilente Album ‘Elemental’ (working title), I think I’ve finally found a more ‘structured’ process to go from Idea to final pieces. This usually starts off with hours of recordings of Free Form Exploration with Synthesisers, effects, etc. This tends to capture the Raw ideas I’ve had and I make sure to record them with enough detail and information so that I can come back to these later to extract the good bits.
Once I’ve exhausted all the creative urges to just experiment, I sit down to make sense of what I’ve written and then approach it from a somewhat logical perspective - trying to see how these things fit together, or could be used within the context of a larger piece of music. A period of ‘filtering’ follows where I pick out the ones with the most potential and once I’ve got 10-12 of these core Ideas, I’m usually happy to lock them in for the next phase of trying to flesh them out as individual tracks.
You could say, I like to go from ‘macro’ to ‘micro’, and this approach worked well for ‘Elemental’.
Once the ideas are on the timeline, I try to see what additional elements could supplement or complement the core ideas. I then experiment with a few alternatives without straying too far from the feel of the track. Once these additional elements have been established I start to think about Arrangements and progression of the music.
I tend to like slow, subtle evolution of the layers and bringing in various elements through reverbs and delays, etc.. It’s hard to describe all the nitty-gritties as it varies for each track but usually after multiple rounds of working on the tracks, they reach a point where they are more or less ‘done’ and ready to be mixed and mastered.
With the past two records, this is the stage where instead of mixing it myself, I’ve collaborated with my friend Gabriel (a.k.a Tarac, Spielmann) for the additional production and mixing duties. I’m not entirely sure of what his creative process is like but I really like how he revisits all of my musical layers from a production context, bringing out the best in the track as a whole. I have full confidence in his abilities and we have usually agreed upon the end result. I would find it hard to do this with other people but I find that Gabriel and I have a great musical connection where he subconsciously understands what the essence of my tracks are without me having to be explicit about it..
MM: Who are your main musical influences?
Avilente: My main influences are Robert Rich, Ishq, Shulman, Shpongle, Hibernation, Bluetech, Minilogue, Sebastian Mullaert, Porcupine Tree, Tool, Opeth and Pink Floyd. There are loads of other artists I could mention but the core of my musical ideas are drawn from these artists..
MM: Could you give a special mention to the artist(s) who have done your artwork?
Avilente: Yes! My friend Gautam Nair (a.k.a Shaded Mirrors) has been creating the artwork for my Avilente releases. Our connection goes back all the way to 2012 when we first met to discuss the artwork for my first release. We’ve been very good friends ever since and our collaboration in this regard continues to this day.
Gautam is a wonderful visionary artist, and his artwork is deeply inspired by the same kinds of ideas that inspire my music. In this way, you could say our visual and musical ideas flow very well together. You can check out more of his work here: https://www.shadedmirrors.com/
MM: Who/what are some artists, people, places or things that inspire you outside of the musical world?
Avilente: Outside of the musical world, I’m deeply inspired by Nature, Visual Art, Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature and Emerging Technologies.
I’m also a painter/visual artist myself and have been painting for almost a decade now. My works are usually termed ‘surrealist’ by my peers and I love painting imaginary landscapes.
You can check out some of my work here: https://fhf.webflow.io/
I like to visit mountains and forests, and like to cycle/motorbike through them if possible. These trips are usually very inspiring and refreshing to me.
I also like to read fantasy and science fiction from the likes of Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ursula K Le Guin, JRR Tolkien, Christopher Paolini and so on..
MM: What do you like to do apart from making music?
Avilente: Apart from making music, I draw / paint, read, cook, play chess and go on hikes/cycling trips :)
You Can Follow Avilente on:
https://avilente.bandcamp.com/album/along-the-shores-of-an-infinite-memory
All Images courtesy of Avilente
