Solvoid is a mystery shrouded in a riddle. Three brilliant EPs have appeared from this artist online in the last several months, each one a tricky mixture of two-step, electro, breaks, and 8-bit arpeggios, with hints of the mystic, the playful, and the divine. As with Athena, they seem sprung fully-formed from the head of their creator, and yet there’s almost no discernible information out there about who he (she? they? it?) is. The level of technique and process in the releases point to someone who has been around the block a few times, but just what they might have done before is unclear. And the surprising responses I got back to my interview questions cloud the matter more.
But you know what? That’s awesome. Here’s a creator who just wants you to listen, believing that personal information is completely separate from that experience.
Listening to Solvoid’s clean-but-intricate production, you get the sense that you are moving through a neon maze, each burst of tones setting off sonic events that skitter off on their own paths. But the steady skipping pulse keeps it together, and when you let yourself sink into it, it’s like wrapping your head around a sacred geometry whose purpose is to make you dance.
All the Solvoid stuff we know to exist is contained within the collage below, all of it available for free. What we do know about Solvoid we find in three places:
http://www.solvoid.com
http://soundcloud.com/solvoid
http://solvoid.bandcamp.com
Note: that SoundCloud page also does say “Berlin,” which … okay, doesn’t narrow things down much. -Ed.
So, read on if you want to become even less enlightened, although perhaps ultimately wiser and at least entertained.
Questions for Solvoid
Are you Burial?
Burial of whom? Did someone die?
No, really, are you Burial?
Burial is the outmoded death ceremony of an obsolete culture. Instead, I would hope for my particles to be scattered amongst the spiral arms of NGC 3294.
If you’re not Burial, who are you?
An Earth philosopher called Nietzsche once said, “I am one thing, my writings are another.” The same holds true for recorded music. Yes, I played a role in its creation, but ultimately, each song becomes its own living entity: going places I’ll never go, meeting people I’ll never know, taking on meanings never intended. Besides, the true source of music is cosmic, and I am merely a function of the universe at large. I could not exist without a billion untold events that led to my birth. Similarly, my hand in manifesting this music is subject to innumerable factors beyond my awareness, ability or control. Music is a manifestation of the universe itself: the unique expression of an infinite process. Everyone already knows me.
If, as I think might be the case, you’ve put out music before, why the focus on this “new” sound? What are you exploring?
Solvoid was initiated to explore a unique field of quantum interpenetration in a distant quadrant. Devastation struck – a disaster that changed the project’s course forever. We since learned there are basic assumptions about reality that hold us back from the truth. Solvoid was developed as a mechanism to expose these hidden phenomena.
Any plans to sign these EPs to a label? Or is Bandcamp where they will remain?
When your hours are spent threading the dark latticework of infinite flux, traditional infrastructures serve little purpose.
Any further Solvoid material in the works? Remixes or further self/non-self releases?
If a northern wind continues to howl for nine consecutive nights, look to the brightest star of Boötes – then you will have your sign.
Who would win in a fight, El-B or Horsepower Productions?
We are all manifestations of the same endless process; beyond this essential foundation, nothing lasts. Why fight?
CDM contributor Matt Earp, aka Kid Kameleon, is a San Francisco-based DJ, promoter, writer, blogger, historian, archivist, and fan of electronic music.