Interview met Edictum

Het nieuwe album Ending Infinity is een sonische reis die de grenzen van sciencefiction en muziek opzoekt. De samenwerking tussen Edictum, Pfeffermouse en Turbo Knight resulteerde in een conceptalbum dat wordt ondersteund door een graphic novel en diepe astronomische thema's. In dit interview vertelt Edictum over de systematische aanpak met Trello, zijn passie voor hardware en de uitdaging om een verhaal van generaties te vangen in negen tracks.

The new album ¨Ending Infinity¨ is a sonic journey that pushes the boundaries of science fiction and music. The collaboration between Edictum, Pfeffermouse, and Turbo Knight resulted in a concept album supported by a graphic novel and profound astronomical themes. In this interview, Edictum talks about the systematic approach using Trello, his passion for hardware, and the challenge of capturing a generational story across nine tracks.

How did the synergy between you, Pfeffermouse, and Turbo Knight come about for this specific project?

Turbo Knight and me already had some experience working together and he also had done a collab track with Pfeffermouse. As the three of us all like to make space-themed cinematic music with video-game and dance music influences, we had the idea to work on a collaborative album together. The collaboration was great fun and we had fantastic chemistry working together.

With three prominent names in the scene, how did you divide the roles during the production process of Ending Infinity?

We went for a quite systematic approach. Everybody startet little sketches, then we gave it to the next in row that did a more complete arrangement still leaving room for the 3rd of us to finish the track off. We selected the 9 best tracks and ditched drafts that didn't fet the theme of the album.To keep track of what we did, we used Trello as a tool. After a round of feedback I then mastered the tracks for digital and vinyl release to have a coherent sound.

The title Ending Infinity suggests a paradox between closure and the eternal. What is the overarching story you wanted to tell with this album?

The story was created with theme and subtext in mind. It should not be just aesthetics but substantial and grandeur. I don't want to spoiler the actual story but the contradiction between the ship's name and the outcome of the story was on purpose to look at essential questions from a meta perspective. Juan Castellón masterfully crafted artwork for every scene of the story that elevated the project above pure music.

In what way has the astronomical inspiration from your earlier work, such as A Cosmic Scale, flowed into this new album?

The story is based on a variety of real places and scientific data. The fictional planet is referring to an earth-like planet 12.5 lightyears away. Assuming a travel speed of half the speed of light would result in a time of 25 years per direction. As it is likely that not all trained personnel would survive until the ship returns or would not be in the shape to still control all things necessary it was apparent, that a new generation has to be born and raised during the journey. This creates all sorts of interesting szenarios and should show how difficult such a journey really can be. In general, as I am a scientist myself, coherence and information density are high values for me that I always aim to achieve with new projects.

Ending Infinity sounds grand and cinematic. Which specific synthesizers or gear were essential for achieving this particular sound?

The album features a vast palette of sound sources. Turbo Knight and Pfeffermouse mostly work in the box (Synths like Serum 2, Spire, Phoscyon 2 and Diva were used quite a bit) while I always incorporate at least some hardware. I own more than 50 synthesizers (mostly vintage) and included many of them into the album. Some examples used on the album are are: JD800, JX-3P, DSS-1, Virus TI TS-12, DX-7, Pro-1, Odyssey, MS-20, Matrix 6R, MKS-70, D-50, Hydrasynth, UB-Xa and many more.

How do you ensure that the individual styles of three different artists merge into one cohesive sound without it becoming fragmented?

Everybody was using a different DAW which is why we exchanged pure Audio stems rather than project files. This is a big advantage as it forces one to commit to decisions fast and keeps the essence of what each producer added to the project. Furthermore it opens up another level of editing especially for little details and ear-candy.

Now that the album is out and there has been a release party in Vienna, how do you look back on the evolution of the tracks from demo to final product?

It is always fantastic to see how things finally fall in place and it feels like it has been always out there. That feeling is typically a sign for me that a project is finished. All three of us are quite busy producers and revisiting the album for the party was great fun as we created something unique and coherent, a story I would love to see as a movie. What started as a simple collab project shifted halfway into a concept album that demanded much more from us than just producing a few nice tracks. The songs had to fit the narrative and we ended up ditching quite some drafts to have the perfect arc of tension. Indigo then provided gorgeous vocals as always that round off the album nicely

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