Dark Sky - Tourists at the Console

Active since 2009, the English duo Dark Sky, made up of Matt Benyayer and Thomas Edwards, have spent the last eight years remixing pretty much everyone: from the celebrated The xx to Maya Jane Coles, passing through labels like Black Acre, Tectonic, and Pictures Music before settling at Monkeytown, home of their friends Modeselektor. Their sonic excursions are rooted in a certain strain of IDM, moving between danceable currents and more introspective ideas. Having reached their second album, titled "Othona", the two English DJ-producers are getting ready to tour clubs across the Old Continent. We caught up with them to take stock and find out more about their music.

Black Acre, 50WEAPONS, Tectonic and Mister Saturday Night: you've moved through several major labels, further proof of your talent. What's behind this constant wandering?

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, they're all labels we respect enormously, and it's been truly special for us to be part of them. We're big fans of many different styles of music, and I don't think we could force ourselves into one specific sound, beyond whatever direction feels right at the time. A big part of this wandering of ours has been about continuing to experiment and develop as artists, but it's been important to treat each release as its own thing, and to embrace that mindset every single time.

The album also draws on some trips you took, with images of enchanting, ancient places that stayed etched inside you, like Bradwell-on-Sea, the English civil parish that lies in Essex, built on a Roman fort called Othona, from which the album takes its name. Could you tell me a bit about this connection between image and sound?

Sure, we've always paid close attention to the visual side of things, especially after shooting covers for our NTS shows over the years. We're in the habit of collecting the various shots we take while travelling. We wanted to start from a different approach for writing our second album, so during the early stages of the writing process Tom brought some photos to the studio that he'd taken while visiting his father in Essex. Some of the photos triggered a strong emotional response, to the point that we started writing material right after seeing them. It was definitely a refreshing approach compared to when we were writing purely by instinct. After putting the album together, we visited the place with our graphic designer Harry Cresswell to gather physical objects and more photos, so as to get an even more concrete sense of the location and its surroundings. We were also fascinated by the history tied to that place – there's this energy coming from the past that helped all of us create something new.

Techno, and English electronic music in general, is constantly shifting. You yourselves move from 2step to other things with a certain ease. Labels aside, how do you perceive your own signature sound from the inside?

Constantly evolving.

What's behind the choice of the name "Dark Sky"?

It was a choice between "Black Ties" and "Dark Sky", but the latter sounded better.

Unlike what happened on "Imagin", this time I sense a fuller, more pulsating sound. What do you think? What gear did you use for this second album?

Thanks. We were definitely more deliberate about making this album more cohesive; we worked alongside the photos, and much of what shaped the sound came from the instruments we were using at the time and the way they were used to create it. Some tracks draw their lifeblood from the sound of old analogue gear, like the DSI Tetra, Korg Volca, Novation Bass, and were then filtered through the Roland SP-303 and RE-20 echo, before final processing using Ableton's sampler. We also experimented heavily with sequencing this gear using iPad apps like Xynthesizr, which helped us stumble onto some unexpected but rewarding paths.

Listening to tracks like "Badd" or "Field Tower", you get a real sense of journey. A sonic journey that's clean though, anything but dirty. There's an enveloping linearity to it. Would you agree? When do you know a track of yours is finished, in its entirety?

We really love music that can pull the listener along on a journey. That approach definitely influenced us on a subconscious level when we were creating certain tracks. When do we think a track is done? That's the eternal question we ask ourselves in the studio, and it's an endless struggle. The truth is you never really know when a track is finished. Everyone has their own idea of when something is done, but it's something you can only get better at through experience gained over time.

Where does "Domes" come from and what does it represent?

"Domes" was inspired by a photograph Tom took of the spy towers at Teufelsberg in Berlin. They're huge abandoned towers that were used during the Cold War to spy on the Russians. It felt to us like there was a connection between that photo and the one of the Essex tower. Both are crumbling man-made structures that serve no purpose today. And yet, for some reason, they pushed us to ask questions about them.

How do you coordinate with each other and how have you organised your tour?

We're both always very busy, neither of us has pre-set sets, and we'll always just do whatever comes most naturally.

How do you enrich your sound? Do you have any secrets to share with us? What's your favourite instrument, and above all, who are your greatest musical loves?

I think our sound is enriched by the work we've developed through our NTS show. It's also a great chance to keep discovering new music. We try to learn new techniques and approaches for making music, and YouTube is an incredible resource for that. We're also fascinated by music from different cultures and traditions, and by the instruments and timbres they use. Some of our biggest musical loves are Can, Cemetery, David Axelrod, J Dilla, Drexciya, Boards of Canada, Radiohead, Holden, FlyLo and Theo Parrish.

Plans for the future?

Our biggest hope is to keep making music. We'd also love to travel to record some musicians, which has always been a dream of ours. And maybe start a label, but we'll see...

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google