MORPHEUS MUSIC INTERVIEW - SHULMAN

23.03.06

Yaniv: The new album which is entitled “Random Thoughts” was released worldwide on February 20 2006, is not a typical Shulman album in a sense that all the tracks on it weren’t written especially for it or for any other specific project, unlike what we usually do. Therefore, we consider this album to be more like an artist “compilation” in some aspects more than an artist album. Since the tracks contained in this album were made in different musical periods and with different musical goals, the end result as a whole is a very diverse album representing a large array of musical styles and elements. It contains musical fundamentals from many traditional cultures such as Sufi, Turkish, Egyptian, and Irish, up to more modern electronic music such as IDM, Psychill, ambient, atmospheric D&B, and “normal” modern music such as Rock and Jazz. Also there are collaborations on this album with many talented musicians, some of them are world famous like Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Steve Shehan, Bluetech, Sub6, Amir Gvirtzman, Entheogenic, Ori Beanstock and many other less famous but very talented musicians such as Yinon Yahel, Matan Chapnitzky, Lee Triffon and others. I think this album is very different than what you may call a classic “Shulman” album. We thought it is a nice idea to offer our fans these tracks as it does represent another side and slightly different aspect of our musical work. Also we believe this random concept album is a suitable platform to release these tracks and finally have them out there in the ocean of musical creation. We hope the listeners will enjoy it.

Omi: We do what we do from the love of music. The joy of creation takes us forward always and makes us get new picks and reach higher goals, and did I mention the chicks?

Yaniv: I have a very strange and unexplained passion for composing music. And what started as a nice side hobby quite quickly grew into my work and became an important and meaningful part of my life. I wouldn’t really want to do anything else in my life at the moment.

Omi: We usually start of with a general idea and build the track around it, we compose many different elements during the track and in the end we pick only a few from them and build the whole track around those.

Yaniv: Did Omi mention the chicks already?

Omi: A lot of bandwidth and good download capabilities hehehehe, we do our best to keep up to date with all the new amazing software that comes out and beside that we are always open minded about our music and try new things all the time and that is what is keeping us on the cutting edge I think.

Yaniv: Shulman live is currently played by 4-5 people, depending on the availability of the players involved and the promoters budget. All the tracks played live have been rearranged for the live show. The show’s full setup is performed by a drummer who plays a full set of acoustic drums, an electric bass player, a keyboard player, a wind instruments player or a singer, and me. The outcome is just fantastic and is very different from any live show of any electronic group that I’m aware of today. The show also features a few unreleased tracks which will be released on our next album (due out in the last quarter of 2006). If you have a chance make sure you catch us perform since it’s something really special and unique! Also I’m very happy as how this show turned out as it advances the whole concept of electronic music further out of its traditional boundaries and it gives the audience a real musical concert. Personally I’m tired of watching someone plays with his laptop’s mouse and calling it a show, and the whole concept of electronic music performances needs a serious makeover, which is what we aim to do. I hope to upload to our website www.shulman.info some audio recordings and short video clips to it soon.

Omi: I have no fears what so ever, the technology is growing all the time and there is no limit to where it can go, I’m sure the electronic music has just began and it is here to stay for many more years.

Yaniv: Not really. I believe the electronic music is here to stay and I that there are plenty of new grounds to explore in it and sonic places to visit, both as a composer and as a listener. I’m also pretty excited about the fact that electronic music creation tools, especially highly advanced and capable software and computers are accessible to so many people all over our planet these days. This fact alone means that many more people can experiment and create music, which in turn leads to new and fresh thinking musicians who can come up with exciting new ideas. The downside of this explosion of technological availability, which I think hurts the blooming of electronic music, is that a lot of crap also gets released. I think that filtering the crap is the label’s job, which sadly they don’t always do.

Thanks to Yani and Omi for allowing us that interview.