If there’s any electronic subgenre that could be imagined as a brush on an imaginary canvas, then it must be ambient & experimental. Rather than the witness’ eye capturing colors and shapes, it’s the hearing that recreate landscapes, urbanscapes and movie scenarios.
Among myriad of record labels focused on ambient, we discovered Artificial Owl Recordings, a small imprint based in New York. Niko Dalagelis aka One Of Them, the mastermind behind the label, has been producing music since 2000. The idea of an ambient project came later, in 2019, and this is how Artificial Owl Recordings was born. Its soothing sound, both dreamy and intriguing, draws inspiration from the natural habitat and has this special gift of outgrowing its surroundings, setting up special state of mind for its listeners.
Available in a limited quantity of 300 orange records, AO’s latest release presents A_A, a live performance project of DJ / musician Satoshi Tomiie and NYC-based artist Nao Gunji. Satoshi and Nao performed their work “Diskordant” using their analog machines and object-activated sounds in front of the New York crowd presenting their sound and tone textures that are created in studio sessions.
Niko took time to answer a few questions and also built up a label mix to give us a better taste of what Artificial Owl Recordings is all about. Dive in!
The story behind the label and the name.
I have been producing and releasing music since 2000. In 2019 I completed an ambient album (Sithabo) which I was working on for some time. I was shopping it around but then decided to release it on my own and slowly the idea of creating a record label specializing in ambient and experimental music was born. I am a huge fan of Vangelis’ music and the movie Blade Runner since I was super young so when the time came to create the art and vibe of the label, I combined them all and the result morphed in to what we have now. After the first release on the label, other’s came and it was just an organic journey and growth. Now on our 5th release which is a Live Performance in New York by my good friend Satoshi Tomiie and his project with Nao Gunji A_A. Before Satoshi, we released music from Madrid’s pioneer Miguel Ruiz aka Orfeon Gagarin who is an amazing old school producer and Abul Allum aka Orbital Patterns who creates just beautiful ambient Lo FI music with his analog synths.
Do you need a special mood & environment to get the full flavour of an ambient soundscape like Artificial Owl’s?
I don’t think so. I just go with the flow. I am not looking for anything, I just accept whatever presents itself and clicks in whatever moment. You can be anywhere and in whatever mood and always something will pop and accommodate everything at the moment. It’s a matter of taste I guess and how you perceive everything.
Your productions involve field recordings? Did you capture NYC’s urban sound into your AO productions?
My album Sithabo has a lot of real time recordings from my travels which I recorded and used.
I like to use here and there recorded sounds from the natural habitat.
What does it take for a producer to release music through Artificial Owl?
Just reach out and send us a demo and we’ll take it from there :) Music will do the rest.
3 words that best describe the Artificial Owl sound.
I Don’t Know :)
In a world where instant gratification and social media mirrors are invading the underground, is there still a place for an ambient vinyl record label in the underground?
We make our own worlds and that is what I did when I decided to create my label.
Life is too short and the Underground a very charming entity. I think instant gratification has nothing to do with anything as long as you don’t care about it. There is always a place for anything.
The perfect location for an Artificial Owl showcase.
The place where music is appreciated by the receivers and the creator is happy with his work.