Sweet Music RecommendsHey Ivan and Barbara! It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. How was 2022 for you both now looking back?
Hey guys! It’s an honor for us to be here with you. Thank you so much! The previous year was a very productive one, we focused a lot on developing our sound identity, finishing our first album, and delivering some EPs for Ibogatech. A great part was also dedicated to sharpening our live act at Boom Festival. We also addressed our energy into the creation of a Blockchain project targeting music production and visionary art, using one of our tracks as a pilot prototype, together with a very special team of developers.
Can you tell us more about Boundless? How did you first come up with the idea to create this project?
As we live together for 17 years and we are both deeply connected to music production, It just flowed…. we were all the time together at the studio, one making music, the other one working with multimedia, most of the time, we jammed during the day… we produced our first tracks together in 2006 but the project didn’t exist by that time, it was just for fun. There was one of those days though that a friend came to visit us and brought a really cool Moog, so we passed the whole night exploring those fat groovy sounds… and from that, were born Primitive Humanity, our first track as Boundless.
Can you name some musical influences that you believe have shaped your sound?
We have a variety of influences from Brazilian acoustic music, especially Bossa Nova, some African Tribal rhythms, and a strong influence from ancient Arabic scales, specifically Egyptian. Some projects with which we work, really inspired us,m. Zen Racoon, Luis M, and Magupi definitely gave us important creative input, but mainly all of those with whom we made collabs inspired us on our evolution.
The release of your new LP “100 Sec To Midnight” is coming up on IbogaTech. What was your inspiration behind this album?
The album’s concept was inspired by the sustainability quest and its relation to the metaphorical scientific clock. It is more like a shout-out to bring attention to our daily behavior towards nature. There is a scientific gathering every year, on January 20th, at which the world researchers´ community balances the impact of human actions on the planet, then they translate this impact into how much time we have left to revert the destructive tendencies. The time is calculated in relation to Earth’s estimated age and the metaphorical clock is called the Doomsday Clock. The closest it gets to midnight the worst the scenario for the planet´s recovery and if it passes midnight, it means that a chain of unbalanced natural catastrophes with unprecedented impact on life is put into action, a process with no chance to be reversed. So by the time we decided to start composing our album, the Doomsday clock was set to 100 Seconds to Midnight.
What was your experience working on this record?
We devoted a lot of time and energy to the production of the album, it was a process of speechless growth and commitment in the middle of a very turbulent moment for humanity. At the same time, isolation is also a well-known friend of music producers, we spend a significant part of our time immersed in the studio. Some uncertainty due to the Pandemic scenario also propelled our creativity towards other fields of sound production, exploring blockchain technology.
What does your studio setup look like?
Our setup for sound production is composed of two Opal Event monitors that we use for the main creation, two Deviant monitors that we use to have as a different source of sound reference, a Mackie Onix 16 channel as a mixing console, an RME soundcard, one Imac for the main edition and another Macbook Pro as production support, Pioneer DDJ for mixing experiences, UAD Satellite, a Maschine Studio, a complete keyboard from native instruments, one saxophone, 1 acoustic guitar and one Electric Gibson guitar, one Melodica, and 7 octaves midi piano. For the video set, we also customized a PC specifically for post-edition and rendering.
Now that “100 Sec To Midnight” is out, what can we expect from Boundless for the rest of 2023?
We have another release together with MVMB, Magupi, and Freedom Fighters coming at IbogaTech, and one release with Methodic Spin coming on Alpaka Records. We are launching a concept of techno pocket parties in the south of Portugal, in the second quarter of the year, in partnership with two entrepreneurs in Algarve, as well as our first NFT Collection, which is part of Liquid Earth Project, which consists of an experimental and interactive sound project in blockchain, developed by a very talented group of people from Canada, Israel, and Uruguay.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer our questions, is there anything else you would like to mention before we go?
We’d like to wish everybody a wonderful 2023 and we our deepest desire for humanity is that we can revert the movement of the Doomsday Clock. Thank you for having us!
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Boundless – 100 Sec To Midnight is OUT NOW on IbogaTech