Track By Track: Sebastian Mullaert & Eitan Reiter – Reflections Of Nothingness

Sebastian Mullaert and Eitan Reiter recently combined for the first time in recorded form to put together an LP entitled Reflections Of Nothingness. All the tracks on the LP emerged out of a free-flowing improvised communication between the DJs and producers from Sweden and Israel respectively. We asked the pair to talk us through the album, track by track;

1. Enter the Spiral

Seb: The process of making this album stared with Eitan asking me if he could come over to my studio for a week and I happily said yes. My life in the weekdays are beautifully mixed with studio life, melting with nature, meditation and spending time with my wife and kids. With no hesitation Eitan just blended with this life and the chaos of a house with two young children. I think this is also the reason why we had such an amazing time together also in the studio, with no hesitation Eitan accepted to try the way I'm using to get into the creative flow. Enter the spiral was the first touch on the instruments (Eitan on a Roland 101 and me on a Juno 60), I think it was the second day Eitan was here … the name say it all! we're entering the spiral, the flow together. 

Eitan: I must say that the effect of the lifestyle of Seb had really got to me and reminded me of things I truly love in life . like nature and being really here and now . My lifestyle is usually more about exploring and meeting people and environments (I don't feel I am as settled down as Seb is – yet !) . but the meeting with him and his lifestyle Immediately effected me – like a slap to the face that reminded me what my love of music and life is about ! While playing that 1st tune . .  after walking in Nature , Yoga and Meditation I felt like I wanted to just play on an SH 101 but  truly put every bit of knowledge and feeling that I have learned and experienced up until that moment we started playing , into a very simple and minimalistic instrument like the SH ! 

Seb kind of encouraged me to try to be present in the moment . I am usually afraid to "loose" my wild imagination and I see the fact the mind is always creative and being in another place than the body as a good thing . but here I was focused on just standing in found of the speaker and embracing the sounds we are creating with my whole body without drifting away for one second

Thinking back , as much as I though I am "there" yet and ready for this jam . this was just the door opener . .  thats why the strongest word for me in Enter the Spiral , even though the track is very Spirilish , is the word – ENTER !

2. Dissolve

Seb: The next jam was the track that later got the name dissolve, referring to the process of letting go … empty yourself from the separating and express what's here right now. I'm amazed how easy we just got into jamming … and how open Eitan is to just take whatever he have around and make sound of it, and let the identity Eitan dissolve. 

Eitan: This was a track that we did with no thinking at all , It just happend by itself . I think thats why when we did it and after we did not even know how much we will like it . Seb Insisted we have it in the Album and even added a little kick in the background later on . .  I am super glad he did , cause its kind of the Door Opener for OTHERS to listen and experience what we had there 

3. Water Burns Air

Seb: During the week of jamming we were spending a lot of time in the forest, long silent walks. I think it was March when Eitan was here and jammed and the nature was pale, grey and very still … I feel that you can hear that in this track, it has some kind of stillness over it. 

Eitan: Doing this track felt like bringing the outside word into the studio. Nature has such an amazing effect on us . Walking in the forest made us look at natures creation which are so complex and amazing that in puts making music into proportions and creating seems so much easier after that . . . I really felt that nature made our music come out naturally  . . . 

4. Dance of Roots. 

Seb: the part of the album that starts with "Water burns Air" to "falling apart into one" was all jammed in one long take, with some different extra takes on top, Dance of Root started with Eitan starting to stamp in the floor and playing with the hi hat … I think that you can here eitans stamping before the 808 kick comes into the picture. 

Eitan: Seb and I both have strong Trance and Techno Influences and ROOTS (Obviously – LOUD, Son Kite , Minilouge . . . ) , Even though I sometimes try to escape it its a BIG part , and sometimes its to intense and it feels like a Job so I like to make chill out and other styles just to experience creation for a 100 % free state of mind with out having it  do do with the career side of things . I think this track is about our Deep experiences and exploration with trance . .  For me it was all about getting you into that trance  state of mind in the  most minimal way possible  . 2 Elements a Cymbal  to  keep you mind busy and a Kick drum for your body . though playing the cymbal live with bare hands and recording it gives you so many details . . . every hit has a different sound and feel and its evolving all the time and getting stronger and stronger while being very reparative and mantra like For me this was pure Trance ! as Pure as it gets 

5. Ash Layla

Seb: Ritual dancing is a way to open doors to the unconscious, to be able to "see it" and let it out … "Ash Layla" means night moth in Hebrew and I see the night moth as our awareness going deeper into the dark.

Eitan: Picks up where Dance Of Roots got you  . .  You are already dancing and in the right state of mind . . . now its time to go on a small acid sound journey . We are in the right mood already so why not flow with it 🙂

6. No Escape

Seb: At this point there is just one way to go (or you'll lie to yourself) … you have to face what have come out, you have to face what you try to hide from, you'll meet it everywhere you go, also in the creative process … you have to face it, there is no escape. in zen they say "break thru the gateless wall" the more you try to get around it the bigger it gets, you just have to face it … accept it … and then let go … and there is no wall. 

Eitan : Funny enough , I wrote before that sometimes we tray to escape where we come from and this was one of the points I really wanted for Seb and me to start a very chilled out jam and somehow we had no escape from our techno / trance roots ! once u embrace that fact (and probably not just about music , but about so many things in life – accepting  your nature ) you can really flow with it and actually be present in the moment as Seb always says 🙂 I feel it strongly about this track   .  . after doing Ash Layla both of us where so In Tune with each other and just having so much fun that No Escape just happened . It felt like the track took us jamming with it and not the other way around ! So its kind of – "No Escape , buy In a good way . . .  " . If you accept the fact there is no escape you may be more focused on what IS and now what ISNT . Hope it makes sense

7. You're the proof of Heaven

Seb: and when you do, you move on with the deep knowing that everything is exactly as it should be. This is the "place" where I try to express from … from the place of inner peace, from the place where everything is perfect. The creative expression becomes/is the expression of life, the ever changing flow of energies that we're experiencing moment by moment … each moment a proof of Heaven.

Eitan: My Favorit . . . This is true chill out music for me . Its kind of going back to where we started (back to the SPIRAL) but after we have evolved a bit . . . after we have already started the process of playing together , walking in the forest , connecting . I can really feel that in that track . .  here its like we are swimming in an environment of sounds we have created . . . we are no longer Seb and Eitan we are just a REFLECTIONS OF NOTHINGNESS  !!! 

8. Falling apart into one

Seb: All the way from "No escape" to "falling apart into one" the tempo is just going slower and slower, like the rest of the album we didn't have any plan or thought about this but every time I listen to it I feel like falling apart … falling apart beyond the me that is separating itself from the rest, and instead resting in the "bigger" in the unborn and untouched. 

Eitan: Funny that its the name we chose , I think in this track after I was like a kid in a candy store at Seb's studio , for the 1st time I did not want to do so much  .. . Seb was playing so beautifully on the synth (I think it was the SH) and I had fun just listening 🙂 maybe we were both making music through his hands ? can a musician effect another buy just being in the room and sharing his presence ? by this poing I feel a lot of our Ego had faded away . . . I could just listen to sounds and experience them 

9. Faith

Seb: In the end there is just faith, faith in life and faith in what is. I hope that the people giving this album a dedicated listen will feel the faith we felt after this week together. 

Eitan: Seb actually got me to sing a lot in this album and I am NOT a singer   . . . far from it 🙂 every-time I did something like play the Rhodes (and I am not a player ) seb was saying how beautiful it sounded and really gave me so much confident to be exposed . I think singing is the most pure tool a musician has to get his soul out to others ears . . and maybe even farther . . .

Reflections Of Nothingness is out now.