Alex Bussé, also known as Ameeva, is a Catalan music producer who now resides in Berlin. Without closing himself into any specific genre, he explores a wide arc of influences, while remaining genre-fluid, as a desire to always stay focused on learning and understanding.
His stunning debut LP ‘Fractura Del Sueno’ was released earlier this year via Lowless Records. Be sure to check that out here.
Alex’s contribution to our new series is nothing short of exceptional. It’s a one-hour, deeply atmospheric journey through all things ambient, drone and electronica, with movie dialogues and personal conversational snippets added in to contribute towards the overall narrative of the mix. Enjoy!
Check out the rest of the mixes in the series here:
Hey Alex, thanks for contributing towards our Off The Record Mix Series. Can you tell us about your recording and what inspired you with the track selection…
Thank you for the invitation!
My main purpose with this recording was basically building a gentle dive into one’s personal chambers. Regarding the music selection, I tried to focus on melty melodies, lush ambient scapes and loopy mantras that you can actually be physically moved by, without the need for a kick-drum or percussion. Ambient can be surprisingly groovy!
I always try to build an arc progression that goes from one point to another. Sometimes is from one starting point that ends up lost in somewhere else completely different, other times is a walk of going and return. I’d say this one was kind of a day-trip that even you went back home you have learnt something new that changes the initial perception you had.
And what about the movie quotes you’ve placed amongst the tracks – which movies are they from and why did you pick them?
I love to place some movie lines or dialogues in my music and mixes. Personally, what music has given me the most, are concrete memories and experiences. For some reason music allows me to record these moments in my mind much deeper than regularly. It really acts as a soundtrack of life. Some people can recall an entire stage of childhood or a concrete summer by watching a picture or smelling your grandma’s home. I guess what triggers most of my memory is music. And what it’s most interesting about it is that sometimes a song doesn’t need to be present at that moment to be associated with it! Maybe I’m just daydreaming too much, but I can assure is what maintains me on track as an artist haha!
About the dialogues used in this mix, there’re extracts from movies I watched recently and resonated with me for some reason like ‘Portrait of a Girl On Fire’, ‘Into The Wild, ‘Dolor y Gloria’ or ‘Little Women’. Plus I had the pleasure of recording a deep conversation with a good friend and use it to produce a small track from it! -yes, that intro track.
Your debut album Fractura Del Sueño was released earlier this year via Lowless Records. How would you describe the album and your sound?
I also have troubles describing my sound cause I feel is constantly morphing depending on my taste and life situation. ‘Fractura del Sueño’ in particular was focused to explore the more cosmic side of Ambient and Electronica with wide pads and dreamy melodies, speaking above a solid and rough terrain of broken-driven beats with light reminiscences of Techno.
For me, this project was the first attempt to work with a concept in order to craft a sonic storytelling. I have a lot of respect for long conceptual works, and I always was aware of not pushing every quick idea into an album. It has to flow naturally. And luckily this one was all about self-expression and intuition.
What are your favourite record labels out there at the moment?
I’m not really into labels digging, I mostly do my listening by artist. But I’ve been recently flowing a lot with Semantica’s catalogue as well as early PoleGroup’s. Even though I’ve spent my entire life in Spain I was not aware of the great talent in our country until I moved to Berlin and people were like ‘oh you are Spanish! You must be proud of your national talent.’ Unfortunately, the Spanish infrastructure for underground is so poor that this kind of projects are not pushed to be recognized, and as it happened to me, unless you do proper digging, you can totally miss them.
Besides the Spanish Techno scene, I’m constantly bathing in VAAGNER and Room 40 for my ambient inspiration and I also have to mention the work of my friends from IO Records, which are putting really personal and talented productions in the Hypnotic / Deep Techno scene.
2020 has been quite an extraordinary year so far. How has life been for you during the pandemic?
I’m not gonna lie, has been probably the most challenging situation I’ve faced. It caught me recently moved to Berlin and all the plans were kind of cancelled so I had -and still haha- to improvise a lot.
The first months were really great and I felt myself in a brutal creative wave, being able to produce a second LP. But soon after I turned completely to the opposite way, not being able to even sit down in my desk or turn ‘on’ my beloved Digitone. The motivation to make music was completely gone for almost 2 months. Now it looks like I’m recovering again. I’ve especially felt that while producing for this mix, so I have to say thank you for that!
What have you been listening to recently at home in these times?
Ouf, this is the only thing I appreciate from these times, the time to explore. Artists that have ruled my speakers are people like Marvin Gaye, Boards of Canada, Kendrick Lamar, Squarepusher, Sudan Archives, A Tribe Called Quest or Felicia Atkinson among many more.
But I have to specially mention DJ Shadow ‘Endtroducing’ album. That has been listened to almost as a ritual. I’m quite young and I have a lot of classics to listen that normally people know and I don’t so I used this time to take some history lessons. Now I’m trying to understand how I could live without ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’.
Thanks, Alex!
