Melawati unveils debut album, 'Artimia'

Belgian artist Melawati - real name Martijn Ravesloot - is set to release his debut album, 'Artimia' on October 14

The record was written and created during the pandemic whilst situated in Brussels, with Ravesloot recording live experiments on analogue synths before deconstructing and reconstructing them into the tracks found on his debut album.

Synth sounds are the consistent theme throughout his 12-track debut, which engages with both harmonic and dissonant soundscapes, reflecting the time in which the record was put together.

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Initially starting its journey after Ravesloot was dealing with a heart problem, as a break from stress, turning to his synths allowed the creation of music "purely on instinct".

"At the time I couldn’t even think about the future or what would become of it," he explains. "I needed unthinking music. Those jams and sounds were the basis for what would be 'Artimia' some way down."

"Just as I was getting over this episode, going through my ideas and beginning to think this might be something, musically, something strange happened. The pandemic hit and the whole world kind of went the way I did, the year before. There was a lot of hyperawareness, and a lot of over rationalising. Everybody was spewing so much information, opinions and facts (true and false), just when there was really not much to say. It seems all our brains revolt in some way, when you really don’t know what is about to happen. If there is nothing, we grab on to anything, it seems."

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This thought motivated the album's formation, developing his previously put together ideas, into an "ode to not knowing".

"I continued the music on instinct, steering clear of meaning and not letting the tracks too far out of my subconscious. Just to counter all the rationalisation that was going on, the frantic looking for reason, where there was none. I just wanted an album that would do the opposite, that would celebrate the fact there is nothing."

The release of 'Artimia' comes fresh from Melawati playing live sets at Tomorrowland for both Afterlife and Ellum Audio. You can check it out here.

Niamh Ingram is Mixmag's Weekend Editor, follow her on Twitter