Our data-driven approach to reforestation means we use technology to track and drive our progress in the field, ensuring we constantly use data from previous projects to improve our knowledge and overall impact. Technology has always been at the core of Land Life Company. Climate change and the necessity for significant effort to reverse the damage already done means we are now at a stage where we need to use every means available to us to ensure we maintain the Earth as a fit environment for life. The name Gaia carries a lot of meaning and with that a lot of weight it is a statement in itself. She heals, nurtures, nourishes and supports life on our planet as the goddess that wholly embodies the earth. In Greek mythology, Gaia is the mother of all nature. We don’t throw away those sounds but save them for a GAIA track.Our Reforestation Dashboard From The Field To You When Benno and I are working in the studio we often come across great sounds that normally don’t fit into what we’re working on. Armin plays as a DJ mostly pre-mixed and arranged tracks. What does GAIA offer you separately to what playing as Armin does? Why did you feel you needed that outlet? If we would still play the same music and DJ in the same way it wouldn’t be very exciting now would it?” People always want to hear and see something different. “It’s a good thing! All part of the evolution of music. What do you think is behind the increase in electronic music acts playing live, and more manufacturers making equipment for it? It’s just about the excitement of doing something different and being inspired.” We’re not trying to be uber cool by doing everything live or something. We basically made the album in front of a live audience. The whole concept of doing a live show BEFORE releasing the album was very exciting for us. If you have been a DJ for over 20 years, you need to change it up a bit sometimes, also to keep inspired. “No, it’s just a whole different approach to making music. We like being nerds on stage!”ĭo you find a live show more liberating or more restricting than a DJ set? People can hear it’s organic and the music breathes. But we feel the excitement of us doing everything live generates a certain energy on the dancefloor. “Good question! At the end of the day we feel it’s all about the music people hear and if they go crazy to it. Additionally, we have two Access Virus TIs and two Arturia Matrixbrutes and a Norddrum.”ĭo you feel like the crowd appreciates a live show over a DJ set? Do they understand what’s happening, or does it matter? Then we have all kinds of MIDI controllers like the APC40 and some custom-built stuff. We wanted to make sure we didn’t have too many plugins in one project. Program changes are used to switch to different patches for the loops. We only use one soft synth, namely Native Instruments’ Massive, but several instances on different channels. One is simply a spare if the other one quits. “We run Ableton Live with Max for Live on two laptops. It’s a whole new way of creating music and you’re sure you’ll never hear the exact same GAIA set live.” We mainly choose the loops based on how we feel the night is going and add loops as we go. We can both manipulate the same parameters but I won’t touch the faders for example if I see Benno is working on them and vice versa. How did you decide what kit to use and what would be played or sequenced? This was all unexplored territory, and we even designed our own hardware controllers for it.” The filtering we do can change colour or light intensity for example, but can be way more complex. This way the rhythm patterns can actually trigger the lights. So, we wanted a connection to the visuals and lights. We had another challenge too: it’s impossible for our crew to know when we do what since we decide everything on the spot. And on top of that: apply reverb effects to all these individual elements to glue the transitions. For arranging we wanted to be able to filter these elements rather than just switching loops on and off. Separate channels for percussion loops, bassline channel and no more than four synth channels. “The wish list was super big: a 909 MIDI-style sequencer with an easy hardware interface to program drums with the touch of a button. What were the main challenges in deciding on the setup for the show? We wanted to make a live show because we wanted to create music live on stage, rather than playing pre-mixed and arranged music. The sound of GAIA is the sound that inspired us to start producing music ourselves. It’s a reference to our roots as producers. “GAIA is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. Why did you decide to create GAIA and why did you want to make it a live show?
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