Eric Volta
(Visionquest | No.19 | Flying Circus – Berlin)
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Cosmic, psychedelic & extraordinary, Eric Volta’s music is as far out as the man behind it. The architect responsible for one of 2013’s biggest records – ‘Love Your Illusion’ has a unique story to tell. One that is backed with years of hard work and a humbling attitude that has invited people and circumstances into his journey that have lead to this moment.
In literature a ‘volta’ is the moment in a sonnet when everything changes – where the writer turns full circle, switching viewpoint. Without intention, this is the path Volta has naturally chosen to walk and in doing so, has created onto himself something quite unique. Volta is often looked at as someone who thinks outside the box. He is a native Londoner who grew up travelling, spending the first 20 years of his life wandering through Europe, the Middle East & South East Asia. His varied upbringing and multi cultured exposure helped to fuel his diverse artistic and musical curiosity. Not one for shameless self-promotion, he had a clever approach and spent his first 2 years of djing around London – asking to remain anonymous on line-ups. It was with this attitude that he was invited to be a resident for one of London’s most respected underground Sunday daytime parties – lo*kee. He joins lo*kee for a few shows hosting room 3 at Fabric, London. ‘I’m really into these staccato rhythms, I put the bass down and the I just summoned John Carpenter out of the Moog.’
‘Love Your Illusion’ is released on Jonny White (of Art Department) ‘s label – no.19. In November of 2013. Signed in January, the record was played at every Art Department show for the entire year. Sometimes, even twice in a set. It has since become one of the most played tracks of 2013, with a top 10 best of 2013 by Dj Mag and top 10 charted tracks of November 2013 on RA.
‘Dare to do different. I can’t stand the shameless nature of self-promotion. Everyone likes to talk about them selves too much. I love the ambiguity that having an artist name gives me. When I go out I am nameless, I don’t talk about what I do, and I don’t really like talking about what I have been doing in the studio all week long. I am out to connect, to dance, to be inspired!’ It’s this very nature of no self-promotion and relying on the strength of his productions, that Volta made his production debut on Claude Von Stroke’s Dirtybird by climbing out of the demo pile – through a Soundcloud submission. ‘It wasn’t even a demo, I wasn’t trying to get the track signed to Dirtybird’ he adds. Saying that he merely wanted to send Von Stroke a track that he would just like to play. A long time friendship with producer Danny Daze (who was at the time working as A&R for Ellum Audio) would lead to an introduction with Maceo Plex and eventually the signing of ‘Believe’ to the label. The song features D.ablo of the UK Hip Hop group – Terrafirma, also currently touring with I Am Legion. It was through this encounter that relationships were forged that would lead to his meeting with Seth Troxler & Visionquest leading to the signing of ‘Words & Chance’ featuring the vocals of Forrest. ‘I believe we should never allow ourselves to miss an opportunity to connect with another human being. Life is short & fragile and almost every encounter even those smallest of them – could have the most profound impact on our lives.’
It is with this frame of mind that Volta has sought out to build musical relationships with other producers and musicians. Having an ‘open door’ attitude to allowing himself to meet and have jams with many musicians in his Berlin studio. ‘I tell anyone – if you can play or bring something to a recording session, then let’s jam!’Diving into the depths of his conscious & sub-conscious mind is what Volta is all about. Pushing his endurance in the studio to reach a state of mind that is fragile and void of inhibition. The results are productions that are honest, clever, elegant, grand and yet understated in their achievement.
Be different.
Is an attitude Volta has carried through his journey in life. It is with such an approach that the production to follow ‘Love Your Illusion’ is a ‘remix’, or more of a classical reinterpretation on Touch of Class’ Pattern Drama EP, where Volta brings the classical world into the electronic and fuses his retro-synth work with classical musicians to create something so special that one journalist wrote ‘is one of those tracks that’s so innovative, it almost defies categorization.’
The last couple of years have seen him being heavily supported by the likes of Maceo Plex, Seth Troxler, Art Department and Tiefschwarz with a string of releases on Ellum Audio, Visionquest, No.19, Souvenir and Renaissance. The beginning of 2014 will being new EPs on some of his favorite labels as well as Eric Volta’s own record label to be announced soon.
