Seamless downtempo bliss from Texas.
The latest Theory Therapy mix comes from Austin-based artist Gi Gi. I became aware of the producer after they released Lumino Pleco, one of the most spellbinding releases I’ve heard in a long time. The album, released on New York’s Quiet Time, is made entirely of samples from artists including Prince, Erykah Badu, Vangelis and Miles Davis, then reshaped and recontextualised to say something completely new. If it wasn’t for the liner notes, you would have no idea that this tactile, otherworldly ambient album contains tracks from some of music’s biggest icons.
The fact that it does though adds to the magic of Lumino Pleco. The record brims with life just as a city skyline is filled with people unseen to the naked eye. It is rich, intricately layered ambient music that moves and slowly unfurls, revealing new details with every listen.
Since the release of the LP, I’ve been catching up with everything that Gi Gi has been involved in, including their incredible three-hour mix for c- and more recent recording for Mitamine. Like the music they create, the Texan’s mastery of rhythm, texture and tone are clear; each mix is absolutely seamless.
The same can be said for their Theory Therapy recording. There’s unreleased music from Perila, Nueen and an unnamed musician alongside the likes of Dettinger and Massive Attack, tied together in a way that they become almost imperceptible from one another, regardless of how familiar you are with their songs. “The seams are blurred in a way that might allow the listener to become easier enveloped”, they tell us.
Photo by Brandon McClain
How are you today?
Well! Staying busy and enjoying the sunshine.
Lumino Pleco is made entirely from samples from artists including Prince, Erykah Badu and Miles Davis. It’s a pretty unique idea for an ambient album. Can you tell us a little about how the LP came about?
The sample sources are actually never something that I thought much about at the time during production. It was less of a conceptual starting point for the record and more just born out of my elementary work process. I don’t really have much gear, physical or otherwise, so I’m left with stock DAW samplers/effects as my sole mode of expression, at least until I take the time to invest in something more complex.
After struggling for years to coax something out of this workflow that didn’t sound...artificial, sterile, basically like it came out of a program, I started to try to rethink the way I choose samples as a means to achieve a sound that is not only distinctive but also texturally organic in the way that so much of the music I’m attracted to is.
I’ve found that recontextualizing music from sources that might seem tangential to the framework I’m working within is a simple yet effective way at producing something novel. The sample sources mentioned above are pieces of music imbued with this organic quality and, more importantly, a humanity that contrasts (or maybe hides) my sterile workflow in a nice way.
That being said, I tried to focus on the in-between moments of this source material—the brush strokes in anticipation of a song’s start; the sounds of running water in an album’s non-musical interlude; the denouement of a movement’s final, trailing saxophone note.
Lastly, I’d like to add that I believe this sense of intimacy is accented by the vocals contributed by my partner, mimi. Her words (the lyrics as well as the song titles, which are mostly taken from the lyrics) give the release a sense of purpose beyond the vague conceptual framework I started with. Listening back since the vocals and titles have been added, a sort of emotional resonance has bloomed that wasn’t apparent to me before.
Can you tell us a little bit about the mix? What were you feeling when you made it?
Given the prompt of ‘therapeutic’, I tried to emphasize a smooth, effortless sense of flow and pacing—to create a mixture of music that’s blended together in such a way that the listener might not even notice the transitions occurring.
I think there’s something to be said for contrast and disruption in djing, but in this case, I opted to eschew those techniques in favor of a more static environment where the seams are blurred in a way that might allow the listener to become easier enveloped. At the same time, I tried to incorporate enough of a sense of rhythm and groove so as to keep the listener engaged and not too sedate.
Where did you record the mix?
At home in Texas, outside in the newly-arrived spring sun, over the course of a few afternoons.
Where would you recommend listening to it?
Somewhere similar—outside, in the light, perhaps alongside your morning routine, or maybe in the car on a long drive, that’s one of my favorite places to listen.
Are there any tracks you’ve used in the mix that are special or significant to you?
I generally try to incorporate an even blend of current and past material, so here a few old favorites rub shoulders with some contemporaries. I’m very grateful to be able to include the tracks from Nueen, Perila, Dan, PX and Dajve—they all touch on different sounds and ideas that have been particularly resonant and inspirational for me lately.
Theory Therapy mixes are about sharing the music that you personally find therapeutic and restorative. What does that mean for you?
Thinking beyond the surface level association of ambient music with a calming, therapeutic effect, I find that the musical experiences that are the most helpful to me are the ones that leave me with a replenished wellspring of creativity and influence. That singular feeling of possibility when hearing a new piece of work that instantly resonates will never get old for me—it’s what I’m always searching for as a listener and selector, and what I strive to one day achieve in my own work as well.
Is there a particular album or piece of music that you find yourself returning to for tranquillity?
Round Five - Na Fe Throw It
John T. Gast - Exile
Love Inc - Life’s A Gas
are all examples of spaces I could inhabit endlessly. Basically anything in my extended mix for c-, that one was a meditation on deep, impactful forever-grooves.
hm, what else…
bloweyelashwish by lovesliescrushing
Yokota’s Sakura of course
Alice Coltrane’s Turiya Sings when I want to feel spiritual (I’m not)
Any Hanna track when I want a new lease on life
Urban Tribe’s Collapse Of Modern Culture when I want to sulk and headnod
Inc’s No World, Erika De Casier’s Essentials and Dreamcast for the pop realm
x.y.r - El Dorado immediately takes me back to driving through mountains in Mexico with mimi
Also from 12th isle, D.K. - Live At The Edge is a new one that’s immediately stuck
Dettinger’s Intershop I’ve fallen in love with all over again the past month or two (that and D.K. both make appearances in the mix)I guess I’d be remiss not to include For Those Of You Who Have Never
HTRK when I want to cry
I could do this all day....
What do you have planned for this year?
I’ve wandered towards a new place sonically with my work as Gi Gi that has been exciting, exploring some other stylistic sides with a new alias or two soon, and anxiously awaiting to return to engaging with music out in the real world.
Tracklist:
Dajve - 1A
Nueen - Hum
Dettinger - Intershop 6
Massive Attack - Protection (Quiet Village Remix)
??? - ???
Perila - ???
D.K. - Untitled 3
Koss - Negai
Reagenz - Shibuya Day
Gi Gi - Thistle (thrown voice)
PX - arms length away