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by James from Zurich, Switzerland

Ambient

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“Words will always fall short of expressing what we feel. I often experience very ambivalent emotions. It’s never black or white. Music helps me to convey and deal with this emotional twilight zone.”

Initially a bass player for various pop and jazz acts in Switzerland, James Varghese discovered his love for ambient music through experimenting with effect pedals for his bass guitar. From there he started buying synthesizers to expand the sonic capabilites.
During his artist residency in London in 2019 he started sketching out his solo project which he had been putting off during all his years as a sideman. Back in Switzerland he was put in touch with the people that run the biggest synthesizer museum in the world. He was then invited to spend 3 days and 3 nights surrounded by some of the most obscure and rare synthesizers ever. But the instrument that piqued his interest the most, was the one that created a sound that evoked an overwhelming feeling of melancholy and euphoria at the same time.

“I used to be obsessed with music theory and scales and the technical side of making music. I still enjoy the intellectual challenge and craftsmanship here and there but now I am 100% about emotion. I am interested in the emotions that cannot be put into words.”

«Ambient 1» is the first release under his own name and is a 11 minute melodic ambient deep dive for everybody who wants to look back with a tear in one eye and look ahead with a smile in the other.