The curator of this week’s podcast, Matthias (real name Matthias Prennushi) is known for deep and spacey grooves—the sort of stuff you’ll hear in his 2020 XLR8R podcast. Besides the fact that he heads up Superluminal, a small Berlin label where he’s put out almost all of his productions, he’s revealed scant personal details, but we do know he originates from Italy and found music through the guitar. Around the age of 16, after attending some local electronic music events, he became intrigued by “all the knobs and instruments behind the booth, all controlled by a single figure responsible for people’s dreams.” After moving to Berlin through London, fascinated by the German capital’s past and how that was affecting the people musically, he launched his label and its accompanying party series. He’s been making his own records since 2010 and DJing since 2007, but the two are inextricably linked: he only plays his own edits and original productions in his sets.

Matthias recorded his last mix in the darkest depths of the pandemic and he delivers this one towards the end of it—we hope. He emerges from this period with a new alias that stems from the frustration and deep sadness of not being able to share the music he’s been making with others. Autoerosynth (a play on “musical autoeroticism”), a project dedicated to the realm of synth, is an “extension of himself,” he says, and he’ll launch it soon with a debut EP on Superluminal. But before that, he’s compiled an XLR8R podcast to exhibit the sounds we can expect, including the first taste of this new release. Instead of slick, minimal groove, expect brooding synth lines, warped vocals, and dramatic soundscapes that become increasingly fraught as the mix progresses. All in all, it’s two hours of compelling electronic madness from a multi-faceted artist we’ve long admired.

01. What have you been up to recently?

I must say my life before and after the pandemic hasn’t changed much. I’ve always spent an incredible amount of time finding new music to play. In general, I am a person who spends a lot of time thinking of music and where I can work harder in terms of offering something fresh in order not to get stuck in a boring loop of already given materials. Consistency is very important for me in developing one’s music and archive.

02. Which labels and artists have you been listening to recently?

I personally do not like following criteria; instead, I listen to whatever the day brings me, even if I do have preferences. I cannot really answer this question.

03. You’re setting up a new project called Autoerosynth. What can you tell us about it?

Well, this is interesting, at least I hope so. I have been suffering a lot recently because the pandemic has caged me into a state of isolation. I feel like everything I make in the studio or find on a shelf is always meant to be shared with someone else. It does not matter when or where but there is going to be a time. But the odds have been pretty murky this time. So I confined myself into a musical autoeroticism, and the impossibility of playing music with others and for others gave birth to this name. We have been dancing since ancient times, since the very beginning, so when you take it away from us it’s always going to hurt our inner instinct.

04. What are your plans for Autoerosynth?

Autoerosynth is going to be a new alter-ego that will explore dramatic worlds in the realm of synthesizers. It is a journey for synth lovers. The alias will first appear on my record label, Superluminal, with a four-track EP.

05. Where and when did you record this mix?

I recorded the mix approximately one month ago in my studio, where I’ve recorded all my previous mixes. I wanted to be sure of the integrity of the recording rather than the single tracks; it has taken me a long time to find the music and understand which path I wanted to take for this project.

06. What can the listener expect?

As I said last year to a similar question, I do not want you to expect anything. We always tend to build our emotions based on our expectations rather than offering a pure sense of listening to whoever performs for us. It’s as if we are waiting for something.

07. You haven’t provided a tracklisting. Can you explain why?

Yes, I think I already gave a part of the answer to this in the previous question. I wanted to focus on the full recording and the integrity of the full spectrum. I personally do not feel good being involved in these ID games; everyone is so hungry to know titles behind a single track, which minimizes everything into a single tune. For me, there is no special record, just the whole thing.

08. What’s next on your horizon?

I am looking forward to the next challenge. We just came through one of the biggest tragedies in our history and yet we managed to take something out of it. I wonder what’s next, and how much we can learn from it. Think about the music we can make after this!

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Editor’s note: Autoerosynth has opted not to deliver a tracklisting for this mix.