ATTRACTION

DKJ008 | 24.06.2022

Certain sounds tend to evoke certain emotions within us. From our countless conversations with our favorite melodic producers we know that emotions are the center of their work, may it be by expressing their emotions in their music or facilitating emotional journeys through their DJ-sets. CHROMA is an artistic experiment to further explore the link between music and emotions.

We asked 10 of our favorite producers to create a track based on a certain emotion. Each EP of the five CHROMA EPs is dedicated to one emotion and contains two tracks by two different artists.
Do you feel what we feel?

Like the polar sides of magnets, we feel naturally drawn to certain people and certain things. Attraction is the root of passion, the basic internal movement of people towards each other, closer together.

The LA-based Anakim makes his return to our imprint with a pure beauty of a track, for which he deeply connected with the magic between two people in love with each other. The result is a soft deviation from his usually harder style that goes right in the feels. ‘The Space Between Us’ takes its time to build up its lead melody, with a progressive groove slowly building up to culminate in a drop signifying the expansive quality of two attracted souls.

The uprising newcomer Natasha Wax took a playful approach to attraction with her groove-focused ‘Love Verse’. Gliding along like the dance between two people attracted to each other, the track’s catchy groove immediately draws you in and makes it impossible to keep your feet still. A true dancefloor romancer.

Interview

What is your personal association with the emotion of attraction that found its way into your track?

Anakim: "Even though my music naturally leans darker, I found it rather easy to settle into the feeling of attraction and love. I’ve been in a 4 year relationship with the woman of my dreams and she was my muse for this track. I envisioned us walking around EDC for the first time, lights glittering, stages pumping with music, but the two of us fully locked into the moment sharing a magical night together. I imagined both our hearts emanating loving energy, overlapping each other energy field as we locked eyes. That overlapping energy field of both our hearts signifies the space between us, the title of the track."

Natasha Wax: "For me, attraction is about interest, lightness, like when you are free and feel like a child. So I tried to express that in my track. It should be light and make people feel attraction in the whole world."

How did the approach of translating an emotion into a track influence your production process?

Anakim: "  It didn’t change my production process much, as this is the way I naturally produce music. Every single one of my EPs have been concept EPs, with a very complex concept I try and tackle. For example, I had an EP titled Virtual Faith, which dealt with the concept of a future AI gaining consciousness and turning into humanity’s God. I ask myself throughout the process, “What would this sound like? What would the soundtrack to this be? What would this feeling sound like?” It’s a very natural way I produce music."

Natasha Wax: "It was an interesting experience. Sometimes the track went another way but I turned it around again and again to fit my first idea about the emotion. And I was thinking how people should to feel when they listen to it. Usually I make the mood and people who feel it can join the atmosphere of the track. But here it was other way around. Emotion and mood determine what track you will hear."

If you could choose another emotion to interpret, which one would it be and why?

Anakim: "Hope. The world has been very dark and we all went through a period of massive uncertainty. In order to get through this one must hold onto hope. This emotion allows for the body any track to be a bit melancholy and dark, while the breakdown/bridge sets the hopeful tone you most feel - the emotional section.  "

Natasha Wax: "I would love to choose wonder (or surprise). I always dream about enacting something personal that can surprise people with my music. I love when people feel surprised becauce they have never heard something similar before. Electronic music must be a surprise. So the track with this emotion would be double difficult. "