Ukrainian, Yaroslav Lenzyak, new comer to the Archipel roster, gives us a 10 minutes interview. You can learn about his life, his country, his latest EP on Archipel ‘Vremena’, and all the other aspects you may have been wondering about him.

Archipel: Hi! How are you? Could you please tell me who you are, where you are from, what you have been doing?

Yaroslav Lenzyak: Hello, my name is Yaroslav, I’m good thanks! I am from Ukraine. Precisely from a small city on the east side of the country, Nova Kakhovka . In general I write music. Sometimes I play in different cities and countries. I think music is my hobby, but a bit more than that, since I do not have a job in the traditional sense, I think music is my work too.

A: How do you like to spend your spare time? Passions and hobbies?

YL: I like to travel, I like to see new countries and cities, I like to meet new interesting people and ideas. I like to watch movies, I like girls and beer 🙂 . I love sunsets and sunrises. Sometimes I like fishing!

A: What are your current and future projects?

YL: I am currently working on writing music. I write more for vinyl nowadays and digital too. Like this year I am expecting to have 4 or 5 wax releases and some digital ones too.  Now I’m working on my second alias, and I think I will work under the latter a lot. I like classic, for like surnames and names, so we will see :).

A: What do you think about Ukraine and experimental music?

YL: I think it is a bit sad.  In Odessa or Kiev you can sometimes hear quality sound though.  If you stay in Kiev one day, you must go to CLOSER Club (it’s a really quality place with quality music ) Nevertheless I love my country.

A: Your sound is very distinctive, what is your secret to sculpting sound?

YL: I have no secrets. I’m just doing what I want. I like to work with wave parts, wave cuts as well as mixing effects etc…  I like use Reaktor plugins (for textures) for micro loops and etc. Sometimes I use synth micro Korg. I am inspired by the party.  Before parties I like to write music. I have opened a new dimension in my soul.

A: What does Vremena means? How is it connected to the story of the EP?

YL: ‘Vremena’ is Russian but in English wording. It actually means “Time” but it is more about the seasons of the year rather than chronology. This means that, the tracks from the album I wrote can be from like 6 or 8 months ago. Some tracks are in Summer , some tracks in Spring. If you listen closely you can perceive the different moods in the tracks.

 A: Can you please tell me the story behind your EP? The artistic and production concept?

YL: I just collected the tracks witch wrote in the course of 1 year, and thought that it might make a good album. Really I did not have any concept.  At first, I talked with Pheek about an EP, we agreed on 3 or 4 tracks to release for an EP. After 5 or 6 months Pheek told me “Hey, let’s release! Send the tracks”. At that time I had written a bit more material, and offered to release the album. This is little my story behind my album.

A: There are a lot of dub influences in Vremena, is it typical of Ukrainian spirit to feel for dub that way?

YL: I repeat that I love to experiment. Yes, I like the sound of dub.  In Ukraine, I am inspired by nature and the weather. It is sometimes very callous and sad for the soul. And so in my album you can hear a bit of sadness.

A: Who are your biggest influences?

YL: I like a lot of musicians. I’m inspired by a lot of artists from Archipel and Sleep is Commercial .

A: You travel a lot, is there any areas in particular that impacted you as a musician but as a person as well?

YL: Sometimes I am in Spain, sometimes I live in Germany, my parents live there. But my country is Ukraine. A couple months ago I played in the Swiss city of Bern. I was really inspired. Very cool, warm people, and a very nice city, this enabled me write a new track, you will hear it on Vinyl in 2016! 😉

A: Tell me more about your upcoming releases?

YL: For now I have some incoming Vinyl releases. In May my vinyl on Sakadat label will be out, you can hear the preview on soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/sakadat/sets/yaroslav-lenzyak-osmosis-incl-pheek-remix ).  At the beginning of june 2 collaboration tracks with my friend Rata will be released, other vinyls will be out in few months. Follow my facebook page to get all the latest info about my releases (https://www.facebook.com/pozitivedj?ref=ts&fref=ts )!

Interview by PH Paradis.

More info:

http://www.archipel.cc/music/vremena/

http://www.archipel.cc/archipel-podcast-017-yaroslav-lenzyak/