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Celebrating the 25th mix with a special 2 hours long "ambient / electronica journey" from the man that has been running Neroli since over 20 years. Welcome Volcov (@neroli). Interview (excerpt) down below.
www.musicfrommemory.com
MFM: Ciao Enrico, congratulations with your 50th release, such a milestone and with a beautiful compilation too that is. 20 years deep in running Neroli, how do you look back to it now?
V: Thank you! In 2000 I started Neroli on my own and since then that has been my baby. Apart from the music itself, I think a great relationship with your distributor is essential to make things work, and I’ve been lucky during all these years [mostly Goya, RH and Syncrophone along the way and now Mother Tongue]. I always liked the role of ‘curator’ and I was always fascinated by certain collectable labels like ART/OPart, Retroactive, B12 so to start mine was the next step.. There were a lot of different moments and phases but I think the main thing is that is essential to stay true to your own story! I have to say that the making of The First Circle was a real pleasure and, although it might have been unexpected by some people, for the ones who know me well it really describes my musical journey.
MFM: While Neroli mainly focuses on the deeper and soulful side of electronic music, you were a drum 'n bass head before that, right?
V: Not really, I was always a so called ‘house head’ since I started buying Trax, Alleviated, Lil Louis, Nu Groove and so on in the late 80s/early 90s. Across the 90s, like many, I got also interested in other styles and sounds as long as they were exciting wether it was Mo Wax, Plaid, Reinforced or Photek. The thing with drum n bass was that I did my first productions in that style and I got booked to play dnb gigs on the back of that in ‘97/98. But in ’99 I started an Archive night at this amazing squat club called Pergola and that was an eclectic affair with guests like Dego, Phil Asher, Ian O’Brien, etc.
MFM: The catalogue looks very much like a close family of artists, lots of them having a long history in music and with only a few newer faces. How come is that?
V: The catalogue is a mix of releases by some longtime friends like Dego [who always had an essential role on Neroli], Just One/Kemetic Just or Alex Attias as well as some artists we met along the way and ended up releasing several records with us [Trinidadian Deep, Ricardo Miranda, Lee Pearson jr for example] or younger producer whom I really believed in like Skymark, Marcello Napoletano, Deenamic. I think its especially the continuity along the years with certain artists that can be a bit unusual compared to other labels. We have just released now the Theo Parrish reinterpretations of Patrick Gibin/Kaidi Tatham/Josh Milan ‘Love to the World’ but in April we’ll have an EP by another artist never been on the label before.
MFM: You're quite at ease with doing mixes, without a crowd, right? Is there a certain way to how you approach recording?
V: Well, as much I am at ease recording these type of mixes at home as much I find almost impossible to do some with dance material. Most of my ‘dance’ mixes online are live from clubs. Usually when I approach ambient/jazz/electronica radio shows and podcasts I have accumulated a little pile of records in a corner that I think should be included in the next one, stuff that comes to mind almost on a daily bases. So then I just need to go through them and try to make them ‘talk to each other’.
MFM: Your mixes tend to have a really strong story telling kinda vibe. This one's no exception. Did you have a specific narrative in mind?
V: Since MFM asked, and you guys just released the excellent ‘Virtual Dreams’ album, I imagined to somehow do an ambient / electronica selection since I had fond memories of those times, buying records at Fat Cat, playing chill out rooms in the 90s and so on…. I thought of certain songs that I wanted to include and tried to create a little journey with them…