After the success of his debut album, Cosmic Flute, its follow-up Cosmic Flute Rides Again, and several other new age, ambient, and experimental electronic releases, flutist and multi-instrumentalist Jacob ‘NTHNL’ Rudin has done in the last five years, his forthcoming album Ontogenesis may be his most immersive. It’s meant to delve deep into the mind from both a musical and scientific perspective.
NTHNL explains, “‘Ontogenesis’ is the third in a series of albums called the Tranquility Studies. The idea was born in 2020 around the beginning of the pandemic as a way to formalize my explorations into making music to affect feelings of peace and introspection in listeners. This music combines electronic binaural frequencies with performances on a variety of instruments to create soundscapes that are at once calming, poetic, and musical. The music uses a technique called brainwave entrainment, which uses certain frequencies to sympathetically vibrate the mind.
Ontogenesis is extremely complex, yet deceptively simple, with interweaving layers of music creating a peaceful milieu while deeper frequencies ground the compositions.
Tattoo.com caught up with NTHNL to discuss why he makes music, how he got started in music, and his recording techniques.
Why do you make music?
It’s changed over the years; definitely, it comes from a deep need for self-expression, and I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. I’ve made so many different kinds of music over the years that I almost feel like I could self-express through any style. Sometime around 2019, I started to become interested in music’s ability to affect a person physiologically. The idea that sound can actually induce different states in a listener which can be targeted intentionally. While I used to make music for music, now I think I make music that belongs somewhere. Music for dancing or being joyful or for self-reflection or for meditation. Music has always had a function, whether it be emotional, spiritual, even practical; the goal is always to elicit a response.
What inspired your upcoming album, ‘Ontogenesis?’
I was approached by Leslie Graves, a yoga teacher and musician and all around incredible soul about making an album to accompany a yoga class. The original idea was to make an album that moves up the body through the Chakras using solfeggio notes associated with those body parts as the fundamental frequencies of those pieces. We met at the piano and she would give me some keywords and a note to use. I would then sketch out some musical ideas which became the basis for a lot of the stuff that became ‘Ontogenesis.’ I then brought these sketches to my studio and started to orchestrate them; I found them blooming into worlds that expanded and expanded. The original title was ‘Music of the Body’ and it wasn’t until the album was mastered that I decided to change it.
How did you come to connect with Leslie Graves?
I do a lot of soundbath and yoga class collaborations. When I started doing soundbaths in NYC I was sending out mass e-mail blasts to every yoga studio in NYC. Leslie was one of the first teachers to respond and we immediately vibed. She has a fantastic studio called Solid Gold Yogi in Bushwick where I do classes with her sometimes. She has an incredible gentle energy. I highly recommend checking out the studio if you are ever in town.
How did you get started in music? What’s the backstory there?
I guess classic stuff, I started taking piano lessons around 6 years old. I kind of hated it until an older kid showed me the blues scale on the piano when I was 10 or so, and then I played only the blues scale for a year or so. I started writing songs when I was around 12 years old when I picked up the guitar, kind of singer-songwriter stuff and that was my main form of musical expression throughout childhood and into high school. The first music I fell in love with was ’60s soul and Motown thanks to my Dad, I had a voracious appetite and listened my way through the decades and became interested in classical music and jazz. I played classical piano in high school and started composing then too. I first picked up a flute in my senior year of high school after I had gotten into music school. I was looking for a clarinet and asked around my grade to see if anybody had an old one I could buy and all I found was a flute. I really fell in love with the flute. I went to school for composition and was writing experimental contemporary classical stuff. I lost interest in it due to its extreme insularity. I think I’ve more or less found my voice and I’m really grateful I get to develop it.
Ontogenesis
What can you share about your creative process?
I am blessed with one thing in great excess and that is creative energy. I think of the creative process holistically: I’m always either feeding, creating, or refining, usually I’m feeding. Feeding is practicing, reading, learning, and putting stuff into the computer, which is me. Then when it’s time to create I have this wellspring of material in me to draw from.
Are there any recording techniques you like to use in the studio?
Hmm yeah, so each mix on this album has anywhere from 50-80 tracks in it. A bunch of flutes, synths, keyboards, guitars, all manner of instruments. I’ll usually double-track all the winds. I’ll have some synths doing really crazy stuff low in the mix drowned in reverb. I’m big on making really nice spatial sound, so every track is placed really precisely in the stereo field and almost everything moves around a little bit (left to right) throughout the music. The movement can be subtle, but it gives the music a physical, dynamic feeling.
One technique I like a lot is the mismatched stereo pair. I’ll record something with two different mics set to different gains and then double track it and flip the channels. Played together it makes a pretty interesting stereo effect.
Which do you enjoy the most: writing, recording, practicing, or playing live?
Well… I guess I like the moment of inspiration the most and the early phases of writing second because they’re the most expansive and creative. I love recording too, final takes can be a bit like performing without the energy from the audience, a lot of the pressure with less of the exchange. Practicing is an essential part of not only my musical practice but of living a good life. They all work together I guess, but the one I absolutely couldn’t live without day to day would be practicing.
Which artists in your opinion are killing it right now?
Shabaka Hutchins is a really inspiring wind player and fellow shakuhachi player; he’s really pushing boundaries on a bunch of instruments in really cool new contexts. Concrete Husband is a friend of mine who is combining flute with techno in a way that is super virtuosic and innovative. Elori Saxl is making mesmerizing minimalist ambient music with really cool sound design, I was lucky enough to play clarinet and flute with her live last year, she’s really inspiring. Bendik Giske is doing some really cool stuff with the circular breathing and key rhythms on the saxophone; of course, the original GOAT in that style is Colin Stetson and I think we all owe him a lot of our language. Miriam Elhajli is an amazing singer-songwriter with a folkloric bent and a desire to get to know humanity, every time she sings the room stops breathing. There’s a band here called Seven who blends a wide range of styles to make a kind of noisy ensemble rock/pop/experimental. It’s full of world-class musicians and it’s really doing something new and exciting.
What’s your definition of success?
Being able to create on whatever scale I want. Being able to share this music with a big enough audience to support its creation and my life. I’d like to score movies and lead workshops on harmonic mindfulness and collaborate with all kinds of artists and musicians. I’d like to have a studio in an idyllic setting one day. I want to have a consistent meditation and physical practice, to be good to people and have community. I want to practice music with the same intensity I do now for the rest of my life.
What’s next for you?
At the time I’m writing this I’m about to play a music festival in NJ called Dripping. It’s a techno and experimental music fest. I’ve been in tunnel mode prepping for the set. It’s hybrid live looping and solo playing. Then the record release on July 12th in Brooklyn. I teach privately during the school year, so I get some time off this summer and I’m looking forward to that. I have some films I scored coming out soon hopefully. I might be working on a dance record for a label I’ve worked with before, but that’s all very speculative.
