The identity
"Drosophelia* is the moniker under which Igor Zinken (1981, the Netherlands) releases personal musical material inspired by obsolete audio technologies, a love for darker tones infused with cross-cultural influences and sounds consumed over a lifetime."
*/drəˈsɒˈfiːliə/ : an amalgamation of a genus of fly and the name of a noble woman.
^ That's the pitch. But from this point on, we'll be speaking in first person as it is hard enough not to make this sound overtly pompous.
The aesthetic
Drosophelia songs are not standalone pieces, but are instead meant to be consumed as part of a bigger whole. The EP and full-length album releases consist of tracks that are thematically linked, either by a shared narrative or through a common sound design.
The writing process is driven by any means necessary: any sound source is considered valid, and any focused attempt at playing an unfamiliar instrument has its merits. Apart from using traditional instruments, Drosophelia's music also revolves around the use of handwritten audio processing software, built for the occassion.
All these sources provide a palette from which an "aural painting" can be created, where all individual layers - regardless of being organic or synthetic in origin - are unified to form a coordinated whole, pairing and layering uncommon sounds in such a way that they seemingly belong together. Like reliving the experience of a long-forgotten smell or sight, I believe that a multichannel sound recording is capable of reproducing a complex sensory emotion upon playback.
All aspects of the process (writing, performing, recording and production of both sound and visuals) are executed by yours truly, making this an only child's vision.
The observant may notice release titles reflect concepts related to insect life cycles or their hierarchies.
So this is AI slop?
I think I preferred it when people would ask "Haha, you really must be using some proper drugs to come up with this crazy stuff, right?" instead.
I suppose there is a hidden compliment in either question : even when something deviates from the norm (in this case of pop music), people can recognise when something took effort and as a result meets some "level of quality". To a non-musician it can be hard to understand why someone would have the drive to create and apparently work at completing something (this probably goes for any artistic expression), therefor assuming some sort of assistance had to have been used.
Holding back progress, dinosaur...
Oh please. I'd be the first to admit AI will definitely help humanity reach great results much more efficiently and I am a software engineer by trade, after all. I just do not use it for composition, mixing, post production or even the design of the final cover art: basically at any stage that feels part of creative expression.
Even this page is hand-written.
Ever since I first held a pencil as a child, I quickly became aware that it requires skill to realise an idea and that it takes work to become skillful at... well, anything. This process was / is more often than not frustrating and long, but therefore all the more worthwhile in the end.
From the moment I first wanted to play guitar to the point where I can finally make (or approximate) what I hear in my head, I basically needed to learn to work with myself. Understanding how to approach and flesh out an idea is the actual instrument I learned to "play"! Admittedly, there's still frustration involved in finishing something, along with plenty of self doubt along the way. But then again, art is made through suffering, right?
The use of quotes around the word "product" here is deliberate as it might be confusing to people who consider the goal of work being the result. However, the enjoyable part is the process of creation and I wouldn't wish to automate nor relinquish control over any part of it!
Completing this final "product" of a fully mastered, coherent album is in fact almost an afterthought, a testament that the process of creation has happened. Even when in hindsight some things could have been done differently, it represents a moment in time and the best one could have realised then. Like a memento.
Listen
The full discography is listed on this site, with each individual release accompanied by a music player and documented with its complete metadata.
You can also stream or purchase Drosophelia's music from the usual services using the following link:
Stay in the loop
To stay in the loop on the latest news and enjoy behind the scenes peeks with the occasional song breakdown, you can follow the Drosophelia Instagram page.