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Ventla is a musical phenom flying fast and low under just about everyone's radar. Armed with an enviable list of vintage equipment and a prolific rate of output (averaging 8-9 albums per year), he is well in position to crush his seemingly impossible goal of releasing 100 albums for free. What makes this mammoth task all the more impressive is that none of the material is filler, but warm, beautifully arranged lo-fi pop.
Having caught our attention a few years back with one of his characteristically woozy synth jams making it onto Atlantics Vol. 3, we are proud to announce that we will be releasing more of Ventla's music on Astro Nautico this year. In the meantime, enjoy scouring his page for hidden gems and listening to one of the most warped, ADD, and straight-up surreal Astrocasts ever.
Can you please introduce yourself and explain the Ventla project a bit?
Shuji Suzuki. Born and raised in tokyo. Straight. Smoke anything except tobacco. Don't have any licenses. Have no interest toward anime, coffee and baseball. Athiest though visit shrines sometimes. Engrish specialist. Ventla is an analog recording/mixing project by me using yamaha 8 track cassette recorder and various musical instruments.
It's impossible not to notice that your Soundcloud page says you are in the process of releasing 100 albums for free. Absolute madness. Where did this idea come from? How long have you been working on it and how far along are you? What will you do when you release the 100th album?
Ventla is an artwork-first project, nearly 50 of 100 are already completed, and i started to design them back in 2009 and then started recording in 2010. After I release the 100th I think I’ll release the 101st in no time. I don’t prefer soundcloud btw, for me the site is merely an audio file uploader. Please follow me on http://www.last.fm/user/suzushu instead. Thank you. I hardly log in there though.
Your style is incredibly eclectic. This is evident in the variety of styles you produce music in, and punctuated by the long list of studio equipment you use (also listed on your SC page). Can you describe how all these styles come together? Your own musical history and who inspired you the most?
I'm from a so-called musical family and there are some musical instruments in my parents' home such as marimba, piano, flute and so on. Thus, when I was a kid I started making and recording noises very naturally using those things, non-musical instruments and boomboxes. More than half of the tracks on Ventla’s album "Mummified Already" were recorded/edited when I was age 10.
Ventla is directly influenced by Tabi No Ehon, Totsugeki Ritoruzu, The Great Ragtime Show, 6 Dai Furoku Gum, 20s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 10s, US of A, UK, Germany and rest of the world. Basically I've been inspired by this whole world except k-pop and soundcloud.
There is a lot of interesting music coming out of Japan, much of which seems to operate within different scenes that relate themselves to similar movements happening around the world, yet as far as we can tell, you seem to operating idiosyncratically, prolifically outputting music in a style that is completely your own. Is there any truth to this observation? Do you identify with any other musical scenes happening in Japan or around the world?
Ventla is almost like a cover band trying to play Lil Rob, l'Ensemble Raye, Hironobu Nomura, Pretty Maids, Paris Angels, Hanatarash, The Pursuit of Happiness, The Hiltonaires, Daf and Stackridge at the same time in Abner Jay style using talkbox and musical saw but no one seems to understand the concept. Thus, I've been simulating chillwave influenced beatmakers to deceive innocent listeners (specially on sc) and pure self-called music journalists worldwide. I've been looking for the members of this project pure and innocently for years.
This Astrocast that you've made is one the craziest we've ever received, in a good way. This is mainly due to the prominence of pop and rock in the mix, the latter being a genre that we rarely, if ever, associate ourselves with. How does this music, which is clearly more mainstream-oriented, inform your own productions?
I couldn't make the mix not like this since currently my hdd is almost full of mainstream-oriented commercial stuff. Ugly Kid Joe is the one of the most important bands for me (no joke). I confess I hardly know about trendy scene. I really grateful for your tolerant big hearted attitude to decide to post this mix on your site. Astro Nautico is the best! This label will be huge...