Following a slew of impressive separate solo releases over the past twelve months, Dominik Marz and brothers Radial Gaze now team up for an impressive four-track outing on TAU. Both acts have been steadily building their reputations on the underground, maintaining a high level of consistency and captivating dance floors across the planet. The trio have already worked together, dropping ‘Trans’ on Mexican label Duro in 2021. Now they’re back with a full EP, demonstrating the full force of their alliance. We caught up with them to find out more.
Hello Dominik Marz & Radial Gaze. Thanks very much for your time to talk to us. How are you?
Radial Gaze: Hi! Everything is generally good. I work a lot, spend the summer, perform on events and look forward to the release on TAU, of course.
Dominik Marz: Fine thanks!
Where are you answering this interview from?
Radial Gaze: From my hometown – St. Petersburg
Dominik Marz: I’m answering from my studio in Augsburg, Germany.
Starting from the beginning – how did you each get into electronic music? What gave you the bug?
Radial Gaze: All started with a cassette recorder and father’s collection of audio cassettes with an incredible combination of bands and styles: Yello and psychedelic rock, Zodiac and russian folk, Daft Punk and sweet eurodisco, Chemical Brothers, kitschy pop of the 90s and new wave. Now you can be the judge of our musical development. Exchange of cassettes, when music still needed to be searched for, film on a pencil, the first players, guitar jams, music school, where I went.
Dominik Marz: Radial Gaze had an amazing release on Feines Tier which I also released on before. I fell in love with that one. I really liked the melodies in particular. Then Andrey (from Radial Gaze) asked me to work together.
We’re seriously digging your upcoming four-part EP ‘Baren’ on TAU. Can you talk us through the record?
Radial Gaze: On this release, we tried to combine all our previous experience, which everyone managed to gain as a separate artist. We have always been looking for a balance between leftfield and an accessible and understandable classical sound. Each track really reflects the main directions inherent in each of the artists.
Dominik Marz: I guess the EP has a red line from start to finish. All tracks combine our love for deep and left field kind of music that is trippy. We like crazy melodies that work well on the dancefloor.
Is this the first record that you guys have put out together?
Radial Gaze: We have already released one joint track on the compilation My Duro vol. VII is another interesting work from us.
Dominik Marz: Yes We released on Duro before but this is our first common EP (but not the last one).
How did you meet?
Radial Gaze: We have never actually met in real life, but last year, Dominik and I released separated EPs on the Feines Tier label – I liked his style and I had the idea to try to make a joint track. The results were very interesting and promising, so we continued our work, which resulted in a release on TAU. And we’re not going to stop.
How does your creative process start when making a collaboraitve record?
Radial Gaze: The process is constantly changing – now we take one work experience and everyone gets something from themselves. Then there is a long and sometimes difficult process of bringing the track to the finish. Sometimes it happens that we change the original idea quite a lot, sometimes a cool result is achieved less difficult.
Dominik Marz: Sending projects back and forth. Deleting stuff. Argueing. Coming up with new ideas. Deleting. Deleting. Hating it and loving it. Haha.
What does the term ‘underground’ mean to you? Would you classify this record as such?
Radial Gaze: Definitely in our tracks you can hear a lot of unusual, bold, off-genre solutions inherent in underground music. We try to keep a balance – this is what distinguishes our project from many others.
Dominik Marz: To me it means that your music is independent from expectations and pressure. That’s all. Being free and doing want you want to do.
Are you planning some other new music and projects soon?
Radial Gaze: Yes, we will definitely continue to work together. There are already results, you will definitely hear them in the future.
Dominik Marz: I’m finishing another solo EP at the moment. A new EP with Radial Gaze is in the maiking. We have some new tracks coming on DURO and Lossless aswell. New EPs with Colossio & Theus Mago. Some Remixes Lots of stuff.
What are your top 3 records that never leave your box at the moment?
Radial Gaze:
Oblako Maranta – Analog Garbage (Full Version)
Bonobo – We Could Forever
Omri Smadar & Roy Shpilman – Adama
Dominik Marz: Everything from David Kochs, Pional, Lipelis & Roman Flügel.
How do you like to relax when you’re not making music?
Radial Gaze: I go to the gym, ride a motorcycle and go out of town.
Dominik Marz: Running, listening to music, enjoying nature and spending time with my family and friends.
Dominik Marz & Radial Gaze – Baren EP is released on July 22 via TAU. Grab it here.
