by Robert Phoenix
Enzo Buono and Martin Landquist were brought together by music. In the most esoteric sense it’s the story of two notes being sounded, heard and recognized, vibrating in sympathy with one another. In it’s most mundane interpretation it’s two men who deeply resonated with the work each of them were doing and as a result immersed themselves in the realm of sacred chants deep in the heart of mother India. The two of them form the neural network of The NAID (pronounced “Noid”) Project and their first release on Kosmic Music, Varanasi. The two of them employed the divine voices of Dakshinamurthy recording their vocals and weaving them into their world-class mix of ambient grooves and simmering house beats. I caught up with Enzo via the magic of email and asked him a few questions about how NAID came about and where it might be going.

Q: How did you and Martin get involved in this project?

A: I had the idea of mixing sacred chants and electronic music with a minimal techno sound for a while, and one day I was in Barcelona when I heard for the first time the music of Martin Landquist (Waking Up), and I thought that his sound was perfect for the concept. After a conference in Midem, France I contacted Martin and he was at that time in Prato, Italy so I took an airplane and gave him a visit where I told him about this album and the place where I wanted to record it, a little village in the south of India called Varadyapallem. He loved the idea and four months later, we met in Chennai, India and drove to the studio.

Q: Repetition seems to be something that mantras and trance music in general have in common, was this something you were aware?

A: I never thought about that but I knew that the repetition of mantras and the beats of trance music would work well together.

Q: If so, what did you want to do to not make a traditional trance dance record?

A: I never tried to make a trance dance record; I wanted to have the beauty and deepness of these chants reachable to a younger generation.

Q: What were some of your inspirations both musical and non-musical going into the project?

A: My inspirations where my spiritual teachers; Amma and Baghavan (founders of the Oneness University in South India).

Q: How much of Dakshinamurthy did you sample and how much did they actually sing for the project itself?

A: The singers recorded the whole album no vocal samplers were used.

Q: Can you speak more about your relationship with Martin and if you’ll have any future projects with him?

A: Martin and I are good friends and we will work on the next NAID album provably some time next year. I m very happy with the music he composed for these Chants, it was a very magical moment in India and I can’t wait for the next one.

Q: Any chance of touring?

A: The chances of touring are low at the moment but you never know.

Q: Will there is any twelve-inches for club play?

A: That s a good idea, I would like to have a killer remix before making a 12-inch.

You can go to www.naidmusic.com to read more about Martin Landquist bio and www.playingforchange.com to learn more about Enzo Buono.