reading time: 6min

Our next guest in the AOTM series, Simone Gatto, hails from Southern Italy and runs two well-known record labels, OUT-ER Recordings, and Pregnant Void. Besides DJing and composing music, he's a talented multi-disciplinary artist who teaches meditation and works as a music therapist. This year is quite eventful for Simone and bittersweet in one way since one of the labels Simone runs, OUT-ER Recordings, celebrates its tenth anniversary with its final release, a compilation featuring Simone's friends and producers who released on the label in the past like Efdemin, Ed Davenport, Distant Echoes and others. On the other hand, Simone will be focusing his energy on the Pregnant Void record label, which released a fabulous ambient compilation, 'Life After Awareness' just a few weeks ago (we had the pleasure of premiering Molly's track from the compilation). We had a nice chat with Simone about these two releases, how they came together, and his work as a music therapist. 

Hi Simone, great to meet you. You seem to live between beautiful South Italy and Berlin. Where do we find you for this interview at the moment?
Hello everyone, thanks for this interview. I live in Nardò, a town located on the Ionian coast in Salento (Puglia - Southern Italy).

I'd love to start this conversation with going a while back: what was your first memory of music? 
My earliest memory of music dates back to when I was about 2 years old and my dad often made me hear his vinyl collection. I remember that he often played the Pink Floyd-The Wall album.

During the past years, you have graduated as a Music Therapist and mindfulness instructor in addition to being a sociologist, composer and label owner. What was the initiation point to deeply specialize in cymatic therapy and work specifically with children?
From the age of 13, I started buying vinyl music and then playing it as a DJ. The turning point was in 2009 when I was hospitalized for a widespread thrombosis in my body. There I began to investigate the healing power of sound, I understood that everything in the spectrum of reality is nothing but energy, in-formation, matter. The human body is like an orchestra with each organ, tissue and cell having its own resonant frequency. Sound and music allow us to establish a direct communication channel with our cells, sending harmonic information and bringing the whole orchestra back to play harmoniously. To learn more about cymatic therapy and the various mindfulness and music therapy techniques I use, I recommend visiting my website www.simonegatto.net.

You mention the interconnection between sounds and emotion for you as a critical - let's say - theme that goes through all your work. Specifically for your label OUT-ER how do you select and curate the releases and what emotions are you intending to evoke?
Whenever we choose to release an album or ep the first thing I look for is the concept behind it. I speak to the artists personally and we spend hours talking about the concept and once this is chosen they can start working on the music. The music we release on Out-ER is linked to the clubbing scene but is seasoned with soundscapes that lead to inner listening and 360 ° emotional expression through dance.

How would you say the different areas you “play” or work in influence each other?
Since I teach Music Therapy and Meditation, the music I compose and release on my labels has also undergone a significant change. Music for me now means listening, communication, catharsis and self-healing. This is what I try to convey through the releases.

Congratulations to OUT 033, the 10 years anniversary compilation. Not an easy time to release nowadays with so many delays in pressing. How did the release preparation go after all?
This is a very important release because it marks the 10th Anniversary of the label. But not only. This will also be the last release of OUT-ER. In fact, after this release I will continue to carry only the sister label Pregnant Void which is dedicated to ambient, electroacoustic and experimental music, together with my dear collaborator Laura BCR. For OUT-ER the journey ends here. In this last album, I asked for music from the greatest friends and artists who have been released in recent years such as Efdemin, Distant Echoes, Aubrey, Ed Davenport, Buck, Fabrizio Lapiana, Francesco Devincenti, Limo.

I felt an immediate need to listen to the tracks on a good sound system and was drawn to a good club night again. What did you have in mind compiling the outstanding tracks for this release?
I tried to mirror the sound of the label which has always been a crossover between House and Techno. We have always combined dub and deep shades with solid grooves and there was no need to make big choices as the artists I'm releasing know very well the sound of the label and have sent suitable tracks.

Anniversaries often are considered moments to browse through memories and special things happening throughout the existence of the label - was there anything that particularly stood out for you? In these 10 years, there have been many important and significant moments and it is difficult for me to summarize them here in a few lines. From tours around the world to jam sessions in the studio between Berlin and Italy. With each of the artists involved, I shared unforgettable moments. I would like to especially thank my friends Distant Echoes and Buck who have supported me since the creation of the label and all the artists who have helped me to shape the sound of the label.

This anniversary release will also be the last release on OUT-ER. What has led you to the decision to focus mainly on Pregnant Void in the future and will that re-shape the direction of the label?
As I said before, my main activity as a music therapist has led me to broaden my musical horizons. At the moment I am more stimulated to release music that reflects the activities in which I am involved and that can carry a message of awareness in the listener. With Pregnant Void so I'm going to focus on releasing music for deep listening that produces very profound changes in the emotional states of each of us.

Talking about Pregnant Void - there is already an exciting V.A. that came out two weeks ago. There are some of our favorite producers like Inhmost and Molly amongst others. Tell us a bit more about the curation and release.
Life After Awareness is a collection of 10 tracks to which artists I admire very much have contributed such as Inhmost, Molly, Derderder, Distant Echoes among others. There will also be a trace of me present. The tracks feature field recordings and soothing frequencies form the backdrop for a dreamlike symphony of strings, woody bass notes and plinking tones. The intricately multi-layered compositions are a perfect choice to enhance yoga, meditation, energy work practices and pure blissful relaxation.