Alpha evokes the magnificent, immense, and enduring.
The meditative album, released this spring, is a direct reflection of the two artists and longtime friends who created it—Ruven Nunez and Lou Goldwasser.
Originating from Switzerland’s Sarganserland, more specifically, a small municipality called Bad Ragaz. It is a community of about 6,000, nestled within the foothills of the Alps and the base of the Tamina Valley—home to the Taminaschlucht—a river gorge that has cut deep into the mountain landscape.
The two musicians, working under the name Nunez/Goldwasser for this album, come from this environment of dramatic contrast. The region’s flat valley floor rests quietly surrounded by steep grades that lead to the snow-capped peaks above.
Alpha contemplates a subject matter as vast and primeval as the land that surrounds the artists who created it. However, this work delves into subjects beyond geography and turns toward the celestial. While the bells heard on the second composition of Alpha, “Kale Drub,” might conjure images of cows grazing atop high-altitude meadows, the same sound just as clearly evokes the shimmer of the stars above. It is a sight that, although different depending on where you are in the world, is shared by all.
This theme is made clear by a consistent timbre heard throughout the album, a sound not of this world. Electronic in texture, this motif remains present throughout the recording. It maintains a fullness that seems to indicate whatever this sound is, and wherever it may have come from, its source originates from an organic being.
It is a reverberation that offers more than just entertainment or external stimulation. Like other great works in this artistic discipline, Alpha enables the mind—and more importantly the spirit of the listener—to wonder far beyond the physical limitations of this world. It enables us to reflect within ourselves that space which is solely ours, resting between the earth and sky.
Nunez and Goldwasser recently took some time to answer Sound Dissection’s questions about this project.
This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Sound Dissection: Is Alpha the first time you have collaborated, or have you previously worked on other projects together?
Lou Goldwasser: Ruven and I have been making music together for quite a long time. It all began with experimental guitar jams played over a distorted metronome. There were also sessions with an e-bow and a clarinet drenched in delay.
Ruven Nunez: Lou and I know each other since school. As far as I can recall, we started to make music together in 2012—with long pauses in between sessions. After some years, our meetings became much more frequent. These were mainly live sessions. We didn’t really start to record in a proper fashion until sometime in 2020, I think, when we were aiming for a first album. But these sessions were scrapped, and that music was later included in the compilation Beyond The Past One year later, we started working on the tracks that became Alpha.
How did Alpha initially take shape? Was it always intended as a collaboration?
Nunez: I guess we kind of felt that it was about time to start work on a serious and dedicated collaboration. We decided beforehand that the music we were going to record was going to be released individually as single tracks, not in the form of an album. We recorded four tracks in the course of one year. And these tracks were actually released on Bandcamp back in 2021. Early this year, I pulled the page because I felt the urge to create a proper record out of this stuff. Alpha consists of three of these four tracks that we recorded.
Did you share the responsibility of writing this new recording? Were you both in the room together, or did you work remotely? In either case, what were the challenges and benefits of working in the ways you did?
Nunez: There was no “writing” involved in producing this music. It was step-by-step overdub improvisation from the spot. We recorded all of it in unison in Lou’s home studio. There were no challenges, because we didn’t really know what we were aiming for and what we exactly wanted out of it. Our only guidelines were “experimentation” and “continuation.” Musically, we were open to anything. For my part, I was more intrigued by and committed to sounds and their aesthetics than the music itself. All of the actual music was born from experimenting with sounds. We crumpled paper and foil, read from a book, spinned a sphere in a singing bowl and whatnot. That’s how we usually started—with a single sound. Benefits? I’d say freedom and uninterrupted flow of expression, because we simply didn’t have any mindset to it. All of this really happened like it’s supposed to happen—unintentionally, spontaneously and intuitively.
Alpha is listed on streaming services as a New Age album. As categorization is standardized on large platforms, do you think that designation is the way to describe your music, or would you use another name or set of words to describe the project?
Goldwasser: Experimental-glucose-ambient.
Nunez: Regarding “New Age,” that’s a logistical thing. The album is being distributed via my channels. And since my own music is being published under ‘New Age’, the same goes for ‘Alpha’. But to your question, I find it impossible to brand this music. So I’ll stick to Lou’s sticky word-set proposal.
Is this recording intended to reflect a specific subject, or did the titles follow based on the sound of the music?
Nunez: Initially, the tracks were titled after anagrams for what colour both of us were hearing upon listening back to the tracks. This we also applied to the original artwork for each single, by including that specific colour-set. Tracks two and three kept their original anagram titles, while the first and last were renamed by me. Since this music came to be unintentionally, it naturally wasn’t intended to reflect anything. If it does reflect something, then it’s the act of ‘intuitive expression.’
Your song titles “Ascend,” “How Skies Went Om,” and “Apex” imply a sense of altitude—either in actuality or as metaphor. As two musicians from towns nestled in flat valleys between the Swiss Alps, does the landscape around you play a significant role in what and how you create music?
Goldwasser: An intriguing question. Nature and the landscape shape us, often quietly, almost without our noticing. Perhaps we seek the heights to escape the feeling of being enclosed. I, for one, am always drawn to vastness, to the infinity of the sea. In that sense the heights might well be a metaphor for a longing for space. After all, the South is often most beautiful when seen from the North. And yet I know that in time I would miss the embrace of our valleys, the shelter of our mountains.
Nunez: Music is very visual to me. This specific music on Alpha always brought up a sense of aerial observation and altitude in me. But more from a sci-fi point of view than anything else. The scenery in which I grew up and still live is probably very much responsible for how I see and do things. The mountains around me must be significant to me in all aspects, otherwise I would have left this place long ago. I’ve been away many times, but always came back. It’s like my power spot. Waking up in the morning looking at a city skyline or waking up in the morning looking at beautiful and massive mountains – there’s definitely gonna be a difference in how this shapes one as a human being. But it’s the view of the night sky that inspires me the most, and probably connects me more to this place than anything else, except for my family. Because of the high mountains around me, the stars somehow feel much closer. It’s like a gateway to infinity.
Can we talk about the album cover? It’s clean and simple, but the image lingers in the mind. Why did you choose to use this image? What is this photograph of? Why did you choose to format it in the way you did, with the very small title at the center?
Nunez: I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for the perfect visual mirror of the music on this record. So I’m happy to hear that the image lingers in your mind. But I couldn’t really tell you why this specific visual works so perfectly for me. This process was also very intuitive – looking at hundreds of visuals while listening back to the music. And it just felt right when this one came along. It’s a visual depiction of what I personally feel when I listen to the music. The same thing goes for the formatting. I experimented a lot and tried out a ton of different versions regarding font, placement and also editing the original image itself. Looking back, it was a very exhausting process, but absolutely worth the hours, because I wouldn’t want to change a single thing. To your other question: it’s an ISS photograph of some spot in Libya.
Ruven, your other music seems much more guitar-based than this project? What inspired the change to include a variety of other voices? I hear piano, bells, synthesizers, and woodwinds, maybe a clarinet?
Nunez: I consider myself a purist in every aspect. In the musical sense, I always wanted the guitar to have the main voice in the music I record, simply because it’s the first and probably my favourite instrument I’ve started to use. There’s always been other elements included in the songs I record, but the guitar has always been up front and the most characteristic aspect of most of them. There are some songs that are based off piano or synth tracks. Some of my latest music doesn’t even include the guitar anymore. So there’s definitely a change. I guess I just get bored with routine and like to set foot on new ground, very slowly? From the very first record on I always wanted to not repeat myself in the aesthetic sense. I always wanted some kind of change or evolution when recording an album’s successor. I think I just very slowly wanted to cover ground in regards to simplistic guitar playing. There’s so much stuff going on on ‘Alpha’ that we’re not quite sure anymore where it all stems from. All I can say is that I played piano parts, all sorts of guitar sounds and the synthesizer. Lou was all over the synthesizer, the experimental sound recordings as well as the clarinet. The apex on the record is definitely not on ‘Apex’, but on ‘Kale Drub’. To me, Lou’s clarinet on ‘Kale Drub’ is definitely the centerpiece of the record. I think he underestimates how good he is at what he does.
Lou, as the album’s producer, can you share some insight into the production methods that were used? Were you in a studio setting? Did you try anything new on this album? Have you learned anything new from it?
Goldwasser: The recordings for the album came together in different sessions at different times, always driven by our search for new sounds. I remember letting a metal sphere swing in a bowl, a session filled with MIDI controllers, plug-ins, synths, guitars, and so much more. Honestly, when I listen back now, there are moments where I think, ‘What on earth is that?’ and wonder whether it was Ruven or me who played it. I’d describe the production as a kind of grand Lo-Fi—unconventional, with a mix entirely crafted by us in Ableton Live. Most of it was recorded in live sessions, but individual layers and effects were added during the mixing process. Ruven meticulously arranged and edited everything and then sent it off for professional mastering. Without him, this album would probably never have been released.
Nunez: I assembled the tracks for the record and worked out the “concept.” I did some splicing and editing on only one of the tracks, and that was post-production, while assembling the final record. Actually, all of the mixing, arranging, and editing during the actual recording process was entirely done by Lou.
As musicians and creators, what did both of you take away from creating this piece of music?
Goldwasser: This project has brought me a lot of joy and fun, and I’m excited to create more with Ruven in the future.
Nunez: It was my first real collaborative production, so I took away a ton of new experiences, which is always good. Also I had insight in Lou’s approach to recording and his technique, the tools he uses and whatnot. I still record my music on a 20-year-old 16-track recorder. So it was interesting to see how he uses his software to record, arrange and edit everything. I was compelled to start recording the way he does because it seemed so much easier and more practical, but I had to give up on it because I was just overwhelmed by the actual complexity of the software and the infinite possibilities this kind of approach gave to me.
Ultimately, what compelled you to make this piece of music? What do you hope listeners will take away from it?
Goldwasser: I hope the album reaches, somewhere in the vast infinity of the streaming cosmos, a few listeners who are willing to immerse themselves and find joy in it. I hope the sounds allow them, for a brief moment, to dive in and forget everything around them. Ideally, they might bring a smile to someone’s face or inspire other musicians to experiment.
Nunez: Lou and I created this world for ourselves. If others enjoy it as much as we do, that’s cool. It makes me happy thinking there might be a couple of people who can totally drift off to this. I really think it’s immersive music to get lost in. Ideally, at night with your headphones on, looking at the stars and the satellites passing by.
