Name: Sebastian Szary aka Szary
Occupation: Producer
Nationality: German
Recent release: Szary's first solo album Datei is out via Edition Dur. The music was originally written by Sebastian with Sascha Ring, and Gernot Bronsert, then entirely deconstructed and rebuilt into something new.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: Oh, I don't have a specific book recommendation. As I really like drinking coffee, I recommend this book (unfortunately only in German) Kaffee - Eine Geschichte von Genuss und Gewalt (Coffee - A story of pleasure and violence), ISBN 978-3-03973-003-2 Buy here.
And a podcast about organs from 2021. A short episode with Kali Malone in an interview. Listen to it on apple music or Spotify.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Hello everyone. Thank you for the interview.

There are different situations in which I listen to music. Typically when I'm driving, at home or in the studio, more analytically. But I actually mostly listen with my eyes closed. In fact, music conveys exactly these things. It is often linked to events, of different emotional levels.

In addition, I am a synaesthetic, quite "normally" developed, which means: letters and numbers are colorful in my head. Time memory is like a long stretch of electricity pylons. I never questioned this until a friend pointed it out to me; she had written a thesis on this topic. Up until then, I still didn't know what it was supposed to be. Synestes...-WHAT?

So I started to think about the topic more and more.


Szary Interview Image by Clara Melchiorre

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

When listening on a stereo system or studio monitor, the room you are in plays a big role. At home, it is often incidental and you end up distracting yourself a little. In the studio, you sit in front of your precise ear and pay attention to other details.

With good headphones, things are different again. I usually set the headphones very quietly when listening. I sit on an airplane or train, go for a walk with my dog, or lie on the bed for 30 minutes and immerse myself for a moment. A kind of meditation.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Oh. There are a lot of things that are applicable here. I'm going to concentrate on three albums that are currently relevant for me, or rather, that are currently on my mind.

I had my personal experience with "The Velvet Underground" a really long time ago. I had a cassette tape of the album White Light/White Heat from 1968. The experience was almost 30 years ago now.

The production technology at the time had a completely different focus on the stereo image. Voice on the left, the rest on the right. My old car at the time only had one speaker. And so it happened that only the instrumental or only the voice could be heard.



Another album that I find to be very deep in terms of sound is Blue Alibi by Mica Levi. I find this album very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. But sometimes it is also difficult to play the album to someone and explain it, I often reach my limits.



The album and every single track is somehow full of unexpected events, you could also call it production errors. It is not smoothed out, the cuts in the vocals are sometimes very imprecise. It is carried by a repetitive musical foundation, although the foundation is not secondary. Everything is essential on this album.

And there is a third album worth mentioning here. Laurel Halo's Quarantine from 2012. I really appreciate what Laurel Halo does, it ranges from technoid production to ambient to jazz. Her musical horizon is very broad in my opinion. Love "The Thaw."



Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

Choirs really trigger me emotionally. It's crazy what it triggers in you. It's more of a sound than a noise.

The deep pipes of a church organ are also very beautiful. Kali Malone's The Sacrificial Code and her last album All Life Long even contains pipe organ, brass and choir.

In February I had the pleasure of hearing a concert by Kali Malone in the "Gedächniskirche" in Berlin.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

Yes, these sounds exist. Songbirds in spring and summer.

Classic example: you come home very late or very early in the morning from the club/concert. You are agitated/half tired or half awake. And then this bird concert starts and sometimes you can't get back to sleep. It helps to concentrate on one bird.

This bird song really is one of the most beautiful sounds in nature.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

For devices in the studio, for example, these could be synthesizers with a simple structure. So less complex in terms of waveforms, sawtooth, sine, square, very classic.

Otherwise, I find escalators quite interesting. The rhythm that occurs when the stair rises from the platform. Clack clack clack clack …

There are also these unusual places that have become part of my everyday life. Airports, train stations, hotels, backstage rooms. Places intended for transit, to linger for a short time, not to get stuck, intended for a short stay. Transit, in other words. That also happens in astronomy.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I have (unfortunately) never been in a completely anechoic chamber. To be honest, I have a lot of respect for that, when nothing reflects, you can hear the blood rushing in your ears, etc.

The opposite experience that I once had was at an old US Army listening station on Teufelsberg in Berlin. These are large spherical domes with a diameter of around 20 meters for radar systems from the Cold War era. The echo and reverb that arises in them is incredibly fascinating.

Interestingly, 10 years ago we had a group project with Laurel Halo, Lotic and us as modeselektor.

I would like to mention another extreme experience here. A parachute jump is an extreme affair. For someone who has never done it: stress level 1000%, pure adrenaline. The moment you go into free fall is very brutal, when the parachute opens you have an incredible sound with no earthly reflection, no birds, no cars ... just the slight fluttering of the parachute.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

So, of course, when recording, the studio, and that also applies to playback. When producing my little edit “Szary Datei”, I mostly worked quietly with headphones at a desk at home, and one of our cats often sat on the table with me.

I also really enjoy listening to music in the car, and of course I have a better sound system in the car now than I did back then. I also like listening to music outdoors. At festivals. If you’re standing well and the wind isn’t so strong, then it’s really fun. Fun fact: at our own shows, we stand on stage and don’t hear any of the sound outside.

Another thing I like to do, in addition to my love of photography, is to take field recording snapshots. I have a partially pointless, unsorted library of one-minute stereo files on my iPhone, which I then listen to months later. That sounds like a “messy” collecting passion, and every time I think to myself: “I’m sure that can be used for something.”

I have had a project in mind for several years, but I still have problems implementing it. I would like to sit in a house in Cologne. It is the „Haus ohne Eigenschaft - House without Qualities" by the architect "O.M. Ungers" (1926-2007). I am fascinated by the form and use of this building.


Haus ohne Eigenschaft Image by Stefan Flöper

I am interested in what this building or this room does to you when you spend several days in it.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

There are often situations where the sound can transform into something material. Sometimes a figurative description like "ton-heavy beats" or "noise" is enough.

In the history of music there have always been these descriptions from which the genre term has developed. For example: Waltz, swing, blues, rock, punk, garage, house, rap, techno, pop etc … It has of course become much more delicate. Almost inscrutable.

When it comes to rhythm patterns or rhythmic tone sequences, I often see patterns or architectural objects. The American band Battles translated this very well in their video "The Yabba".



The same movements and patterns are repeated over and over again, new shapes are added and other shapes and patterns disappear. Some scenes apparently have nothing to do with each other. It's about the perfect translation of image and sound.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

Sound is very important for our general well-being. When you consider how many people on this planet cannot escape unwanted background noise, it is harmful in the long run.

I recently travelled through Japan for almost a month and discovered how high the density of unwanted sounds is in everyday life. For example, the electronic entertainment section in the shopping mall - it's absolutely insane. We have places like that here too; you don't have to travel to Japan to see them. The difference to the environment we have here is the level of understanding.

Maybe society needs that, or maybe it doesn't. It stressed me out in the long run - I used to be more resistant to it.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

For example, if your cat is lying next to you, feels comfortable and purrs loudly, then that is very calming. It's nothing unusual, but it makes me happy every time.

The loud sound of the sea can have a strong influence on your mood. If you can no longer hear it because you have left the coast or the town, you will experience acoustic withdrawal symptoms for a certain period of time.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?  

I do believe that it exists. As far as I know, I can't give an example.

We humans are also a species and there are many examples of communication. So the question is answered with "yes".

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

Luckily, I still have good to very good hearing. The precautions I take are unfortunately limited (!). But we now perform in a quieter environment. On stage, we have in-ear monitors that are set relatively quietly.

When you have hyperacusis, the circumstances also play a role. When you want and have to expose yourself to the sound source.

Sometimes you can't protect yourself from unexpected sounds in time. I love children, and when they suddenly start screaming impulsively while they're playing, it can be very stressful.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

You would have to define silence precisely. I would put forward the theory that there is no such thing as real silence. Even if it is quiet, no sound, no noise, nothing at all—your hearing and brain fill in these quiet spots.

In the studio, for example, when recording a song, you want to achieve the greatest possible silence, or isolation from ambient noise, but that is usually not possible—there are always artifacts that are scattered throughout. That is also what makes recording so exciting.

A silent situation, which you desire, is very helpful for concentration and also for an inner reset. Oh yes, sleep is part of it.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

That speaks to my heart.

Let's take the example of films or moving images. Basically, you are served bite-sized pieces on a platter, you can just switch to the airflow and passively let it trickle down to you. We all know the power of the screen and how it affects small children.

Personally, I like audio books, good podcasts and good music.