High up in the north there lives a man who always manages to enchant Auditool users all over the world with his Ambient sounds and acoustic recordings. His gift for filling his riffs with so much feeling that the listener can escape the stress and bad news of this world for a short time is in a class of its own. His collaborations with the vocal talent Aeiter are legendary and have already brought one or the other trophy to both their shelves. Our newly created genre “Acoustic” seems to be made for you and is eagerly waiting to be filled with life. So come by and see what you can do

Interview:

About Truls Enstad aka naut :

My name is Truls, from the far-off land of Norway. I see myself as just another hobbyist producer who likes to experiment with a variety of different genres and techniques. I found Audiotool in the Chrome Webstore about nine years ago and the rest is history.

I'm a big nerd; can fix most things with duct tape and a screwdriver; and in my honest opinion - if a pizza place can't pull off a good margherita, then it is not a good pizza place.

Which artist has had the most influence on you (on and/or outside Audiotool)?

Musically, I find it hard to pinpoint whether I've let myself be inspired by anyone in particular. I don't really set out with much of a plan when I start projects, I just try to wing it until I run out of ideas haha..

When I first started out, I was very inspired by artists who were at the forefront of incorporating real instruments into their productions like Olaf, Lionson and Tornsage. I think that has had a large influence in the direction I took in the early days. I've also been particularly inspired by some of the insane supergroups we've had throughout the years like Future Sound Collabs, future baes, and Untrust三. Lastly, a shout-out to the producers on the audiotool team for developing a killer platform while managing to top the charts all at the same time :)

Other artists whose sound has shaped my taste in music over the years include "Now, Now", Fleet Foxes, Daughter, Lowercase Noises, Queens of the Stone Age and Title Fight - to name a few.

Who would you like to work /collaborate with on and outside Audiotool, and why?

I think it would be really fun to do more band stuff with sim, aeiter, naswalt and the bunch. I'd also love a collab with goon, though we have very different styles.

An honorable mention goes to Lionson, who's been steadily putting out new releases on Spotify (you better check them out) - it would be fun to collab again these days :)

Which film/game would you like to produce the score for or contribute a song to?

Anything directed by Denis Villeneuve I guess? Sci-fi would be cool, but games would be fun too.

Have you ever had a writer's block? If so, how did you deal with it and what do you recommend to your colleagues?

I constantly have writers block, and I generally lack the motivation to work on big projects for an extended period of time. What usually helps getting me out of a rut is doing short projects where I try to finish it all up in about a day's work. Forcing myself to finish up projects more often prevents me from getting frustrated and anxious about artistic integrity.

Generally just listening to music can also be inspiring, I often try to pick apart how various sounds were created and whether I'd be able to recreate them.

What has helped you the most on Audiotool to improve and widen your musical horizon?

I think just being exposed to so many different genres of music I wouldn't necessarily have discovered on my own - definitely has helped me widen my musical horizon. Genres like dub, minimal, and future garage being worthy of mention

What do you like most about Audiotool? Is there anything you would like to suggest?

One of my favorite things about audiotool is that it's so accessible. One of the reasons I haven't made the switch to any other standalone software suites is the fact that it's always right there at the push of a button. There's no annoying licensing restrictions, it's completely platform independent, all your assets and project files are kept track of in the cloud, all offered at no cost.

On a slightly controversial note, I also appreciate having the somewhat limited toolset audiotool offers. I think audiotool provides you with most of all the fundamental building blocks needed for digital music production, forcing you to put two and two together without too much handholding. Like cooking your own dinner instead of ordering takeaway again. I have found a lot of joy in the process of learning how to craft and shape sounds this way and I still learn new things for every project.

Your message to the community:

Don't be afraid to try something different, and especially try your hand at creating and recording your own live sounds with whatever you have available!

Stay away from the drama and/or clout chasing - think about your creative process and how to make it more enjoyable for yourself :)

Social/Musical Links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vrtuvDqjM15J2eG7QQwAo?si=ZGuVPR8JRwGtrEdwDq_pPA

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/trulsenstad

Instagram: https://instagram.com/xnstad

Album

We thank Naut for taking the time to put this album together for you.

Track #1:

Chords by zignabah

Starting off simple. zignabah was one of the first users I ran into when I started my audiotool journey, and still to this day I keep coming back to this track. To me, it really helped demonstrate how sometimes - less is more.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/chords-ude1ljc2/]]

Track #2:

Unscalable Sky by https://www.audiotool.com/user/andremichelle/

I distinctly remember when the Heisenberg was introduced. It took me forever to learn it's ins and outs, but it has since grown to become my favorite synth because of it's versatility - this showcase that André made around the time of it's release still remains one of my favorite tracks.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/unscalable_sky/]]

Track #3:

kitsch (Kepz Remix) by Kepz and rnzr

This is such a fun and creative remix of an already great track. It's well rounded and that melody has been living rent free in my head since I first heard it.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/kitsch_kepz_remix/]]

Track #4:

the shelf life of everything by tornsage

I can't talk about inspirations without mentioning Tornsage. Not only did he inspire me to use physical instruments in my compositions, but he also gave me a warm welcome to the Audiotool community when I first started out.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/the_shelf_life_of_everything/]]

Track #5:

1991 by Wightfall Nyafae and Apollo

I've decided to round it off with a more recent track. The overall sound design and atmosphere of this is just phenomenal - and I will forever question why this track didn't beat our entry in the Teams AT Work contest.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/cjguau0tlgn/]]

Track #6:

crescent moon by naut

This is one of my personal tracks I'm most fond of. It's short and simple but the pacing and ambiance feels right. The inspiration came to me suddenly during a mild summer night, and I wrote all of it in a just a few hours after I got home.

[[EMBED:https://www.audiotool.com/track/wpfog5g6cmg/]]

The album in it's full splendor

Edition Audiotool: Naut

• a-records

45

about 3 years ago

1		Chords zignabah	zignabah	672
2		kitsch (Kepz Remix) Kepz rnzr	Kepz rnzr	6941
3		the shelf life of everything tornsage	tornsage	2246
4		1991 Apollo Nyafae	Apollo Nyafae	1462
5		crescent moon naut	naut	1460