Tobias Lilja

Maybe there lies some truth in the often repeated statement about scandinavia and melancholy, or maybe it's just growing up in the darkness of the swedish forests that renders that solemn element to Tobias' music. Regardless of the origin, the outcome is still the same: a profound resonance of something serene and dark. A touch of melancholy that comes through like an undertone in everything he creates.?
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?Tobias Lilja is one of those people who started making music before he even hit puberty. He was surrounded by music from a broad specter of genres from the get go, and when you listen to what he does now at almost 30, you can very much hear the vast span of influences that resonate in the music. And even though he operates within the field of electronic music, Tobias isn't afraid to explore and incorporate other landscapes in his music.?
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?For years Tobias was focusing solely on instrumental music, that is sounds originating form machines, but in 2005 he started making vocal experiments. These experiments provided him with one more piece of the puzzle. A piece that has proven to be very relevant. Since then Tobias has continued to further explore the musical palette by fully incorporating his voice in the pictures and thus rendering the final pieces an even richer body of resonance. His main instrument is still the sampler, but the voice is used and treated just like an instrument in the creative process.?
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?Being a professional audio engineer, sound is something that matters greatly to Tobias, not in the sense of striving for perfection, but in focusing on the character of the sounds themselves. Or as Tobias puts it: &I'm looking for sounds that have actually been through something, that sound like they have experience. Sounds with a soul.& And the experimentation with that aspect of sound quality, the color and feeling of sounds, is very much a firm element of Tobias' trademark sound.?
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?This attention to sound and what it does for the vibe of the music is very manifest on Tobias' first release on n5MD 'Time Is On My Side' from 2007, with its character of dark and complex ambient. And the same is true for the follow up, 'Delirium Portraits' but where 'Time Is On My Side' is characterized by an almost fleeting sensation, the new album has a more beat oriented structure. This, in combination with the progressive, cumulating, dynamics of the songs, renders the music an enigmatic element that's enhanced by the lyrics and Tobias' voice.