Eitan Reiter talks Out of Orbit, his latest psytrance project

Out of Orbit is the new psytrance project by accomplished electronic musician, Eitan Reiter, also one half of the now-defunct legendary trance duo, LOUD.

Eitan is a prolific producer, who, beyond his LOUD partnership, has produced an impressive discography of techno, acid and downtempo music under his name.

Taking a break from touring and performing, Eitan built a new studio and set his mind to creating a new album with no specific direction or musical boundaries.

The result is Wisdom of the Crowds, a massive 12-track collaborative collection of tracks, created predominantly from live jam sessions in his new studio.

Out now, on Shamanic Tales Records (Astrix’s new imprint), Out of Orbit – Wisdom of the Crowds includes a hefty list of accomplished psychedelic producers the likes of, Shpongle, Art of Trance, X-Dream, Astrix, Astral Projection, Shulman, Perfect Stranger, Gorovich, Dekel & Rocky Tilbor.

We chatted about the power of collaboration and the importance of music in our lives…

I want my music to have the ability to pull you into it and tell you a story no matter who you are…”

Hi Eitan, what an awesome album!

After taking time away from trance music and the scene, was there a defining moment that you can recall when you realised you missed it and still wanted to contribute your musical creativity to this genre?

Out of Orbit: Thanks!

I missed it from day one. It was always like a love hate relationship but I felt it was natural as my passion was also your work.

So I just had to have some more personal time to reflect and to explore my sound. I made a lot of music in the past 2 years in many musical styles , but as soon as I felt I have something to contribute to the psychedelic culture I decided to put it out.

What was the biggest challenge when you set out to create a new album?

Out of Orbit: The biggest challenge was the mixing.

A lot of the recordings were done in a brand new studio.

They had a lot of vibe to them but the sound in the room was really bad and new to my ears when I did the recordings so I needed to work hard on post production to make everything sound “healthy.”

I spent a lot of time with Ido Ophir (Domestic) in his studio (which I used to share with him before this new studio) and he also fixed the sound in my new room.

Another challenge was to make sure I was documenting the Ideas of the artists who collaborated and not losing their sound and style while I was working on it all.

Most of them just came to jam and record and I was left with a bunch of channels.

For example – when I was working on the collaboration with X-Dream I had [the] with X-Dream [vibe] in my mind and same for all the others.

Crowd response has nothing to do with big drops.”

From what I can tell, you’ve always favoured tactile, physical instruments over ‘in-the-box’ computer-based instruments and your new studio was built for this very purpose. There seems to be a slowly growing trend, especially in Israel, among producers to use more analogue and outdoor gear.

Do you feel you have influenced this trend over the past several years, having been at the forefront of this with LOUD and as a solo artist?

Out of Orbit: I don’t favour physical instruments, I really love computers also.

I am a big digital fan and that’s where I started and evolved.

I would say I equally love both worlds.

Analog synths are amazing for so many reasons and I like collecting them, playing on them and basically the whole experience of using a mixer and instruments really pulls you into the music and involves your whole body which can bring amazing results and amazing magical moments.

I may have influenced some trends, it’s not something I can really know and I was definitely influenced myself from a lot of people on the globe.

But I guess I am always drawn to make music in ways that I don’t see around me.

If things become to analog I am selling all my synths (laughs).

But whatever instrument it is I pick (analog or digital ), it takes me a long time to get into its deep layers and that’s where the secret is.

Your album name, Wisdom of the Crowds, suggests the importance of the fans and the dancers.

But dance music fans sometimes don’t realise that a true electronic musician’s desire is to create and to feel fulfilled with what they produce.

It’s not all about BIG drops and builds (which have their place on dancefloors for sure), but also about creating something unique and original.

How much did you think about what promoters and dancefloors want around the world right now, when finishing off a track? Because, ultimately, the joy of playing the music to an audience is an important part of the process of making the music…

Out of Orbit: Crowd response has nothing to do with big drops.

A comedian looks at his crowed and feels the vibe every second and that energy in the room influences his/ her tone and timing.

Same goes for a poet, a singer, someone giving a serious speech or any type of performing artist.

Chefs need people to eat their food etc .. you can be a crowd pleaser and you can be a crowd provoker, you can be both.

I never think of promoters when I create. I think of people.

Promoters are people, dancers are people .. the best promoters I have met are also dancers and do it for the love of it (even some really big ones).

Even a bouncer or bartender in a club is on my mind as I want my music to have the ability to pull you into it and tell you a story no matter who you are and what’s your background or your current state of mind.

The name Out of Orbit seems to have come from a place of self-examination of how you wanted to move forward musically. How did it come about?

Out of Orbit: It just felt right, felt like what I was going through.

I always felt like I am a bit out, I never really feel at home in any place or any scene, even though I have huge amounts of love for almost anyone I meet.

But I think when something goes out of orbit the cool thing is that you do not know where it will end up and I really want that mystery element in my life.

I like making music alone sometimes but it’s really cool to collaborate, especially when it comes to people like the ones that were featured in this album.”

Collaborations – it is what makes music special.

Wisdom of the Crowds is packed with collabs with a veritable list of heavyweight producers. It is also a really diverse selection mixing up some older living legends with newer, accomplished artists.

I am sure you learnt something new about yourself and so did they during the process. Is there any one thing that stood out from the overall experience, above and beyond all the pleasant moments?

Out of Orbit: Some were fun moments, some were hard.

I like making music alone sometimes but it’s really cool to collaborate, especially when it comes to people like the ones that were featured in this album.

I am trying to be part of things that are bigger than just me and this seemed like one little step in that direction.

I feel that being a DJ these days is a tricky job as even though the job is to serve the people with your musical skills it also has a big element of self-promotion and self-concentration in amounts that not many occupations have.

So you have to watch out.

Whenever I can join forces with someone else or something else I embrace that opportunity to shift the focus a bit away from me.

Without diminishing the importance of any single collaborator, I am very curious about your collab with Shpongle (Simon Posford & Raja Ram).

Is this the first time you have worked with him and what was it like?

Out of Orbit: I have remixed Shpongle and Hallucinogen before a few times and have even jammed on stage for a little while with Simon once.

Although this specific collaboration was one of the only ones done via the internet.

And there was not as much exchange of knowledge and information as there were with others, mostly exchange of musical ideas and sounds.

However, the sounds they sent were super and I am very happy with the result – 3 versions of the track including a cool remix by Red Axes who’s sound I am very connected to as well.

I guess I would still be happy to do something with Simon and Raj when we are all in the same studio.

Is there any specific track you could pinpoint and say, ‘wow this one turned out so much better than when we started on it!’

No Disco .. ha-ha , that one started a mess.

It was not easy to finish – it was ‘no disco’ as the name suggests (laughs).

Another great surprise was the Downtempo Remix I made as Eitan Reiter to the track with Yuli (Perfect Stranger) – “Space Jahnun” .

I did not expect that; the song also has 4 versions (one being a remix by Astrix) so it was a pleasant surprise that one day of jamming ended up in 4 different interpretations.

Speaking of living legends, to release on Astrix’s new label, Shamanic Tales Records, must also give you a strong sense of confidence for your new project…

Out of Orbit: It was very natural. Avi Astrix and I have always been close and collaborated on many things.

Almost 20 years ago it was at his set in a party in Brazil (Solaris 2005) when I decided I want to pursue music as a lifestyle.

SO, it just felt like the natural flow of things. Very happy about it.

Wisdom of the Crowds will also be available on limited vinyl.

In today’s throwaway digital world, a vinyl pressing is a great accolade which also adds some extra weight and meaning to the release. From a production perspective, did your final mixdown and the mastering have to differ between the pressing masters and the digital masters?

Out of Orbit: The mastering of the album was done by Ido Ophir who does not really play the ‘loudness war’ game.

So the way it was made already fits Vinyl.

I did not want to lose dynamics and making it sound worse just to gain volume so it can stand out.

If you want to listen to it loud, just turn up the volume at home.

Track by track…

One word (or sentence) that best describes each track?

01. Imagine (with Art of Trance) – Intention, Attention, Imagination and lots of computing power

02. Space Jahnun (with Perfect Stranger) – press record and let go of everything

03. Star (with Gorovich) – Trance

04. No Disco (with Shpongle) – Journey

05. Flanged (with Gorovich) – It began in Africa

06. Voodoo (with Rocky Tilbor) – enjoy being under a voodoo spell

07. Losgelöst (with X-Dream) – A Tourist in Europe

08. Square One (with Shulman) – Smile

09. Searching for UFOs (Remix to Astral Projection) – Unidentified forms of sound

10. Hypnotize (with Dekel) – Sounds of our local trance scene

11. Predator (with Rocky Tilbor) – Opened the gate for the album

12. Space Jahnun (Eitan Reiter Remix) – Same object, different view angle

Short and sweet

Favourite Food:

Out of Orbit: Now I am strong on the Veggies, but it changes all the time 🙂

Favourite Drink:

Out of Orbit: Water

Favourite series or movie:

Out of Orbit: Too many to count, I have a soft spot for Kill Bill and as a kid, the 1st movie I was obsessed with was jungle book.

An album you listen to a lot right now:

Out of Orbit: Noting specific, yesterday I listen to a bit of Eviatar Banai (Israeli singer) and had a 90s MTV hits session with my 6-year-old daughter. I am a huge fan of old-school hip hop to be honest.

One artist you would love to spend a day in the studio with (any genre):

Out of Orbit: Ahhhhhh, so many. But I rather not think about it from now on, you can dream about working with legends and not notice that some of your friends just a few steps from you are the people you can really make amazing music with.

Best way to pass the time during lockdown when not in the studio:

Out of Orbit: Yoga, Cooking, Editing Video, making music in a non-studio environment, drinking and smoking 🙂 having fun with you close circle and creating memories. I suggest using the time to learn new skills.
Favourite piece of studio gear right now:

Out of Orbit: My laptop. It all ends up there eventually.