RUDIQUE (Rudik Mkrtchyan) is a Berlin based film composer and electronic musician. He immerses listeners into the depths of their minds, creating bizarre electronic music. A combination of sensual harmonies and cinematic sounds.
The past two years have been a whirlwind adventure for RUDIQUE, living in four different counties. A week after the war began he left Russia together with his wife, because being there had become unacceptable and dangerous. RUDIQUE found himself searching for a new home and starting a new chapter, saying goodbye to his previous musical career and sound-engineering university studies – all of which came to an end abruptly and outside of his control. All these experiences have been conveyed in the new track Obstacles – a wordless and drumless instrumental track.
FACTS
1. Why do you believe what you believe?
2. Not every change is an improvement but every improvement is a change.
3. Every time you shuffle a deck of cards, you create a unique sequence of cards that has never existed before (probably).
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
I don’t believe in inspiration. A well crafted environment mostly on mornings pushes me to create. When I’m looking for new ideas, I often find inspiration in experimental instrumental music.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
The shift between being a rock-only listener to a young guitar player happened when I was 13 years old. I listened to Ed Sheeran’s album “+” and my whole perception of music just transformed completely. The way he used guitar as a drum tool and percussion instrument inspired me to learn how to do it by myself and then I started watching a ton of youtube videos on how to play guitar, mostly in fingerstyle. Since then, I have been perceiving the world through the prism of sound
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
1. Jon Hopkins – Singularity. It’s a perfect example of electronic music for me. The balance between the complexity both mixing and arrangement wise is insane.
2. Son Lux – Tomorrows I. They build new instruments, create new genres and broaden the horizons of the whole idea of elecro-acoustic music. This album helped to cope with my emigration period in 2022, when I left Russia after the war started.
3. Hans Zimmer – The Lion King. This list should include at least one album with film scores, so let it be the classic one. It may sound silly, but a lot of these tracks can be imagined in different feature films.
4. Skrillex – Quest For Fire. I like how Skrillex has changed within his musical career and the last album is simply 10/10 in terms of electronic dance music (which I adore listening to and rarely play).
5. Monetochka – Декоративно-прикладное искусство. Even though it’s in the Russian language, the spirit of her songs and the uniqueness of the arrangements are clear. I believe the Russian ani-war scene as well as the underground electronic scene are one of the strongest and most developed ones, and if you haven’t listened to any, Monetochka is a great artist to start with.
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Diversity. It can be super calm and bustling on the same day. Görlitzer park is a family and sport area, but after sunset it becomes one of the most dangerous places in town. You can wear whatever you want and never catch the disapproving gaze. Berlin is very welcoming to newcomers, most of whom appreciate it and give the same level of care in return.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Gretchen club. I’m a fan of drum’n’bass music and sometimes it’s hard to find anything except techno or house gigs in Berlin, but Gretchen club is a place of magical power. I’ve been there 6 times this year! By the way, they specialize in both electronic and jazz events and I totally love this concept!
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Probably I would continue to study math after school and now I’d have been the greatest scientist of all time working on a new time traveling project…
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
I am getting acquainted with the works of Mica Levi. Their music is so inimitable so it makes the movies even more strange and authentic.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
My bucket list contains a couple of dozen names, but if I need to choose one I would pick Damien Chazelle. Even though he always works with his college friend, an extraordinary composer Justin Hurwits, I hope one day we could work together on one of his films. I truly believe that there’s exactly a collaboration between a director, their film and a composer, so yea there are not only musicians in my list for dream collaborations.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a spectator, I remember how stunned and overwhelmed I was after my first punk rock concert. It was in Moscow in 2017, my favorite band at that time was “Pornofilmy.” Their music immersed me in politics and shaped my personality. There’s a chance that I partially lost my auditory sensitivity back on that day ;)
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Extremely important. Most of the time my whole setup contains a laptop, a sound card and a pair of headphones. I learned how to use software and Ableton stock plugins first which gave me an ability to create anywhere without a studio or any musical instruments. It doesn’t mean that I don’t need all the other approaches to music making, I just feel much more creative when there’s some kind of limitation involved. Also from another point of view, everything is technology, even our language, all the classical music instruments and notations. Humanity has always been creating something that makes our lives easier, which improves communication. According to this logic, AI systems, for instance, are just new tools which I’m totally down to use in future.
11. Please tell us a little bit about the development of Obstacles.
“Obstacles” explores the tension between opposing forces. A blend of tender live cello, performed by Zunesha, and haunting synthesizers. Inspired by the minimalist elegance of Nils Frahm and the innovative sounds of Son Lux, the track delves into the challenges of finding harmony in roughness. I put a lot of personal experiences related to emigration into this track and tried to frame everything with a peculiar sound design and thoroughly crafted space. Along with the track release we are launching a remix competition on 20th of September for those who are also keen on making personal and emotional music! The ones who are interested will get a free sample pack with cello and Volca FM samples as well as Ableton effect racks and MIDI files.
