Apu Nanu
How would you describe the artistic act of your music creation?
Sound is such an immersive medium, I love how the once-silent air begins to resonate and the room I’m in fills with something that feels so real and tangible. For me, writing music is a form of escapism—there’s a certain freedom that comes with immersing yourself entirely in sound. Sometimes it almost feels like a dream or like a déjà vu, it triggers emotions that are otherwise hard to bring to the surface.
Your latest Album “The Untold Saga” (listen here) is an explosion of sonic entropia, the narration between flowing orchestra melodies and sound design syncopated beats creates an aetheral, almost angelic, soundscape that links notes to memories. What has guided you through this sonic path?
When I was about eleven or twelve, I became obsessed with modern classical piano and composers like Scriabin, Medtner, and Ravel. At the same time, I spent hours playing JRPGs on my first laptop and exploring user-created virtual rooms on IMVU. These are seemingly distant things , but as Gen Z I already started to be exposed to so many different kinds of content & this would later shape my aesthetics and vision as an artist, connecting little pieces like a collage.
I’d say my current path is shaped partly by conscious choices—carefully curating my production process —and partly by trusting my intuition.
“My Clockwork Toy” (listen here) is a hypnotic lullaby, a silky smooth sound-ritual leading to inner re-velation. It plays as link from childhood insouciance and adulthood naivetè, expressed also through the artwork of the track featuring a carillon with a blurred animal shapes. Which is the concept of the sound-craft expressed?
I wrote this track basically in a day , shortly after I had finished my EP. There is a sense of freedom that comes after finishing a big project - the thought that you can make anything and start from scratch can be so exciting. “My clockwork toy” came so intuitively to me that I immediately came up with the name after writing the first few seconds of music. Layering sounds and building on that, was smooth, like everything made sense in that moment.
A toy is made to bring joy but can also emit so much nostalgia . This track doesn’t have a fixed tempo & was written completely off the grid in a DAW. I guess just like a child would treat music making or software.
Remember when Aphex Twin hired a 12-year-old to film and direct the music video of for ‘’CIRCKLON3’’ ? I think this kind of energy — not caring about boundaries and simply doing things or making creative decisions because they feel right in the moment — is something we all had as children, and I believe we should try to embrace it now too.
From Neoclassical sounds to videogame beats, your music repertoire always sounds as immortal. How do you describe your sonic atmospheres?
I try to achieve a ‘’Victorian child would die’’ and ’’Lo-fi beats to study to’’ kind of balance.
““A toy is made to bring joy but also can emit so much nostalgia””
In the creative process, sound evolution is unpredictable, it can’t be forecasted in advance; for what concerns live sets and new tracks already born and planned but that you still have to release and experience this year — would you love to announce any of them sharing with us the news?
In 2025, I’ve got a new EP coming out on unseelie — one of my favorite labels — plus a sample pack I’m really excited to release ! I’ve also got some collabs in the works, and I’ll be performing outside of Europe for the first time.
Layering armonies, soft notes on crunchy and granular samples. Your musical composition is a sonic labor limae. What was the starting point of your excursus on sound design? Do you have the same approach on other artistic fields?
Designing sounds is such a crucial part of my composition process; the amount of control we now possess with digital tools is practically infinite. My approach can be as surgical as it is chaotic: sometimes I carefully build a system, and other times I’m just tweaking plugins as if I’m trying to break them. I think that reflects the balance of consciousness versus intuition I mentioned earlier.
I’d say that generating chaos—embracing randomness—and then selecting and curating those tiny fragments into a cohesive piece is the way I approach sound and music.
Born and based in Athens, how do you think the city influenced your artistic journey and shaped the current local music scene?
I was born and still live in Piraeus, the port of Athens. This place has historically been— and continues to be—incredibly SWAG. From the colorful “roadmen” fashion of the early 2010s to the Balkan kitsch, even the abandoned houses and industrial buildings from the 20th century—Piraeus is a gem. It took me some time to appreciate it; growing up here and declaring myself an artist is hard. I couldn’t’t see any opportunities, and working as an artist felt completely unattainable. Thanks to the internet, I found an amazing community that appreciated what I do and finally made me feel like I have something special to offer.
Interview by ASIYA
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