A Chat with Suntapes (12.06.25)
Belgian composer and ambient sound architect Suntapes (aka Tomas Johan Kristian Vanderplaetse) has released his latest album, Travel Motion, which is an atmospheric journey across neoclassical, ambient, and cinematic landscapes. Known for blending the warmth of acoustic piano with analogue synths and world instruments, Suntapes invites listeners on a cinematic, meditative journey across eight meticulously crafted tracks. We chat with Suntapes about all this music below.
OSR: Travel Motion blends acoustic, analogue, and world instruments beautifully. How do you begin layering such diverse sounds?
Suntapes: There are different approaches. Neoclassical tracks such as ‘Motion’, ‘Plaza’ and ‘Fathom’ have been played for many years as minimalistic piano solo compositions and became part of 18 Tomas Johan Kristian track recordings in 2023. Eventually, I added mellow neoclassical arrangements so these tracks became more cinematic. The creation of other tracks, such as ‘Misterioso’ (Ambient Psychedelia style) starts with loops I discover mostly with my RC505 loop station set-up, my Ableton set-up and with effect pedals such as Particle – Red Panda and Avalanche Run – Earthquake device. And then I add layers with other instruments towards the build-up of a musical story.
OSR: What’s your general recording setup for albums like this. Do you record live sessions, or build from loops and samples?
Suntapes: Of course, piano recordings are complete live sessions with close-mike recordings with different stereo condenser and ribbon mikes. The arrangements are dubbing after the piano recordings. With the Ambient Psychedelia style tracks, I record the loops with the material I mentioned in the previous question. I mostly create it by playing it live with the loop set-up, but for the recording, I record layers separately so that it can be mixed more properly. The thing is, I never use software instruments, so all sounds are played live on instruments.
OSR: How did you source and learn to use instruments like the tanpura, ruan, and harmonium?
Suntapes: I bought these instruments a long time ago in Asia because the sounds felt very good. I love to spend time playing on these instruments spontaneously. I play on them in a quirky way that feels like my own personal creativity. So I don’t play on these instruments exactly like the musicians from China and India do. In any case, the sound of these instruments makes the atmosphere of my music less typical than other neoclassical and ambient music.
The Chinese Ruan is one of my favourite instruments. It has four strings and a feeling of unique sound between a banjo and a bass guitar. The Indian Harmonium is quite easy to use as a pianist. It was interesting to spend experimental time to hear and record the difference in the sound by using the backside of the Harmonium differently to pump air into the instrument. Indian instruments like Tanpura, I don’t play professionally like Indian musicians, but it’s great to use chords and melodies that fit in the key of the tracks. I also use that Thai pin (you can hear it in ‘Varkala’ in combination with Tanpura). Also, the Hokema thumb piano is lovely to play with. The album Laguna is the one I used the most of these acoustic instruments. In the Travel motion album, it’s mainly ‘Varkala’, ‘Galiano’ and ‘Overland’ that have the sound of these instruments.
OSR: Which track on the album posed the biggest technical or compositional challenge for you?
Suntapes: Of course, all tracks have a challenge. Technically, everything went well with a lot of experience and for some aspects to work with other recording technicians and mixing experts. Maybe ‘Varkala’ had the biggest compositional challenge. I recorded several improvisational piano versions with the drone sounds/loops of raagini, harmonium and minilogue. In live shows, I also played different versions of this track with loops I created live with the Tanpura or Pin and also combining piano and Pin live by playing piano with one hand and switching to notes on the Pin. So, eventually, I chose one recorded piano version with the drones and then added some Pin and Tanpura.
OSR: Can you walk us through your sound design approach, particularly in atmospheric pieces like ‘Cavern’?
Suntapes: ‘Cavern’ combines many different soundscapes with a dark aspect: a soundscape played on Waldorf synth and recorded on a Fostex cassette multitrack, piano notes that create a drone through the stereo Avalanche Run delay effect, an organ sound with reverb effect pedal that builds up after a minute, a Korg Minilogue signature Suntapes pad sound, and towards the end of the track some Wurlitzer notes through the stereo Avalanche Run effect.
OSR: You release classical music under your full name, Tomas Johan Kristian. How do you distinguish when a composition belongs to that identity versus Suntapes?
Suntapes: As I have been playing piano for 40 years (I’m 47), I started using many piano compositions as Suntapes in 2018. But a lot of the piano compositions felt like they really needed to be piano solos (such as the 11 tracks of the album). So I felt it could be more interesting to use a personal name for these tracks, and I played many living-room piano solo concerts. You can read more information on my website. So, I will probably keep releasing piano solo tracks as Tomas Johan Kristian and more cinematic, ambient music as Suntapes. Many times it feels similar to the music from Library Tapes and David Wenngren. Suntapes will have the most potential to build up, but Tomas Johan Kristian can help it to show as personal neoclassical music.
OSR: Did you use field recordings from your travels in the final mixes, or were all atmospheric elements created instrumentally?
Suntapes: Yes, I did use field recordings for many tracks (but not in my recent album Travel Motion). One track where it is obvious is ‘Smooth Sailing’ (sound of birds in Asia). In other tracks, the field recordings are more part of the atmospheric soundscapes.
OSR: What analogue synths or gear were crucial in shaping the core sound of Travel Motion?
Suntapes: My favourite analogue synths are the Korg Minilogue and Waldorf Blofeld that I combine with effect pedals (Memory Man – Electro Harmonix and Fathom – Walrus Audio). And other gear: Wurlitzer with the Avalanche Run effect pedal, Mellotron Flute. Of course, in this album, the acoustic piano sound is very crucial. Many tracks are recorded on a Yamaha grand piano with an open, warm sound in another studio (‘Motion’, ‘Plaza’ and ‘Fathom’). For other tracks, the piano pieces are recorded on a Bechstein grand piano and a Schimmel upright piano in my own studio. In many tracks, there’s also a Hoffner bass guitar with flat wound strings that adds a beautiful, warm sound.
OSR: How do you approach mixing when working with such varied textures, from piano to drone to flute?
Suntapes: For drones and soundscapes it’s interesting to combine different sounds with different frequencies, which makes it quite easy to mix the soundscapes. Some of these soundscapes evolve in terms of reverb, wideness and volume. A lot of it these evolvements are recorded with using effect pedals and effect knobs on instruments. Sometimes in the mixing, these effects can be upgraded. The piano sounds become more prominent in front of the soundscapes and are mainly mixed through tape recordings to have a lovely sound. In the mixing, sometimes multiband compression is interesting. For many instruments, I use specific effect pedals linked to these instruments to create the ideal sound, so it becomes easier in terms of mixing. Even for acoustic instruments such as Ruan, I use Radio Vocoloco to be able to add my favourite effect pedals through a microphone. The Mellotron flute melodies indeed sometimes need to be made wider to bring them to up forefront.
OSR: Would you ever consider performing this album live, and if so, how would you translate it to a stage setting?
Suntapes: Yes, I consider performing this album. Most tracks will go with the use of the multichannel loopstation with many channel inputs. Also, drone sounds I create live with effects. Best for the live show is to have an acoustic piano on stage. I combine it with the loopstation with some of my acoustic instruments ( Ruan, Thumb piano, Pin), the Korg Minilogue, the Crumar electric piano with the Avalanche Run effect pedal and my Hoffner bass guitar. Some tracks will be live a little bit differently than the recorded version. But most tracks have some repetitive sections that I can create with the loop station to be able to add the next arrangements. I’m completely ready for that.
For the other shows I’m currently doing, I also use this loop station with many instruments. Some tracks in the beginning and the end of the show might be piano solos in terms of the dynamic evolution of the setlist. In the setlist, I would also add some other tracks such as ‘Somersault’, ‘Lake Dweller’, ‘Stingray’, and ‘Sri Lanka’. A pure acoustic piano show with some sound art sections and some arpeggiator use is what you can see here.
Many thanks to Suntapes for speaking with us. Find out more about Suntapes on his official website, Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify.
