Interview: A Last Picture From Voyager

A Last Picture From Voyager turns tape loops, archival recordings, NASA sounds, and hardware experiments into music that feels like a message drifting through space. Born during the silence of the COVID years, Vincent's project grew from post-rock roots into a tactile ambient world of cassette machines, pedals, modular synths, nostalgia, and imagined journeys. In this interview, he talks about the Voyager probes, the poetry of the Golden Record, storytelling through sound and video, and why limitations can open the most unexpected doors.

General info

Artist Name: A Last Picture From Voyager (ALPFV)

Real name: Vincent Taïani

Age: 45

Location: Avignon, France

How long have you been making music? 30 years

 

Social Media / Music Links

instagram.com/alastpicturefromvoyager

Do you release music under a label or independently?

Label

 

Creative process and inspiration

What drew you to ambient music in the first place?

I started making ambient music during the COVID pandemic, when I stopped playing in bands. At the time, I was playing post-rock, post-metal and doom/stoner in a few different bands, but obviously, everything came to a stop with COVID.

I still wanted to make music, though, so I started playing on my own at home. I got into loopers, and then quite quickly discovered tape loops. And once I got into that, it kind of opened a door that I never really closed again.

Little by little, I ended up selling most of my old gear from my life as a live musician and metal guitarist, and started buying synths, cassette players, tape machines and all sorts of things that were completely different from what I had been using before. I did keep a few guitars, though.

Can you describe your creative process when starting a new track?

My creative process is pretty varied. At the beginning of the project, I really enjoyed working with archival material: old magnetic tapes I would find in second-hand shops, cassettes where people had recorded themselves singing or talking, things like that. I also used a lot of NASA recordings, which are quite closely connected to the name of the project.

So I would often start with one of those recordings and try to build something around it. But over time, my process evolved because I didn't want to stay focused on just one particular way of working. The new gear I discovered also pushed me in different directions, especially creative effects pedals and modular synthesizers.

These days, a track can start from many different things. It can still be an archival recording, but it can also be a particular sound texture, a field recording, or even an arpeggiator pattern that I really like and want to develop further. Sometimes a single sound becomes the starting point, and I just try to find other elements that fit around it.

So there isn't really one fixed process for me. I think that variety is actually an important part of how I create.

What kinds of experiences or environments tend to inspire your work most?

Nature and space are probably the two things that inspire my work the most. It's also closely connected to the name of the project, which comes from the Voyager probes and the slightly philosophical idea behind them.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of Voyager travelling through space, carrying the Golden Record with sounds and recordings from Earth: music, nature sounds, and people saying hello to whoever might eventually find it. There's something very poetic about sending a small collection of sounds from our planet into the unknown.

That whole idea makes me escape mentally. And when I escape like that, it naturally makes me think about music. For me, music is a kind of mental journey or a way of travelling somewhere without actually going anywhere.

What atmosphere or emotional space are you trying to create with your music?

I'm very drawn to melancholy, or perhaps more specifically, nostalgia, which I see as a more positive feeling. It's definitely something that has always been present in my music.

I wouldn't say my music is always very joyful, although it has evolved quite a bit over time. In the beginning, I was really focused on sad, melancholic and nostalgic tones. And I think that's also what inspires me musically, with bands I really love, like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and that kind of music that feels almost like a lament or a slightly sad musical trance.

But I don't necessarily see that as something negative. For me, there can be something beautiful and even comforting in those feelings. I like the idea of creating music that allows you to immerse yourself in that emotional space without it necessarily becoming dark or depressing.

What moment made you feel like you had truly found your sound?

I think I feel like I've found my sound every time I start a new part of the project, whether it's an EP, an album, a piece of music, a video, or something else. Every time, I have this feeling that I've finally found my sound.

But I also know that the next time I start something new, I'll probably feel exactly the same way again. So I think it's really a constant evolution, and maybe you never actually find your sound.

Or maybe the day I finally do find it, I'll stop making music, because perhaps I'll have found exactly what I was looking for.

How important is storytelling in your work?

Storytelling is actually very important to my work, although it's a little bit ambiguous. I don't usually start making a track with a specific story in mind. But once I start creating, certain images and ideas naturally come to me, and I start telling myself a story in my head. That's a really important part of the process for me.

And I also really like the idea that listeners will create their own stories from the music, even if they are completely different from the ones I imagined. In fact, some of the best feedback I get is when people tell me that my music makes them travel somewhere mentally, imagine things, or create their own stories and images.

There's also another side to my work, because I make a lot of videos around the music and the creative process. With those, the storytelling is a little more intentional. I usually have a clearer idea beforehand of what I want to tell or show, because otherwise the video wouldn't really have a direction.

So I think storytelling has these two sides in my work: one that happens naturally and almost unconsciously while I'm making music, and another that is more deliberate when I'm creating videos.

What makes a track feel “finished” to you?

I think a track is finished when I've spent enough time on it, but not too much. That's probably the simplest answer.

The difficult part for me is more the mixing and post-production. I make albums, but at the same time I also create music for videos, both for myself and for other people. For example, I'm about to start working on a documentary about a cyclist. So I have to take care of a significant part of the mixing myself, otherwise it would become too expensive, especially since music isn't my main profession.

And mixing is definitely not where I feel the most confident. So, in a way, that helps answer the question: when I'm finally happy with the mix, I know the track is really finished.

The composition part is actually much easier for me. I can usually tell quite quickly when the composition is done. It's the post-production stage that tends to become more complicated for me, because I can spend a lot of time trying to get everything to sound exactly the way I want.

Which artists (or even non-musical influences) have shaped your artistic vision?

I think I would come back to the Voyager probes again, especially because of the philosophical side of the project. Carl Sagan's writing has had a real influence on me, particularly his reflection on the famous image of Earth taken by Voyager, when the probe turned back towards Earth and the Sun after completing its main mission. In that picture, Earth appears as this tiny pale blue dot in the middle of an immense darkness.

There's something incredibly powerful and philosophical about that image and the text Sagan wrote about it. It really moves me, and I think that feeling has influenced my own work quite deeply.

Then, musically, there are obviously many artists. I mentioned Godspeed You! Black Emperor earlier, as well as Mogwai. I still have a lot of my post-rock background in me, even though my music has evolved quite far from the bands I used to play in.

Interestingly, I discovered electronic ambient music around the same time that I started making it myself. So I never really had one particular ambient artist where I thought, “That's exactly what I want to do.” I feel like I've drawn my own line somewhere in between all these influences, and that my music still comes quite strongly from my post-rock background, even if the way I express it is now very different.

 

Gear and setup

Are you using hardware instruments, software, or a hybrid setup?

Apart from mixing and mastering, which I do on a computer, almost everything else in my process is hardware-based.

I use tape loops, the Elektron Digitone, effects pedals, modular synthesizers, reel-to-reel tape machines, and various synthesizers, including some old ones. I also use things like the Casio SK-1 and SK-5, toy pianos, guitars and amplifiers.

So I'd say my setup is overwhelmingly hardware-based. I really enjoy the physical aspect of working with these instruments and the limitations they bring. I think those limitations are actually quite helpful creatively.

What's your favorite piece of gear or plugin, and why?

That's a difficult question because I feel like everything in my setup complements everything else. But if I had to choose one thing, I'd probably say my small pedalboard.

It's made up of four Chase Bliss pedals and a Butterfly Effect, and I run it from the output of my Tascam four-track recorder. The combination of the two is really magical for me. Each pedal feels like an instrument in its own right, rather than just an effect.

I can take something very simple from the tape machine and completely transform it through the pedals, and the results can take me in directions I never expected.

What piece of gear completely changed your workflow?

I think every time I get a new piece of gear, it somehow changes my workflow. But if I had to choose two, I'd say the Chase Bliss Blooper and, more recently, the Digitone II.

The Blooper is a creative looper that really changed the way I work. It allowed me to create layers of loops on top of my cassette loops, while pitching and slowing them down. That immediately brought a whole new dimension to my compositions.

And more recently, the Digitone II has changed things again. It allows me to combine the digital side of my sound with a small modular synth setup that plays samples, and then mix all of that with my cassette player and the little pedalboard I mentioned earlier.

I've ended up with a live setup where I feel like I can do pretty much anything I want, while keeping the amount of gear to a minimum. The workflow is really fluid and straightforward.

So I think the Digitone II is actually helping me move towards performing live, which is something I've never really done as a solo musician and something I'm really excited about. I'm currently composing new pieces with this setup that I'll eventually be able to perform live.

 

Challenges

What's been the biggest challenge so far in creating ambient music?

I don't think I've really felt a major challenge in creating ambient music so far. I've been quite lucky to have the freedom to do whatever I want. If I'm not inspired, I'm not inspired. If I feel like making an album, I make an album. If I want to make a video, I make a video.

But I'm starting to get one or two commissions for documentaries, and I think that's where the challenge is going to become more interesting. Having to work within someone else's project, with specific images, emotions or deadlines, will probably push me in a different way.

And then there's performing live. That has always been a challenge for me. I'm not quite there yet, but I feel like things are starting to fall into place, especially with my new setup. So I'm really looking forward to seeing where that takes me.

How do you stay motivated or inspired when you're in a creative rut?

I think I'm lucky because I always have so many ideas in my head, and I have notebooks filled with notes and things I want to try. Some of them are very specific processes, like, “What if I cut magnetic tape into pieces, put it back together in completely random ways, and see what happens?” Or ideas for videos, like making a video where I create music using only blue instruments. Sometimes the ideas are a little silly, but I like having them there.

So if I'm stuck on something, I just put it aside and open my notebook. I'll pick another idea and think, “Okay, let's try this.” Maybe it will turn into something, maybe it won't. And then I can always come back to the thing I was working on before.

I'm quite comfortable putting things on standby, starting something else, and coming back later. Eventually, something always happens. I think the important thing for me is not to force myself to keep working on something when I'm not feeling it. There's always another idea waiting somewhere.

How do streaming platforms affect the way you release music, or what is your relationship with those platforms?

I honestly don't take streaming platforms into consideration very much when I make or release music. After around four albums and three EPs, I only recently realized that you could actually pitch tracks to curators on Spotify. I had never done it before.

I'm going to start doing it now, just so I don't miss out on the opportunity, but it's really not the part of the process I enjoy the most.

For me, the music itself and the creative process still come first. I don't really want to change the way I make music just to fit the way streaming platforms work.

What are your thoughts on AI's impact on music and art? Have you, in any form, used it in your approach to creating and shaping ideas?

No idea about it, I stay so focused on my own DIY thing, cutting magnetic tape, printing it with synths and processing it through pedals ;-)

How do you see AI evolving in music and art? Are you cautious about it, or do you think it will increasingly function as a tool within creative workflows?

I'm pretty distant from AI when it comes to music. I'm very aware of the copyright issues and the questions around AI models being trained on artists' music without their consent, and I think that can be quite concerning.

As for the actual tools, I honestly don't know much about what AI can currently do in music. I'm so focused on a hardware-based approach that I'd much rather cut up magnetic tape with scissors and stick it back together with tape than spend more time in front of a screen.

There's something about the physical, hands-on process that I really enjoy, and that's probably why AI hasn't really found its way into my creative process so far.

What are you currently working on?

At the moment, I'm overseeing the mastering of my next album, “Electric Magnetic”, which is going to be released in January.

I'm also preparing a new ambient sample pack that will be released in September, as well as working on various personal video ideas.

And I'm about to start working on a documentary about a cyclist who takes part in ultra-endurance races across Europe. He has a really interesting story to tell, especially about his motivations and what drives him to do these races.

What advice would you give to new ambient artists?

Don't focus too much on expensive, brand-new gear. You really don't need a huge setup to make interesting ambient music.

An old synth from the ’80s, a few carefully chosen pedals, and an old cassette player can already work wonders. I'd say experiment with what you have, learn the character of your gear, and don't be afraid of limitations. Sometimes the limitations are exactly what make the music interesting.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you for giving me this space to share my work, and thank you for everything you do with Abducted Android to support and highlight artists. I really appreciate the work you're doing to give independent artists a platform and help people discover new music.

 

The sound of A Last Picture From Voyager