Digitalzelf approaches ambient music as both a cinematic landscape and a means of self-discovery, shaping open-ended stories through modular synthesis, portable instruments and live experimentation. In this interview, the Valencia-based artist reflects on finding a personal voice, embracing creative friction, navigating streaming platforms and using AI as an assistant rather than a replacement for human vision.
General info
Artist Name: Digitalzelf
Location: Valencia, Spain
How long have you been making music? About 35 years.
Social Media / Music Links
Do you release music under a label or independently?
Independent
Creative process and inspiration
What drew you to ambient music in the first place?
I was drawn to ambient music because of its meditative quality and the way it naturally permeates the environment. I've always felt it is a very wide container, open enough to hold almost any kind of impression while remaining close to your immediate experience. That openness also gives me space to observe myself while I'm creating.
Can you describe your creative process when starting a new track?
For me, the space I'm working in and the setup I'm using are very important. Sometimes the setup itself triggers the idea, and sometimes an initial impression suggests what the setup should be. The instruments I choose and the space around me usually have a lot to do with the final outcome. When I'm working with modular, even a small idea about how to connect a few modules can open up a direction for the whole piece. From there, depending on what sparked the idea, I might go looking for a texture, a melody, a chord progression, or whatever seems to give the piece a direction.
What kinds of experiences or environments tend to inspire your work most?
I can be inspired by very different kinds of environments and experiences. A decadent city can trigger something in me just as strongly as a landscape, a film, something I read, or a piece of music. Cinema is a particularly important influence, and I'm constantly learning from other musicians and from music itself. Human behavior also gives me a lot to think about: the way we live, the way we relate to each other, the ideas we build around our own lives, and the ones that can help us understand ourselves a little better.
What atmosphere or emotional space are you trying to create with your music?
All kinds. My music tends to be very diverse, and it has always been that way. Every story needs its own atmosphere and emotional space to develop, and that depends entirely on what I'm trying to express or what kind of story I'm trying to tell. If I had to find one common element within my musical universe, though, it would probably be creating a safe space for self-observation, although not always a comfortable one.
What moment made you feel like you had truly found your sound?
If we're talking about identity, I think finding your own voice is the ultimate goal of any artist. I'm not sure I've fully found mine yet, but it's probably my main pursuit. For me, finding my voice within music is also a way of finding myself, or at least understanding myself more deeply.
How important is storytelling in your work?
It's key. I've always been very conceptual in the way I approach music. I tend to need some kind of story, image, or underlying idea to develop a piece, and I really enjoy working that way. I think I'm quite cinematic in that sense.
What makes a track feel “finished” to you?
The tick of the clock. I could probably keep working on a track forever, so at some point I have to decide that the idea has been expressed clearly enough and let it go.
Which artists (or even non-musical influences) have shaped your artistic vision?
So many. To name a few: the reverberant sound of the 80s, the minimalism of the 60s and 70s, film music, Steve Reich, Erik Satie, Björk, Mark Bell, Stravinsky, The Doors, Brian Eno, David Lynch, Rubén Darío, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Gurdjieff, Roberto Matta, and many others.
Gear and setup
Are you using hardware instruments, software, or a hybrid setup?
Depending on what I'm working on, it might be a hybrid setup, hardware only, or software only. I'm not a purist, so I enjoy working with whatever setup best serves the piece.
What's your favorite piece of gear or plugin, and why?
The Teenage Engineering OP-Z. It can do so much! The sequencer is incredible, but it's also a synth, drum machine, sampler, visual controller, and even a lighting controller. I originally bought it because I wanted something polyphonic that could play chords and pair well with my modular system, especially at a time when there weren't many modular options for that. Once I started learning everything it could do, it completely changed the way I worked. I still love it because the sequencer is so powerful, the workflow feels very immediate, and it lets me create so much music with very little friction. The fact that I can take it anywhere is just another part of what makes it so special to me.
What piece of gear completely changed your workflow?
The OP-Z, and more recently, the EP-136 KO Sidekick mixer. The Sidekick gave me a lot more freedom to shape the signal flow and frequency balance while working away from the studio, without making the setup any less portable. The fact that it can also work as an audio interface makes it even more useful for the way I like to work.
Challenges
What's been the biggest challenge so far in creating ambient music?
For me, the biggest challenge has been maintaining musical coherence, staying connected to the core idea without drifting too far from it, and achieving an overall sound that feels balanced, natural, and pleasant. I tend to record live, performing the piece as it happens, because I like the freshness that brings to the music. The challenge is that the mix can become unbalanced very quickly, so I have to stay very present and aware throughout the performance. I enjoy that exercise, but it is still one of the most demanding parts of the process for me.
How do you stay motivated or inspired when you're in a creative rut?
I usually disconnect from the craft for a while. That can mean going for a walk, watching a movie, meditating, or simply having a good conversation with a friend. Stepping away for a bit often helps me return with a different perspective.
How do streaming platforms affect the way you release music, or what is your relationship with those platforms?
I'm actually in the middle of figuring that out. I don't feel very comfortable with the business model of streaming platforms, especially Spotify, and that has held me back from releasing music there. At the same time, I know that relying only on Bandcamp may not be the best option for me in the near future. So my relationship with streaming is still unresolved. I'm trying to find a way of using those platforms, and the aggregators behind them, while still feeling comfortable with the way I release my music.
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?
If we're talking about art itself, I'm not sure AI changes the fundamental artistic question that much. AI can generate novel combinations from patterns learned from existing human work, and in that sense it isn't completely different from the way we absorb influences, experiences, and culture ourselves. What interests me more is artistic originality rooted in lived experience, intention, and personal perspective. That is where I still see a very important distinction.
If we're talking about AI replacing people professionally, that is a different question. A lot will depend on what audiences choose to consume. If people are perfectly happy consuming AI-generated music and images, then of course that will have consequences. If they continue to value the fact that something was made and experienced by another human being, then that distinction will remain important.
Personally, I've never used AI to generate musical ideas or actual music, and I'm not interested in tools such as Suno for my own creative work. Where I have found AI useful is more as a reflective surface. I can put my own ideas into words, look at them from different perspectives, question them, and use it to help me organize all the “administrative” tasks that any project needs.
My ideal relationship between humans and AI is probably something closer to Tony Stark and JARVIS in Iron Man: the human brings the vision, intention, and ideas, while the AI helps analyze, organize, test, and materialize them without replacing the human creative impulse itself. That kind of collaboration feels much more interesting to me than simply asking a machine to create the work for you.
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 think that reality is already here. We don't really have to wait to see whether AI will become part of creative workflows, because it already is. My guess is that within the next few years almost every major DAW will include some form of integrated AI assistance, whether for editing, organization, analysis, mixing, or other parts of the workflow. I also expect we'll start seeing it much more often in hardware instruments and music devices, if that transition hasn't already begun.
More broadly, I think AI will become part of many different environments and crafts. The interesting question for me is less whether it will be there, and more how we choose to use it and what parts of the creative process we still want to keep fundamentally human.
What are you currently working on?
I'm currently working on three main projects. The first is Season 3 of my YouTube channel, where I release a series of live performance videos, mainly centered around my modular system. The second is a very small video game that I'm creating for my composer portfolio, to show some of my work for film and games. And the third is writing and producing a new EP for Digitalzelf.
What advice would you give to new ambient artists?
Don't let old ambient artists give you advice. Always look for your own distinctive voice.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
I think a certain amount of friction is important in any creative process. If everything feels too easy or too automatic, I think it's worth asking yourself whether you're actually discovering something, or simply repeating what you already know how to do. Some of the most interesting things I've made have come from limitations, mistakes, resistance, or not immediately knowing what the next step should be.
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