Interview: Edoardo Gastaldi

Edoardo Gastaldi is a Venice-based ambient and neoclassical composer whose work balances fragility and intensity. Guided by instinct rather than structure, he transforms deeply felt experiences into spacious soundscapes filled with melancholy and quiet hope. His music inhabits the space between minimalism and emotional depth, inviting listeners to slow down and reflect. In this interview, Edoardo shares the inspirations, challenges, and philosophies that shape his creative world.

General info

Artist Name: Edoardo Gastaldi

Real name: Edoardo Gastaldi

Location: Venice, Italy

Social Media / Music Links

edoardogastaldimusic.it
solo.to/edoardo-gastaldi
youtube.com/@EdoardoGastaldiMusic

Do you release music under a label or independently?

Independent

Creative process and inspiration

What drew you to ambient music in the first place?

When I first approached music (2016), my interests were fragmented into many different styles and genres. I was genuinely curious to discover. Soon, I found a deep fascination for everything that was profound, yet weightless in a sense. And this oximorical pair found its bloom in ambient and neoclassical (especially felt piano) music. I keep getting back to my beliefs, asking why and how these came to me. And the answer is always the same: this music, this kind of music, is what I needed. Not only as a background to listen to, but also as a creative force. Writing ambient music helps me to create a stream of thoughts moving from inside to outside. Yet it's somehow circular: the outside moves inside. Contrasting feelings come out of me, in the end, when I give shape to my thoughts into music. And ambient music is my way to thoroughly do so. I am in the world only for the purpose of composing (Franz Schubert...).

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

Often, when writing music and transforming ideas into creation, the process I undertake is rather instinctual. The very first step has to do with life, experiences, and situations. There is always a spark coming from the outside, able to shake my soul slightly enough to instill in me the impulse to create. And for me, creation then becomes an act of transposition. I lived something emotionally dense, and I transform it into music by exaggerating and exasperating that feeling by a x10 factor at least. Music is about hypersensitivity, in terms of what you convey in respect to what you feel as an artist. As Alain Arias-Misson said: "The purpose of art is life, intensified". We always go back to who we are and who we want to be. Creation is very natural; I do not follow any process, it just happens. In that moment, I am just a bridge between art that is already something somewhere and the world.

Where do you find inspiration? Emotion, nature, science fiction, or something else?

Inspiration comes from life struggles, the things we cannot describe — may they be for the good or for the bad. A loss, a love at first sight, those situations we authentically are not able to define and give shape to. In my music, inspiration comes exactly from that: all those feelings hard to square into something concrete. Those devastating flows of temporary happiness, rather than a long fall. And the ambition as an artist, for me, is to decrypt what happened, to give it a form. To give it a voice, a way to be heard. The result is then simply magnificent. Perhaps we will never understand what love is, what loss is. Yet, that person, that feeling, that gesture is forever sealed somewhere. And this somewhere is sculpted in music. What an incredibly powerful bridge we are. We, creators of music. Piet Mondriaan once said: "The position of the artist is humble. He essentially is a channel".

How would you describe your sonic identity or the mood you aim to create?

My creations live in the narrow line in between the frontier of repetitive post-classical minimalism and deep compositional ambient layers. Overall, I would define my sonic identity as the slow construction of philosophical threads, built of condensed melancholy and sparse hope. My work deeply reflects the desire to explore human fragilities, our mental walls, those paradoxes, hypocrisies, but also the love, the affection, the need to find a place in the world, and all the complexities of existence. Quite often those not-so-easy feelings are masked by a music that, at a first listen, may appear gentle and shallow. That's what we also need in a sense: to feel thoughtless. Yet for the brave, there are more layers to my music.

Are there any artists that deeply influenced your style?

My approach to music and its resulting style — which I would define as somewhat philosophical, is inspired by the sounds of foundational artists including Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson, Johan Söderqvist, Hammock, Tony Anderson, Leonard Petersen, Atli Örvarsson, Stephen Porter, Ronit Kirchman, Sigur Rós, John Cage, and Nils Frahm. Those all, in one way or another, shaped the way I think, compose, arrange, and eventually create in its broader sense.

Gear and setup

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

When coming to composition and production, at the current stage I use a hybrid setup: a Digital Audio Workstation (FL Studio), VSTs of various kinds, a MIDI Keyboard, and my beloved acoustic Upright Piano, a Kawai. Very often, I work together with friends or musicians to record strings, flutes, electronics, or voices. I like to be flexible in general, and keep the creative process open to whatever it's needed in that specific project.

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

I love Spitfire LABS. There is this tool of instruments recorded from live acoustic spaces and often processed with pedals or effects, which are perfect to add ambient depth to tracks without making them sound too experimental. I love the delicacy and the detailed way those sounds are crafted.

Challenges

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

I may answer in a way that directs the question towards a different topic... Creation is something intrinsically easy. At least for me, but I believe for anyone calling himself creator or artist. It's our world. It's what we live for. Sometimes, it's the only place in which we feel safe and free. It's where we recover a sense of compassion. The challenge is not to do, but to do without. I can't picture myself without it, without music. So at times all the rest falls apart, all the other aspects of life. We, artists, we disperse into worlds far apart, far above. May it be for seconds, days, months, years. Then we appear again here, and we discover the world is changed. And people with it.

Back to a challenge related to music, which I think worth mentioning nowadays more than ever, it's what comes after. The music is created, and then? It's the Release stage, the Promotion stage, that is hard. How can you make your thoughts resonate with someone? That's not our task, our task is to create, yet we are asked to do that as well.

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

Unfortunately, I am never. I didn't experience creative ruts. Just think about it this way: There is just the right time for music, as for any kind of art, we cannot force it. It will softly whispers to our ears "This might work and now it's the time to write it." at some point. May it be once a day, or once a year. Anything that is forced is not art.