RA caught up with Michal Matlak, the man behind The Analog Roland Orchestra, to chat a bit about the album in advance of its release.

You are obviously a Roland fan. What was the first piece of their gear that you worked with? Why did you fall in love with it?

Indeed, I like Roland equipment but only from a certain period: 1978-1986. My first Roland instrument was a TR 606 which was destroyed by my cat. I remember the 606 was plugged in and was standing on top of the Korg MS 20 which stood on a keyboard stand, and Hugo (my cat) pulled the wires and the 606 fell down and was immediately dead.

I don't solely own Roland gear. One of my favorite instruments is the Solian String Ensemble which was used in some of my favorite records, especially on Air's Premiers Symptomes and Moon Safari but also in the '70s by Bowie, Pink Floyd and on a lot of reggae and dub recordings from back then.

But back to Roland. I got hold of some of them in the last "cheap" period. With some I was lucky and managed to get good price, but for others I paid crazy amounts, which for example I could only afford by working all summer just to get the desired drum machine. Rolands are cool because they are flexible, they've got charm, they look sexy and they are fun to use.

The album is very epic in places. Did you set out to make an album of "big songs"?

I remember exactly when I started to work on this album. It was one week after moving into my current flat where I really felt good and at home. For Munich, it is a quite big flat. 72 square meters shared by three persons and I have my very own little studio. It's in the attic and has got a nice view over some cool roofs which I have never had before in my past flats.

All of this is reflected in the album. You can hear the first summer rain from 2011 falling on my roof and there were some epic moments on it which surely was due to the nice atmosphere there. It fits perfect to the flat and every track was written and produced in this flat in my home studio.

I started to properly work with effects especially with Delays, Reverbs and Phasers. They create a huge impact in the opening of tracks and it sort of feels like creating a painting with different brushes and strokes. If you focus on something you kind of get better at it and that's what happened with the rooms and space on the album which give you the feeling of something big.

Can you tell us a little a bit about your live show and what it looks like?

Each live show is different, containing a programmed part in which every track in itself has got his improvised part too. I tried a lot of things since the first day I played live. I have tried a lot of synthesizers, drum machines and effects and finally ended up with my chosen equipment which I can carry on my own, take on the plane, a train or simply just walking to a club. This means I always have my MPC working as the brain, loaded with samples and sequences, then there's a drum machine which I can easily program like a TR 707 or TR 909 and I always carry a polyphonic synthesizer with me, either the JX3p or a Juno 106. Sometimes I take the Jupiter 6 to a club but she (it's a her) sometimes is pissed off and refuses to make a single sound. I am a big fan of phaser pedals and delays so I always take one of my favorite pedals with me.

I usually play for about one hour and I need a big mixing desk and a little bit of space. A frequent companion over the last year was a soldering iron and tin solder but I have since improved my gear and work without them now.

Playing live is always like having a little exhibition. You take your favorite pieces from your collection on tour—out of your private museum/studio into an alien room and people pay to see and hear those machines and they like it. At every gig there are people looking at the machines and some of them are very amused because they have never seen a big Jupiter 6 on a club table...or a TR 808. It's funny. I sometimes feel more like a curator than a musician.