Anita Tatlow (Interview)

Today we’re listening to Anita Tatlow, a British ambient musician based in Hong Kong. She trained classically as a pianist and vocalist and studied piano at university. There she met musician Ben Tatlow, now her husband, with whom she co-founded the label Echoes Blue. She’s collaborated with many artists through the label, and she’s released solo music since 2020. Her latest record, the roads that shaped us, is an ambient album mainly built from voice and piano. On one track, she told us, “I created a shimmer effect which started out as a piano tremolo that I recorded and then processed through the Strymon Night Sky pedal and reversed it and it becomes inaudible as a piano but a super mystical texture.” We’re also playing elementum, her 2025 collaboration with composer Adi Goldstein. A conversation with Anita follows the streaming links.

the roads that shaped us - Anita Tatlow (24m, voice as an instrument)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal

elementum - Anita Tatlow (29m, voice as an instrument)
Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal

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We got in touch through Cynthia Bernard (marine eyes) for the gentle voices compilation. How did you two meet?

I’m based in Hong Kong, and there are not many ambient artists over here. Ben, my husband, who I run Echoes Blue with – he’s always been good at connecting with people who are working in similar spaces to us, and he was in touch with Cynthia. I think she did a rework of one of his tracks and vice versa. He told me I should chat with Cynthia so she and I connected on a call.

We were just talking and figuring out how we could work together more. That was how the idea for gentle voices formed. We decided that we wanted the collaboration between our labels Echoes Blue and cloud collecting to be about raising up women in the ambient space through joint releases and compilations. And it just evolved from there.

For Echoes Blue, how did that label start and what kind of music do you focus on?

From early on, we built it up as a way to release music ourselves. As our own projects grew from one to two to five to lots, Echoes Blue became that umbrella for everything. Over time, we started working with more people. One of the earliest artists whose music we released (that wasn’t me or Ben) was Dear Gravity. Ben and he and some other guys do the all:ambient podcast together.

Echoes Blue didn’t initially start out as an ambient-specific label, but with our own ambient projects, and as artists joined the roster, we increasingly leaned into this ambient and ambient-adjacent space. That said, we’ve always evolved in every season – both as musicians and as a label – which may mean broadening our stylistic output further over the coming years.

It’s been really cool to see some of the artists who have been with us since they had a few thousand listeners on Spotify to now receiving much greater recognition, and to see how their music has continued to evolve and grow in that time as well.

In your Foxy Digitalis conversation you talked about certain milestones and one of those was going into music full-time. We were curious about that.

It’s been quite the journey. Long story short: After studying music at university, I trained to become a primary school teacher which I did for several years, while Ben had a corporate job in marketing. Then we both moved from London to Sweden (he had grown up there). We moved there partly to try the music thing. I worked part-time as a church musician in Stockholm, and he had a part time job too – we did that for quite a few years. We were always working around 1-1.5 jobs between us, plus doing music as well. Having the mindset of not giving up on something was really crucial. Having each other for support and encouragement helped too – it’s not easy to start out as a musician and we had to be resilient to continue to build it up, with several setbacks on the way.

After five years in Sweden, we moved to Hong Kong. I got a new job as a church musician/ worship leader here. Hong Kong was always on our radar, and we had always been drawn to the place since visiting for the first time in 2009. This opportunity came up and we jumped at the chance, still doing music on the side but at this point Ben was working on it pretty much full time.

And then around three years ago we got to a place where we had built up multiple projects, the label – in fact multiple labels: we have Echoes Blue and then also slow echo, which Ben runs with Marshall Usinger, whose moniker is “Be Still The Earth.” Plus we’ve had other label collaborations and side projects as well – so we had a lot going on.

From all of that growth, I really needed to step on board full time, and we were in a position to do that which I’m really thankful for. But that’s only through doing lots and lots of things. If we had only one artist project, there’s no way this would be sustainable. It’s only because we have so many things going on, which keeps us both very busy – especially with two young kids as well.

Regarding labels, in recent years our readers have been more specifically drawn to Flow State’s human emphasis, because there’s so much generated music and fake artists. So for our process, we’ve come to rely more on labels as vetters and profilers of the people behind the music. Echoes Blue specifically leans into the humanity of the artists on their roster.

Echoes Blue has always been about real humans. Even before the “AI boom,” there was a whole thing around Spotify playlists being filled with tracks that were bought to fill the playlists. We just saw how this was so rubbish for people who are trying to create art. It started there. We try to have a relationship with the people we release with. At least one of us has gotten to know them, we know who they are, and that they’re good people.

I also think it goes back to the idea of pivoting. Since we started, we’ve had to navigate big changes in music already, so with AI, we kind of saw it coming. When it happened, we knew we had to double down on the fact that what we’re releasing is human-made, and that’s what listeners are asking for. People want to hear stories through music. The story is super important, and more and more that’s becoming apparent. When people submit demos to us, we’re always asking, “What’s the story behind this?” Because it’s always the deeper stuff that resonates with people.

I think AI can have a place as a tool for making systems effective, but not for us in the creative process.

For your new album, the title (the roads that shaped us) calls to mind the unpredictability of life and the various forks in the road that led one to where they are. We’re curious what ideas and experiences make up the story of this album.

There were a few things that brought the roads that shaped us to life. This year, we were able to buy a home (after years of renting) and put down roots, which was a pivotal moment because it felt like we finally landed.

We have also lived in three different countries and made career and life decisions which go against the grain. And I’m just aware that all of those decisions have led to where we’re at, both physically but also in terms of the people we are becoming – and it’s true for all of us. There’s the poem by Robert Frost that says, “I took the road less traveled by / And that made all the difference.” I feel like there’s something in me that says I’m never going to take the path that’s expected. It’s like the film Sliding Doors – the idea that you’re at a crossroads and you could go this way or that way, and the decision could have a huge impact on the rest of your life.

I was thinking about this a lot as I was developing the album. I tried to screenshot in my mind various moments that have been pivotal snapshots in time for each of the songs. I also love collaborations and wanted these to feature on the album because none of us walk this journey alone. So I collaborated with Ben (aka Antarctic Wastelands and Memories of the Forgotten) as someone who’s been on the journey with me for a significant portion of my life. Then I asked Marshall (Be Still the Earth) to collaborate as we’ve known him for several years and work with him closely with him though slow echo. I only met frogi through Gentle Voices this year so she’s a newer collaborator, and I loved working with her too – to the point that we ended up with two collaborative tracks. I wanted the collaborations to represent the fact that people we meet across different time zones and timeframes are all part of the roads that shape us.

How do these experiences and ideas then manifest in the music itself?

All the tracks are made from vocals and piano, because those were important aspects that shaped parts of my life, being classically trained as a pianist and vocalist. All the initial drones and ambient pads were created from my vocals in various ways. I created a Decent Sampler instrument a few years ago, based on my vocals, which I then used to create some of the additional layers. These layers, together with the stories set the tone for each piece. And all the pieces contain piano elements as well but in some these elements are more disguised. For example, in “and that made all the difference” I created a shimmer effect which started out as a piano tremolo that I recorded and then processed through the Strymon Night Sky pedal and reversed it and it becomes inaudible as a piano but a super mystical texture instead that’s integral to the piece almost like a shimmer. So there are lots of details like that in the different songs, which I love.

What were other pieces of gear you used on the record?

The Night Sky was the main pedal I used for this project. All the vocals went through that so I spent a lot of time learning what it can do, and I’m still not an expert! And I spent a lot of time manipulating the vocals I was creating: stretching, reversing, and layering them to create textures, because I wanted the vocals to be the main instrument alongside the piano across the whole release. I also used Valhalla Supermassive quite a bit to add to the atmospheric, ethereal sound of the vocals.

What piano and what software?

We have a Nord piano and I also used the Imagiro virtual piano for a lot of the piano parts on the roads that shaped us. We have a bunch of different ones. For different projects I switch it up. I’m about to start a new project and I think I’m gonna start with vocoder stuff. We just got a microKORG 2 which is super fun.

Did any memories of your classical training and growing up playing that music come back?

I was doing some tremolo stuff, and I was like I really need to practice. Let’s be fair, I’m not a concert pianist, but I did a couple of years of performance at university level. I’m really glad I had that training – but I don’t think it’s necessary to be an artist. I record the piano using MIDI so I can edit anything afterwards. The classically trained side of things is funny because you catch how you recorded it vs. how it’s supposed to be played, and I definitely hear it and want to go in and edit. It sort of becomes wired into you.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a couple of collaborative projects. One is with Lore (Lina Hallberger) from Sweden. She and her husband Max run Silent Sonic Records out of Sweden. They’re really wonderful people. I’m working on a project with her which is about bringing the nature side of our two worlds together, like the Nordics vs. the tropics. Nature ambient isn’t something I’ve done a huge amount of so I’m excited for this.

I’m also working on more of my own ambient stuff, but also branching into other genres as well where I sing more. I always find getting the perfect vocal take is harder when more lyrics are involved. Ben and I have a project called Narrow Skies, which has nothing to do with ambient, and we’re working on some new stuff for that. I’m not even sure what genre to call it – it’s somewhere in the downtempo / dreampop world.

What’s nice about having multiple projects is when you feel like you’re done with a project writing in a certain style, switching to another creative outlet gives me creative space so I can come back fresh.

Cynthia and I are working with a whole roster of incredible women and gender expansive artists for gentle voices, vol. 2, which will be releasing on Friday March 5, 2027, ahead of International Women’s Day (March 8).

Oh, and very excitingly, I’ve got a Christmas ambient (if that’s a thing) release coming out next week on November 17. It’s a three-track vocal ambient release – they’re slightly darker ambient covers of Christmas songs. So very excited to share that with the world this year!