Flavio Maspoli, of Merge of Equals, learned to play drums in a brass band, joined a hip hop outfit while all the time producing music at his home in Zurich on his Atari. Over time he made himself a name as a synth programmer (DX7/Prophet/Moog).

"As a vinyl collector I was listening to all the 70' funky stuff when suddenly Goldie woke me up with his incredible Timeless Release in 95," says Maspoli. "It was great to hear At this time I was concentrating on my carrier as an architect and didn't do much music. But after my Masters I just started again to produce in 2003. I built myself a little studio in Zürich Switzerland and focused on electronic music."

Maspoli says is musical goal is to get the listener into a mood that leads to them forgetting what is around them in the physical world, a transcendent music.

In his studio Maspoli uses a Neumann TLM 103 mic, mindprint En-voice MK2, Optical S/PDIF IN , Mac G4 Dual and records in Logic 8 (24bit).

"I compose and mix at the same time. I don't have a classical approach like one- composing, two-recording, three-mixing, four- mastering. I'm not starting with a beat then add a bass etc. everything is chaotic and upside down," he says. "I'm looking for coincidences and I love to have inputs from artists I invite to the studio. Sometimes an atmosphere I record in my Neighborhood is a starting point. I always have my tape recorder ready when I'm on the road. I traveled in the desert of North Africa with nomads and recorded them in the evening, sitting around the fire, singing and drumming on oil canvas. Malong, the Malaysian waitress at my favourite coffee-shop was in my studio and I recorded her on buddha day when she was praying and singing the traditional prayers."

These are the sorts of sample material Maspoli works with--a lot more intriguing than vocal samples from old horror films or bass lines from Lee Perry albums.

When asked about a piece (or pieces of gear) he finds most important he answers with a sort of parable.

"Well you might laugh but I tell you a story of a famous swiss cook: he was asked to tell the secret of his cooking. He said that he uses salt and pepper an that's all," says Maspoli. "So the source material has to be good. Then you don't need much more. Salt is for me the equalizer, pepper is the compressor. And I love to work with the UAD Plugins. If I had the money I would buy them as hardware."

The plugins he refers to are:

-Equalizers Cambridge EQ/ Neve 1073 EQ/ Pultec Pro

-Compressors & Limiters 1176SE/ LA-2A/ Fairchild 670/ Precision Limiter

-Reverb RealVerb Pro/ DreamVerb

One piece of gear that was jettisoned from Maspoli's studio was a Yamaha 03D Digital Mixer.

"It was the first time I learned that a mixer has its own sound," says Maspoli. "So the weak point in my system was the mixer. It caused me a lot of troubles in mixing."

Maspoli says there are hundreds of pieces of gear he would love to use. Picking a few he lands on mics and plugins.

"I borrowed a Neumann M 147 from a friend and the thing was that the recorded voice almost jumped into my face. It was not necessary to add compression or EQ," he says. "The voice was clear and present in the foreground. It gave me an idea how it must be to record with a 15,000 euro mic. I'd love to have all the analog compressors/equalizers I use on the UAD card as hardware."

As an engineer Maspoli works with both established and new acts. How he approaches each varies.

"The gear I use depends on the personality or character of the artist and not with the professionally of the acts. Maybe an established act has a more clearer opinion how it should be recorded or how it should sound like (which effects/mic/preamp you have to use etc.)," says Maspoli. "So this brings you more into the role of a traditional audio engineer. I understand my role as a musician and the gear I use are instruments."

Maspoli says this is particularly true when recording vocals. He is convinced that every artist has a mic/preamp/recording chain peculiarly suited to them. He also says this generally has nothing to do with the cost of the gear in that chain.

"So the first thing is to find out what brings out the personality of a person most. And this can be a recording with my tape recorder from the 70' at my kitchen," he says. "I think that's the reason why you can make perfect recordings without having the rec. studio of Peter Gabriel or Madonna. I try to record a soul and not a voice or an instrument. It's not surprising that the best recordings are in moments where the artist doesn't control himself, or thinks that you are not recording."

Merge of Equals just finished a new CD, beautiful nothing and will be producing recordings by an Arabic singer, Joon.