Perc’s first release of 2016 will come in the form of a solo EP for Lucy’s Stroboscopic Artefacts imprint.

Titled Ma, the EP will feature three cuts in Perc’s trademark atmospheric and brutally functional style, and is the next step in a long relationship with Stroboscopic Artefacts that has included numerous remixes and a standout addition in the Monad series. It will also mark the first time one of his solo releases has been available on vinyl on the imprint.

Ma can be preordered here, and ahead of its February 12 release, you can stream previews of the EPs tracks below a short Q&A with the man himself.

Your first release on Stroboscopic Artefacts came in 2010 in collaboration with Modern Heads, and in that same year you released the fifth installation of the digital Monad series, before a split EP with Xhin landed in 2012. Do you feel as if you are more ready than ever to put out your first solo vinyl release for the label?
As you say, I’ve been involved with Stroboscopic Artefacts for six years now through split releases, collaborations, remixes, and contributions to many of the label’s other projects, so the EP does not feel like something new in terms of achieving a deeper level of involvement with the label. Instead, it feels like the label has reached a deeper level of belief that I can push my sound further forward than ever before. Before both myself and Stroboscopic Artefacts reached this point, a track of the length and depth of “Ma” would have been inconceivable.

How did you meet Lucy and what is your relationship with him when discussing future collaborations?
The first time Lucy contacted me was back in 2008 or 2009. It was on MySpace, I think, and he spoke about launching the label and requesting a track for the early series of sampler EPs. Since my track “Wooden Art” appeared on the Beta sampler, our relationship has grown steadily. I’m not someone that sends out demos to labels, instead I wait to be asked to be part of a project that is of interest to me. With Stroboscopic Artefacts, Lucy contacts me about a project he is planning, and once he has explained what it means to him, I sit back and think how I can contribute to it.

“Ma” means space / pause in Japanese. Do you see yourself inspired or influenced by Japanese culture? If yes, how so? Is there something about this EP that speaks to anything you may have picked up from the Japanese?
The track titles for this EP are quite specific and refer directly to feelings I have about my own music right now, and the current situation with electronic music on a wider level. I would not say Japanese culture is an influence on this EP any more than any other culture. Over the last year, I have felt my music becoming more intense, even claustrophobic or suffocating in a way, which is what I intended at the time. With this EP, a sense of space has been reintroduced to my music, in the same way that visual space around an object can be as important as the object itself, so the silence around a sound can be as important as the sound. As you say, “Ma” is a Japanese theory extending this idea and has helped me a lot compositionally, though that is as far as the Japanese connection goes for this particular release.