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Danish producer Rasmus Rasmussen launched his Aerosol solo project in 2000 whilst also working with Jakob Scott and Jonas Munk in the Morr Music post-rock group Limp. Debut album, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (2006), saw Rasmussen blend instrumentation and minimal electronic production to sear his ideas onto aural canvas like a pressed flower.

Last month, Aerosol returned with second record Airborne, so we caught up with Rasmussen to discuss electronic music, Pirate Bay and why Scandinavia is such a hot bed of production talent.

How do you feel about Airborne now it's out in the world?
I feel really good. I feel that I've achieved what I was aiming for. Although it's my second album, I see it as my debut, because it's the first time I've been fully in control and able to do things exactly the way I wanted.

The record has a greater depth of instrumentation and production. What was the thinking behind that?
I've definitely been working a lot with sounds and textures on the album. I wanted to take things in a direction that wasn't quite so easy to pin down as simply electronica, rock, shoegaze or ambient, but somewhere in between with a more organic and timeless quality. Instead of messing around with high-tech gear, I based the music around the guitar, and tried to let things develop around that. Compared to my earlier stuff it's less minimal, but minimalism has never been something I've consciously sought. I guess it's more to do with the tools at hand and the productions skills at the time.

How does Aerosol differ from Limp?
Musically there's clearly a connection between the projects, probably more with this album than before. In some ways, it's a further elaboration of what we started with Limp. But where Aerosol differs is that it's a solo project and I can't play live the same way. That's part of the reason why I tend to work more with atmosphere and textures.

The Scandinavian countries are a fantastic producer of electronic music talent. Why do you think that is?
That's a good question - and a really tough one to answer. Maybe it's in our nature to sit in our rooms fiddling with computers, or maybe it's the long winters that provide us with a melancholic sensibility. I don't know. Musically I still feel a strong tie with my friends from Limp and our background in Odense. It's a small town and there were very few like-minded people around. So we always had our own thing going. When we started releasing records we did it on foreign labels, so we've always considered our music in an international perspective rather than Danish or Scandinavian.

How healthy is the electronic music scene at the moment?
Maybe so healthy it's become a bit lazy. It's like the electronic music has now become a well established part of the indie scene, but at the same time its lost focus. When I started making electronic music, the scene was experiencing a huge transition. The Warp stuff was pushing the boundaries and the Chicago scene created whole new fusions of jazz, rock and electronica. Now part of the electronic scene has integrated with the indie scene and another part is standing still or moving backwards.

Following the recent controversy surrounding Swedish file-sharing site Pirate Bay, what would you do about online piracy?
It's a really complicated issue. You can use file-sharing in a harmless way to get long-out-of-print records, or you can use it in a hurtful way to get a brand new album by an upcoming artist after they've worked hard to get it into your local record store. In a way, the technology leaves things up to people's consciousness and unfortunately that doesn't always turn out for the best. One of the biggest problems, though, is that the record industry has taken so long to find a viable solution. The best way of getting rid of illegal file-sharing is not suing individuals for ridiculous amounts but providing an alternative that's more attractive.

Do musicians deserve an income from their creative output?
As long as the music isn't affected by economic considerations, I don't think there's anything wrong with expecting an income from what you produce. If you expect to get paid for every copy of every song you'll probably be disappointed as things don't work that way anymore. However, you have to see things in a larger perspective. If you give some tracks away on the internet, you might get more gigs, and if you play more gigs your next album might sell more records.

Airborne is out now on the n5MD label

words: Andrew Laughlin

myspace.com/aerosoldk