Name: Oliver Lutz
Occupation: Bassist, composer, improviser
Nationality: German
Current release: Oliver Lutz's new album Calamari Fantasy, recorded with the Re:Calamari band, is out April 25th 2025 via Artistfy.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: Tomita – Snowflakes Are Dancing, the early work of Suzanne Ciani, and The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices.

[Read our Suzanne Ciani interview]

If you enjoyed this Oliver Lutz interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects, and colors. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

As a professionally trained musician, I listen very analytically since I've listened to so much music to figure out how it works, transcribe it, and use it to become a better musician.

But sometimes I see jazz solo lines—like those from Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, or John Coltrane, just to name a few—as a horizontal line that goes up and down, almost like a trail map. You can see how the arcs of the solos are built.

I prefer to close my eyes since I’m easily distracted by visual stimuli.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

Headphones really help to shut everything else out and get you into the zone.

But a stereo system, especially one with a good subwoofer, can make you feel the music much more deeply.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound.

The first thing that comes to mind is Victor Wooten’s album What Did He Say—I’ve used it as a reference album to compare sound systems.



But when it comes to my music, I always come back to Herbie Hancock's albums Thrust, Headhunters, and Secrets, as well as Sunlight and Mr. Hands.



The last SALOMEA album, Good Life, also sounds incredible.



Do you experience strong emotional responses toward certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation for these responses?

Synthesizers always give me super strong emotional responses. They can sound so otherworldly. Even after listening to synthesizer music for years, I still discover sounds that catch my attention and sound like nothing I’ve ever heard before.

When Tomita plays classical music on synthesizers, I feel like I’m in another universe.



There can be sounds that feel highly irritating to us and others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples of either one or both of these?

I know that I can listen to vinyl forever. Digitized music makes me want to stop after two hours of listening.

I’ve heard it has to do with the process of digitizing waveforms—since they are infinite in the analog world, in the digital world they have to be reduced to a zero or a one.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

Besides synthesizers, I love the sound of a flowing river or a summer day in the Alps with all the animals around you.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I’ve heard some crazy deep and long delays in natural caves with big reverb, but the most impressive experience was a choir concert at the symphonic hall in Bucharest.

I've never had a concert experience like that—20 people filled the room only with their voices, and the whole concert was so moving that I even had tears in my eyes.

What are among your favorite spaces to record and play your music?

I prefer dry studios or venues with a very clear low end. Since I also play synth bass, it helps a lot when a room doesn’t get boomy when you play those ultra-low notes.

Do music and sound feel "material" to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

When I work with effects, it can feel very much like sculpting. Modern reverb pedals, in particular, can open up a gigantic world in your living room that you didn’t expect.

Finding the right sound with effect pedals is like shaping something raw into a fine, delicate piece of art.

What are some of the most moving experiences you've had with non-human-made sounds?

Recently, I saw a YouTube documentary about lyrebirds—they imitate everything around them, like gunfire, chainsaws, car alarms, or even human voices. That’s incredible.

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard, and if you suffer from these or similar issues—how do you cope with them?

I already have tinnitus, but luckily if I don't concentrate too much on it, it doesn't bother me.

I use ear protection in bands since I want to keep my good hearing as long as possible. On trains and planes, I use noise-cancelling headphones to reduce the surrounding noise level.

If I want to hear music, I can listen at a much lower volume to protect my ears.

We can surround ourselves with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I really love silence and prefer not to listen to music all the time. When I cook, for example, I need silence because I want to concentrate on the recipe and avoid distractions.

Noise-cancelling headphones also really help to create some silence, even in crowded, loud places.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasized that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

That would be awesome. I always tell my students that when they learn something new on an instrument, they shouldn't look at their hands because their ears are faster at figuring out what sounds good or not. It's really hard for them to accept that they need to learn to "look" with their ears and their touch.

Smartphones haven’t made it any easier to resist that urge to rely on their eyes.