Name: Dennis Strobel aka Peryl
Nationality: German
Occupation: Producer, sound artist, performer
Current release: Peryl is one of the artists contributing to the new compilation Atmosphères Vol. 1, curated by Emme Moises and released via Atmosphères Records.  

If you enjoyed this Peryl interview and would like to know more about his music and upcoming performances, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, Soundcloud, Facebook, and bandcamp.   



How did you get in touch with Emme and Atmosphères  (or how did Emme get in touch with you?)

We both share a pretty similar passion for hardware-based music production and modular synths.

At some point we started talking about that stuff, and eventually I ended up performing at one of her events in November 2024.

Describe the creative process for your contribution to the VA, please.

There wasn’t really a special or unusual creative process behind it. I basically recorded a patch from a previous session on my modular rack and jammed around with it a bit.

The patch was already super complex, and honestly I don’t even remember 100% what exactly was patched anymore. But the two main elements besides the drums were an audio-rate triggered Sample & Hold and a VCO-2RM.

What do you still remember about your performance as part of the series?

It was one of the first live jams I played using only the Elektron Octatrack.

At the time, that was a huge sonic experience for me because I was honestly blown away by how good that thing sounds in a club setting. And all of that just from a single-cycle sinewave sample and a vocal recording.

Since then, I’ve played every set with it and I’m still constantly refining my OT setup.

The press release to Atmosphères Vol. 1 emphasises the importance of active listening. What does active listening mean to you and how do you practise it?

There are phases where I can’t really listen to anything properly and just use music more as a distraction instead of actively paying attention to what’s happening in the mix or arrangement.

The active listening process happens pretty naturally whenever I’m genuinely interested in hearing something specific, or when I’m testing my own tracks on different speakers and headphones.

I care a lot about my monitoring situation in the studio, so my standards for active listening are definitely pretty high.

What role does community play for your interest in production and getting better as a producer – such as the one around Atmosphères?

When it comes to music production, I’m honestly not super socially connected. I prefer discovering things on my own and then developing them further from there. It just feels more rewarding to find things yourself instead of having them presented to you. That’s true for a lot of things in my life.

But at the same time, it’s still pretty impressive how connected everything is nowadays and how there are masterclasses from almost every producer out there. Even though I also see that whole thing a bit critically.

What kind of musical/sonic materials, and ideas are particularly stimulating for your own work right now?

Right now I’m drifting more and more into organic sound territories.

It’s honestly fascinating how close you can get to the sound of acoustic instruments — like wind instruments for example — with a synth, just through patience and the right techniques.

Tell me a bit about the sounds & creative directions, artists & communities, as well as the colleagues & creative hotspots of your current hometown, please. How do they influence your music?

Mainly through exchanging ideas about new gear, modules, and instruments in general. That always pushes me toward new ideas and keeps things from ever getting boring. Kind of making vintage sounds with modern gear and the other way around.

That’s also why I’d recommend anyone to visit Schneidersladen at least once and just check out some instruments there. There’s always something new to discover.

What are some of the most recent innovations in sound design for you - and what are currently personal limits to realising the sounds you have in your mind?

At the moment I’m synthesizing bird sounds for an audiovisual project together with my friend Tim. Ever since I started researching those sounds, I can’t stop noticing birdsong outside anymore, which has become a really beautiful side effect of the whole process.

Besides that, there’s currently a band project taking shape with my friends Sara and Mike, which I’m really enjoying, and I’m excited to see where it goes musically.

Taking your track for the sampler and your live performance for Atmosphères as an example, how, would you say, are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?

I always had a hard time combining those two worlds until I stopped trying to force them together.

My studio process is very personal and honestly impossible to recreate live. I was never really a fan of performing finished tracks live in clubs because that kind of live set feels a bit boring to me.

In the studio, ideas just pour out naturally and I try to capture as much of that as possible. Live, everything is improvised, and there are no boundaries, fixed patterns, or rhythms dictating anything.

So in the end, improvisation is really the only connection between the two.