[ Interviste / Interviews ]
Interview with GIUSEPPE VERTICCHIO/NIMH.
Published on Rock House, September 2026.
I’ve always loved and still love collaborations between musicians, which ultimately open up new sonic frontiers and provide new food for thought. And your joint work is no exception.
# Concept and philosophy of sound #
ROCK HOUSE: Your projects individually explore dark, isolated spaces. How did the idea to unite Nimh and Sleepwalker into a single creative tandem come about?
NIMH: The idea was Alex's, who, probably knowing my music, saw some common ground between our musical universes, and the possibility of achieving something 'special' by working together on a collaborative album. I received his email, with the invitation to participate in this "adventure," along with various information about his activity, both as an artist and in relation to the label, and I accepted with great pleasure. Consider that I already have a CD of my more "musical" project, Twist of Fate, released on another Russian label (GS Productions). I also participated with a track in a 5-CD box set, "Viva Italia," released years ago on the IEM label by dear friend Dmitry Vasilyev, who sadly passed away in 2018. And I have several contacts among Russian friends. Therefore, especially at a time like this, when unfortunately in Italy and Europe there is often an unreasonable air of hostility towards Russia, this invitation also seemed to me an opportunity to underline my utmost esteem and friendship for the Russian people, and my absolute non-involvement in any hostile or prejudicial sentiment towards Russia and its people.
ROCK HOUSE: The album Empire of Sand sounds like a soundtrack to a forgotten civilization or a vast desert. What story or visual image were you keeping in mind when you created this landscape?
NIMH: Actually, at the beginning of the project, we didn't have a precise, defined idea. I worked on the parts Alex had initially provided me in a very instinctive and free manner, simply trying to get the best possible result. As we progressed step by step, the music and its "suggestions" began to take a well-defined shape, inspiring a further series of ideas and "sound images", from which the most precise idea for the "concept" was born, then the titles, the images we developed for the graphics, and the video fragments used to create the promotional "teaser" for the CD.
ROCK HOUSE: Dark ambient is often called the music of loneliness. Do you consider your work to be escapism (an attempt to escape from reality) or, on the contrary, a way to delve deeper into the essence of things?
NIMH: I think I can safely say that for me, composing and recording dark ambient music, as well as music of a slightly different genre that I pursue through other parallel musical projects, is simply a "necessity," an "outlet," a "channel" into which I can pour all my energy, my creative energy, my life experiences, with the aim of creating, sharing, and perhaps "leaving" as a "legacy" something "concrete" and deeply personal for all those who are able to grasp the essence of my work and appreciate it.
# The technical side and studio magic #
ROCK HOUSE: How does your co‑creation process work? Do you exchange finished tracks remotely, or do you prefer to improvise in the same studio?
NIMH: Alex and I are geographically separated, so, as often happens in these cases, our collaboration was purely "long-distance." As for the specific process, we agreed that Alex would provide me with pre-recorded tracks of various kinds, including rough cuts, more elaborate pieces, and simple short recordings. I then took all this material and gave it a more defined "shape", adding further layers of sound, recordings of various types and genres, finalizing the individual tracks (with Alex's approval, of course, at each stage), and then taking care of the mastering, also because mastering is one of the tasks I routinely handle every day for work, on behalf of the many artists and labels who have trusted me with this task for years.
ROCK HOUSE: Your tracks last 10–12 minutes. How do you manage to hold the listener’s attention, minimally?
NIMH: Usually, my "problem" is the opposite: I try to synthesize musical ideas in a slightly shorter timeframe that I would instinctively tend to develop over much longer periods of time. For me, a duration of 10-12 minutes is relatively short, because I feel a strong need to give the music ample space and room to breathe, to let the listener fully absorb each passage before delving into the next variation. I've been working on ambient and dark ambient material for decades, I have several dozen CDs released, and I can say I've achieved a good command of the "sound material," both from a purely emotional and technical standpoint. It's difficult to get bored listening to music like that on "Empire of Sand," especially when listening to high-quality stereo equipment. It is clear that my music is aimed primarily at those who already have abundant listening experience in the fields of ambient, electronic and experimental music.
ROCK HOUSE: Which musical equipment or field recordings were the key to creating the hypnotic, gritty sound in the release?
NIMH: Nothing too "original," I'd say. To record this album, we used our established arsenal of guitars, effects, synthesizers, and some software, along with some archival recordings, some treated acoustic instrument sounds, field recordings, vocals, and natural and artificial noises. There are albums of mine where I've experimented much more with sound sources, especially on my CDs featuring a substantial presence of little-known ethnic instruments, but in this specific case, I'd say we used fairly "ordinary" equipment.
# Influence and inspiration #
ROCK HOUSE: Are you influenced by cinema? If your joint music were to become a soundtrack, which film (or book) would it be for?
NIMH: I find it quite difficult to answer this question. Certainly, certain films, certain readings, travels, and certain life experiences have influenced, and continue to influence, the way I make music. Looking for some "analogy," at least in terms of atmosphere and evoked images, between "Empire of Sand" and certain films or books I've read, Leonard Clark's "The Rivers Ran East" immediately comes to my mind. I read it many years ago, but in my memory, I can see at least large parts of it being "soundtracked" by what Alex and I developed on our album.
ROCK HOUSE: How does the geography of Italy, its history, or its architecture influence the dark aesthetic of your project?
NIMH: Personally, Italy, the country where I live, is a very distant "scene" from what I "feel" when I'm behind the instruments, and from what I try to "translate" into music. Most of what has inspired, and continues to inspire my music, comes from completely different geographical and cultural "universes." Not that I don't cherish many of my country's beauties, its history, and its cultural foundations, which have sadly been devastated and uprooted by decades of insane policies that are effectively destroying national identity in favor of an ethnic, cultural, and political globalization that I consider harmful and "sick." But regardless, to return to your question, the sources of inspiration for my music are rarely rooted in the reality in which I "inhabit" and experience every day in Italy.
ROCK HOUSE: What in the modern ambient scene inspires you, and what, on the contrary, seems overly clichéd?
NIMH: I want to be honest, even at the risk of appearing highly critical. In the "ocean" of ambient music out there, understood in its various shades and subgenres, and considering the unfortunate habit of considering any collection of audio files uploaded to a server and accompanied by a photo a "release" (I'm talking about so-called "net releases"), I can say that only a very small portion remains of interest to me and manages to engage me. Everything else is a continuous, anonymous, impersonal, and often far too "dated" "meltdown" of pseudo-music that has nothing to add to everything that's already been done in the last 30 years, and is presented "out of time." And this is without even considering the unacceptable technical level of sound, recording, mixing, and mastering (where the latter is actually done). Of course, it's always possible to find some interesting CDs (I only listen to CDs, by the way, as they're the only physical medium that can guarantee excellent sound quality and longevity), but especially in the "ambient" field and beyond, it's really very rare to still discover some "pearls."
# Personal and future plans #
ROCK HOUSE: How mentally challenging is it to spend long periods of time immersed in such dark and dense sound textures while recording an album?
NIMH: It's certainly demanding, not just mentally, but often physically as well, because spending hours a day hunched over musical instruments, various devices, and computers isn't conducive to physical well-being, so to speak. But the enthusiasm and motivation are always high, even after nearly 30 years of making music, and so, despite the need to channel so much energy and time into it, it's an effort that's always willing to be made, and always extremely rewarding.
ROCK HOUSE: What can your listeners expect in the future: will your sound become even more academic and experimental, or do you plan to explore new genre territories?
NIMH: We haven't made any plans yet. The CD just came out, and I personally haven't had a chance to get my copies or handle promotion and shipping, so the next few months will keep me busy with various activities somehow related to the release of Empire of Sand. In the future... we'll see. Unfortunately, my free time is increasingly limited, and I have so many personal ideas and collaborative proposals. I still don't know what direction I'll take for my next "musical adventure".