Cantwell: When you look back at your early period. Your first tracks and experiments, to the Rephlex Record releases. What do you think you were searching for as an artist?

Di Costanzo: In the early days I was searching for a kind of emotional clarity, a way for sound to reveal something essential without saying too much. Working with Rephlex shaped that. I spent long periods in London, often living inside the label’s HQ, surrounded by people who were deeply curious and generous. That environment taught me that music could be both experimental and intimate, technical and human. I think I was searching for a voice that felt sincere, even when filtered through machines.

Cantwell: And are there particular sources from those early years that continue to inform your work now?

Di Costanzo: Absolutely. The piano studies, the early German and British electronic scene, and the sense of introspection that came from growing up in Milan. Also the atmosphere at Rephlex which was playful, bold, and always very curious. It still shapes how I approach experimentation.

Cantwell: You chose the name Bochum Welt to release your work. How do you relate to it now? And do Gianluigi the person, and Bochum Welt the artist meet or overlap?

Di Costanzo: The name still resonates with me. Welt meaning “world” and Bochum a reference to the astronomical telescope, it suggested a way of looking at things from a different perspective. That’s still how I approach sound: building sound environments from a slightly shifted perspective. Gianluigi and Bochum Welt overlap more than they differ.

Cantwell: I’m interested in how identity operates at the point where Bochum Welt and Gianluigi meet. How did the identity of Bochum Welt take shape for you? Was it something planned, or something you recognised only in hindsight?

Di Costanzo: It emerged gradually. I didn’t design an identity; I recognised it afterwards. The minimalism, the structures, the sound-research, the harmonic choices, they kept returning. Over time I realised that this was the language. What I express through Bochum Welt feels very natural to me , it’s discreet, sincere, introspective. I relate to that sound because it reflects how I move through the world. Even visually, I tend to stay slightly in the background rather than in front of it. The identity wasn’t constructed; it grew out of my way of being, translated into music.

Cantwell: On to the act of making music. You’ve mentioned before the idea of “instruments as collaborators”. What does that mean in your practice?

Di Costanzo: Some instruments don’t just reproduce ideas, they provoke them. Old synthesisers, in particular, have limitations and small imperfections that push you in unexpected directions. They force you to build your own sound rather than relying on presets. In that sense, they let you shape the conversation.

Cantwell: And do certain instruments or tools feel like they have their own meaning or logic that shapes your process?

Di Costanzo: Yes, a drum machine, a sampler, a vintage synth, they each ask different questions of you. Some are more generous, some more stubborn. Their logic influences your logic.

Cantwell: So has a machine or tool ever taken you somewhere creatively that you didn’t plan to go?

Di Costanzo: Often. Sometimes a small error, a detuned oscillator, a looping artefact, becomes the emotional centre of the track. I’ve learned to follow those accidents. They’re sometimes truthful.