Interview by Ellis May.

Visions Of Light have always embraced the spaces between genres, blending Balearic moods, dub foundations, ambient textures and psychedelic flourishes into something uniquely their own. Built on collaboration, creativity and a complete absence of ego, the Belfast trio continue to follow instinct wherever it leads, creating music that feels both expansive and deeply personal.
Fresh from the release of Mycelium Bloom, we caught up with the band to dig deeper into their creative process, from surreal studio moments and remote writing retreats to the power of sunset performances and the shared trust that sits at the heart of everything they do. The result is a fascinating glimpse inside the ever evolving world of Visions Of Light.

Visions of Light began with a philosophy of no egos, no rules and no restrictions. How has that mindset shaped the way you work together now compared to those first sessions?

Dan: We adapt the same approach as we usually do, if something feels right then we go for it, if it doesn’t then we move on. Being held up or trying too hard with a certain project can become monotonous and I feel that’s where most people would experience forms of production burnout. Keeping things simple and fresh, generally helps, having an open minded approach to our individual ideas helps us to focus and keep going.

You each come from very different musical backgrounds. What were the earliest moments where you realised those differences were becoming a strength rather than a challenge?

Dan: From the get go, ideas were already flowing individually between ourselves. We are all into music production and have been for many years, we all seem to have our unique styles that we can bring to the table. After a few successful tracks, I realised that we can be quite flexible adding or changing certain sounds and melodies to become more free-flowing.

Muzka: I think I knew before we worked on a track our differences would be our strength, personally I think some of the best and most interesting music created is when styles and personalities collide, fusing into something cohesive.

The idea of making “music for imaginary places” is central to what you do. What kinds of emotional or visual spaces were you imagining when the project first took shape?

Dan: I think we have aimed for the general idea of music for chilled settings, deep immersive sounds, sounds to relax to on a beach or a long journey. I have always produced music for long journeys as I would do a lot of long drives during the day for example and having a good soundtrack for such occasions is perfect for me.

NuNorthern Soul has its own long history of Balearic openness and eclecticism. What felt like the natural meeting point between your sound and the label’s identity?

Dan: I think the decision to run with NuNorthernSoul and what we do aligned perfectly, we actually had one of our first performances in one of the most exclusive spaces in Ibiza courtesy of Mark Broadbent, Andy Wilson and friends at the rooftop of the Standard Hotel with a live radio broadcast on Ibiza Sonica Radio. Being in such environments like this inspired me even more and fulfilled I think what we were actually about. From then on the chemistry and understanding of what we were actually doing between the three of us became more relevant after that.

How did your debut album The Mandala Vortex help define your relationship with NuNorthern Soul, and what did Phil Cooper’s support mean for the project’s early momentum?

Dan: The Mandala Vortex for me is everything what Visions Of Light stands for, music for the soul, tracks that have meaning and depth throughout. I think when we finally had a handful of tracks worthy of a full album, it was the obvious choice for us to let Phil to do his thing and take us on this wonderful journey. We have mad love for Phil and all of the other magnificent people who support us and what we do.

Your sunset performance at Word of Mouth in Santa Eulària has become a defining moment for Visions of Light. What changed for you after translating the studio project into a fluid, open-air live set?

Dan: Word of Mouth I feel became the defining moment of what we do, we transition from our studio spaces to the open air format effortlessly, it doesn’t have to be over complicated to have an effective sound live for us, it works well and we all know what our individual parts are for each whether it’s a melodic guitar line, a simple rhythm, a nice flowing keyboard progression, live sampling or a melodica line. We can drop in and out of something effortlessly.

How does the energy of Ibiza — its history, its sunsets, its audiences — influence the way you approach live sets compared to studio work?

Dan: I’m quite new to the whole vibe, when I was younger, I wasn’t really a raver or clubber. Ibiza never really had any appeal to me, however with what I am into and my lifestyle in general, it quickly became what most of my life has been about, relaxing, enjoying the sun, being in a chilled environment with friends and doing what I love, performing and playing music.

Muzka: We feel honoured to be accepted in Ibiza as we have just stayed true to ourselves in what we make, we aren’t here to tap into the scene and produce some generic downbeat just to fit into a scene. I think that’s a true Balearic approach, to embrace being eclectic and not dictated to by genres and tempos, we prefer to focus on emotion and feeling. So, while we aren’t trying to be an Ibiza genre outfit we share and embrace the Balearic ethos, and i hope Ibiza sees us as authentic for doing so.

Dedications wasn’t a covers EP; it was a dismantling and rebuilding of iconic tracks. What guided your decisions about what to strip away, what to keep and what to transform?

Dan: With our production approach, we have elements that we will have which we play live, not overcomplicating, simple but effective approaches and restructuring these tracks became a task if you like a side step from what we were already doing but turning the original tracks into something that we could call our own but still be able to capture the original essence of the iconic sounds of the tracks that we chose to reconstruct.

You’ve spoken about absorbing decades of club culture without becoming trapped by nostalgia. How do you balance reverence for the originals with the desire to push them somewhere new?

Simon: The originals are part of our musical DNA. We’ve spent decades playing music in clubs, dancing on dance-floors, so those influences naturally find their way into what we do, sometimes more obviously than others. But what we’re trying to hold onto is the spirit of those records, the freedom and the curiosity we had, still have. A lot of the music we love sounded completely new when it first appeared and still sounds great and fresh, not all of it but some. That’s a good reminder to keep experimenting. We might start with a familiar groove or a sound that sparks a memory, then follow it somewhere unexpected. Between us, we bring different influences and different skills into the studio, and that helps keep things moving and keeps us interested. We want people to feel a connection to where we’ve come from, while still wondering where we’re taking them, that’s the dream anyhow.

Mycelium Bloom feels deeper, stranger and more psychedelic than your earlier work. What triggered that shift into more hallucinatory, organic territory?
We gave ourselves more room or allowance to just go with whatever happened, letting tracks grow into something unexpected. I think the first LP we had an idea of what we wanted before we wrote it and with Mycelium Bloom we just wrote and wrote without a direction or aim other than enjoying the journey really. That certainly helped give Mycelium Bloom its deeper, more organic and psychedelic feel, some tracks went a bit wonky at times lol.

Muzka: Yeah it was a natural progression and i guess maybe as we develop and grow so does our sound. We never want to churn out generic music by number so tend not to repeat a sound and style over and over again so after the first album, which also had a diverse range of styles, we tried to push ourselves into new territories.

Across tracks like Split The Scene, Holding Jupiter and Radiant Flux, you move between ambient dub, Balearic psychedelia and slowmotion dance music. What anchors the album when the genres keep dissolving?

Simon: The one thing we do like is it sounding like Visions Of Light if that makes sense, it’s the atmosphere and the connection between the three of us. We are happy to let the rhythm and sounds take us in different directions, but there’s a thread running through it all, a love of space, warmth and a little bit of strangeness. That’s the plan anyhow, doesn’t always work that way but that’s what we aim for. That said, we like a track to have its own landscape, but certainly on an LP we want them to feel like places within the same world.

The textures on the album feel alive — layered guitars, acidic details, immersive electronics. How do you approach building these organic, evolving sound worlds in the studio?

Simon: We don’t have a set process to be truthful, we each start an idea and pass them about to complete, that’s why we produce a lot too, we can have 3 tracks at least bouncing about, it’s a great way to work as you don’t get stuck or hit a wall or when you do you can pass it on. We each have a different skill set too which helps and we are honest, brutal and not afraid to delete or not use each other’s input. There’s a lot of playing, listening and responding to each other, leaving space is just as important as adding layers. We’ll let things drift, overlap and change shape, keeping the happy accidents that give a track its character. That’s often where the sense of life or being organic comes from I reckon.

Perfect You widens your collaborative universe. What drew you to working with Richard Dormer and Luis Vilca, and how did their contributions reshape the track?

Simon: Last year while we had a few gigs in Ibiza Richard sent his piece to a close friend of ours, he played to me and I immediately said I want that, a few days later when we got home it was the first thing I did and it just worked, the original idea had beats and was more complex so when we stripped it back it made space for something live, and Luis was the first person I approached to do the flute and it worked well. Super proud to have both Richard and Luis on the LP. Richards words are very poignant and moving to an ageing raver, makes total sense and fantastically observed, love it.

Simon, Muzka and Dan each bring decades of experience across different corners of music. How do you decide who leads what in the studio, or does leadership shift track by track?

Simon: 100% changes. We all have individual projects and Visions Of Light is when we come together, a collaboration with no leaders, we all dictate the path we go down but we all take a passive role at times too. We wouldn’t be afraid to have very little input or lots, if it fits and works that’s enough.

Muzka: We all hold equal input though some tracks may have more input from one of us than in another track. Overall though we all pull equally, nobody shies away and everyone can and do start tracks for the others to work on. Our varied experience is a strength but also our willingness to ignore that experience and take on board each other’s opinions is important. If anyone tried to ignore or force their narrative it wouldn’t work. We are all leaders and followers in equal measure.

What’s the most unexpected way your individual histories have influenced the Visions of Light sound?

Simon: Probably in the little things we each bring into Visions Of Light without thinking about them. Years of listening to music, DJing, playing live and being around different scenes shape your sound and have an influence, prior to getting into house music and electronic music I was hugely into Psychedelic and progressive rock and I can see me leaning back into it and its great. I went to see Gong a few nights ago and I last seen them 35 years ago. So, it’s all there somewhere and the unexpected bit is how those influences come out when we work together. Something that starts with a familiar club feeling can end up hazy, psychedelic and quite hard to place which is what we want. We’ll hear different possibilities in the same parts and that’s a big part of how Visions Of Light has found its own sound.

Muzka: I grew up on hip hop, electro, punk and on a Belfast council estate with youth club discos being the epicentre of your existence. Music was there from a young age and when i discovered electronic music and clubs in my late teens i knew i wanted to DJ and make music which i did and 30 years later am still at it. Simon and Dan also have a rich musical experience in their youth and adulthood, playing and making it. While we share similarities on the surface we all walked different paths and i guess it’s those differences that have been the unexpected ingredient that makes us work. The shared loves are the backbone of our music but the differences what makes it interesting for me.

When you listen back to Mycelium Bloom, where do you hear the clearest imprint of each member?

Simon: The clearest imprints are often in the small details, the way a guitar is dropped in, where the groove sits, or a strange electronic sound that pulls everything in a different direction. We each notice those little inputs because we remember how the tracks came together, less so as time passes. By the time we listen back to the Mycelium Bloom as a whole, they’re quite tangled up. Someone brings an idea, someone else changes its direction, and another part gives it a completely different mood. That’s probably what we like most about working together we can hear ourselves in there, but also something none of us would have made alone.

You’ve said you’re not interested in recreating a particular period of Balearic or chillout music. What does Balearic openness mean to you in 2026?

Simon: We are certainly not into recreating a period or sound we like move forward with a nod to the past with things like our Dedications EP which was a big nod but we like to think done it in a unique way. I think Balearic openness means being curious and giving something unexpected a chance. A strange electronic track, a dub track, it can all belong together if there’s a feeling connecting them. Its not necessarily anything goes but anything’s given a chance, that’s the way we’ve always played, playing a punk track during a house set or whatever. Without saying the old cliché, many moons ago when I certainly started getting into electronic music my record collection wasn’t big enough to play house all night so we played everything we had, lots picked up in Oxfam for 50p, Chic, Bowie, Roxy Music alongside Pink Floyd and Roy Harper and then Primal Scream and the Stone Roses and it was all mashed up , we didn’t call it Balearic openness, just played what we had. We still love those influences, but we want to follow them somewhere we haven’t been. With Visions Of Light, that freedom lets us get a little stranger, go deeper and leave room for things we didn’t plan.

How do you keep the project evolving without losing the dubwise, sunsoaked foundations that define your sound?

Simon: That sound and those foundations are fairly instinctive for us it’s kinda just always about, the weight of the bass, the space around a sound, the way a delay carries a phrase somewhere else etc.

They’re there even when a track takes a darker or stranger turn. That said, we are evolving and we create whatever excites us and giving each other room to move forward. A different beat from Nik or a texture or an unexpected guitar part from Dan can open up a whole new direction. I don’t really feel every track has to sound like sunshine and to be honest it’s hard when you live in Ireland, sometimes a bit of mood or darkness is the way to go.

What role does improvisation play in your writing and recording process?

Simon: Improvisation is so important for us, often how I find the track in the first place is just sat at a piano or keyboard. With Visions Of Light someone start an idea and when they feel its time its passed over and the others respond, and we see where it takes us. There’s usually a moment when something clicks, very rarely does it not, very rarely. With this LP some of our favourite moments in the LP are things we’d probably struggle to recreate which is great, makes playing it live tricky but that brings a different take on it which is cool too.

Muzka: I don’t have the music theory and performing skills that Dan and Simon have, I’m more about experimentation, sound design and tinkering with hardware and software, finding new sounds and patterns within music so improvisation is big part of my studio process. As i don’t play a traditional instrument my contribution to our live setup is usually finding new sounds and creating specific sounds to drop live as samples. Dan and Simon are the talent here for live and i love how they noodle and improvise parts of our tracks live. I think we are all glad I don’t play a live instrument as I would certainly over improvise and go way off our planned performance. I am planning to integrate some live visuals into our show in the future, and I’d like them to be immersive, improvised and generative though we will start something safer and take it from there.

When a track begins, what usually comes first — a rhythm, a texture, a melodic fragment or a mood?

Simon: It can be any of those and it can come from any one of us, we don’t necessarily know what the track is going to be, but we get a sense of the atmosphere we want to explore after those early parts are formed. From there, we try a few things and see what belongs and what doesn’t. Sometimes the rhythm gives it direction straight away but sometimes the rhythm gets taken out like in Perfect you.

With Mycelium Bloom expanding your world, where do you feel Visions of Light is heading next?

Simon: Literally, after this interview we have a gig tonight in Belfast then off to Ibiza to play the closing party of Tales Of The Unexpected @ Akasha. This is a night ran by a few good friends of ours and always has a stellar line-up, Heidi Lawden, Lovefingers and one of our guys Gerard C playing in the club and then in the pre club, Las Dalias we play live with Venus Rollergirl and Paul Inflyte. Looking forward to it immensely. Musically, we don’t know or try to shape it, sounds lame but its true. As soon as we say let’s try and do this it just won’t work and it’s ran its path. For now, we happy just letting it take its own route and seeing where it takes us, that’s why its exciting.

Are there new collaborators, instruments or sonic territories you’re excited to explore?

Simon: 100%, I love working with vocals and I would love to do more stuff with Richard but we are all open to anything which is great, love live instrumentation There’s more we would like to explore with unusual percussion, voices and sounds recorded outside the studio too, I spend more time writing outside the studio environment than in it. Sometimes a small sound can suggest a whole atmosphere but not just the sound, where you sit to write, that excites me. I have a new studio in France so I am looking forward to spending some time in that.

Muzka: Personally, I am looking forward to my invite to Simons studio in France

What do you hope listeners feel — or where do you hope they travel — when they spend time inside this new album?

Simon: We’ve talked about making music for imaginary places, but the listener gets to decide where those places are. It might bring back a memory or take them somewhere they’ve never been. If they come away feeling a little lighter, or notice something new each time they return, that would mean a lot to us.

Muzka: Music, like an art, is subjective and personal. We hope our music connects to people differently and they enjoy it in any shape or form and in whatever context they feel comfortable in. It’s hard to not sound pretentious but i hope our music is more than just something to put in the background while you do the housework, though that’s totally fine also.

Release: October 16
Buy Mycelium Bloom at Bandcamp
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