Electronic music producer Daniel Merrill, known as A Path Untold, unveils a double album that delves into the interplay between light and shadow, serenity and transformation. Released via Epidemic Sound, In The Light of Shadow and Realms of Solace, both out now, offer an immersive blend of cinematic breakbeat, ethereal slow-house, and future garage.
The albums are tied together by a consistent approach to sound design, with Merrill employing analog and digital synthesizers, heavily manipulated field recordings, and hybrid instrumentation to craft his signature aesthetic. The projects were mastered by Henrik Jonsson (The Knife, Bob Dylan), enhancing their deep, immersive textures.
The themes of duality and liminal spaces are central to In The Light of Shadow and Realms of Solace. What specific life experiences or philosophical ideas sparked these concepts for you?
Growing up in a pretty remote part of the Appalachian mountains in Western Maryland in the U.S. really shaped how I see the world. I’ve always felt like an observer, a bit like I’m on the outside looking in… whether it’s with society, places, cultures, or scenes. I’m very drawn to the push and pull of opposites – like nature vs. man-made, past vs. present, melancholy vs. euphoria, etc. I love exploring how these forces interact and define each other, and I’ve always looked at life through that lens. I try to see things from as many angles as I can, balancing subjectivity with objectivity…and connecting the dots to make sense of what drives myself, and others and how we experience the world. For me, creativity, and especially music, is a fascinatingly powerful way to reflect those observations and perspectives, creating something that feels deeply human and relatable. It’s one of the things I find most compelling about music, and storytelling in general.
Your music often combines manipulated field recordings with analog and digital synthesizers. Can you walk us through the technical or creative process behind crafting these intricate soundscapes?
I’m really drawn to the results of fusing contrasting sounds to create expressive, hybrid sound palettes that feel unique and striking. As an electronic music creator, I use a lot of synths of course, but I love expanding their character by blending them with more organic or acoustic foley-based sources. For example, I might layer two starkly different synth plucks with 2-3 different complimentary acoustic instruments, just using select frequencies or characteristics of each, or run exotic world instruments or field recordings through wild effects chains, and integrate the resampled results as an oscillator in a sample-capable synth engine. I could go on…there are many more approaches I take like this. For me, it’s about redefining what a sound can represent and finding ways to make contrasting elements work in harmony. This process of pushing those boundaries and exploring new approaches feels so vast, and it’s something I’m endlessly fascinated and inspired by.
You describe In The Light of Shadow as exploring contrast and complementarity, while Realms of Solace offers a more introspective sanctuary. How did these contrasting emotional journeys influence your workflow for each album?
I worked on the two projects in parallel, trading off every month or two to keep things fresh. Each release represents a distinct vibe and emotional space, creating its own sonic world. In The Light of Shadow was deeply personal for me – it’s about finding harmony and meaning through challenges, specifically some personal loss I experienced the year before. It became a way to process the past, transmuting those emotions into something meaningful and exploring the contrast between light and shadow. That came through in the music as deeply personal melodic explorations, with each track capturing a sense of emotion that transforms into triumph and reflection. Those feelings emerged as I carved out the melodies, harmonies, arrangements, and sound design, letting the track tell the story it needed to tell. In a way, it’s about telling the stories of my experience in this world.
Whereas, Realms Of Solace embodied a bit of a different emotional space for me – focused on the immediate present and my own future, and a strong desire to escape everyday realities into more otherworldly domains. It became a way to explore and celebrate the things I value most through music: truth, unity, beauty, freedom. The goal was intuitively to create warm, inviting realms that would also feel bold and surprising – exotic emotional destinations. Translating that into composition meant focusing on fantastical aesthetics, blending minor/major borrowed chords within progressions to create an emotional push and pull, and crafting long, immersive arrangements with A and B themes that evolve from familiar to unexpected. It involved a lot of extensive, focused sound design, and exploring wild harmonies that really complimented each other. I aimed to build spaces where I – and anyone listening – could hopefully dream, escape, reflect, and feel something unforgettable.
Tracks like “ReSonörum” and “Dream Seasons” seem to embody a deep emotional resonance. How do you approach translating intangible emotions into tangible?
For me, creating a resonant emotional vibe is all about tuning everything else out and focusing on what I’m actually feeling in the moment – it’s like setting up a navigation system. I usually start by creating/finding a sound with a mood that resonates with that vibe – something I immediately recognize when I hear it. After 25 years, I’ve become hypersensitive to those moments, like catching a wave. Then, my highest priority is usually coming up with a chord progression that I find completely infectious – it sets the emotional tone for everything to follow. Doing that always really illustrates the scope of the story that wants to be told. Once I’ve got that, I start exploring different melodic possibilities – focusing on being as expressive as possible, while unifying them with sound design that grabs me and playing with different articulations. I do that until the next major component/hook jumps out at me. I’m always checking in with myself – is this how I feel? Is it saying what it wants to? The story starts to reveal itself naturally, and I just follow where it leads in a very open, non judgemental way. I’ll then be super additive, layering in possibilities to a point of excess… and then start the subtractive refinement process – ruthlessly paring it back to only the strongest elements. From there, I focus on making everything interact and dance together as effectively and eloquently as I can. Sometimes it’s quick, although it’s often painstaking – but it’s always about following that emotional resonance in choice.
The use of “ancient-futurist grooves” is intriguing. What inspired this fusion of the ancient and futuristic in your compositions, and how do you balance these seemingly opposing aesthetics?
I’ve always been obsessed with futurism in music – the forward-thinking vibe that’s been such a cornerstone of great electronic music and rave culture since the beginning. I’ve been deeply influenced by drum ‘n’ bass, IDM, breaks, downtempo, melodic house/techno and future garage and I spent many years creating all of those genres, and chasing the most cutting-edge, forward-thinking sounds I could find. At the same time, I’ve always been drawn to multicultural “world” music – rich, nostalgic sounds and instruments from other times and places that feel exotic and full of history. I love many different genres of music, I’m definitely a digger with very diverse taste. It fascinates me to incorporate flavors from times/places outside of my realm of experience. There’s something so imaginative and transportive about that ancient, cinematic vibe to me, it feels like stepping into another world entirely.
Being very influenced by both sides of the coin, over time and through making a lot of tunes, the two aesthetics started to naturally show up in my work. It felt like an intuitive and perfect way to lean into my fascination with opposites and duality. The futuristic side has always come more easily – synthesizers are built for that – but balancing it with sounds that evoke a sense of the ancient is where it gets really interesting to me. I love digging through field recordings, old records, sample libraries and collaborating with instrumentalists to capture sounds that resonate and conjure those sorts of feelings. Then I rework and heavily experiment with them, turning them into electronic instruments, blending them with different synths, and using tools like Melodyne and spectral resynthesis to reshape them in interesting ways. I strive to make something hybridized, striking and most importantly, to find my personal connection with them. For me, it’s all about finding a balance between two seemingly opposing worlds that, when combined, create a powerful and inspiring contrast. It’s one of my favourite aspects to explore in music.
You’ve cited introspection and transformation as key themes in your work. How does your Sierra Nevada studio environment shape the creative process for such reflective and immersive music?
To be honest, I’d probably be doing what I’m doing regardless of where I lived, at least to a large degree, haha. I have a pretty clear vision of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. That being said, moving to rural Northern California a few years ago, from the urban environment of Baltimore, MD (where I lived for 16 years), was a huge shift in a very positive way for me. Being close to nature is definitely a big part of who I am, and California is amazing in that way, with its vast spectrum of very diverse ecosystems. You can drive a couple hours in any direction and be in the desert, in the redwood forests, the beach, or epic mountain ranges, etc. The diversity is astounding. That backdrop has definitely been really helpful, and living in a town immersed in a psychedelic-influenced creative community doesn’t hurt either!
The connection between your music and visual storytelling through Epidemic Sound is a new chapter for you. How does the prospect of your work being used in audiovisual media impact your creative decisions?
Yes, I’m excited about it. I’m very into film and that medium has always been a massive influence. The music I create has always been my way to score my life so to speak, and I’ve always been drawn to tapping into a sense of grand, transportive cinematic perspectives. I love to make music that conjures really epic scenes in my mind and I’ve often gotten a lot of feedback from listeners that it has that effect for them as well. So that’s always been a foundational component for me and continues to drive me. Ultimately I’d love to properly score a film and work closely with a director, to collaborate directly in that way. For now, Epidemic has been really supportive for me to continue doing what I do without compromise, so I’m excited to keep exploring and take things further and see what happens. You really never know how music will spread out into the world and connect with people…other creatives – and the collaborations that can arise from that, so that part is always really exciting to me.
In The Light of Shadow and Realms of Solace seem to bridge intimate listening experiences with communal settings. How do you envision audiences engaging with these albums in different contexts?
Once again, it comes back to the dualistic contrast. For me, creating and consuming music has always been deeply personal – it’s part of my foundational roots. I was immersed in electronic music as an outside observer, not part of any scene, etc., for years before I ever set foot in a club, festival, or dancefloor setting. Later down the road, I really balanced that out with years of touring and experiencing packed dancefloors, embracing the communal side of music. So I really got both perspectives, and really enjoy both. That balance between personal and communal is hardwired into my approach. I aim to create music that works in both contexts – intimate, personal listening experiences that also translate to a big sound system, taking a crowd on a deep, thrilling ride. Striking that balance is endlessly fascinating to me. While my music isn’t exactly conventional dance music, I think it resonates with adventurous dancefloors that enjoy variety, exploring something new, taking risks – dramatic arcs, rather than sticking to the same genre or BPM throughout. I’m inspired by artists who span different vibes and territories at shows, such as Djrum – and make it work in cohesive ways. I strive to do the same – making music that takes people to new places, no matter the setting.
Your production and teaching history with Ableton Live spans over two decades. How have the tools you use influenced your evolving sound, and do you see a connection between the software’s evolution and your own creative journey?
There’s always been a tight synergy between the evolution of Ableton Live and how I make music. I’ve used most DAWs at some point, just to try other ways of working – but I’ve been with Live since its beta days, back when it was incredibly simple, I can even remember when it first got MIDI capabilities! Getting into it at that stage felt like perfect timing because it just clicked with how I naturally think about writing music. Evolving alongside it has always felt intuitive, eventually becoming like an extension of my mind.
Features like Session View, with its non-linear, non-committal workflow, and the ability to use Max For Live for custom instruments and effects have been huge for me. I wouldn’t say its functionality has necessarily influenced the actual stylistic content of my musical style itself per-se, but it has continually empowered me to follow my imagination wherever it wants to go, as wild as it can get. I’ve always had a strong concept of the themes and concepts I’ve wanted to explore, and I’ve always felt I can feed them into the Live environment and see them blossom. Feeling truly unrestricted and having the tools to bring my ideas to life has been central to my process. Over time, it’s become like muscle memory, letting me flow fluidly with ideas, and that freedom has been key to the evolution of my sound.
You describe yourself as a creativity coach, focusing on flow states and overcoming mental blocks. How do your coaching practices inform your own artistic process, especially when tackling complex projects like these two albums?
Developing and finishing music is rarely a completely smooth, painless process. Like most creatives, I’ve faced challenges throughout my path – self-doubt, writer’s block, getting stuck in various ways. I realized so much of it was purely mindset and perspective based, which led me to explore creativity coaching concepts to better understand my process and develop strategies to overcome those hurdles. I realized we as artists have a lot more control and influence over those factors than is often acknowledged. Over time, I saw how valuable these tools were – not just for me, but for other producers too – which made sharing them an inspiring part of my evolution. Teaching truly is learning, and it helped me deeply integrate these concepts into my own workflow, to hardwire them into my approach.
While working on these two releases, those strategies were definitely paramount. I needed to stay clear on where each project was headed, keep the concepts intact, stay inspired, and meet deadlines. Techniques like mental reframing, breaking tasks into manageable pieces, and creating positive feedback loops helped me stay focused, motivated, and aligned with my larger vision. These tools turned challenges into opportunities to work with more clarity and momentum.