With musical contributions ranging from a project with London’s Royal Ballet to electro pop with Miike Snow, New Yorker Andrew Wyatt seems to be as curious and adventurous as he is talented.

This month, the musically-inclined will get acquainted with his own personal solo project dubbed Descender, an album written for and recorded with a 75-man strong philharmonic orchestra.

With all the other projects you have been involved in, it’s hard to fathom how you have had the time to write and arrange this album for a 75-man orchestra. How long have you been working on this album?

It came about pretty quickly. I didn’t have much time to do it. I did the arrangements in a month, but have had the ideas kicking around for a couple of years. I suppose the first fragment is from early 2010.

Did you have the intention to work with a full orchestra from day one?

Yes, I wanted to do that from the very beginning. I just miss that in modern music. When I was living in Paris I was at the Centre Pompidou and heard this orchestra playing music from a 1950s film, and I just felt like ‘wow, what happened to that?’ Isn’t it funny it’s antiquated, even though we have the skills, but now anything can be done with computers. You almost cannot tell the difference between computers and orchestra sounds today.

There is an enormous amount of human attachment to the sound of strings, stemming from 500 previous years of western music. The skill of being able to write for an orchestra, the skill that people took so many years to master, is now so undervalued and rarefied. There are probably only five or six conductors that make a living on the planet. And probably not a very good living.

Would you consider going the other direction and make it very minimalistic?

Actually I’m planning on taking this album that way and turn it into another EP, calling it Ascender.

You seem to be always wanting to explore new directions, and I suppose you cannot be as adventurous when working with Miike Snow?

It’s adventurous in a totally different way. With Miike Snow I stay out of the way and let the tracks speak. It’s very hard for three people to lead. We take a kick drum from 1973, another sample from somewhere else and add a synth that’s new. And it’s tied together with pop hooks. That’s where we overlap, we’re all good at it.

Have you had an urge to do something where you can choose whatever path you want to take at any given moment?

I think everybody does. Miike Snow was a path I chose to take, and now this is a path I want to take. I don’t think it has to be one or the other. We all had a history before, we were all producers before.

Do you think there is a great hunger for intricate, more experimental pop music, today?

Definitely. For two reasons – social signifiers have become important. It allows people to relate to point of interest. Groups centre themselves around many different interests, and because of the interest the small groups have found each other and become bigger groups.

The other reason is that every generation looks to something to give it a signature. Or they recycle something – see late 70s in England with punk and then early 90s grunge. Now people have more interest in experimental music. What Animal Collective are doing today, Steve Reich was doing in the 70s.

You have spent quite a lot of time in Stockholm.

In all I have probably spent a year in Stockholm.

How do you feel Stockholmers differ from New Yorkers?

I think the mental acuity. That’s why I’m quite comfortable there. Generally speaking I love Stockholmers, they have a real sense of humour, they’re gentle and quite disciplined. I would love to live there, except the weather is too terrible. And it has a cruel effect on their social code.

You are not supposed to have too strong a personality or express an individuality, it’s kind of frowned upon. But I love Stockholm for it being a very safe place, both personally and socio-economically.

Another thing is that as much as people from Stockholm work and live everywhere, I have never met someone from Stockholm who at the end of the day don’t want to go back to Stockholm towards the end of their lives.

Do you feel Stockholmers have an unhealthy appetite for all things New York?

I can understand why, because they see New York as all the things Stockholm isn’t. I think that’s why they fetishise the “danger of New York”. They see it as free, more laissez-faire, and think it’s like the wilderness in comparison. And I agree. I pray each night that New York moves toward the direction of Stockholm.

What’s the most peculiar thing in Stockholm or in Swedish culture that you have experienced?

Swedish women are definitely the most sexually aggressive I’ve ever met. The women are quite liberated, which I’m sure is healthy for the society. It’s an equal playing field with men, where women can act in the same manner as men, and it’s all because the women feel safe enough to do so.

What’s the one thing from home you miss when you’re in Stockholm?

I miss being able to run into a deli to get the stuff I want at any given time. There’s one place, which is in Gamla Stan, on Skeppsbron, it’s like a New York deli. Otherwise you only find sandwiches that have been lying in the cafés all day, some dry bread with a slice of meat or cheese.

In fact I’d take any city in the world over Stockholm when it comes to food, except for maybe Warsaw. If you sit down for a long meal, there are many good restaurants, but if you are on your own, and have 15 minutes, the only option is sushi.

Peter Steen-Christensen