visualculture

When covid started, I moved back in with my parents for several months and set up a small studio in a spare room in their basement. I recorded this album in that room over the course of about 3 weeks.

Here's what the process was like:

Each track was created using the Sequential Prophet-6. I played (or arpeggiated) each track manually on the synthesizer, recording them onto a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I then played the tape back, recording it into the computer.

While recording, I manipulated the tape in various ways: changing the speed of the tape while it was playing, pushing on one of the reels to distort the sound, or interrupting the reels while they were turning. This introduced various artefacts into the recording, giving reminders of the physicality of the recording device.

There are also instances when i started playing the tape at the tail end of a recording and you can hear the blip of the reels getting up to speed and the sound trailing off. I kept these in as well and you can hear them between some of the tracks.

Once the tracks were in the computer, I spent a lot of time mastering them to even out the frequency content and make sure they all match in terms of volume and sound quality. I also applied some light effects to fill out the sound a bit more.

Two tracks in particular, Thalia and Sao, have significant editing. I added some bass tones in Thalia with the Arturia Minibrute. And in Sao I automated the filtering and reverb time to create the fade-out/wash-out effect at the end. The rest of the tracks have very minimal editing.