This one took quite some effort to see the light of day. Most of the album was written on the DN, using midi-loopback to control chord changes, FX, and all kinds of things with pitch bend, breath control, aftertouch and mod wheel messages. I then sold the DN after tracking all the instrumental parts for the record because I felt like I’ve hit a peak with it, and anything I’d do afterwards with the DN would just live in the shadow of this album. I don’t know how so much time passed so quickly, but it seems like I carried the instrumental versions on my phone since April 2022 to come up with fitting lyrics and vocals for the songs (some didn’t make the cut though). So I am really happy to finally have it out.
I really enjoy reading write-ups of other artists on what inspired their songs or writing approaches so I am adding a few words for each song (as well as the lyrics) below, if you feel like reading a bit. In any case, thank you for listening!
Cave Paintings is about living as hunters and gatherers before the dawn of agriculture and using cave paintings as calendars to record the movements of animal herds. I always pictured a sunrise in a stone-age tundra in my head when hearing the first part of the song. The lyrics in the middle section have an additional syllable, so they shift out of phase with the rhythm of the song, a bit like how the lunar phases drifts out of step with the seasons. Lyrics:
a crescent moon in the sky
a sign to let them know when
the hunt shall begin
a herd on its way
and as the first ray of light
crosses the horizon
a yawn in the gloom
they hide and they wait
and with a black spear gripped tight
piercing through the furred skin
a beast in despair
and twisting in pain
and when the life leaves its eyes
the ritual is nigh then
with song and with fire
they feast and they pray
hand prints on the cave walls
counting moon cycles till the prey spawns
cave paintings on the white stone
sing the old legends till the day dawns
Cobweb is about the delicate links in ecosystems and how every species is like a string in a woven fabric, each one supporting the structure as a whole. Looking at these complex systems as a human seems like looking at them through the eye of a needle, as I feel like it’s only possible to ever grasp a small part of it at a time (or at least my brain is not capable of doing any better than that). Lyrics:
comb through warp and woof
then through my hands
weave countless threads
through the eye of the needle
weave through woof and warp
and in the end
a tangled web
weave and sew
high and low
high and low
to and fro
down to every thread
it all connects
the pattern ends
through the eye of the needle
Cleepless is about unrelenting waves of thoughts preventing sleep at night. The unstable rhythm section is a bit like this monkey brain, while the simple guitar riff and chord change feels like turning from one side to the other in bed. The middle section feels like briefly nodding off to a weird dream. The lyrics only repeat the word “sleepless”, but I like that it could be misheard as “sleep less” or “sleep blessed”.
Cylces is about the earths water cycle, and how each droplet of rain travels from clouds over mountains, valleys, and rivers back to the sea. I guess this song is the best example of midi-loopback as every synth patch (even the drums at the end) slowly unfold and shift the tones with slow moving midi-LFOs. Lyrics:
afloat in the water in that ancient river bed
filled with drops of rain from clouds, they tumble down their path
down from mountains through nooks and crannies, through the clay and sand
filled with roots and bugs and worms that built this tangled web
Centipede is just a crazy sprawling little monster of a song. Its probably the most techno song I’ve recorded so far. If the singing is not for you (which I completely understand, its not for everybody), this one is for you, as its completely instrumental. Although there’s some radio-talk modulating the percussion with the og op-1.
C-Section is a nice summary of the whole album. A song about writing songs that do their best at resisting to be finished. Lyrics:
untie the knot
unfold a song
when the fog still conceals the shapes
and it hides what little light remains
and the thoughts like stars, the constellations change
when a feeling keeps you up, flowing through your veins
one up, one down
in time with all the long trails
in the womb, each pulsating wave
push and pull, pounding at the gates
let them come right out, pouring out again
and the songs they form like clay, let them take their shape
one up, one down
in time with all the long trails
Thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far!
