I released a surprise album today! It’s called ‘Station’ and is a sonic thank-you to everyone who supported me this year. The end of the year can be a stressful time for various reasons - and I wanted to provide a peaceful moment when you need it. It’s also a name-your-price download.
‘Station’ is made entirely from Kalimba sounds. Of course, heavily processed, resampled, degraded and smeared into calm longform pieces. The whole setup for this project consisted of an eKalimba, the sample based part of my modular system, Chase Bliss Mood MK2, Herbs and Stones Solid Felt, Walrus Audio Meraki, Cocoquantus, OTO Bim and Bam. Recorded straight to 1/4" tape in single takes.
The ALM Squid Salmple (two of them actually) did the heavy lifting on this album. In there I looped parts or used it as a sort of pitch shifting delay. You can think of these tracks more as organisms than compositions, I guess. The ‚performance’ is less arranging but more keeping things in line and throwing new sounds in. Because even though these tracks are very calm, they are quite wild dynamically speaking, as the kalimba can create some crazy frequency spikes when repitched and layered.
As this is my way of thanking people, ‘Station’ is and will remain a name-your-price download indefinitely. Needless to say, I very much appreciate everyone who can pay a little something for it. The album is also digital only.
I thought this release would also be a great opportunity to end the ambient year together with a listening party. I’d love for you to join me today at 21:00 / 9 pm CET. Here is the link to RSVP:
Hope you enjoy the music and please let me know if you have any questions regarding the process or gear.
you have always been amazing and unique with your emotive and and melancholic touch ( not limited to those descriptions but my faves) I may have not been as active on tube but I am always listening…beautiful work as usual and thank you…just bought it. I will catch you on the next listening party.
Getting stuck into this on Spotify – lovely as always. I was pondering your immense productivity and thought you are an example of what many people here are aspiring to; creating a unique personal sound, producing and publishing music consistently. Have you ever made a thread detailing your process and the secrets behind your prolific output? I’m sure many here would enjoy reading about it. Cheers!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate your compliment.
I haven‘t made such a thread here, or on another forum, as I have countless tutorials and tips on my patreon page and the discord server that is attached to it. I hope that does not seem greedy, I‘m happy to answer any questions. I just put all the ‘how-to’ things there.
Having all that said, my productivity is merely an illusion. I mostly work in bursts, and when I do, I work rather fast. But there often are weeks were I don‘t touch an instrument at all.
it’s a lovely album , thanks … i have a question : how would you describe the Meraki and do you feel it is bringing something to your set up ? ( since you have a thermae and a bim ) ( and a mood mk2 …
I don’t have a Thermae anymore, sold it several years ago. And Mood is a completely different tool, in my opinion.
Anyways: I really love the Meraki. I use the Bim for ‘normal’ delay sounds while I implement the Meraki in a more free fashion and let it create kind of a wash underneath the sounds. It also sounds very differently than the Bim, so these two aren’t really in competition. They are also the only delays I use, no need for a third one.
