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Void is an unusual album of largely dramatic abstract soundscapes. It has slowly taken shape over several years. The idea for it really goes back to the early seventies when synthesisers were very new and manufacturers claimed that this new revolutionary instrument could produce any sound imaginable! At the time record companies also soon caught on that anything with the word synthesiser on it sold well, very well. Because of this the record catalogues were actually healthily diverse in electronic musical styles. This was good; much better than today in fact. In my early record collection I had some quite abstract albums by people like Water Carlos and Morton Subotnik that seemed to really push the boundaries of this new instrument. Well that was thirty years ago. A few years ago I found myself wanting to explore this whole area and see what I could do but with some of the latest synthesiser technology. Even though I know well that today largely abstract soundscape albums are not everyone’s cup of tea, I just had to do this one.
Void is a collection of extremely dynamic and dramatic synthscape tracks. Always flowing through turbulent and quieter sections, passages of contrast and harmony I’ve used everything I know to produce a hopefully interesting and exciting synth experience. It has taken a long time to produce and I’m very pleased with the sound and the flow of it. I think it was certainly well worth the effort. This is an album that really needs to be played loud sitting in front of a reasonably good stereo-sound system!
Because of the unusual nature of this album I’ve given some more added information about each track...
Track 1 is a complex dramatic texture based soundscape. However, it is based around the simple source sound of a couple of drums being hit and occasionally under some considerable strain as if they were about to break apart. All the many textures and effects that make up the track come from splitting up in time of the actual drum sounds into the initial strikes, the evolving drum body resonance through to the resonant sound of the drum’s in its surroundings. The separate sections of the sounds are taken and often dramatically modified and molded into something different and sometimes time stretched in slow motion even to the point of almost being constant. Little is left of the original drum improvisation. Many complex processing effects are applied to transform the drum sounds away from their natural sound to extreme ambient drum textures to even making them almost literally talk!
Track 2 is a more restful track and has a very abstract ambient spooky feel to it. It gently passes from one scene to the next slowly flowing and transforming its shape and sound as it goes. The basic material is from improvised electronic synthesiser sounds but they are processed with a battery of effects units.
Track 3 moulds some basic synthesiser bell sounds in a wide variety of ways from a simple long sustained resonance, through half reversed to many complex inverted and convoluted textures and some interesting rhythmic effects. Other synthesiser sounds weave in and out of the transformed and evolving bell sounds swapping musical phrases with them.
Track 4 This track takes a palette of modern synthesiser sounds and a composition of largely improvised ideas with a nautical flavour teased out of them. It’s an impression of a sea storm. The English painter Turner did an beautiful impressionistic painting of a sea storm he personally experienced. I was seasick on a ferry once so this is my humble soundscape version of his picture.
Track 5 started life as some improvisations I did some time ago using my analogue modular synthesiser to model a large metal structure; a tank. The recordings sounded really dramatic so I’ve used these as the main component of this track. The tank is struck by many various sequenced electronic strikers hard and soft and brushed, stroked and blown. The sound parameters of the tank also alter greatly during the track. Weaved into this are some choir and pure analogue synthesiser sounds which featured in the basic original improvisations. This ended up being just the starting point. Many of the sounds have been further radically processed to generate additional related material and some with quite startling effects. For example, as in track 1, I used some radical filter processing to again produce a strange talking voice but this time from the tank sounds. Often the struck tank and the resultant voice sound together so it’s easier to see where it came from. The track flows though different scenes some turbulent some quieter while constantly exploring the various transformation that are taking place.
Track 6 Like track 4, modern synthesiser sound sources were used to produce this track. Extensive sound processing has extended the sound palette greatly. The effect I hope to achieve is of being caught up in a giant lava flow. To do this some sound textures were processed to sound like fire or hot rocks which flow and cascade down in a threatening manner. There are some vocal touches throughout and an eerie final hymn like section to finally bring the album to a close.
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