SimCity.wave in equal parts a celebration of world building and the iconic game SimCity 2000 as well as a homage to FM synthesis. The EP features four reimaginings of the original game soundtrack.

"FM synth sounds from the (equally iconic) Yamaha DX7 and DX21 seemed fitting as a lot people would have heard the music through a Soundblaster type soundcard with a Yamaha FM synth chip. The source material for this EP however was sampled from the Sega Saturn port which has a particularly lush rendition of the soundtrack. I decided to make the EP after setting up my Saturn (hadn't touched it for a decade) during the first lockdown in March and playing the Saturn port of Sim City, which reminded me this was possibly my favourite game ever. Anyway I had a lot of fun making this!"

www.facebook.com/akonewcastle
www.instagram.com/akonewcastle/
www.youtube.com/channel/UC28-rz0VLwyvHsIMFGxFu1A
open.spotify.com/artist/7cKvThgUVJGxl6oCTnugXQ

SimCity.wave IV (Buildings)

SimCity.wave III (Melancholic Mayor)

SimCity.wave II (Tax And Money / Dawn Of The City)

SimCity.wave I (Skyscrapers)

SimCity3000.Wave V (Sixth Floor)

04 SimCity3000.Wave IV (Concrete Jungle)

03 SimCity3000.Wave III (City Lights)

02 SimCity3000.Wave II (Building)

01 SimCity3000.Wave I (New Terrain)

The album is a concept piece exploring our evolving relationship with AI and was written and produced during my Glasshouse artist residency. Thematically, the album reflects on both utopian and dystopian visions of AI, its role in warfare, effects on economies, notions of progress, and the existential questions raised by new and disruptive technologies. The album title is a homage to Richard Brautigan’s poetic work on technological utopias (‘All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace’, which is quoted in one of the tracks and was an early inspiration for this album), although there is much potential for the dystopian when considering AI.

The album unfolds as a discussion — considering AI as a new creative medium and reflecting on the moral complexities it brings, invoking, as an epilogue, the story of Prometheus’ gift of fire to humanity and the moral dilemmas that accompany any new and potentially destructive knowledge.

Links to download, spotify, music videos and all other formats here: https://linktr.ee/simeonsoden

Dead internet

You are being replaced

Fear of god not successfully mapped

Free trial

Progress

Fulfilment centre

100 million AI weapons in non governmental hands

Infra

Algorithms of loving grace

The future is a foreign country

In conclusion (epilogue)

"Every individual part of these tunes is stitched together in such a way that makes your skin crawl, your body shiver and twitch unconsciously, and your mind feel like its been transported to some sort of eschatological end-of-the-world style ritual." Matthew Scott, OneHour OneDj

" a warped channel of euphoria that plugs you into a mainline of transient 80s synthwave." Nad Khan, NE:MM

Carrion Flower

¿¿ (one) - 1

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZoaGZA37K0

Released on @kanedarecords Beat Series 01 
https://soundcloud.com/kanedarecords/sets/kanedabeatseries1

"This is a paranoid, pulsing track that would be as much at home as the soundtrack to Edvard Munch’s The Scream as it would in the basement of a super cool underground witch-house DJ set...this is an addictively uncomfortable track, squelching its dastardly tentacles under your skin and into your mind, and squatting there, just waiting for you to go back and press play again. It calls to mind the most abrasive music of Aphex Twin or Clams Casino" Max Pilley / Fresh on the Net

NIGHTFOREST

The single is available to download for a 'pay what you want' Ether (ETH) donation. Ether download includes remix stems. Visit:
www.linebreakrecords.com/plaintext.php

It is also available from Bandcamp: ako0.bandcamp.com/album/plaintext-concrete-beach

Video: youtu.be/7OzvqfWccgE

www.facebook.com/akonewcastle/
@KanedaRecords / Linebreak

Plaintext

music for the self-isolating...
https://www.facebook.com/akonewcastle/

CORONAWAVE (music to relax / self-isolate too)

https://www.facebook.com/akonewcastle

Remix by Cass Lamb:
https://ako0.bandcamp.com/album/carrion-flower

Video: https://youtu.be/Ka03oDQnKiM
https://www.facebook.com/akonewcastle 

Light Ripples is the title track from a new free-download EP written, recorded and mixed in one week of self-isolation. The four track Sci-fi concept EP was recorded using just 2 synths (a Yamaha DX21 and a Novation Ultranova) in an improvised studio in a loft in Northern England but is a journey to realms of virtual freedom. Freedom that is a fading memory in this increasingly claustrophobic new world we find ourselves in. It is a journey through a rippling pool of space time, under strange constellations and to beguiling new worlds, pervaded however, by an undercurrent of loss and isolation. The sound is very much a product of the environment it was created in. The EP also features a vocal collaboration from Victor VHS. 

(Kaneda Records)

Light Ripples

Free / donation download: https://ako0.bandcamp.com/album/west-babylon
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7cKvThgUVJGxl6oCTnugXQ 
Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/album/west-babylon/1527098479 
VHS:  https://ako0.bandcamp.com/merch/west-babylon-vhs-cassette 
Cryptocurrency free / donation download:  https://linebreakrecords.com/ako-westbabylon/ 
https://www.facebook.com/akonewcastle
https://www.instagram.com/akonewcastle/ 
Kaneda Records

NIGHTFOREST (again) Feat Badger

Bonemill Interchange

West Babylon

Sister Skeleton: https://www.facebook.com/sprixrecords
ako: https://www.facebook.com/akonewcastle

Sister Skeleton & ako - I'm Still Believing (Vaporwave Mix)

Experimental dance music

ako (Simeon Soden) infuses influences from obscure elements of electronic & dance music, including vaporwave & witchhouse, with experimental IDM. When performing, ako creates AV experiences using VHS, CGI & modified games consoles. He has released music on Sunset grid (Aus.), SPRIX (USA), N-aut, Nothing but, HOT-Q & Kaneda Records and has been played on BBC6 Music.

booking/collaboration: simeonsoden@aol.com
@KanedaRecords

ako

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