artwork: @sparklecats2009 & @ezip
music: @damifortune
piano arrangement & performance on "four seasonal offerings" (tracks 1-4): @rewitkin
guitar performance on "the forest is for the trees" (tracks 5-8): @october_stereo
flute performance on "plate tectonics" (tracks 9-11): @ZBWMusic
saxophone performance on "yukimarimo" (tracks 12-13): @dorkus-64
violin performance on "it rained after the fire" (track 14): @retropetet
drumset performance on "blue whirl" (track 15): @cryptovolans

Written with a ROLI Seaboard, soundchips from some very old machines, a piano, a field recorder, and some excellent instrumental recordings from friends.

Elemental Fusion is an album of collaborations with instrumentalists. In most cases, I asked friends to record a few minutes of improv or pseudo-improv to use as a springboard for writing a piece of music. The tracks would then be built around whatever they sent me, often chopped up and manipulated. The result is serendipitous; these works were pushed in unique, unexpected directions by my collaborators' performances. The compositional challenge was thrilling.

This album also interprets the word "fusion" in other senses - it is a spiritual successor to the similarly-named pair of diametrically opposed EPs I released in 2022, Elemental Harmony & Elemental Chaos, combining their respective styles of "melodic chiptune" and "ambient glitch" into one work that lives on a spectrum between them. It is a blend of acoustic warmth and digital processing. It is also a synthesis of many different styles, sounds and techniques that I've come to enjoy employing in my writing.

Elemental Fusion is perhaps my most challenging and varied work to date, and I think about it as a recital of sorts for the classical concert stage, a statement of purpose. To that end, detailed program notes are included with the album!

--HVB

Elemental Fusion

tickets here ☄️⛈️🌊

08 - the forest is for the trees (feat. october williamson) - IV. last light

if you have an interest in releasing on iiiypad or being on staffcirc compilations, send demos to sexytoadsandfrogsfriendcircle@gmail.com

08 - the forest is for the trees (feat. october williamson) - IV. last light

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