"Retreat" features Diana prominently on cello, me on bowed guitar and keys (and feedback) and the both of us on vocals. It was constructed out of an improvised drone session that was lying around and left unused, chopped up and fit into the rhythm you hear now. 



Hologram

Retreat

Here's the surprise album that I promised. For anyone who's been following me over the past few months, they'll have probably noticed that I feel deeply in love with Final Fantasy VIII. It was my first real FF game and, for what may be the first time since I started seriously playing games, I found one that forced me to reevaluate how I viewed games artistically. I'm also not ashamed to admit that it made me choked up multiple times. More time than any movie or book in recent memory. At a time when things felt (and to an extent still feel) really bleak, it was nice to feel something other than dread or worry. The score really helped and I was inspired to rerecord my interpretations of the songs. 
In between working on our next release, Dragon, I started recording songs from Nobuo Uematsu's incredible soundtrack. The songs are roughly divided (see what I did there) between disintegrated ambient, warm synth instrumentals and more abstract drone pieces. Many of the songs were recorded by playing them first on a keyboard or piano, playing that through an amp or Television and then recording that through a microcassette dictation recorder. Those recorded on microcassette would then be recorded back into my computer where they would be treated. These pieces in particular have a fragile and distant sound that texturally sounds disintegrated and strange. It's warped, warm and sort of sad. I really love the sound I got out of it. The latter third of the album has pieces which used those recordings and blew them out to make something far removed from the original soundtrack piece. You can make out where the original is but its hidden beneath blankets of flickering sound and samples. On a lot of the pieces I also layered in various cello parts recorded by Diana over the past few years (though they admittedly, like many of the instrumentals, don't quite resemble the original recording). 
I did the record as a change of pace. A pallet cleanser and an attempt to view music from a different direction. It's also a way of me trying to express how moved something else made me. In another way, doing pieces like this has allowed me to sit with our songs on Dragon and really make sure they're the best work that we can make. I believe my own compositions have benefited from this. Expect those songs/that album sometime in March (maybe later, who knows).  I feel like I'm articulating it all very poorly so I'll end it here. I hope you enjoy.

Rough Divide

Balamb

Blue Fields No. 1

So here it is. After a long-ish wait, I give you Dragon. I continued to fret over little details and realized that I’d never get it out if I don’t upload it now. 
I say this with every album, but I’m incredibly proud of this one. It steps a bit outside my normal routine of introverted (perhaps cryptic, maybe sulky) content which used to take its thematic influence from my childhood, and instead is something focused on feelings that I hope others can share a bit more. That wasn’t intentional, mind you, it’s sort of how that happened. In the end, I think this album was a way of me focusing all things cynical in the hopes of keeping those thoughts and fears out of my day-to-day life. 
A large influence came from finding some sense of grounding in culture. I went into this on my description for the song Swans. In addition to that, what with the current political climate, I constantly felt this existential sense of futility when faced with the larger social/political picture. I sort of hoped to capture that too. Sonically I feel like this album sounds a touch more finished than our previous releases as I embraced cleaner instrumentation and samples. The samples always came from our own recordings and often drew from old drone sessions with Diana. In addition to that, Diana provided vocals and cello on a handful of the songs.

Dragon

Re-Education

Great Divide

Born Without Fear

On Your Side

Ripple

Ressurection

Salt The Earth

Swans

Bone Eater

Lo-Fi Ambient Drone. Sometimes a pop song comes out. Used to make music under the name Swimmingpool The Band. 


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