Moondrawn - Hypersurface

Recorded between May 2017 and June 2022
Mastered by J.Bagist at Property HQ
Cover image by Alison Tanenhaus

1. Glow

o yea her (prod. by roguewav)

III//VII

2024 - 07 - 04

Trim 6 - 18 - 16 - A1 Mixdown

I made this track on my honeymoon, on an 8 hour boat trip between Barcelona and Ibiza. Created on my iPad using Model 15 and Borderlands. Includes a vocal sample of Caroline Shaw buried deep in the mix.

Balearia (Entry #6 6/13/17)

Created on my iPad using Borderlands and Model 15. Vocal sample is a Chance freestyle.

No Weapon Formed (Entry #7 8/20/17)

Some more glitchy tape loop goodness for everyone. Blame it on the writer's block; was trying to come up some ideas for a new song and just started futzing around with the 4-track, instead.

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Instruments abused:
Yamaha PSS-130 -- both providing the voice for each track on the tape and being played live for a "fifth" track.
Tascam 4-track cassette with a looped tape. I used a new tape, but really roughed it up before putting it back in the cassette, resulting in all kinds of audible wrinkles and scratches. Whee!
Also, in order to get a gapless loop, you have to disable the eraser head. This actually has two effects:
First, obviously, the eraser head isn't clearing the sound before it hits the recorder/playback head. If it were, there would be a large gap in about 1-inch of tape, no matter where you hit "stop." You can only get around this by disabling the head in some way. I put a piece of plastic across it, since I don't want to risk ruining it forever.
Second, since nothing is being cleared, you end up with layer after layer of sound upon sound until it all fades into tape hiss and noise. Hence, if you listen closely, you can hear all the previous attempts playing behind the "final takes."

Timicin is named after a Star Trek: TNG character played by David Ogden Stiers. Timicin is a scientist trying to save his world's dying sun, yet he is forced to stop because he has reached the end of his "useful" life. When Kaelons turn 60 years old, they must ritualistically suicide in order to make room for future generations. He's faced with the choice of continuing his work and being shunned by his people, or undergoing the ritual and risk losing all progress on the project.
In this track, I tried to tribute the memory of his character by playing a downward scale that progressively devolves into noise, signifying the loss of life and progress before a new voice takes over and continues the melody. Or something like that. (Hey, I don't want to appear TOO pretentious!)

Timicin

From "Superstorms" Explp024. Released by Experimedia on 8/30/12. Artwork by J Bible. Mastered by James Plotkin. 

Part 2

Cassette loops and Modular synth // Sounds of changing seasons

1. Glow

moondrawn

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