Name: These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins by Old Voltage in An Analog Ambient Aggregation
Duration: 6 min 20 s
Description: A hazy pad from the Oberheim OB-8 flows beneath blinking Prophet 5 and Jupiter-8 electric piano imitations, washed out in Lexicon 224 endless hall reverb and RE-501 chorus echoes.

A collection of ambient pieces, each recorded to 8 track tape and then sent directly to stereo master cassettes, where they were uploaded without any additional processing.  There will be lots of tape hiss.

An Analog Ambient Aggregation

A simple ambient piece, with an ebbing and flowing foundation of a Jupiter 8 slow LFO suspended 9 chord through a Dimension D and Stereo Phaser.  I manually open and close the filter on the Oberheim FVS1, switching up octaves toward the end.  I throw in some Yamaha CS60 for good measure as a nice vocal string frequency range.  All of these signals are then processed through a Lexicon 224 with dimed out settings, and a fast timed RE-201 Space Echo.  Recorded on reel to reel Tascam 388 and uploaded for your enjoyment.

Morning Light

The Synthi A, pulsing oscillator envelope, accompanied by the Prophet 5 rev 2. As always, recorded to tape on the 388.

Purring Circuits of the Ancient Electric Beast

Carpenter Vibes

Nights Bathed in Neon

Everything's Just Fine

A generative music piece based on several algorithmically interpreted schemas, featuring the Oberheim OB-8, the Jupiter-8, and the Prophet 5.

Electric Things Have Their Life, Too...Paltry As Those Lives Are

A simple modal piece using only a Yamaha CS-80.

The Freedom To Do Everything Is a Tyranny (a CS-80 solo piece)

An artificial intelligence based algorithm performs generative music on the Yamaha CS-80.  It admittedly sounds like a cat aimlessly walking across the keyboard.

I Have No Hands, And I Must Play, parts 1 & 2(a generative music piece for CS-80)

A hazy pad from the Oberheim OB-8 flows beneath blinking Prophet 5 and Jupiter-8 electric piano imitations, washed out in Lexicon 224 endless hall reverb and RE-501 chorus echoes.

These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins

An Oberheim OB-8 chordal pad loop, slowed to half speed, drowned in reverb from the Lexicon 224.

A Religion Of Solitude

A breathing, ebbing and flowing Jupiter 8 chord pad floating in a sea of reverb, accompanied by a DX7 doing its very best piano imitation.

Guided By Moonlight Reflecting On The Pearlescent

A culmination of many years of studying the various techniques and studio methods incorporated in the production of psychedelia, new age, and ambient electronic music during the 1970's.  

To produce this piece, I used the following equipment: 

1) a droning held Cmaj9 chord performed on a Jupiter-8 in stereo, each side flowing into a Roland vintage stereo phaser with incongruent settings, the left channel then downtuned by .01 cent by an Eventide H910, washed in Lexicon 224 giant endless hall reverb, and Space Echo.  

2) A Tonus-era ARP 2600 performs a short three-note down arpeggiation at high speed, fed into an MXR phasor, and a Juno-60 performs the 7 notes of the C major scale in Up-Down across three octaves while automatically sweeping its filter via the LFO, fed into an MXR phasor. 

3) A Minimoog drones on C while the filter is manually swept.  

4) A Fender Telecaster is performed with an E-bow on the fifth string and capo on the third fret, droning a C note. 

5) A Fender Rhodes and Travis Bean TB1000a guitar provide random notation in the C major scale. 

6) an Eventide H910 pitch shifting delayed feedback, resulting in chaotic arpeggios at various speeds

Because the piece is recorded to tape, I am able to pitch shift the entire performance, which I do several times, first rising and then rising again, then descending and descending again, back to C.  I then "melt" the performance as it ends, pitch shifting down.  

There is a great deal of tape hiss due to my disdain for Dolby Noise Reduction. Please pardon the hiss.

Psychedelic Thesis

Old Voltage is an all vintage and analog recording studio based in SoCal, featuring some of the most legendary synthesizers of all time, recorded directly to tape on our Tascam 388.  Old Voltage is also an independent label, specializing in an old school approach to music making and recording.

Hit us up at OldVoltageMusic@gmail.com !

These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins

Old Voltage

Related tracks