This is my cover of 'Choronzon' from the 1981 album 'Exit' by Tangerine Dream. As a youngster I was in awe of their music and massive synthesizers. 'Choronzon' has accompanied me since the 80's, first on vinyl, followed by cassette, CD and it now resides in my iTunes library.

I performed the song entirely on two TTSH's with the ARP 1601 clone providing the synchronization for the drums and arpeggio that runs thru the song. I played the keyboard parts using the new Korg ARP Odyssey by plugging the CV output into the TTSH's and ARP 1601 clone. No other synths or sequencers were used.

I mixed it fast using only light compression and EQ. I recorded it dry without effects (delay, chorus, distortion, or even the onboard reverb) so that the TTSH can shine on it own.

Long live the music of Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream!

100% analog!

Choronzon - Played on TTSH

SM 1

Not only is Susan Rogers a record producer, engineer, mixer, and audio electronics technician, she has a doctorate in psychology (having studied music cognition and psychoacoustics) from McGill University. As an engineer Susan really got her start working with Prince from 1983 to 1988, including albums like Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign o' the Times, and The Black Album. Her other studio sessions have included artists like Barenaked Ladies, David Byrne, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Rusted Root, Tricky, Geggy Tah, and Michael Penn. She is currently the director of the Berklee College of Music's Perception and Cognition Laboratory, and is an associate professor at Berklee. Portions of this interview were conducted after a listen to a vinyl LP of Purple Rain in front of a live audience during the "Saturday Night Listening Party" at the Welcome to 1979 Recording Summit (held every November in Nashville), and the rest of the interview took place between Susan and me the following day. Enjoy

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Episode 16: Susan Rogers

"Elusive pop fantasias, and intentionally so." - Pitchfork

"Unquestionably multi-talented as well as multilingual... wqe should all be grateful that Miho Hatori speaks the universal language of music so fluently." - Impose

NYC's rare and inimitable talent New Optimism (aka Japanese musician Miho Hatori, co-founder of the beloved Cibo Matto and a collaborative partner of Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, John Zorn, etc) releases her vibrant debut EP Amazon To LeFrak on July 27th through Phantom Limb.

New Optimism is Miho’s newest project, a vivid, unpredictable and technicolour sonic palette that shapeshifts mercurially around grooving basslines, subtle electronica, leftfield sound explorations and playful experimental pop.
 
New Optimism can be seen as a natural landing point for Miho's past musical journeys - strange and wonderful, encompassing pop, experimental, hip-hop and dance music: her work with Beck's backing musicians may have contributed to the brightly-coloured avant-soul of Amazon To LeFrak; her time as a Gorillaz member (Miho was the voice of cartoon band-member Noodle) offers a window into the intelligent, mischievous pop songwriting heard in New Optimism's structure-toying and Miho’s infectious singing voice. The strains of Caribbean/Brasilo-beat littered through the record are evidence of Miho's fascination with Latin music and follow her curveball 2003 bossanova duet album with Smokey Hormel. The additional production credits of ex-Vampire Weekend member Rostam [Batmanglij] enter the mix as noise-driven synth lines and bubbling percussion.

Miho writes that the name for her project acts as a response to the post-postmodernist term "New Sincerity", pertaining to contemporary anti-cynical and anti-ironical earnest creative expressions. "New Optimism", as a title, means the opposite of this, says Miho.

Amazon To LeFrak was written and produced with recording collaborators in a handful of key New York studios around Miho's multiple other projects, including mixtapes for RVNG Intl.'s Commend store in Manhattan and numerous sound design compositions and installations.

Miho will be performing live at Basilica SoundScape 2018, held in New York's Hudson Valley on September 14-16th, alongside Lightning Bolt, Grouper, Haxan Cloak x Nick Zinner and more. 

http://mihohatori.com
www.phantom-limb.co.uk

James Vella formed Phantom Limb in June 2017 after eight years in A&R for FatCat Records. Mark Pearse (ex-head of contemporary music programming at the Royal Albert Hall) and Ken Li (formerly UK/EU senior publicist at Thrill Jockey) joined the team shortly after.

AMAZON TO LeFRAK

New Optimism - Jet Setters

Very plain (sawtooth, one voice) DDRM sound first dry, then with a bit of the Expander reverb, a bit of the Expander delay, and finally some of the ring mod with ADSR settings.  Nothing fancy, just showing the basic stuff.

None

DDRM Expander RingMod + Reverb + Delay

I was able to spend an hour with the amazing Xerxes, with the Midiboard as controller, so polyphonic aftertouch. It was still a prototype (you may hear some subtle chorus "chirp" artifacts in especially quiet spots. This issue has been completely resolved as of April 2019). In this session I gravitated towards exploring the beautiful highpass and bandpass filter modes. Killer synth.

We recorded this session with Valhalla reverb and a bit of delay.

Xerxes Session

Performed by Ando P. using Xerxes synthesizer prototype.

Percussion: Spitfire

Fanfare for the Common Man composed by Aaron Copland.

Fanfare For The Common Man

Radio Ga Ga - Synths Only

This iconic Vangelis composition is the opening scene from the original Blade Runner movie (taking place in a dystopian future Los Angeles of the year 2019), and it is one of the most amazing soundtracks ever written.

Rendition performed and produced by Ando P. using Xerxes synthesizer with Kurzweil Midiboard and Doepfer R2M ribbon controller.

June 2019

Originally composed by Vangelis, Blade Runner soundtrack, 1982.

Blade Runner Main Titles

Blade Runner Main Titles (cover)

deckard's demo

All played live on Hydrasynth, no overdubs or external FX used.  These are demos for the Hydrasynth factory patches I contributed (patch names ending with PS).

Hydrasynth Patch Demos

My music is a mixture of old and new styles, leaning into the electro-alternative genre. It incorporates an equal mix of vocals, guitar, synth, bass and electronic drums. Song writing also plays a crucial roll with each composition as I attempt to marry words to music. 

Choronzon - Played on TTSH

Reginator