Earthbound

Released: April 2026

Equipment: Waldorf Iridium synthesizer, Roland TR-6S drum machine, Arturia KeyStep Pro sequencer

After completing the Flow album I found myself continuing with a fast turnover strategy, generally spending less than a week on each new tune and building up a collection of 'good enough' versions that could be polished up (to some extent) once I had enough for another release. This threshold was a total playing time of thirty minutes or more, an arbitrary figure I'd settled on years ago and never felt the need to change. Once again I observed the 'creative momentum' aspect of my music production where I'd start on a new piece straight after finishing the previous one, rarely leaving a gap of more than a day or two. There's a strange internal imperative to complete an album once I've started amassing tracks, almost a fear that they will all evaporate away (along with all future inspiration & ideas) unless I can forge them into something 'solid'. I'm also aware that once I stop recording it can take many, many months to get myself started again. Despite all this potential angst I kept up my musical productivity rate and started adding to the 'in progress' folder.

Even though I was following a very similar creative process to my recent albums the results showed quite a few changes. The tracks were generally shorter, with more 'interesting' chords & a wider range of time signatures, and I found myself being more creative with song structures. These included inserting extra 'linking' phrases, changing section lengths as a piece progressed, and even abandoning the whole verse/chorus format - a scary step for me! Whereas the 'fast & loose' approach had previously led me to use simpler & more predictable patterns I was becoming more trusting of my instincts and more willing to let those first impulses lead me off the more well trodden path.

After much prevarication I finally started using my (relatively) new drum machine! It only appears on a couple of tracks and is decidedly minimalist but still feels like a big step forward for me. For now I'm using it purely as a sound source and controlling it from the sequencer, the loss of some of its features is compensated for by my familiarity with the KeyStep's interface.

The collection feels more positive & optimistic than many of my recent albums, more introspective than melancholy. There's lots of long echoes & drifting chords but more use of rhythm (& drums!) and some unexpected turns along the way. I'm continuing to use fewer tones within each piece and (attempting to) make up for this with more harmonic & melodic variety, which is quite a challenge but very rewarding when it comes good. All in all it's a group of songs I'm proud of.

The title came while looking through potential cover pictures. I liked the multiplicity of ways of reading it - heading to Earth or tied to/by it? Bound to the planet or the soil? A reflection of my own ambiguous feelings about creativity? I find that a large part of my sense of personal expression hinges on finding the sweet spot between seemingly opposing ideas and exploring the riches found between them. It's all good.

Upshift starts things off with a bouncy rhythmic base overlaid with drifty chords, a fairly common foundation for me. As the song progresses each section starts with a lower chord, something not immediately perceptible but giving an underlying sense of descent, and switches between minor & major chords. The name comes from the drop in tone when changing to a higher gear in a manual transmission car.

Tiptoes uses the starting cluster of notes and hesitant pauses to evoke a cartoonish picture of secretive creeping. There's a nice contrast between the two alternating sections.

Caught in a moment begins with an uncertainty about its root chord, emphasised by the long, lingering echoes. The progression in the refrain continues this ambiguity, adding new chords that go in unexpected directions but almost manage to resolve each time. I particularly like the tinkly solo that interweaves with its own echoes. One of my favourites.

Streamliner has a simple drum pattern driving the offset rhythm along while the arrangements builds around it. Using just minor chords for the verse gives it an almost cinematic feel and contrasts dramatically with the lighter middle section.

Eventide brings a slow, lilting mood with the 'extra' bars between phrases giving a sense of timeless drift. It's unusual for me to use waltz time without drifting into a creepy/eerie feel but this one remains surprisingly contented.

Cirrus has slow washes of sound gently drifting in & out with hints of choral voices giving an almost angelic air. There's a sense of distant overview, a wider perspective giving a more accepting (objective?) appraisal, be it from high, tenuous clouds or silently observing beings.

Clockworker comes from an image of an automaton but based on a steampunk clockwork mechanism rather than electronics. The hesitant rhythm has the measured, deliberate action of early robotics with the repeating pattern of notes suggesting preprogrammed activity, seemingly going awry in the middle section.