Garland
Released: August 2025
Equipment: Korg Opsix synthesizer, ASM Hydrasynth synthesizer, Arturia KeyStep Pro sequencer
At the start of the year I'd begun work on a couple of pieces but hadn't been able to make progress with them beyond the first 'structural' tracks. In the past the story would have ended there - I've never been able to restart a project after putting it aside - but in both cases I'd built up a solid framework so I decided to put them 'on the shelf' in the hopes of revisiting them at a later date. After the release of Chosen it felt like a good time to have another go.
Both tunes came together (fairly) easily, although there was a certain amount of forensic deconstruction involved due to my very scant notes on the, er, notes. Ironically I found myself shelving another idea that popped up while I was working on one of the salvaged songs, although I was able to return to this fairly soon after. It seems like once I have established an overall song structure & recorded the 'backbone' track(s) it becomes sturdy enough to be put aside for another day. A useful trick to learn!
Another change to my regular creative process came with the easing of one of my 'dogma' rules/guidelines. I'd set myself a list of conditions when starting the Renmei project to guide me away from some of my common pitfalls, generally encouraging me to push beyond my boundaries & remain productive. One of these rules had been to always start a synth patch from an initial state rather than tweaking an existing preset, making me learn how to use my instruments and (hopefully) leading me away from orthodox tones into 'interesting' areas. This had worked really well but made the process of starting a new track a lot more challenging as I had to come up with a new patch while still nurturing a formative musical idea. In future I'd allow myself to use one of my existing patches to get started with a new track, after all (as I reasoned with myself) this was technically still a patch that I had developed from a blank slate. The idea of using a legalistic argument with my previous self continues to amuse me.
The combination of reanimating old ideas and easing the development of new ones made a dramatic impact on my workflow and I soon found myself well on the way to a new album of tunes. My creative process still feels laboured & challenging a lot of the time but I found myself more often wrestling with specific 'problems' rather than just facing a blank wall, a definite improvement.
A more worrying development came with my (seemingly) deteriorating abilities. My keyboard technique has never been particularly good and in recent years I've needed more & more tries to get a usable take, even with a (relatively) simple phrase. This time around I found myself suffering from intermittent 'brain freeze' where my mind would go blank at a critical point and I'd have no idea of what I was intending to play. This rarely lasted beyond a couple of seconds but when it happened (and especially when it recurred in the same session) it was very scary. In a way I'm lucky in that synth music lends itself to being programmed & sequenced but there's something about actually playing the notes that feels very 'real' to me. Hopefully I have a few good years (or a good few years) left.
The end results are, to my ears at least, rich & diverse, although tending more to slower & more contemplative pieces. The lengths are creeping up with most extending beyond five minutes (and the others not far behind) and half of the songs are in even (4/4) time which is unusual for me. I'm getting more adventurous in my note & chord choices and in my approach to song structure, which is liberating but also a bit scary. My arrangements & accompaniments continue to improve with less of a sparse sound than on previous albums, which I'm rather proud of.
As I continue to explore the capabilities of the Opsix (and FM synthesis in general) I'm enjoying the classic tones (lots of bells & metallic sounds!) but also using it as an additive synth, extending simple sounds with more harmonic content rather than filtering down complex ones. It requires a gentle touch - something the Opsix lends itself to - and the resulting subtleties are very rewarding. I was tempted to move on to one of my other instruments after this album but I might stick with the Opsix and see where it takes me next.
There didn't seem to be a unifying theme to either the songs or the creative process this time around so I looked for inspiration while selecting a cover picture from my (seemingly unending) collection of graveyard statuary photos. The one that caught my eye featured a floral headdress and the idea of a garland of diverse blooms brought together for a celebratory display seemed nicely appropriate.
Sentinel kicks things off with a blast of dramatic bombast. This was one of my 'salvaged' pieces, probably the first thing I recorded with the Opsix. Lots of playing with stereo placement to contrast with the ponderous rhythm and a nicely understated middle eight.
Loosend has a much more 'tumbling' groove based around a couple of rhythmic lines. There's a deliberate alternation between major & minor (sounding) sections and changes to the chorus structure as the song progresses. I liked the sense of ambivalence around the overall direction, a feeling of amusing yourself while at a loose end.
The initial theme for Ebb came while working on another piece and was filed away to be worked on afterwards. At first it felt like a requiem or memorial but this slowly changed to a lullaby before ending up as an ebbing tide, retreating but with the promise of returning. I'm particularly proud of the arrangement with variations on the main theme over a constantly changing musical setting. One of my favourites.
Gimbal lock was the other 'salvaged' piece, based on a sequencer line played on my old Hydrasynth (before I sold it to buy the Opsix). This line had a chord sequence that added an extra element each time around, this was then disguised by having the song structure change at arbitrary points. The end result retains a sense of harmony while going through unexpected changes along the way, which I really like. 'Gimbal lock' refers to a type of navigation failure where a spacecraft loses the ability to orient itself, which felt very appropriate.
Soaring uses chromatic falling chords to give a sense of falling or floating, accentuated by the uneven progression. In other words some musical 'rules' are broken to give a dreamy feel. There's something about waltz time that often pushes me in odd directions and this is yet another example.
Sanctum has a broken rhythm pattern with 7/4 & 5/4 phrases used in an uneven sequence, something that came by accident but that I decided to keep & develop. The result has an ethereal atmosphere and somehow retains a sense of harmony despite the nonlinear structure and chord progression. Another of my favourites.