Vigil

Released: August 2018

Equipment: Waldorf Blofeld synthesizer, Korg Volca synthesizers

Listen:

The three months leading up to the release of Vigil coincided with a period of unemployment for me. This came during a long, hot summer and I spent a lot of that time out on my bike, which might explain the driving feel of most of the resulting tracks. Once again this was a mostly Blofeld-only collection with the Volcas featuring on only two of the pieces.

Dynamo is built around a relentless & percussive arpeggiator line, with a pulsing bass pushing it along. There's an extended middle eight with a central section that reminds me of some of the music from Thunderbirds.

Freewheeling is more downbeat but with another repetitive central pattern, although a more melodic one. The verses feel more like a series of 'scenes' to me, with the middle eight adding a dash of urgency before easing back to the reprise.

Mote was a rarity for me, a piece that used no sequencer or arpeggiator (although I did use an (electronic) metronome). The simple motif repeats throughout the song (inverted for the middle eight) while the accompaniment suggests more harmonic movement than actually occurs. Another of my favourites.

Swarming has a bouncy, bleepy rhythmic pattern with a group of four rising notes providing a bridge between each verse. The middle eight takes it up a gear towards the bombastic finish.

Elapsed contrasted a very 'random' arpeggiator line with slow & measured chords. The bell-like melody leads into an increasingly full arrangement before dropping into an ominous middle eight, and then dropping again into a reprise of the start. Finally everything is thrown in for the final verse.

Callsign used a simple sequencer melody as its core with more 'big chords' around it. The rhythm section came from the Volcas (FW, Sample, & Bass) with possibly my most successful drum patterns. A nice middle eight too!

Compulse also featured the Volcas with Keys, Sample, & Bass. A short chord sequence repeats & builds to a dramatic middle eight with call & response 'horns', these then return for the big finish.