Today, November 15, marks my tenth anniversary on Bandcamp. In celebration of the past decade I offer you the full length versions of my first two releases; “Quiescence” and “Deity Reign“. Originally released as 26-minute versions due to Bandcamp’s file size limitations at the time for new artists, now available in their full 73-minute glory.
In addition to this, you can use the code ‘AS10’ for a 10% discount for the remainder of the month for everything in my discography.
As part of my ten year anniversary on Bandcamp this month, I present an album that predates the platform in concept, though never had a formal release. Dronology was part my analog ambient project in 2007 and consisted of patches that would play throughout the night whilst recording them to MiniDisc during my sleep.
The recordings for the 2020 version of the concept are various takes on composing drone music and include aleatoric composing techniques and signal processing, as well as live improvisation.
I’ve included the five unreleased MiniDisc recordings from 2007 as bonus tracks, with individual cover photos of the original discs.
Cosmic Reef, an image that marks Hubble’s thirty years in space, inspired an album that marks my ten years on Bandcamp. Clocking in at well over 100 minutes, it’s the longest sequencer-driven album I’ve released so far.
As part of the various artists compilation for The Cosmic Musical Connection, my song “Plateaux” has been released on the Dutch Electronic Masters album alongside songs by Gert Emmens, Skoulaman, and many other Dutch artists. The proceeds go to ‘Undergound-ÄxpÄrten‘ for the financial support of their broadcasting activities.
https://thecosmicmusicalconnection.bandcamp.com/album/dutch-electronic-masters
As much of my albums have a technical or cosmic theme, they all have been inspired to some degree by the “Veluwe”, or “fallow lands” as its name derives from. It is a region close to home where I often go to set my mind at ease, either by foot or by bicycle, but always equipped with my camera. “Fallow Lands” is an homage to the Veluwe. The track titles are based on some of my favorite parts, and are accompanied by individual photographs for the artwork.
“Knoal” is dedicated to Tommy van ’t Knoal, also known as “Dennis”. The black tabby Persian cat, who died last year at the age of 17, had lived with me for over ten years and was my companion ever since he came into my life. He occasionally appeared in videos and interviews and seemed to enjoy ambient music the most. The title track is the last track I recorded in his presence at Infraklang studio.
“Arjen Schat | LP2” is out now on Trésor D’argent and available on vinyl + digital + stream.
“For the second installment of Trésor D’argent, simply called “LP2”, Arjen Schat returns to the original format for Berlin-school. Two 20-minute electronic explorations, guided by a myriad of increasingly complex sequential patterns.“
“LP2” is pressed on black 140g vinyl, with full-colour sleeve and labels, and white poly-lined inner sleeve. Limited to 100 copies worldwide.
https://tresordargent.com/td-02 | https://arjenschat.nl/album/lp2
Spanning the entire month of June, I have made at least one recording per day. I have set this goal to increase my productivity as I was feeling I was not recording as much as I would like to. This album is curated from 95 recordings, some of them different takes on the same concept or different versions of the same recording, resulting in 14 tracks that clock in at 54 minutes total.
On average, the track lengths are shorter than most of my work in recent years, which makes the album feel more like a story unfolding, expressively narrated in my own musical language.
A year after setting up my smaller studio, I’ve settled in quite nicely and try to be as prolific as I can, continuing my quarterly releases per project. The name of the studio derives from the chemical formula of the name of the street we live on, which is named after a form of quartz. At its core, the studio is still based around a set of analog synthesizers and sequencers with a touch of digital synthesis and signal processing, but it’s less expandable due to its spatial limitations. Despite these limitations, I try to broaden my horizon by adding more diverse elements and exploring non-western scales, as can be heard on this album.
In retrospect, “Kaaresta” has been a creative arc between two houses. Recording sounds in my studio in one house, editing them on my laptop in my girlfriend’s house. The result is a fine weave of electro and idm, braided with tight drum patterns and interlacing melodic structures.