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.
Tag: Ambient
Audionautic Research Program
Audionautic Research Program was conceptualized in 2008 as a placeholder for experimental space music. The cosmic aspect has carried over, but eleven years later its emphasis lies on long-form live recordings, centered around complex sequential patterns in the vein of the Berlin-school of electronic music.
Al-Amry
“Al-Amry” is a benefit album with ambient music from Mathias Grassow, NODO, Vincent Pierins’ solo project “Kalymorph”, and Arjen Schat. All proceeds are donated to the Unicef program to provide food for the children in Yemen.
http://nsgk.bandcamp.com/album/al-amry-a-benefit-album-for-yemen
LXXIII
Following my two-hour sections on a previous split album with Brian Grainger, I have returned to Psøma Psi Phi with a solo release. After some urging by Brian to expand on an improvisation I did with my Rhodes electric piano (which was released as part of a charity compilation: https://meganmccarthy.bandcamp.com/album/3067-megs), I sat down in front of the piano for almost an hour and ended up recording my most intimate ambient piece to date.
Tritonian Shores
This album is an aural imagination of distant galactic scapes. “Néphos” is a collage of various sound designs, some more abstract than others, whereas the title track is a 53-minute soundscape with a dronal emphasis.
| n f | n | t e
“| n f | n | t e” allows you to dive into the evocative world of soundscapes and meditative drones. Slow down your pace of life with these five pieces, clocked at around 30 minutes each, carefully sculptured to alter the perception of time and space.
Inspired by a 53-minute electric piano piece I recorded for Psoma Psi Phi, I decided to record another piece with just the reverberated signal of my trusty Rhodes. This approach drastically changed the dynamic of how I play and kept me longing for the wonderful harmonics that were accumulating in the reflections of the reverb. Then I applied the same technique whilst playing on my Waldorf Blofeld. This created a similar result, but with wavetable synthesis and aftertouch added to the equation it allowed for even more expression. Now imagine all of this being stochastically automated and sequenced with a quantized transposition modulation. Fancy words for me engineering the music in such a manner that I only have to synthesize the sound, and press record and stop. Finally, I took it a step further and processed pre-recorded sequences by manipulating its duration on a granular level so that it has similar dynamic features as the live takes, but not a single note was actually played live.
The Ambex Project
The Ambex Project is based on ambient experiments using field recordings, various analog synthesizers and sequencers, and a combination of analog and digital signal processing. It alternates between a fine weave of rhythmic elements and ambient soundscapes.
Processed and recorded at Infraklang, March 2013 – November 2016.
Music, photography and design by Ohrwert.
DRON
“DRON” is a continuous dark ambient mix using parts of the unreleased “DRON + RYTM” project.
Original parts processed and recorded at Infraklang, Augustus 2015. Mixed at SiO2, October 2016.
Music, photography and design by Ohrwert.
Audionautic Research Program
Audionautic Research Program was conceptualized in 2008 as a placeholder for experimental space music. The cosmic aspect has carried over, but eleven years later its emphasis lies on long-form live recordings, centered around complex sequential patterns in the vein of the Berlin-school of electronic music.
Al-Amry
“Al-Amry” is a benefit album with ambient music from Mathias Grassow, NODO, Vincent Pierins’ solo project “Kalymorph”, and Arjen Schat. All proceeds are donated to the Unicef program to provide food for the children in Yemen.
http://nsgk.bandcamp.com/album/al-amry-a-benefit-album-for-yemen
LXXIII
Following my two-hour sections on a previous split album with Brian Grainger, I have returned to Psøma Psi Phi with a solo release. After some urging by Brian to expand on an improvisation I did with my Rhodes electric piano (which was released as part of a charity compilation: https://meganmccarthy.bandcamp.com/album/3067-megs), I sat down in front of the piano for almost an hour and ended up recording my most intimate ambient piece to date.
Tritonian Shores
This album is an aural imagination of distant galactic scapes. “Néphos” is a collage of various sound designs, some more abstract than others, whereas the title track is a 53-minute soundscape with a dronal emphasis.
| n f | n | t e
“| n f | n | t e” allows you to dive into the evocative world of soundscapes and meditative drones. Slow down your pace of life with these five pieces, clocked at around 30 minutes each, carefully sculptured to alter the perception of time and space.
Inspired by a 53-minute electric piano piece I recorded for Psoma Psi Phi, I decided to record another piece with just the reverberated signal of my trusty Rhodes. This approach drastically changed the dynamic of how I play and kept me longing for the wonderful harmonics that were accumulating in the reflections of the reverb. Then I applied the same technique whilst playing on my Waldorf Blofeld. This created a similar result, but with wavetable synthesis and aftertouch added to the equation it allowed for even more expression. Now imagine all of this being stochastically automated and sequenced with a quantized transposition modulation. Fancy words for me engineering the music in such a manner that I only have to synthesize the sound, and press record and stop. Finally, I took it a step further and processed pre-recorded sequences by manipulating its duration on a granular level so that it has similar dynamic features as the live takes, but not a single note was actually played live.
The Ambex Project
The Ambex Project is based on ambient experiments using field recordings, various analog synthesizers and sequencers, and a combination of analog and digital signal processing. It alternates between a fine weave of rhythmic elements and ambient soundscapes.
Processed and recorded at Infraklang, March 2013 – November 2016.
Music, photography and design by Ohrwert.
DRON
“DRON” is a continuous dark ambient mix using parts of the unreleased “DRON + RYTM” project.
Original parts processed and recorded at Infraklang, Augustus 2015. Mixed at SiO2, October 2016.
Music, photography and design by Ohrwert.