There are a few examples on the album where I had an idea of making a piece with a certain vibe or image in mind, but there were also lots of cases where I’d start creating something, and the sound design would suggest images to me and I’d go where they were taking me... that’s something that’s also a hangover from my days as a media composer: that sense of “the piece is taking me in this direction, so I’ll embrace it”.
Aside from anything mentioned already can you walk us through what gear you used on the album?
Ok, aside from the modular, the System 1 and the 106, I also used the Roland D-50 for a lot of the melodic synth parts. It’s a very underrated synth with a flawed operating system but it’s capable of sounding like a lot of different things: a Fairlight, even like a later Oberheim or Prophet... I also used the Roland Boutique JX-03 (the JX3P re-issue/clone) - I genuinely didn’t intend to make “ a Roland synth album” it just happened that way, but there’s something about that sound - particularly in album that deliberately has an 80s/Retro feel that really worked... I didn’t use many software synths for this: Some tracks began with me tinkering around with Reaktor, just to get something going and I did use U-He Bazille, Korg M1 Digital and the Arturia Synclavier V for a couple of things.
What do you think the strengths of modular synths are for a project like this? Does it do many things or sit as one specific instrument you call upon as you would a keyboard or a guitar?
On this album it was definitely using it in a bunch of different roles, as I generally turned to the other hardware synths for melodies. On this album, as well as using it to create individual drum sounds, I also used it to process iOS synths like the Moog Model 15, running that through Clouds got some insane results! Also there are a bunch of tracks like “The Machine Breaks Down” and “Life Cycle Malfunction” that began as a modular jam, using the same Nobots prototype modules that I created the “Excursions” e.p. with, and which I later added other stuff on top of... For me, as always, the joy of the modular is its