02 June 2020 - 0 Comments

Late 2018/early 2019 Alan started writing solo pieces with the intention of being able to perform them totally live – and that each performance would be different with respect to that - a constantly evolving idea with fluid structures that would adapt to the performance space.

“I started making recordings of these pieces as I wrote them, initially as a point of reference, but in many cases found that these one-shot recordings were quite significant, as I was so fully involved in each piece when I was at the point of recording. I never gave myself too much time to overthink things. As soon as I really felt each piece was complete, I recorded it.”

This album is a documenting of those particular moments in time – one-off performances, no overdubs, recorded directly to stereo.

Following on from the piano-based improvisations of Silent Observer and Composure, Wind and Wire has a similar ambient focus, but delves more heavily into electronica and industrial-tinged soundscapes. Many of the pieces developed from sonic explorations and improvisations partly inspired by these textures.

Another peculiar aspect to this album is that Alan chose to use iPads as the total creative platform – from sound design to end product.

“Apart from the familiarity of that platform in my work with Alargo, I found the interactivity afforded by the iPad as a creative compositional tool to be ideally suited to my workflow. It was a more natural extension of my live performance concept than I believe I would have embraced with a traditional computer system. Not just the platform itself, but I found the incredibly original and engaging apps created by some highly-talented developers to be inspiring and challenging.”

The only external hardware units involved in sound generation were occasionally a Behringer Deepmind 12 synth, an old Multivox Analogue bass pedal synth for drones, and a Koma Elektronik Field Kit with a self-made ‘noise’ unit (used on the track Insufficient Data).

Wind and Wire is available as a digital album on Bandcamp.

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