Author: Brian McWilliams

My favorite story from the book "Art and Fear" is about the pottery class that's divided up into two groups - one is tasked with making the best pot possible while the other is tasked with making the most pots possible. It turns out that the group that made the most pots also made the best pots.

Though I had always hoped to be prolific and make a lot of pots, time moves quickly and I end up working slowly on a few projects at a time. Lie Symmetry was such an album - it came into view and slipped away numerous times over many years and between other projects. But, in the process I decided that making an imperfect album could be a worthy goal and focused on the following guidelines:

1. Explore new territory, expand into areas you're unfamiliar.
2. Continue working to your strengths.
3. Remain curious.
4. Don't think about genre. It's ok if the album is a little bit disjointed and doesn't stick to one particular style.
5. Learn new things. If there's something you don't know take a class, read, watch tutorials, get help from people who do.
6. Enjoy the process, the work is its own reward.
7. Color the sound as much as possible and make it sound like the artwork - use saturation, distortion, chorus, flange, phase, etc.
8. Don't try to be perfect. Don't fix every mistake. Leave some rough edges and imperfections on purpose.
9. Create good artwork.
10. Invite feedback, be willing to accept outside influence and share the process with friends and fans.
11. Be thankful, have gratitude. Give back in any way possible. Thank the artists that influenced you and the people that helped you.
12. Be humble, be a real person, connect authentically and don't try to be cool.

SONGS

VLA 1:
This song fell out of the sky after making a field recording trip to the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Capturing the recordings presented challenges as there were other people walking around, exploring and talking. I managed to capture a strange 20 second mechanical, rhythmic loop that served as the driving inspiration for this song. I also wanted to explore using jazz drum loops to augment a few songs, so the cymbol pattern soon evolved to satisfy that curiosity.

When I showed the early versions of this song to Ron Sunsinger, it also had a jazz snare pattern instead of the electronic drums. He said, "you need to go all out and make this sound more electronic". I scrapped the snare, worked up a heavily colored electronic drum loop and made hours of recordings from shortwave radio which were then used to add some of the electronic sounds and the "CQDX" vocal recording.

Frozen Broken:
Lie Symmetry really started with the track "Frozen, Broken" many years ago when a bell chime loop I recorded was used as part of a soundtrack to Matthew Clysdale's film of the same name. It's also the track that's the oldest on this release and the most difficult to finnish. I recorded a dozen versions early on but struggled to find it's true essence. There were so many layers and voices demanding to be heard. Each time I returned to it, I felt that it needed more space and needed to be simplified. So, that's the course it took - painstaking gradual simplification and finding space. I made over 30 mixes of this in the last year alone until the ebb and flow felt right.

When The Mountains Wear Black Hats
The title is derived from a Tibetan prophecy, "When the mountains wear black hats, the world will end", and interpreted the black hats as the peaks without snow and ice. It's a prophecy about the world ending due to climate change, with the snow melting and water drying up. The song grew from an intro for the track "Ephemeral River" and quickly evolved into a song of it's own. I'm quite fond of the noisy crashes in this one and it took a lot of effort to tune them so they fit.

Himalaya
Mentally returning to the high mountains and Tibetan overtones again, I was inspired by Werner Herzog's movie "Wheel of Time" about the Dalai Lama living in exile in the shadow of the Himalayan mountains. The bell tones were sampled by playing a rhythm on metal sheets, then building a drum loop to augment the timing. Again, I sought to create a jazz influenced hi hat patterns here. My friend Jan Roos told me I needed to improve the kick and snare on this, I scrapped the original and sought other sounds. This song originally ended with a sample of chanting monks from Herzog's movie but I was denied permission to use the sample in a loop. I'm a little bummed about that, but still like this song quite a bit.

VLA 2
I changed the loop used on VLA 1 to explore another mood and variation for part 2. I dug deep into the Dave Smith OB6 synth, programming something that delivered a highly resonant and evocative vibe. This song, like VLA 1, mercifully came together quickly.

Marsh Lake, October
This song is built almost entirely on field recordings from Michigan and the Southwest. In particular, you can experience an incredible display of nature by watching thousands of cranes fly in and out of Marsh Lake every fall as they prepare to migrate. Most of the cricket and crane sounds came from a single mono recording which then had to be creatively massaged to turn into a stereo field. You can also hear samples of water from Flagstaff, bells recorded at Arconsante and a kiln recorded at Cosante. These were mixed together until a cohesive sound narrative came together. Another song that fell into place quickly from start to finish.

Ephemeral River
This is an older idea that finally came to fruition for this recording. The original version was shorter and took a lot of experimenting to get the effects right for the various noises and hits. This may be the droniest piece I've ever written and I like the sonic minimalism a lot.

Unfrozen, Unbroken
In addition to making about 30 mixes for Frozen, Broken I also tried breaking the log jam by recording three different song structures for it. This version came together naturally and focuses more on the interaction between the bells and the warm Juno pads.

Author: Brian McWilliams

Despite my best efforts to move more quickly, Hinterland was reissued in January of 2016 - a few months behind schedule but close enough to the new year to mark a clear line between the past and the future. Finally, I'm at a place where I can work on new material and focus on the present moment.

Like Remanence's Lamkhyer, Hinterland was languishing in obscurity. It was out of print, never released digitally and no longer generating royalties. Just as John and I had done with Lamkhyer, I sorted through the archive, gathering demos and alternate mixes, and remastered most of the material. Now it's available with updated artwork and audio within a year of reissuing Lamkhyer. That's the short version of the story.

Hinterland First Pressing

Describing this sense of closure may require recounting the events that lead up to it. Soon after releasing Tumbleweed Obfuscated by Camera Failure back in 2003 (my first solo album as Aperus), I began thinking about a way to release the alternate mixes, demos and extras from the same period that didn't make the cut. Tumbleweed already felt like a complete idea, but the outtakes felt important too. Still feeling connected to the creative energy of the album, I quickly assembled a first pressing of Hinterland. But numerous details about the release bothered me and stuck with me over the years. First, the artwork felt rushed and incomplete. I mocked up at least 20 CD face ideas, but was never satisfied with any of them. Second, I packaged Hinterland in a slimline CD case but never really liked the format. Third, I included a collection of photos as data files but didn't physically include them with the release. Fourth, the size and format of the artwork didn't really complement Tumbleweed's 5 x 7 format. And lastly, I didn't leave enough breathing room between songs which resulted in the album sounding rushed.

Image 1: 20 different CD face mockups for Hinterland. Rows 3,1 and 5,1 were used for the 2004 first pressing. Row 5,4 was used for the 2016 remastered edition.

Hinterland Remastered Edition

Fast forward ten years, with Hinterland long out of print, a remastered version was well underway to address the problems described above. I took things slowly between other projects and gradually reworked the artwork and audio. For example, rescanning the cover photo with better equipment, resulted in a better image without sacrificing the compelling yellow distortion. A second trip to Chaco resulted in an unexpected portrait for the back cover taken by my wife, Karla. Careful reconsideration of the first set of photos taken at Chaco resulted in a finely tuned collection I felt excited to include with the release. An image of a uniquely patterned rock finally completed the CD face. I adjusted the artwork to look more like a companion to Tumbleweed rather than a spinoff single. And lastly, I remastered nearly all the audio and added bonus material not found on the first pressing, including an alternate mix of Earth & Clay plus a rediscovered demo I had completely forgotten about. Including these last two tracks made the entire process worth the effort.

In 2015, I returned to Chaco Canyon for one more photographic adventure, this time to visit a set of ruins five miles out that could only be accessed by foot. Even though I was extremely happy with the photos from the trip, I still felt that the first impressions connected more strongly with the music so I stuck with the originals.

Image 2: (1) Earth & Clay?  (2) Hinterland cd5 - First Pressing  (3) Hinterland cd3  (4) Hinterland - Remastered Edition

Remastering the audio fell into place one track after another except for problem child number 2, "Earth & Clay". The main problem was that the clay pot was sampled with a lot of energy and because of this, it sounded extremely bright. There was also a high synth note that occurred twice in the song that created a high resonance. At first I didn't really notice either until spending time in Ron Sunsinger's studio where he pointed both issues out. There began a battle with EQ and compression that I couldn't completely solve. Reducing the high end meant dulling the synths and bass guitar to a point they no longer sounded satisfying. I think I made about 15 different remasters until I gave up (here's where the extra months rolled by). I asked Peter James for help on this one as well. Then, using Ozone's mastering suite I tried the Match EQ tool and compared "Earth and Clay" against a Robert Rich track. This gave me some idea as to where to trim and ultimately led to a solution that wasn't necessarily perfect, but did sound better than before.

Looking back, it's surprising how much work went into both versions of this release. Overall, I think the final result turned out better than I could have expected and the process shed new light on mixing, remastering and art production. Overall, I feel that this edition finally completes the creative cycle which began many years ago on Tumbleweed Obfuscated by Camera Failure and it feels extremely satisfying releasing this version of Hinterland out into the world.

Image 3: Finished artwork, cd and photos

Hinterland (Remastered Edition) is available in our store, Bandcamp and iTunes.

Author: Brian McWilliams

Rather than let one of our favorite works vanish into obscurity, John and I worked on this project on and off (kind of in secret) over the last couple of years. Lamkhyer was initially released in 2002 as a 3" CD containing the songs "Lamkhyer", "K'an (The Abyss)", and "The Leftward Path". The 3" CD or Mini CD single served as a digital analog to the 45 vinyl single and could hold approximately 24 minutes of music. Part of the appeal of releasing material for this medium for us were the obvious limitations it imposed.

We were becoming more self aware at the time - realizing that we shifted direction frequently, often times scrapping fruitful ideas to pursue new interests. Sadly, an album's worth of promising material was abandoned over the course of a number of writing sessions as we searched for a common thread that would eventually become our next album "a Strange Constellation of Events". But, Lamkhyer was one of those rare exceptions where we purposefully focused on a shorter writing cycle and wrote with the intent of completing an EP that could fit on a CD3.

For Lamkhyer, we relied heavily on randomness and chance to make compositional decisions. On K'an, we assigned numbers on a 12 sided die to chord intervals and spacing and took turns rolling to decide which chord came next and where to place it. We could voice the chord any way we wanted, as long as we followed the suggestion of the dice as closely as possible. We also took a trip to Kellogg Forest early one morning and recorded the bird sounds mixed on the track. A number of details were difficult for us to find resolution on. We recorded two primary mixes, one with bells an octave higher (K'an, The Abyss) and one lower (K'an, the Deep). We also completed the mixes in different ways - "K'an, the Abyss" was tight and focused while "K'an, the Deep" was more experimental, slightly noisier and more dynamic. On the remastered edition we've included both versions.

Other aspects I remember from those sessions - we were just starting to get more heavily into hand played percussion and wanted to push the envelope with electronic and hand played loops. Both feature heavily on the the tracks "Lamkhyer" and "Leftward Path" (quite honestly, these are still two of my favorite tracks in the tribal / ambient genre). For Lamkhyer we recorded a demo without drums (a historical document in our catalog included on the remastered edition) but didn't quite recognize its potential. I convinced John that this dark drifting mood piece was calling for a full blown drum track by playing it back alongside Vidna Obmana's "Encountering Terrain". From there the potential was clear. I took the basic structure of the track and built the drums up from hand played samples, loops, rattles and electronics. If you listen closely you'll hear that the drums constantly evolve over the course of the song and never settle on the same pattern twice. I still consider this one of our biggest compositional accomplishments and this is one of the primary reasons.

When John brought a demo of "The Lefthand Path" to one of our recording sessions, the song featured a warm, reassuring chord progression. Focusing on drums again, we pushed it further with live percussion and electronic loops. The icing on the cake came when we recorded bass tones through a 12 foot tube and used them as the repeating low drone notes throughout the song. Again, we recorded two different versions, each with it's own distinct drum loop - only one could fit on the EP. Version two was remixed for inclusion on the remastered edition.

Early versions of tracks for Strange Constellation were also starting to take ship during this time. We've included two important ones here. Reflecting Pool demo occurred as you hear it direct from tape. We were able to perform some audio magic by reducing tape hiss, and improving the EQ, stereo imaging and compression. A long version of Nocturne didn't quite fit Strange Constellation but it sounds completely at home here.

Interestingly, Lamkhyer did well for an EP. It charted on the Billboard instrumental charts and I remember taking special pride in the fact that it charted higher than John Tesh's Christmas album during the month of December 2002. That seems like a long time ago. And the EP has been out of print for far too many years. Sifting through this time period and doing our absolute best to present the core songs along with their outtakes has given us both a sense of closure on an important period in our development. Listening to the remastered edition now as a completed album, we both feel that it stands on its own as one of our strongest works.

Author: Brian McWilliams

So why two label names? The answer is complicated and simple. I think the real problem stems from the fact that John and I have always had two personalities that we've tried to meld together for everything we do. That works great when we're writing material and creating artwork for an album. Our differences actually work as strengths and we both tend to go where neither one of us would go alone and I am happy that he brings his mad scientist cap to the proceedings and he's probably happy that I bring a desire to cut through the artifice to our work as well.

But with a label name how do you meet in the middle and satisfy the hopes of both individuals? When it comes down to it, we've needed one category that's more cerebral, experimental and on the fringe to brand Remanence related material and another category to capture the more organic music and photography that I've been producing.

Cultivating a label is a lot like building a mythos around your idea. You try to create a storyline that's believable but at the same time projects a fictional world that could exist alongside the real one. The idea needs to have meaning for you or there's no point doing it in the first place.

But, I'm not even entirely sure that most listeners really care about great label names anymore, do they? In our formative years, John and I were enamored with a few of the greats in the pre-digital age such as 4ad, Wax Trax, Projekt, and Cleopatra - for us, they captured our imaginations with their logos, typography, artwork and artist roster. Somehow I want to believe that it still matters. I mean, there's no way we're ever gonna be big, or rise to the level of Vaughn Oliver but we can certainly try to find something that resonates with our identities as individuals and musicians.

Oddly, it wasn't until I was finishing artwork for the upcoming Ecotone album that I realized a change had to happen in conjunction with it's release. Geophonic Records had been in the back of my mind for some time. I found the word "geophony" while reading Bernie Krause's book Wild Soundscapes and he used the word to describe the sound that the environment makes - such as water, air, earth, etc. Given that so much of what I do is about recording sounds in nature and photographing it - this was an obvious choice.

As for Resonant Effects, it wasn't much of a stretch to use it as the more science-minded, experimental side for Remanence material. For me, it conjures images of electromagnetic occurrences, measuring seismic activity or trying to capture EVP recordings in a charged location. We typically do a lot of audio experiments and work with chance operations and randomness and research scientific journals or historical material of interest when we work together, so "Resonant Effects" actually is a very good fit.

At first, considering two imprints seemed kind of redundant. But after hashing it out off and on over the years, it's also a reasonable way to solve a practical problem. And if we're looking for other examples, it's really not all that unusual for labels to have two or more imprints. Glacial Movements has two, Hypnos may have three, and And/Oar has four imprints. So, we're in good company and it's not all that unusual.

So obviously changing the label name brought with it a number of other needed changes. One being that the website had to be updated. John has wanted a darker site for a long time. After trying out some design ideas, I have to say I like the new color scheme a lot. It works great with the heavy focus on photography and conjuring a sense of mystery.

And now that we've made the change - I feel a sense of relief and freedom and John and I are both happy. Thankfully, we didn't put any new material out during that time, so we only have to tweak the artwork for past releases just once - from Mpath Records to Geophonic Records for Aperus related material and Resonant Effects for Remanence material.

Author: Brian McWilliams

Conducted via e-mail by Brian McWilliams
Photo by Dean Rogers

Luck must be on my side. l'm a struggling musician who's interviewed one band, Judgement Of Paris. l'm a complete novice when it comes to writing and interviewing but for me, interest in an artist sometimes goes beyond music and can lead to drastic forms of devotion. With Jansen and Barbieri's release of STONE TO FLESH, I wanted to see an interview that would dig a little deeper into their history as a duo and reveal secrets from their past; I wanted to know how they write, record, and produce their albums and what's kept them going over the years, so l sent Debi Zornes at Medium a proposal to do an interview by e-mail using Judgement Of Paris as my resume, surprisingly, Steve and Richard accepted.

Personally, l feel Jansen and Barbieri are incredibly important figures in electronic music, if not outright pioneers, and the lack of exposure and interest in their work is disheartening. Richard Barbieri, with his extraordinary gift for synthesis and continued reliance on analog gear has become a personal hero of mine: sky high notes layered with emotion and texture ("Pocket Full Of Change); mood and ambience ("Pushing The River"); or emotion beyond joy ("Long Tales, Tall Shadows"); Barbieri has the right sound for every occasion and he never fails to amaze with each new record.

Steve Jansen, you could argue is probably the most important drummer in experimental music. More than a time keeper, his drumming has been complex and off-kilter ("Methods Of Dance"), tribal (anything off of TIN DRUM), organic and rich (anything off RAIN TREE CROW) and more recently, modernised but not compromised by recent trends ("Beginning to Melt" from SEED). But Jansen is more than a drummer. Composing with keyboards since his days with Japan, his writing ability and understanding of musical structures lends itself to his sympathetic style of drum and percussion playing.

A word of warning before beginning, e-mail is not the ideal medium for an interview. It's difficult to follow up on interesting tangents. lt takes time. And it's hard to develop a rhythm. And since l'm not a professional, it's all too easy to be gushy and embarrassing. Regardless of its flaws, l hope you enjoy. l'm thrilled to have been given the opportunity to do it!

Medium

Q: It seems the trend among musicians today is a movement towards more 'do-it-yourself' recording and promotion. Home recording is now more affordable, the result being that the record industry these days doesn't necessarily dictate who can afford to record and sell records. Was Medium started as a response to Virgin records, the music industry, or more of an alignment with these current trends?

Steve: Initially, it was mostly a matter of necessity. Because we don't like to work within the constraints of the 'pop' industry, or be competitively commercial in any obvious way, it meant that the tolerance level over the years had continually decreased to such a point there was very little commitment from Virgin. Once the EMI take-over occurred, we found ourselves dealing with new people with even more mercenary views. It was time for a change. We had managed to purchase some analog recording equipment over the few years previous, (since '91 when we started work on STORIES ACROSS BORDERS) and decided to make more use of it. By testing the water with BEGINNING TO MELT we soon realised that there was a lot to be said for having our own label. Apart from the independence it allows us, we also 'own' our material, which is something we've never experienced before. We managed to invest in a digital studio set-up and since then, as far as making records goes, we're much happier with this situation. The only major drawback we find is tour support. It requires the help of larger investors, and it's because of this reason that Richard and I haven't managed a tour as yet.

Q: I assume both of you have more responsibilities since Medium was started. Has starting a record label made it more difficult to write music?

Steve: There is certainly more time dedicated to matters of business. Though we are lucky enough to retain the assistance of Debi Zornes, who basically runs the business. We've been actively seeking distribution deals all over the world and have managed to develop a network of deals throughout most of the major territories.

Q: Artwork seems to be an important element of all the albums you've recorded with Virgin and Medium, each being quite different from the next. What role do you play in selecting the cover art and designing the layout?

Steve: We feel that it is often refreshing to see how others interpret our work and how that inspiration manifests itself visually. We follow the artwork through every stage, and put forward our corunents or suggestions. I would say however, that with the development of design software for computers, (and with funds allowing), that it is only a matter of time before we are seltsufficient in this field.

Writing, Reeording, and Producing

Q: Steve and Richard, both of you seel to have opposite feelings about the technology used to record and write music. From what I understand, Steve, you seem to utilise whatever means are available: drum machines, sequences, computers, and samplers while Richard, I've read that you prefer recording direct to tape and your use of analog synthesizers alone suggest a philosophical stance against some modern technologies. Is this analogy true and in what ways does it affect your partnership? Does it cuase tensions or do you complement each other in this way?

Steve: I see the purpose of using computers and samplers (I don't include drum machines) as that of any other recording medium, offering us greater possibilities to manipulate and formulate ideas. They are tools to be used in this way. As I have worked more in this area, there hasn't been much necessity for Rich to focus on it. When we work together, almost all of Richard's performances go directly into the computer before committing to tape, with usually very little editing in between. Working seperately, Richard will go direct to tape in the traditional method. The 'accidents' that sometimes occur can occasionally lead to something more interesting, so I think that both methods have their merits. There's no tension regarding this matter.

Q: Both of you have been heavily involved in producing as well as recording for some time. Steve, I read that as early as Mick Karn's TITLES you were asked to help because he was having difficulties on his own. I'm also curious, since you both seem to have a genuine knack for the craft, what role did you play in the production of the Japan albums? The band wasnt really given production credit until TIN DRUM. ls this where you both started developing your production values or did it take the break up of the band and working on WORLDS lN A SMALL ROOM to really develop these skills?

Steve: Production is really a grand term for what is essentially a sensibility which quite naturally develops the more albums you make. With the ability to evaluate and visualise a direction whilst performing the practical task of recording, a producer is like a guiding force in the studio, which is something that comes with experience. Each producer inflicts his or her own methods and values on the work in progress and their 'character' reflects itself on the finished product and that is why even the most experienced artist may still insist upon a producer's presence. I would say that probably as early as QUIET LIFE we were all, as a band, beginning to develop these skills, but it wasn't until the solo projects that they really emerged. The Mick Karn album that you mentioned was in fact DREAMS OF REASON PRODUCE MONSTERS. At the outset, Mick was working with a producer but it wasn't working out, at which time he asked me to do it.

Q: Personally, I find that mixing/producing can be very tedious and at times difficult. Do you both find the process to be enjoyable and a natural extension to the writing process or is it difficult for you to achieve what you imagine in your head?

Steve: It can sometimes be difficult and frustrating getting ideas to sound as you're perceiving them in your head, at which times the enjoyment factor is way down low, but given time, you can generally find what you're looking for. That's one area where having your own studio set-up can make such a huge difference, having the time to experiment. As I mentioned earlier, production is a display of your own sensibilities, so there's not much room for tediousness there. As far as mixing goes, I quite enjoy the procedure of making everything sound as good as you possibly can, which then allows you to move on to something else.

Q: You mentioned investing in recording gear, first analog then digital. Do both of you have home studios, and when it's time to actually work on songs and record where do you do the bulk of the work?

Steve: We fortunately have two studio set-ups which allow us to work separately. One digital and the older analog. When the time comes to make the definitive recording we obviously resort to the digital studio. On occasions, we actually transfer tracks from analog to digital simply because the 'takes' are irreplaceable. The digital set-up is situated where I live, and the analog is with Richard (he's more the tranditionalist!)

Q: How spend time do you typically spend writing, arranging, and finally mixing a typical song? Have there been any that were total nightmares to finish?

Steve: There are always tracks that you know you should give up on, but stick with in the hope they will come together in the end. We tend to drop these eventually. Nightmare mixes can be quite common. Because of the arrangements and sounds that we tend to use mixing can sometimes be a problem. The total length of time from composition to final mix really does vary. With past studio albums, once in the studio, we try to move things along as quickly as possible for obvious reasons - but with STONE TO FLESH we took our time. We probably spent the best part of a year with the project ongoing. Giving extreme examples - WORLDS IN A SMALL ROOM was writren, recorded and mixed in a little over a week - CATCH THE FALL was gradually written over a long period then recorded in 6 weeks.

Q: Can you describe typically how a song is sparked, hashed out, and finally recorded? I'd be curious to hear about "Long Tales, Tall Shadows" from STORIES ACROSS BORDERS and "Ringing The Bell Backwards" from STONE TO FLESH.

Steve: We usually work fresh ideas directly to multi-track with the expectation that it will be the master recording. We don't like to demo pieces first. This method though, is a luxury afforded by having one's own recording system. The two tracks mentioned were very different in approach due to the fact that we each wrote them separately. Rich always works with guide rhythms and arranges the track, overlaying various keyboard parts, until he is happy with the direction. I then intervene and either play or program my version of his original rhythms - then together we take it further from there. This was the scenario with "Long Tales...". "Ringing The Bell..." on the other hand, I started with the rhythm track and simple chord changes that were to become Part I (Siren) - from there I decided I wanted the track to evolve into something quite different. I knew I wanted a dynamic event as the middle section (similar in a way to the idea of "Big Wheels In Shanty Town" - RAIN TREE CROW but instead of returning to what was Part l, I literally kept adding 'codas' to the piece until it ended up the length it is. My main objective musically was that Part 2 was less aggressive and perhaps more 'fluid'.

Q: Together, you've been writing and recording since the late 70's. Obviously, there must be a mutual appreciation for each other's talents. What musical qualities/strengths do you most admire in each other?

Richard: I think we all appreciate and.respect the work that is involved behind each others contributions. We all strive to produce something original - a lot of thought goes into the most simplest of overdubs.

Q: Do you prefer to work the way you do: sometimes as a duo, sometimes with Mick, with outside artists, or ultimately would you prefer to be permanently committed to a band with a consistant line-up?

Steve: It is healthy to be able to work within various projects with varying degrees of responsibility. Having grown up as part of a permanent band line-up over many years, I'm of the opinion that although this may be satisfying enough when you are younger, it becomes less so as you mature. You need to be able to follow your own interests and direction and cannot expect everyone else involved to be wanting the same as you. No matter what people say, a 'group' cannot sustain a 'group mind', which is just an innocence that young bands try to convey to the public, but sooner or later personal conflicts will materialise, it then becomes necessary for individuals to pursue alternative solo or collaborative projects.

Q: Does working with other artists ever make it difficult for you to focus your creative energies on your own projects?

Richard: No, it actually helps you focus more easily on what you want to do with your own project.

Q: What typically interests you in working with a certain artist? ls it usually someone you know, admire, or are you often called by artists you've never heard of?

Richard: I've never been asked by anyone that I really admire to contribute to their work. This situation seems to make sense to me though, because I love their work so much already I don't think I could add anything that would make a difference.

Q: I'm pretty fond of the FLAME album. How did No-Man initially come to your attention and what are some of your favorite callobrative efforts?

Richard: No-Man, to me, were at the time probably the best group that had contacted us with a view to use contributing to their music. Tim and Steven are both talented musicians and I continue to work with both on separate projects. I like the "Sweetheart Raw" track with No-Man and THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS album with Porcupine Tree.

Q: Steve and Richard, I heard that you, along with Mick, recorded a few songs a while back with Midge Ure. Are there any plans for releasing an album together?

Richard: That was a 'casual jam' session that we recorded at Midge's studio. We may do more but there aren't any serious plans as yet to take this any further.

Q: Who would you like to work with now? Are there any collaborations planned or have there been any recently?

Richard: I'm more involved now with Porcupine Tree and the whole project seems to be gaining momentum. The next main collaborations, however, will probably be on the next Medium 'Series' release. This will be along the same lines of BEGINNING TO MELT and will hopefully feature new artists as well as long time collaborations.

As for who I would really like to work with - Scott Walker and Robert Wyatt spring easily to mind - Kate Bush too. But this is just fantasy stuff as I mentioned earlier, they don't need my input, the material sounds great already.

Q: With the number of side projects you've been involved with, in addition to the work required for your own albums, you must spend most of your time holed up in studios! What's a typical week in your lives like?

Richard: A typical week unfortunately throws up many things, mundane and important, that have to be dealt with before I can even start thinking about music. I used to live in a fantasy world where my life was managed by other people to some extent and everything was taken care of. I joined the real world about eight years ago and more recently have produced more output musically than ever before. This leads me to the conclusion that things are moving in the right direction.

to be continued...

Author: Brian McWilliams

I was at the Chicago show at the Park West and have seen the last five tours through the U.S. Here are some observations from this show:

Park West looked like it was sold out and packed. I wish they had standing room near the front. Sitting down at tables can neutralize the energy a little bit. But people gave standing ovations over and over again. There was much applause and yells after most of the songs.

The performances were much tighter than I've seen in the past. Tim Powles was likely playing to a click so the tempos seemed perfect for every song. Sometimes I find his live drumming a little loose - tonight he was controlled, tight and generating a lot of energy. He even added some punctuation here and there that was surprisingly tasteful and elevated the performance.

Marty was incredible. He always seems to bring the energy and people generally go wild for his solos. No exception tonight. He seemed much more focused tonight and where in the past it might take him time to transition from one song to another, he was into the next thing and ready to go and on fire.

Much less banter between the band. Their previous tours have seen them loosening up and having fun, telling stories, even being a bit comedic. Probably because of the amount of material, there was very little stage banter. They moved from one song to the next. I think this helped keep the mood of each album though I did wish for a little humor. Still it was a tradeoff that likely had to be made.

The overall execution for each song was better than I could have expected. All of it really. Summing up - the mood, tempo, playing and singing added up.

Anchorage: Amazing performance. I love this song. Steve left the bass to Craig (did I get that right?) and they added a second bass with one of the techies. Steve poured his heart out for this one, gesturing with each line. Simply awesome.

Priest = Aura (the song): Loved the whole album, but this song in particular blew me away. It was like watching contained energy as the intensity level kept rising.

The Disillusionist: Another one of my favorites, Steve sang without playing, focusing on each line, moving about the stage and putting himself into the story. I'm not sure this could have been performed any better than it was. Simply stellar. I could tell from the audience that this was a favorite with others as well.

They played over three hours. How do you sing that much material and keep your voice for the next show? How do you maintain the energy? At times it did seem that Steve might have been saving his voice and dialing it back a little. On others, he was belting it out.

I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm taking something away from the performance. From Steve's blogs, it's sounded like he has been going through a rough time to say the least. In some ways you could see that on him in the performance. Sometimes it seemed like he was exorcising his demons through the songs - fully there. Other times, it was as if he had to put the cork back in the bottle.

For me, seeing the Church live always taps into and releases some existential angst. It moves energy. It feels cathartic. I feel like I've gone to see a shaman. The same thing happened at this show. I found myself transported. And, I thought the Church transcended. This was a notch above. People I talked to at the show felt the same way. Many had seen a dozen or more shows and commented on how they had witnessed something amazing. I thought about skipping this tour due to money issues but am so glad I went.

Author: Brian McWilliams

So, we're relaunching our website and label with a new name - "Resonant Effects". And with our latest venture I've been thinking back on all we've been through with names.

Those of you who've followed us from the beginning may remember that we started out with the band name "Arcana" and website "Arcana Archive". There, we promoted our first CD "Apparitions" and as a result, Cold Spring discovered us and wanted to release it to a wider audience in Europe. As we discussed details with the label, we were surprised to find another band with the name "Arcana" working in a similar genre. This struck us as especially unfortunate since we preceded their first release by more than a year.

We discussed options for weeks: 1. We could keep the same name - it's not uncommon for two bands to share the same name when one's from the U.S. and the other's from Europe. 2. We could add some notation to the name like "Arcana U.S." or "Arcana N.A." to differentiate us from them. 3. We could try to force a name change since we could prove that we were published first but that seemed like a difficult road to travel. 4. We could change our name.

With great sadness we decided to let go of "Arcana" and find a new name. We chose "Remanence" and "Apparitions" was re-released in 2000 with new artwork. We embraced the new name and actually grew to like it more - though the one downside was that it was difficult to spell. Though, in the internet age, this isn't as much of a problem as it once was. It seemed likely that fans could search for Remanence with the wrong spelling and still find us.

We thought our problems were over with band names but that was not the case. Some years later, a college band calling themselves "Remanence" were touring and preparing to release a new album. This time we asked that they change their name and they eventually did. Later, we found more musicians on MySpace using the name - most seemed like hobbyists with no serious agenda. Lesson to the uninitiated - do a thorough search of the name you want to use before you get attached - it's better for you in the long run and shows some respect to those who've worked hard to build a following for themselves.

On to the label name... When we started out, your email address was your calling card and the internet was just starting to take off. The more you could make your email address stand out, the better. Underscores were popular, so was the letter "x"... and dropping letters from common words looked interesting too. With our first album setting a parnormal, emotional tone, we thought that "Empath Records" was an interesting label name. Better yet, drop the "e" and you had what seemed to be a clever address for the time - "mPathRecords".

Things change and so do tastes... and we grew in new musical directions. As we refined our focus, reworked our website and designed new marketing material, we wanted to develop more cohesion around our label name. But, we were saddled with a name that we felt we outgrew. In 2008 we started gathering ideas for a new label and came up with about 70 possibilities, five of which were serious contenders. The top pick became obvious as we designed the new site. Though it's not that much easier to spell, "Resonant Effects" seems to cover a broader spectrum of ideas. It works with our earlier paranormal goth leanings and seems to mesh with our more recent organic explorations. Put the name on almost any of the photos on this site, and it just seems to work.

So, when the Mpath Records website went down, we decided not to revive it. It was time for it to die and for something new to take its place. With "Resonant Effects", we hope to go further than we have in the past. We plan on putting more emphasis on visuals (since this an area we've both grown into over the years that compliments the music), releasing new and old material with bonus tracks, selling downloads, posting archived demos, and hopefully blogging on occasion too.

We hope you enjoy the new site.

Author: John Phipps

Ignore faster-than-light travel. Forget all alien creatures looking like Southern Californians with a big lump of cookie dough stuck on their forehead. Today's Star Trek myth is as follows: random crewmember beams onto alien ship, walks up to mysterious contraption they have never seen before, taps a few times on the obligatory touch screen, and then concludes "the system's pretty much fried, but I can reroute the main conduits through the auxiliary manifold shunts, and reconfigure the emitters to..." Yea, right. Buzz off, buddy. And by "buzz" I definitely mean something else.

I don't really have any gripe with imaginary space-technicians. I have a gripe with electronic music - or more precisely, with the maddening configuration kabuki that modern gear seems to require. The recent establishment of the Echo Observatory Ancillary Auxiliary Annex Facility Part II: the Grudge (my new basement in Portland), has had me playing matchmaker between several new pieces of gear, and admiring the elegant simplicity of the harmonica.

Yesterday, my wife returned from several weeks in Rajasthan, and as I've been watching video of musicians there, I'm struck by the straightforwardness of the musical pursuit in their hands. Even the maintenance of the instruments, like replacing drumheads or strings, places the player into a closer relationship with the sounds the instrument produces. In contrast, my experience has been that hours and days of music time slip away in a process that at its essence has nothing to do with the development or experience of musical ideas or sounds. The popular effects suite manufactured by Waves, works in Vista, works in 64-bit OS, but not in 64-bit Vista. Oh that gives me a great idea for a song, yea? Don't even get me started on Cubase 5. Why exactly does Steinberg think that some of the files necessary to get virtual instruments and effects to work should be (get this) hidden? I don't want my sequencer keeping secrets from me.

I realize that rigidly direct comparisons aren't fair, as those of us who use modern electronic instrumentation are privileged to have a palette of sounds vastly larger than any traditional instrument could produce, and that complexity underlies this capacity. However, I think part of why it's difficult for me to accept that it has to be this way is that I remember the days of plugging the old Atari 1040 directly into a module and sound coming out. The sound you expected. Yes, I gave away that old machine while fleeing Ann Arbor several months ago (Goodwill wouldn't even take it). I did so because I like the power of the new machines; they are in a completely different league from the ancient Atari. But am I really supposed to believe that we can't have modern power without this level of troubleshooting? It's disproportionate, and I think the biggest contributor is that every manufacturer is in a bubble, trying to create and advance proprietary standards.

It's time to remember one of the most important advances that allowed electronic music to blossom into what it is now: MIDI. The power of MIDI wasn't its high throughput, it was its universality. You will not often find me arguing for conformity. Generally I'm effusing on the gospel of open-source and the unimaginable power that lies in the human population's aggregated creativity. But all this only works if we have a language that allows us to communicate together. Likewise, there is a need for common denominators that will allow musical technologies to work together. I want to make music, not wade through the guts of my computer's OS. Boost the confinement beam, already.

Thus ends today's rant.

Author: John Phipps

Robert Rich performed at the venerable Clinton Street theater in Portland. As always, Robert was gracious and generous with his fans. The light show was a cut above average, although the Planetarium show in Detroit a couple of years ago may still have been my favorite.

I had at least as much fun the day before during an in-store performance at Music Millennium, an institution among independent record stores, and a true local treasure. Robert was reluctant to accept the audience's applause for what he described as "noodling". However the fun and spontaneity of the performance made it an experience I'm glad I didn't miss. Here's a picture of Robert playing, and a closeup of a few of his custom PVC flutes.

Author: Brian McWilliams

Five days. It seems like a lot of time going in. So many things I imagined doing: two or more big hikes, field recording, meditation groups, exercise, music, movies, record stores, etc... We probably had time for half of that.

For all intents and purposes it felt like music boot camp. Traveling without keyboards meant relying on the laptop for most things. John was working with a new computer with Cubase for the first time as well. So by circumstance and design we were both trying to find a new vocabulary.

Day 1 - was spent figuring out how we were going to approach writing and recording and what was missing. I found that I had left the Kaoss Pad behind in another bag. Oh well... not critical. After hooking up our rigs, we felt we needed a couple of keyboard stands and a decent MIDI controller. So, we picked up an Edirol controller with a pretty decent set of knobs, sliders and pads and unusually nice action. After setting up, we focused on using our computers as samplers. I've had Camel Audio's Alchemy for some time so John downloaded a demo and we recorded an idea that first night - nothing spectacular - just something to test our environment.

Day 2 - we went to the Columbia River gorge and hiked the Horsetail falls trail. We brought portable recorders and captured the sounds of water in various situations. From a previous trip, I remembered the sound of Montinuma falls and hoped to record it on this trip. Up close, it sounds like it's coming down in massive sheets of waters instead of one long continuous roar. The only problem is that it generates massive amounts of spray and moisture. So, we brought plastic bags to put our recorders in. As you might imagine, recording this way blocks a lot of the high end from the spectrum, but for our purposes that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Our goal was to simply capture interesting sounds to sample and manipulate, not necessarily to reproduce them with total clarity. We spent about five hours hiking and recording. By time we left, we hiked 5 1/2 miles and were both sore, tired and hungry. By nightfall we started manipulating found objects and samples from our hike. This continued throughout day 3.

Day 3 - We gathered bowls, marbles, rocks, drums, a guitar and recorded objects being spun, bowed and rocked; marbles rolling, rocks vibrating on metal; dragging objects across drum heads, etc... I was surprised to find that I could manipulate samples almost as easily using Live's sampler as I could with my old Ensoniq ASR10. John took samples of his heater making strange noises, marbles spun in a bowl and some other odd things and loaded them into Alchemy and set it to morph between all four. I created a drum track using the back of a guitar as the kick and a rattle as periodic punctuation, then added a rolling metallic sound, water sounds from the gorge, and the reverse pluck of a sitar like instrument for additional interest. We set up some loops and experimented with trial runthroughs. Once we hit record I was amazed at the sounds John was generating with Alchemy morphing between his four samples. At times it sounded like a didgeridoo, a low rumble, a choir and industrial machinery.

I tried sweetening the track by adding chords on my version of Alchemy but we kept having problems with dropouts. We were using my computer to record, generate loops, and for me playing chords on top. My machine just couldn't handle it. We will likely have to patch some of the dropouts since the audio was interrupted on numerous occasions. It's too bad. I'm not sure if I need more memory, a faster drive, or a faster machine. My feeling lately is that I want a hybrid setup where I use a combination of the latest software and hardware together. I appreciate the ease with which I can generate ideas and compose with Live and am amazed at the power we have when mastering with plugins and couldn't live without either now. But when programming sounds and performing, I'd much rather reach for a knob or slider than a mouse. Problems and all, by the end of day 3, we had recorded what we considered to be the more "musical" version of our song.

Day 4 - We started day 4 with more sound creation and sample manipulation and decided we should record a drone oriented version of our song. We decided to skip the pretty chords and use a modified sound set to create something interesting. Again, I was blown away by John's sounds in Alchemy. He rode the knobs, adjusted filters, and morphed the sound throughout the performance. There's no way we could have done that with a conventional sampler and I'm convinced this software will find its way onto more of our recordings. By late afternoon, we felt certain that we'd captured the last song for our next release. We rewarded ourselves with a trip to the record store and some food, then came back and listened to our tracks. We were pleasantly surprised. We spent the rest of the evening listening to other tracks from the album to see how things might fit.

Day 5 - I had roughly three hours for music before catching an afternoon flight, but in that time we worked with a recording I made in a cave many years ago. We're considering including two short environmental tracks on this album and this may be one of them. We experimented with convolultion reverb to make the source recording sound wetter and deeper. In a short amount of time we were able to vastly improve the recording. We'll see what happens with this as time progresses.

So, that's it... somewhat difficult at times learning how to use new software and hardware, but I see the potential and opportunities that a new working process could present. Additionally, it was great working on new material.

My plans after returning home are to sell a few things on ebay, try to improve the performance of my laptop and eventually pick up a small desktop synth like the Access Virus or Waldorf Blofeld. I think having a smaller hybrid setup will lend itself well to this new reality and also satisfy my desire to do more with less.

Author: Brian McWilliams

I'm in route to Portland as I type this. Going to work with John on the next Remanence project - Storm and Stress. This title has been kicking around for some time.

This will be an interesting experiment. John moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan where he was two hours away by car to Portland, Oregon where he's about four hours by plane. In the not too distant past, I used to load the car up with a keyboard or two and any number of other electronic devices. Today I'm traveling light with a laptop (Ableton's Live and Sampler and Camel Audio's Alchemy as my sampling software), a Korg Electribe and Kaoss Pad for the possibility of some electronic weirdness and an audio recorder (we will most likely hike and record some environmental sounds for later manipulation).

We're shooting for about 40 minutes of material. We have three tracks nearly finished for about 25 minutes total. It will likely feature dark, minimal atmospherics. We've said this a number of times and we're sticking to it - we want it to sound focused and we want to like every track on the album from start to finish.

Strange Constellation was a bit of a letdown for us. We had some great ideas but were severely impacted when we lost 1/3rd of the album in a break in. Stolen computers and hard drives can certainly alter a project. The biggest loss was rebuilding Signal Hill from scratch (though I think that track turned out pretty good the second time around). No, what really happened was we lost momentum and time. And with the loss of time, we lost being in the same emotional space as the material. We felt obligated to do our best but had moved on emotionally. To my ears, some of it sounds over produced and some I just couldn't get the mastering right. I'm sure to most listeners it sounds just fine - and I hope I'm not ruining it for anyone - it's just that I associate this album with feelings of loss and frustration.

Getting back to our current mode of operation... John and I have discussed this a lot - we want to focus more on recording shorter albums and EP's. We get ideas, start exploring, and then part way through, want to go in different directions. The other problem is always time. It was so much easier in our 20's, going to school, not worrying about family obligations, jobs, a house, etc., etc... Not to mention that we both lived in the same place. During that time we worked on music a couple of times a week. Now, we get short bursts here and there. Thankfully we've gotten better at improvising and capturing ideas as they occur. And sometimes it's possible to go directly from source idea to completed master in a few short steps.

The Lamkhyer EP is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. It's one of our favorite recordings. And I think it's solid from start to finish and has a definite vibe to it. I'd be happy putting out a whole series of EP's if they all sounded this good. We'll see what happens.

As I sit here, I wonder what we'll come up with next. We've been looking back for a long time, yet we want / need / yearn to create something new. Mentally, it's difficult to do both at the same time. Over this past year, we've been combing through old demos and out-takes and are in the process of remastering two previous releases. There are a number of Aperus projects in the queue. We have Storm and Stress 2/3rd's of the way there. And the idea of writing new material sounds liberating yet feels like more weight. But, that is what this project is calling for. And, that's what we've been passively wishing for. So, it's time to deal with reality! I know one thing for sure - from this point onward no more long album projects!