Releases

The Lookout

July 2023, Self Released

Hello listeners. I have a pair of new ambiences for you, inspired by the peak of the Channel Ridge trail here on Salt Spring Island. On July 20th I'll be releasing a new long-player: "The Lookout". Its a restful midsummer mood, improvised next to an orchard. The Salish Sea and gnarled arbutus branches give way to misty cirrus and the starry heavens. Two side-long excursions toward infinity.

Atlantis Tapes

February 2023, Self Released

Atlantis Tapes is the product of early-morning loop improvisations exploring the voice of the 'Atlantis' synth module. I've found that interactions between out-of-sync tape loops can create a means for self-collaboration. The results here are heady and deeply immersive in my opinion.

This record offers warmth, intimacy and comfort, and an invitation to calm down and reflect. It's a slow and wordless trip into depths of care and well-being.

Visuals by Eli Horn create an atmosphere of rich colour and sparse undulating movement.

I hope listeners will enjoy this quietly evolving suite as a companion to reading, concentrated work, conversation or meditation.

Under The Heat Dome

August 2022, Self Released

It's late June, 2021. My partner - 8 months pregnant - and I are swimming in strangely tepid ocean waters along the coast of British Columbia. There is no relief from the overbearing heat of the 2021 Western North American Heat Dome.

Unusual cyclone activity in the Pacific ocean has been strengthened by rising water temperatures, triggering the formation of a "heat dome" which drifts across western Canada and the United States. Heat domes are areas of high pressure in the atmosphere which prevent the air beneath them from escaping, forcing rising hot air downwards and raising terrestrial temperatures to extremes.

My latest collection of minimalist compositions, "Under The Heat Dome", is influenced in mood and tone by this alarming climate event and the community experience it engendered. Hazy clouds of synthesized warmth and soft noise conjure images of evaporating lakes, interstate highways buckling under heat damage, berry crops baking in the sun, and populations scrambling to impromptu "cooling centres". This music mourns and reflects upon the emotional impact of the latest episode of our new climate reality. It is also a quiet testament to communities who must withstand environmental trauma and find hope in collective action.

The visual component of this release was created by artist, designer, and programmer Eli Horn. Eli has written a program which translates source images into particles, then subjects those particles to environmental forces—a sort of algorithmic wind—that progressively erodes them. Images were chosen to match each recording, then degraded and dispersed in a way that mirrors the compositional process of the music itself. For three of the pieces on this record, a living image evolves and deteriorates along with the music.

Under The Heat Dome follows last year's Salt Spring: Sun and Shadow, an ambient release on Montreal's Arbutus Records. Having released atmospheric dance music with Arbutus and UK imprint No Bad Days in recent years, I have spent the lockdown period honing a more reflective, ambient and minimal style of music which responds to my environment. Living as I do now, on a small island in British Columbia, my sensibility has come to incorporate an appreciation of, and symbiosis with, the natural world.

Salt Spring: Sun and Shadow

2021, Arbutus Records

This collection is called "Salt Spring: Sun and Shadow", comprising tracks I recorded on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, in early 2017. The cover photo is from this time as well.

I had been taking a couple months off, spending time with family, walking by the ocean and through the wooded trails around the island, taking photographs, taking time and enjoying the landscape. I began recording this music early in the mornings, sipping coffee with a view into the forest, before the rest of the people in the house were awake. The pieces were made with simple, asynchronous keyboard and guitar loops, using analog echo effects to devolve and degrade the sounds. I mixed to and from tape at The Pines recording studio in Montreal, messing with tape speeds, plate reverb and various atmospheric effects along the way.

The results are, I hope, a simple quiet accompaniment for time spent reading, unwinding or unplugging by whatever means are desired.

Sense Appeal EP

2020, No Bad Days / Arbutus Records

To order the physical vinyl, head over to No Bad Days: https://nobaddays.bandcamp.com/album/sense-appeal