The permeable ‘border’ between the physical and non-physical.

Notes for the listener regarding ‘sound quality' and approach to recording and editing...

We sat by the river, and waited. The air fizzed with insects, the water rippled, reeds rustled, twigs cracked as we changed position. In the house the hum of the electricity dictated key, pedal buttons clicked, the accordion wheezed and groaned, there were unidentified pops, strange ringings in our ears, whistles, and static. This time they seemed to reflect what we'd experienced earlier in the day at the river. This time we didn't edit them out of the final work.

People often ask us what kind of music we make and we quickly get into difficult, and sometimes long-winded, discussions about the process. This release is a bit different in that it has AI-assisted artwork, AI-assisted release notes (what these?), AI-assisted videos, AI-assisted mixing, AI-assisted mastering. Phew! The only part of this release that’s not AI-assisted is the 'source' music itself. Which couldn’t be *less* AI-assisted. So here’s a short note on the process that holds for most of our releases, and an equally short note on this specific release.

All our works start as a blank canvas of in-the-moment improvisation. No pre-prepared samples, patches, motifs. Everything live, invented on the spot and recorded as a multitrack, warts and all. Sometimes everything is DI-ed; sometimes contact mics on gear; sometimes a room mic to capture the ambience of the space. Space is important - either our basecamp go-to urban places such as the Guest Room, or The Spacelab; familiar second countryside spaces such as Lavenham or Bonnes; or lastly, new places for one offs or over a small number of days. The multitrack is edited in Logic Pro - incrementally, often over months as grabbing small chunks of time allows. Mastering - we have 4 options - ourselves, label, 3rd party humans, 3rd party non-humans.

Bamboo Swim. Two phases of improvisation.
Improv #1: site specific in rural France. Very minimal gear set up with none of our most familiar instruments. Very outside of our comfort zone. Combination of DI, contact mics and room mic. All glitches, aches, grunts, grinds, mobile phone beeps, floor tapping, button-pressing, insects passing, etc were recorded.
Improv #2: London recording - adding guitar, bass and keys. Improvisation straight on top of the multitrack of improv #1; again with no preparation, just a live run through whilst recording.
Editing/mixing/mastering: Multi-track recordings imported into Logic and all phases follow as normal, but this time with all the AI-assisted tools in Ozone and Landr.