Inspired by a novel from Edgar Allan Poe « A Descent Into The Maelstrom » evokes the struggle of a Man who follows
a path leading him to the edge of a steep cliff from where he hears the tumultuous waves of a «synthesized whirlwind», screaming and roaring incessantly that traps him within an ocean of rhythmic sound-in-fusion. A very «sciencefrictional» madness radiates, no frontiers are heard and yet the composer invites us to cross them all by penetrating into the depths of two autonomous and complementary universes…
A chromatic complementarity between the ultra-coloured and vibrant sounds, inviting adventurous spectators/listeners to a « sinesthési-Kosmiche » journey, played on a mythic vintage machine: The Buchla Easel - The Electric Music Box,as can be read on the keyboard of that original instrument which is why Philippe Petit wanted to preserve an electric side, sometimes close to a guitar sound.
Easel which in English refers to the painter’s easel. A painter uses an easel to support the canvas on which he creates his works. So the Buchla Easel is the ideal support to hold a canvas on which Petit wants to create his sound paintings.
«For a long time Buchla would simply refuse to add a keyboard to his instruments. According to him, the synthesizer should be a tool for music and experimental musicians. A keyboard would be an invitation to the conventional scale set...» so I chose not to use it.
Recorded in one shot to preserve the spontaneity and using the instrument connected to an Avantone Pro CLA-200 amplifer and recorded on 2 separate tracks, each treated differently with a GRM «comb flter» to create true stereo spatialization and an even more effcient voltage intercourses between oscillator, modulator, pulser, LFO or other voltage sequencer. A unique vision of the Buchla for a Psychedelico-Shoegaze rendering, whose Drone thickness can
also evoke MBV that would rub shoulders with the early Grateful Dead, of the time when Don Buchla was one of them and that his electronic-modular flights made the public lose all meaning under acid.
Lysergic West-Coast Electro crazyness…
www.philippepetit.info
released July 2, 2019