Chapter One:
After recording DREAMING IN NUMBERS for Wayfarer Records, an idea was put forth to do some live shows with one of the artists on the label. I liked the idea, but wondered how I would be able to pull off something like this. While all sounds on that album came from the Warr guitar, it was heavily processed and run through multiple pedals. Plus, the recording was a culmination of drones that have been condensed and built over time. In other words, the boring (subjective, I know, when it comes to ambient music) parts were omitted. So, if I were to play music like that live, would it come off as long winded and humdrum? Ultimately, my answer was, “Yes!” Therefore, I sought out a different approach to this style of music.
Chapter Two:
My next thought was to tackle some of the material from my TERNARY INSTINCT trilogy (FICTIONAL MIRRORS and THE COMPROMISE RATIONALE). While this music contains some drone textures, they have more of a song quality to them. In order to make the songs sound close to like they are on the record, they require a lot of looping. Playing a twelve string instrument with a bass and guitar on one neck, I just felt like people would be thinking, “Why does he need all those strings to play that?” There are moments in this music where I play the instrument extensively, but others where I’m just using one part of the neck and for a live setting, I thought that this may look boring. Also, on a personal level, the lack of true solos in the music is pretty far removed from what I have been playing with my other music. Coincidentally, this has changed my approach for the third part of the series which is slowly moving towards completion.
Chapter Three:
If I’m going to play “ambient” music live, I needed a different approach. I wanted to combine some of these ideas while making each experience different. I started with simple drones using only one sound that could easily be looped in a matter of seconds if necessary. Next, I wrote odd time signature heads, so to speak, for each of the songs. This would give them a song quality, but with a lot of space to improvise which I felt was key. This would give each performance its own unique character and allow it to sound closer to what I typically sound like when I play out solo. This all seemed good in theory so it became time to record.
Chapter Four:
I began recording this music in Spring of 2023. I had just released by album SUBSEQUENT RUINS so much of my time was spent promoting, doing interviews, and playing some shows. When I could get into Gravel Road Recording, I would and each session yielded great results. In no time, we had recorded the seven songs before beginning the mixing stage. At this point, I reached out to Michal Karz to create what became the cool artwork for this release. Soon after, the album was given to Dave Luxton to master. With the album done and artwork complete, it sat.
Chapter Five:
For the better part of a year, the album remained in limbo. The original live performance opportunity never materialized and so there was no urgency to release the music. This coupled with the fact that the label was beginning to transform itself somewhat made it feel like waiting was the smart choice. The next obstacle was finding a time in my prolific release schedule that made sense and didn’t compete with another one of my albums. This year, an EP (CANDLES BURN) was scheduled for April along with the follow up to SUBSEQUENT RUINS later in the year, both on the 7d Media label. We found a short window this year that seemed to work in June and ETHEREAL DIALOGUE finally was released.