Part Two of our James Murray Q&A - the studio and track breakdown
Last day of half-price too x
Hi friends - hope all good :)
Thanks again for all the support - last day of half-price digital and some CDs left.
Love this picture James shared of the album with the flower that formed the basis of the artwork - he sent me an original image which I used here at quiet details studios to create the final piece - analogue photography, baths, by-hand manipulation and various other techniques as always.
Super happy to share Part Two of our Q&A with James - a rare look in his studio, gear and creative process - enjoy!
Please can you give us an overview of your studio and favourite instruments?
I use Ableton Live to record, edit, mix and as an audio processing environment.
Signals arrive at an Arturia Audiofuse Studio via an SSL SiX, UA Solo 610 and TLA Ivory 2, a combination that allows everything to be always plugged in and ready to record with scope for live parallel processing. This helps me feel that I’ve plenty of options yet I don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time a new idea arrives. My MIDI routing mirrors that approach; everything goes through a Conductive Labs MRCC such that any hardware receiving MIDI can be controlled at any time by anything else in the studio that sends it.
In terms of sound sources it’s hard to look beyond the Vermona Perfourmer Mk.II for tone alone. Tasty Chips’ GR-1 is on everything I’ve done over the past four years and while I don’t love the workflow the results can be exquisite. I use Korg’s ARP Odyssey module for thick analogue leads and a Mellotron M4000D Mini and Roland SH-201 for acoustic and digital timbres respectively. Between the Arturia Microfreak and Minifreak there’s plenty of sonic variety on offer as well as useful arpeggiation and sequencing possibilities.
I don’t have one way of working for every single project. I’ll tend to look for interesting and inspiring combinations between pairs or small groups of instruments and let it grow from there. If ideas don’t begin on a keyboard or fretboard they tend to come from working with the Torso T-1 algorithmic sequencer, perhaps in combination with on-board sequencers and the Midicake ARP. Guitars seeing the most use are a Shergold Provocateur, Epiphone Sheraton, Fender Squier VI, Musicmaster Bass and a Kremona electro-classical.
I’ve also been recording a beautiful vintage Buffet Crampon E11 clarinet a lot recently.
Please can you gives a quick breakdown of how you made each track?
Mallow is an anti-inflammatory so I wanted a soothing overall tone and since they flower from long vertical stems I made the melodies describe graceful upward arcs. These were written on the T-1 and voiced by an ASM Hydrasynth desktop, the Microfreak and GR-1. The drones were generated on a Soma Labs Cosmos on loan to me from Mike Lazarev.
Bellflower’s refrain is again from the T-1 and those tontine chimes are primarily from the Microfreak. The GR-1 is responsible for the slippy pitch grains in the first half and the Hydrasynth offsets the overlapping arps with sustained drifting tones from two minutes in.
Ragwort is poisonous, especially to horses. I mirrored its bright, profuse flowering with small repeated melodic forms from the Microfreak and flagged its toxicity with dissonant granular agitation and invasive noise saturation from the GR-1 and Cosmos respectively. Reverse melodies are introduced later, hinting towards a slippy biochemical flow.
Larkspur is among the more overtly melodic tracks on the album, with smooth reversed figures cascading like the Delphinium’s tall blue flowers. This is another poisonous plant so there’s that volatile granular noise again, easing off as reverberant multi-octave melodies take over and the intoxication passes.
Feverfew was traditionally used as a balm to bring down headaches and fevers. Lots of collaged T-1 melodies here from the Microfreak set within orchestral sounding GR-1 textures alongside one last recording from a Haken Continuumini before we parted ways.
Bittersweet is part of the Nightshade family, both toxic and medicinal. This track was played live in free time on an Epiphone Sheraton recorded into audio-to-MIDI software triggering the GR-1, itself programmed with a patch made entirely from round robin recordings of that same Epiphone Sheraton, completing the album with a closed circle.
Big thanks to James, such an inspiring composer and human - please do check out all his other work, including Soundflower, the sister album to Weeds.
Thanks again and have a lovely weekend!
Alex
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