In June 2010 I moved to Berlin. I'd been in Barcelona for 3 years previous to that. Overall, as good as my social life and the experiences that I had there were, musically I was treading water. Constantly trying to not repeat myself, but invariably just backing myself into a corner and rarely coming up with anything good. It was a tough time for me musically. Indeed, I had thoughts of just packing it in which luckily some good friends talked me out of. Everything changed once I moved to Berlin. The different environment and way of life was exactly what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again. That same month I sent three tracks to Connaisseur, which would become the Ghosts EP. At that point the label asked me if I wanted to do an album for them. It wasn't something I had properly considered in quite some time, but I jumped at the prospect. I had self released my debut album back in 2005 which was a collection of tracks I made from 2002 until that point. I was so proud of that album, still am. Sonically it was flawed. Partially due to the limitations of the software I was producing on but mostly due to my own engineering inexperience. Something which I am gradually getting better at but I'm still hopelessly bad at at times. Anyway, that album sold a few copies around Ireland, but nowhere else. Once I started releasing internationally I was just stoked to be releasing EPs. I was all about them. I didn't listen to any electronic albums period. Only EPs and single tracks. I thought that the album was pointless in the electronic world. Luckily I came around from that point of view, and it coincided with Connaisseur asking me to do the album. So then I tried to decide what angle to take with the album. Should it be a bunch of tracks all written in a short period of time with a similar theme, or a collection of different tracks brought together under the umbrella of an album? Should I cater for the floor or for the home listening experience? So I racked my brains for a bit and thought, "what would I like to listen to from start to finish in an album?". I told the label that I thought the album should be organic, some tracks might work in deeper sets but the most important thing is that they could be listened to in a variety of environments and not sound out of place. And the label agreed with me. .
With that I started working in earnest on the album. I tended to work in quick bursts over two weeks, churning out many tracks in a similiar vein, then banging my head off the keyboard for months at a time until the next wave came, with invariably a slightly different evolution of my sound. However I had a particularly prolonged dry spell which would last from the end of that summer until January of the following year. Again I had written myself into a corner. Put too much pressure on myself to come up with the perfect album tracks, and just end up firing blanks. But luckily after a trip home to Ireland for Christmas and a harsh flu, I found myself in January with a new burst of Inspiration. One which lasted, on and off for the rest of the year. Already I had exceeded the initially proposed deadline of March 2011, so I simply pushed on. We agreed that what I had done so far was worthy of release but the album was not finished yet, so it was worth waiting. Along the way I had settled gradually into my life in Berlin. I was gigging more regularly than ever which gave me a nice sense of security. And I also met my fantastic girlfriend who became a sounding board for my new creations, letting me know her honest thoughts on the tracks ("It sucks", "Is that what you call music?", "So when does the beat come in?") Eventually by October 2011 I had it completed. Then began the tortuous process of mixing it down finally. During this period I also found out which tracks I really loved and which ones were grating on my nerves. So I also whittled it down, wrote new replacements and nipped and tucked everything until it was all fitting just right. The tracklist was even in flux as late as the week of mastering, a race to the finish line as such. Equal parts synthesis and sampling, but 100% organic, touching on various different genres. In a way it's return to my initial methods of music creation, but also an evolution from that. A listening experience from start to finish and constructed as such. It also marks the first time I've worked with vocalists, featuring contributions from Emilie Harsongkram, a friend of mine who also used to live in Barcelona and two English singers, Emma Greenfield and Moss Beynon Juckes, who fortuitously were singing acapella in a bar in Berlin about two weeks before the album was due to be mastered. It's been a long and complicated process, full of ups and downs. I can't say it was always easy. There were lots of heated arguments with the label about what constituted a good track or not, what artwork to use and what direction the album should go. I put my foot down many times, and equally came around to see their point of view after much stubborn procrastination. But I think that was instrumental in shaping the album for the better. Indeed the sessions towards the very end were some of my favourite and I'm already itching to start work on the follow up. So here you have it. Exactly one year and a half of my life on record. Encapsulated forever.
Tracklisting:
01: THE DROP
02: DROWNING 1
03: FATHOMS
04: AN ISLAND IN SPACE
05: WHO BENDS FIRST?
06: TRAPPED INAMBER
07: MY KARASS
08: THE CHASE
09: STRANGE THINGS ARE AFOOT
10: ALOOF
11: SWIM AWAY More