Thanks to all

As we near the close of yet another eventful year, I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest thanks to everyone who has supported or contributed in some way to my music project so far. I think you all know who you are! By now we are all pretty much inescapably party to the blessing, or curse if you like, of living in interesting times. The world is undoubtedly poised at a dangerous crossroads, with the path forward uncertain amid increasing threats to peace and even the propects for human survival into the coming century. The challenges ahead will force us to grow as individuals and must cause us to become yet more dedicated to the task of promoting justice and preserving our freedoms of expression. The thing to remember is that ordinary people have in fact organized their way to better conditions before, and arguably under far worse circumstances. Fortunately there are even more tools than ever before for facilitating interpersonal communication. It's ultimately more a question of having the motivation to stay connected and informed in a world with an endless array of potentially sidelining distractions. Nevertheless, the threats we collectively face, including structural disincentives to original thinking, are severe and very real, and whichever decisions people end up making for themselves, their repercussions will have the potential to substantially alter the face of the future.   

Concurrently this is a time of transition for Insectoid Intelligence, the alias under which I have released all of my music professionally to date, beginning nearly 15 years ago with the release of "Cellular Automata" on the netlabel Gebeit Industries (subsequently sold to a German distribution company - that's a story for another post). While my early efforts were heavily focused around computer-based production, using mostly Propellerheads Reason along with Ableton Live software, gradually over the years I've expanded my equipment roster to the point that I am primarily using hardware for what I'm working on now. My first instrument was piano, and despite the temptation to sequence everything I still harbor a huge love of playing keyboard synthesizers, which is what they were really designed for (or any real-time controller), something I've tried to incorporate wherever possible. I still use a laptop, but mainly as a kind of souped-up channel strip with extensive plug-in effects options through which I typically record to a hard-disk based multi-track. This allows me get the best of both the flexibility of computer audio and the ease and intuitive flow of hardware-based recording. So I had already changed my production process, which may have been noticeable to an extent by the time I had made, say, "Echoes of Another Dawn" parts i and ii.

But that's not all. Over time I started to become increasingly dissatisfied with the pace of studio production in general, the overall aesthetic direction of much of contemporary music, and frustrated by what seems to be an almost ridiculous over-saturation of the market for vinyl LPs, a commercial nightmare with no end in sight for audiophiles like myself who have always striven for the highest possible sound quality using the best digital recording techniques and formats available. The race to the bottom was already well underway by the late 00s, and what we are witnessing now, with super-deluxe "gilded lily" reissues suffering from embarassing manufacturing defects and botched remastering jobs amid dwindling opportunities for fresh talent in an increasingly gentrified streaming media landscape (delivered at ghastly bitrates), is the end result of decades of mismanagement by an industry that never imagined it would exist in the first place and consequently never developed a plan for the future. The idea that all music is supposed to be either "lobotomized" to fit an artificially inflated demand for an inferior electromechanical format invented over a century ago or chopped up and essentially given away for nothing via streaming is patently absurd; it is a false choice, and I wish more musicians would speak up about it. In any event, I became convinced that something of a radically new approach was called for.

Accordingly I am in the process of rethinking and retooling my fundamental approach to making music. While I still intend to release more tracks and at least an album as Insectoid Intelligence from the vast trove of unfinished material that has, by now, almost literally piled up like a giant snowball amid the chaos of the last few moves, the creation of studio recordings for later issue will soon likely no longer continue to occupy the center of my creative focus. Instead, in order to enable more spontaneity, improvisation and to explore novel and expressive real-time performance possibilities, I'm progressively reconfiguring my recording studio into a hybrid studio / live performance environment. To be honest, for many years I was fairly averse to the idea of performing, preferring to concoct my studio-as-instrument creations in a space practically delineated by its isolation from the wider world. My thinking then was that performing was a limiting but somewhat unavoidable formality, and that all important musical decisions would be made elsewhere. But now with the possibilities of livestreaming opening up the potential to reach new audiences directly via a new and heavily interactive portal, real-time performance has begun to appear a more and more attractive option. There are some technical details to iron out regarding lighting especially (trying to find a non-flicker-inducing LED light string is more challenging than you'd think), but expect some changes to arrive soon in the form of a series of impromptu live streams and video sessions, many of which may feature new and unreleased material. I will be sure to keep everyone informed about the timing of any such future events.

It's been an enormous privilege sharing my music with everyone. At the same time, I feel as if my own journey through music has only just started, and I'm really looking forward to what will assuredly be an exciting new phase in the evolution of Insectoid Intelligence. If you would like to contribute to this transition to a partially live multimedia video project directly, there is now also a new way to do so at Buy Me A Coffee. In the mean time please stay safe & healthy and I hope everyone has the best possible holiday season!!

DB