NYC-based Purplish Records releases music on cassette in batches, and this double release is a serious gem. Ipek Eginli creates a magical cloud world of prepared piano interconnected with modular synths, as Jad Atoui transforms discarded hard drives into mechanical compositional machines.
Ghost Sectors by Jad Atoui thumps, hums, and crunches as the devices are set into motion, producing a raw electro-mechanical etude. Regular readers know Jad well, long with mastering engineer on this release Ziad Moukarzel (also known from the Beirut Synthesizer Center). This one takes on special depth, a mouth-watering machine meal out today. (Well I think about hard drives a lot, but then I still associate the term with the loud, pre-flash devices with platters, and I rather rely on the data!)
“Ghost Sectors” is an album made entirely from modified hard drives, with all sounds and tones generated by the drives themselves. Each track is a live take, capturing raw and mechanical sounds. The hard drives were built after I received a commission from Yarn/Wire, transforming the motors and needles into instruments capable of producing tones and rhythms. These custom instruments were crafted with the help of mechanical engineer Sevag Babikian. Ghost sectors are forgotten memories, like those in HDDs, that remain present but are no longer accessible. They exist in the background, hidden, much like people, places, or ideas that time and brutality have left behind.
If you want still more Jad, I love this 2020 release out on Lebanese label VV-VA:
Then there’s Ipek Eginli’s work, part prepared piano concoction, part piano-spawned electronic landscape – and a trip into the sky. It’s like a Cage Imaginary Landscape was answered by a dynamic, reeling jig, airborne at 30,000 feet.
Clouds carry me to the sky every morning by Ipek Eginli
The sonic narrative immerses you in the journey of being carried into the sky by the clouds, with all of its emotional elements and physical sensations. You let yourself feel as you’re elevated to the unknown, learn to let go along the way—moment by moment—worry less about what’s left behind. You look around to the vast nothing and come to understand that loss and freedom can coexist. You return lighter than
ever, just like a cloud.In the piano, prepared strings and unprepared strings create two distinct characters with percussive sounds and left-over pitches that shape into different modes.
While live electronics from modular synthesizers get triggered by the piano sounds, through improvisation, the pieces travel between atonality and poly-modality and explore rhythmic structures that desire to burst out of their structured-ness.
If tape isn’t your speed, the digital versions are a full 24-bit/48kHz.
Here’s more on Ipek, too – Ipek just spoke with Sarah Belle Reid on the new Learning Sound and Synthesis interview, talking about how she was able to help her career expand. Inspiraling!
And maybe it’s good to see what Ipek is doing in action – as then there’s an entire kinetic, performative aspect that’s embedded in the sounds but that you really need to witness. A few great examples…
It’s short, but this shows how the piano/modular combo works:
Darbuka and Push!
VCV Rack and birds!
Okay, let’s see if I can get my synth students wailing like this on the Moog Grandmother, too:
Maybe it is okay if some of our old HDDs fail. We can always go live in the moment with the pianos and birds.
I hope you have a good weekend, or at least a sound-filled one, everybody.