Where Dark Forces Meet

Tracks :-

1). “Sea of Tranquility”
2). “Sea of Clouds”
3). “Where Dark Forces Meet”
4). “Concrete Pete”
5). “Mathew Street”
6). “View From a Bedsit Window”

This was my first electronic music album. it was released on the “Flowmotion” label in 1982. It’s a collection of tracks inspired by memories of experiences of living in cheap rented one roomed accommodation often in run down areas of town or crashing out on peoples floors. I remembered simple things like drifting off while watching an astronomy programme on TV, gazing into the fireplace and seeing strange things, staring out of the window on a rainy day. I remembered visiting friends and playing music together, looking round second hand record shops. This is what coloured the music so strongly. By 1980 I had settled into my first bought house and started to build my first synthesiser studio in a back bedroom. After a period with the duo “Out of Control” this was my first solo effort. It definitely has that classic analogue synthesiser sound of the time.

In making this album I used the two analog modular synthesisers with the first micro-processor sequencer I designed and built. These are described in the “synthesiser adventures” section of this site. Extra sounds came from a string synthesier built from a magazine article, my electric guitar and my voice. For recording I used a four track 1/4” tape machine and a couple of extra stereo 1/4” machines to fly effects into the mix. The studio mixer was only six channel but there were mixers on the synthesisers too.
The production CD master is a direct copy from the analog master tape to a stand alone CD recorder via a very high quality analog to digital convertor system. This is as near as I can get to the original analog sound on the CD medium. I’ve tried to preserve the character of the sound of the period. No Dolby noise reduction was used on the early master tapes.