Recorded during a live-stream from my studio on Saturday, March 21st, 2020. The main process was to create tape loops live with two Nagra tape machines, an OP-1 synthesizer, and a bamboo flute. All of the loops were created in a live setting while demonstrating techniques and answering questions. Nine were created and five of those now are collected here. Loops processed and edited a few hours after the live-stream until Sunday morning for a release later that day. Creating material like this is joyous and enlightening for me and after seeing how many of you enjoyed the act of creating it on the spot, it seemed like a good idea to get down to business and craft a little sonic care package for anyone that would like to support its existence...


Descriptions of the five tracks...

1. Kulik is named after Leonid Kulik, the scientist that first explored the Tunguska Anomaly of 1908. He was apart of the first team to arrive after the blast almost twenty years later. It is assumed that the explosion was caused by an air-burst of a meteoroid above Siberia.

2. They Light Fires... is pulled from a short excerpt from 'Roadside Picnic' by the Strugatsky Brothers. The book recounts an area exiled after extraterrestrials visit a specific site. The book's title comes from an analogy from within the story that follows... "A picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. Cars drive off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave."

3. In the book 'Rendezvous with Rama', Arthur C. Clarke describes an alien craft, which is dubbed 'Rama' by humans as having a band of ocean withing this giant craft. The ship slowly rotates, establishing a level of gravity for the water to pool along the ship's cylindrical side.

4. 'Orbital Injection' is a term for the process of slowing a spacecraft as it approaches its celestial target. The maneuver is one where you use the gravity of the local object to slow your overall momentum by leaning into the atmosphere and creating drag or utilizing the obvious gravity to pull the craft towards the body.

5. I toured Japan in late 2018, and my first show was in Nara. I was transfixed by these small deer with large heads that live right in the city center's parks. They are very friendly and incredibly smart: They bow to you as you approach and will often wait to cross the street at a crosswalk following traffic lights.

The title of the release is Engelier. Engelier is a giant, 500km crater on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn. The moons of the outer planets are fascinating and well worth researching and reading about.


Notice:
This recording is filled with small blips, hiss, and crackles. This is the result of the machines used to create the material. Headphones or very good speakers are recommended, as is reading Wikipedia articles about the various subjects elucidated above.


Cover photograph of my father, Lynn Curtis Patrick, riding his 1969 Honda 350 in July 1969. The photo was found while my parents were self-isolating as the COVID-19 outbreak deepened...


I hope this finds you well and I hope the music contained helps you in some way...
SCP - 03/22/20