You’re in an unsafe space, a studio he calls The Lab, deep in the cellar of a disused slaughterhouse.
You have good reason to be concerned. James Paul has been in the sound manipulation game, from both sides of the board, for over four decades and it has come to this — the release of his Arprovisations, Vol. 1. James Paul is a bakelite boy, his studio also acts as a museum to fawn over beautiful things from the early days of sound recording, from plate reverbs, to a Wurlitzer Brasshorn to the centre of it all, the Arp 2600. These six improvised performances were made on the Arp 2600, an early synthesizer from the distant past, splattering sounds from the unknown future. It’s said this recording made Captain Picard lose his hair upon first listen — be careful gentle listener!
However, weirdos need to meditate too.
There’s something about the trance-like state this recording puts you in that both calms you while uncorking the madness you may have been suppressing. The Arp 2600 is a living organism, always on, humming the strangest music for anybody who wants to listen. In this case, the sound catcher (and master manipulator!) was James Paul, aka Homo Trans Futura. James knows the flow of sound, and watching him manipulate the 2600 is like watching Gould at the piano — no less mad, aware, tragic, beautiful, genius, musical — important. Bach is dead, my friends, and this is the brutal afterlife. A crusty, chunky, confusing, yet logical sequence of noodles.
Each Arprovisation is a sonic adventure, that places you in your own video game nightmare, and guess what … you lose! This is not a solo recording, rather James Paul and the Arp, elegantly dancing alone in a dark basement, with you the lucky listener peering in.
Have fun — pervert!
- Friendly Rich, 2019
credits
released August 3, 2019
Homo Trans Futura - Arprovisations, Vol. 1
Unadulterated performances on the Arp 2600 by James Paul. Additional gear included a MixTape Alpha and a Korg SQ-1. The primary rule was that only the outputs of the Arp would be captured.
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