Influences: Tarotplane

The first track on Horizontology is entitled “Shatner’s Bassoon”. It was my first attempt at sequencing multiple keyboard lines together. I have used sequencing before and after this track, but I usually just used one synth. I think this track is four which was a challenge for me. When I think of sequencers, I tend to think of Tangerine Dream & Klaus Schultze. There is another great German 70’s artist who doesnt get much attention and that’s Eroc. This track is spacey, with lovely melodic lines and a nice propulsive synth. His style is much more subtle while mine is more upfront but his sound is a vibe i really respond to

The next track “Panther Walk” was my very first effort with a rhythmic base. All my other albums were more ambient and completely devoid of anything that resembled a drumbeat. The Raime album was a particular favorite of mine when working on this track and I was planning on making this a bit more in that vein. The song started with a drum loop that was reworked and I added a synth line and it kind of took on a life of its own. Raime’s music has a quality that flits with a more traditional rock format, but they add elements that make it distinctive and modern and that’s really refreshing. The whole first side is my flirtation with rhythm for the first time.

Both of these bands had a really profound effect on the way I look at guitar and how it intersects with technology. I sampled my guitar and triggered it throughout the third track “Ritual Believer” and no doubt both of these acts were an inspiration. Ableton makes it much easier to do this sort of thing now, but in the early 90’s it took a lot of commitment and cleverness to utilize the guitar in new and interesting ways and both groups were true pioneers.

The last track on the A side, “Ceramic Heartbreak” was done in the same spirit as the prior track and it used this band and their sound as a jumping off point. Insides and their prior incarnation Earwig were possibly my favorites of that 90s Post Rock/Electronic era. I have listened to their albums so many times and I have always held them in the highest esteem. I would be really pleased if i even got close to what they did back then with Roland samplers, drum machine and guitar

The B side of the record starts out with “Light Under Water” and it really tries to zone in on the feeling I get when listening to the Far East Family Band. Some of the deepest space rock on the planet. They develop this marvelous floaty, hallucinogenic aural space that has a lot of depth. Very cinematic in feel and i try to plug into that. Honorable mention to Achim Reichel and Amorphous Androgynous who both work in the same sonic territory

Anyone who has ever listened to my work can hear the influence of Pink Floyd. On the track that is for me the highlight of the album, “The Rescheduled Dream Delivery Service”, I am reaching for the power and energy Gilmour displays during his solo. I watched this a zillion times growing up and this is one of the few times the Floyd “rock” out, but it always has a restraint and finesse few other bands possess. This track is also the first time I played a solo that “went somewhere” and had a theme. You can clearly hear the melodic thread in Echoes. A tip of the hat to other guitarists like Hendrix, Eddie Hazel, Billy T.K. & Randy Holden that make volume & fuzz a spiritual undertaking.

The second to last track is a short bridge between the tracks that was one of the first recordings I ever made. “Malaysian Forest” is the sound of my guitar slowed down an enormous amount with a special type of binaural phasing that pans constantly left and right. It reminds me of the organ employed on early Popol Vuh albums.

The closing track on the LP, “A Tiny Coven” drew its inspiration from the sounds of children’s voices I found on an old educational film. A friend of mine heard the original mix that sounded kind of dark and sinister to her ears. I was drawing my inspiration from the track by Supersister, a great 70’s prog band from Holland. I thought about how I could make it a bit more uplifting and slightly melancholy. Boards Of Canada was the obvious inspiration. No one does it better. I suppose my track is hauntology, if performed by a prog band like early King Crimson or Caravan. i really like how the track closes the album and completes the journey