I apologize for the lack of updates in nearly a year. It’s been a crazy time as we get closer to the release of our next album, The Father Road. In addition, we’ve been re-releasing classic Quarkspace albums on our Bandcamp page. In fact, the entire Eternity’s Jest Records, Inc. catalog is now available on Bandcamp. Support us with a download today!
So let’s provide a little progress update on The Father Road as well as the other happenings here at Eternity’s Jest. Information remains the root of knowledge or something like that.
RIP Klaus Schulze!
Of course, we sadly begin by paying our respects to the late Klaus Schulze, one of the most important progenitors of electronic music. He remains a massive influence on our own work, with his magic synth-based sequences, filter sweeps, and LFO tweaking. His passing was sudden. We look forward to the release of his next album in June, now coming out posthumously.
We expect to watch his Loreley concert with Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance this weekend. It’s a stunning work and worthy of your interest.
The Father Road in the Mixing Stage
Mixing began on the next Church of Hed album, The Father Road, about a month ago. I also went ahead and mastered the first four tracks to test out a return to outboard mastering. I mastered The Fourth Hour in the box, and felt it didn’t sound as good as earlier albums. Thankfully, these first four masters sound great. In fact, I produced a quick video of Sierra Crest for your perusal.
I expect the album to be ready in the June/July timeframe. Our mixing work currently lies in Nebraska, and the track “Prairie Waves.” It’s a bit of Kerry Livgren influenced prog, compressed into a 3.5 minute diamond. Can’t wait for you to hear it! So we are halfway done with mixing, making great progress. I love the new plugins I recently bought, like the Maag EQ4 and Softube’s Tape. Great stuff! Also check out the video of some of the studio sessions from the album; it’s posted at the bottom of this article.
The Entire Eternity’s Jest Records Catalog Now Resides at Bandcamp
A nice side project over the last year involved re-releasing our entire catalog on Bandcamp. Every Church of Hed and Quarkspace album is available, along with the debut National Steam! I tended to time releases with their Free Bandcamp Fridays, which provided the deadlines for me to do the necessary curation. Spacefolds 6 and Spacefolds 5 even have extra tracks! Check them out, especially SF5 and its new cover art! I feel it remains our most underrated Spacefolds release.
Hot Quarkspace and Church of Hed Video Action!
While working on The Father Road, I also did some rehearsing to prepare a new live show for streaming. Unfortunately, work on the new album took precedence, so I ended up delaying a full performance. After The Father Road release, I expect devote more time to producing immediate music I am able to play live without overdubs, as well as a few delights from Quarkspace and even Natty Steam.
The visualizer tool I used for the Sierra Crest video posted above also provides the means to produce videos of some of our studio tracks. So expect more videos from that angle as well. Here are some examples of both.
So I think that’s all I have for today. Expect more updates as The Father Road gets closer to release. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!