We finally released our new single, Q Ching. Check it out at Bandcamp, Apple Music, or even Spotify. It’s also available on CD Baby and a host of other digital media sources – some feature streaming, while some provide downloads. Musically, picture a spaced-out mix of Manuel Gottsching and Ennio Morricone.

We prefer you support us with a download, and Bandcamp is the best place for that, as they offer the lossless FLAC format derived from our 24-bit master. Note that even though Q Ching is from our next album, The Fourth Hour, this single version of it won’t be on that release. It’s shorter than the album track, obviously, but there are other differences as well.

In short, don’t miss out on this unique release!

The “finally” in the first sentence is also notable. As I’ve rambled on about in the past, we recently switched from Pro Tools to Reaper as our digital recording software, after two decades. Every Quarkspace and Church of Hed release from Drop onwards used Pro Tools.

Needless to say, I’ve been experimenting with different effects plugins as part of the recording and mastering process, let alone getting used to Reaper’s interface. Things are going well, but the process just takes a bit more time.

We’ve Reached The Fourth Hour

Now I am working on getting The Fourth Hour ready for release. This includes adding some drumming and other overdubs here and there. The album version of Q Ching features drumming and a different “verse” melody. Other surprises abound, and every piece is longer than seven minutes, for the psychedelic voyagers among you keeping track.

The Fourth Hour is the first release in a series of more immediate albums, not unlike the Quarkspace Spacefolds series. I tend to get tied up with larger musical projects, like The Father Road and Cycle, so having room for spacey krautrock improvisations is necessary for one’s musical sanity. In fact, Dink was just at the studio helping out on The Father Road, and we laid down some improvs for the next release in this new series.

Expect to see The Fourth Hour released later this summer, but things might get delayed due to technical exploration with Reaper and other new plugins. Either way, stay tuned!

Updates on The Father Road and Cycle

As noted earlier, I decided to put The Fourth Hour out before The Father Road since it provided the opportunity for a smaller project to learn Reaper. This approach fits nicely within our workflow, as The Father Road’s material requires more work writing melodies and drum parts, as well as the time to nurture and learn how to properly play those fresh ideas.

Recording the drums is the next big task; scheduled to take place after The Fourth Hour is finished. At that point, everything then gets transferred to Reaper with full melodic overdubbing to follow. A 2020 release should be easily attainable.

I practice the piano parts for the last two sections of Cycle on a daily basis. Full recording work on this project is scheduled to happen after The Father Road is released. Expect another release in our new Spacefolds-esque series around that time as well.

We are staying busy and appreciate the support you all give us. Thanks!