Bandcamp Free Friday

Howdy. I hope your spring is going well. We’ve got a fresh news update covering the latest goings-on in Eternity’s Jest land. Enjoy the reading and thanks for the support!

Quarkspace re-release 3 (4?) Albums on Bandcamp

First off, we re-released three (four) classic Quarkspace albums on Bandcamp as part of their Free Bandcamp Fridays. Expect another re-release next Friday. All three (four) are part of the Spacefolds series of improvisational psychedelic spacerock, with a touch of prog and electronic music. Let’s take them in chronological order.

Spacefolds 1 and 2 started things way back in 1996-7. The first features the time-honored Quarkspace improvisational sound, including the classic, Fäerienôt Space. Spacefolds 2 sports our earliest experiments with sampling and beats. Quarkadelic will freak you out!

Released in 2007, Spacefolds 8 provides another hearty dollop of deep Quarkspace excursions. This album also features a guest appearance from Architectural Metaphor’s axe-man, Greg Kozlowski. It’s great stuff!

Finally, we have 2013’s Spacefolds 12, the final installment of the Spacefolds series. Expect a nice mix of spacerock, psychedelic guitar excursions, with a bit of Berlin School and other electronic influences. Buy all three for all your friends! Remember, Bandcamp supports downloads in a variety of formats, including FLAC!

Church of Hed, the TrapKAT, and YouTube

I also created a series of videos of my studio drumming, putting some cool drum plugins through their paces. These include Spitfire Audio’s Hans Zimmer Percussion and MeldaProduction’s MDrummer. I reviewed both for TabMuse — check out the links. I also added a couple of videos showing me practicing tracks from Sandstoned.

Everything is encapsulated in a convenient YouTube playlist. Check them out!

Good Progress on The Father Road

The main focus of my 2021 activity involved finishing the composing and recording of The Father Road, an aural travelogue down today’s Lincoln Highway. My “road construction crew” currently spans from Ohio through West Virginia into Pennsylvania.

After this work completes, only four more of the album’s 20 “songs” need their final compositional activity, Philadelphia through New York City. At that point, mixing begins, along with any fixes. Rest assured, I will be adding some freaky synth and sound effects.

If the album is finished in early November, I plan on releasing it this year. If not, I will wait until early 2022. I’m itching for it to be complete, so I can get back into more a live experimental improv mode before fully diving into Cycle. However, expect some more live video action earlier this summer, as I’m still rehearsing another set of material.

As always, thanks for reading and stay well! Peace!

Greetings. I hope everyone is still hanging on during this latest Coronavirus surge. We are staying busy by re-releasing the Quarkspace classics Spacefolds 6 and Spacefolds 7 on Bandcamp. Additionally, working on Church of Hed’s upcoming The Father Road album while publishing more live in-studio video performances also helps. Let’s check out the news!

Quarkspace Spacefolds 6 and Spacefolds 7 Now on Bandcamp

I regularly get asked why most of the older Quarkspace releases aren’t on Bandcamp. My standard answer mentions they are available on all the other digital music services and I tend to stay forward-looking as opposed to worrying about older releases.

But with Bandcamp’s generous Free Friday celebrations, where they donate their cut of all sales to the artist, I figured it would be a good opportunity to release some of these older albums on the service.

Spacefolds 6 is my favorite Spacefolds release; a searing mix of spacerock and electronic music. Thus, it made sense to put it out first. I also discovered a couple extra tracks we included as a bonus.

Spacefolds 7 makes a perfect pairing with Spacefolds 6, albeit a more ethereal and psychedelic spacerock experience. Sadly, I couldn’t find any bonus tracks for this album. Note that this album is still available on CD at Bandcamp, so you can get the download, a CD, plus our free BOG4 deal with free CD/CD-R copies of Spacefolds 8 and 9, the debut Church of Hed album, and Quarkspace’s Drop. It remains the best deal in spacerock or any music genre, for that matter.

Expect more surprises and other re-releases for upcoming Bandcamp Free Fridays. Hopefully, they continue this practice into 2021, considering we are NOT “rounding the corner” on COVID-19.

New Church of Hed Live Videos on YouTube

Our last post talked about posting our Facebook live stream concert on YouTube. The week before that show I recorded the set as individual pieces with a separate stereo audio track run through our outboard mastering gear. I synced the video and audio together in Reaper and produced videos with truly kick ass sound quality.

We are in the process of posting these to YouTube. I also updated our Audio and Media page with a few of them. And here they are!

Yes, Virginia, those are Flying Teapots from the Planet Gong in the sky!

Covering Quarkspace in the old school way!

Escape into this brand new track!

Don’t worry, 90 percent of the video looks normal!

Expect more of these videos in the future. In fact, I think I am just going to eschew the Facebook live stream next time out and just publish videos with superior sound quality on a one-off basis. I am working on a completely new set list with a large dollop of Quarkspace material, in addition to different Hed tuneage. However, a Solstice-time Facebook live stream still might happen.

Also please subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Update on The Father Road

Another reason I am less apt to do a Facebook live steam in November is my focus on The Father Road, allowing for less time to rehearse live material. I recently finished the drum tracks, which enables the writing of melodies and other sonic decorations. Construction on The Lincoln Highway in California is going quite well.

If you don’t understand that metaphor, The Father Road is an aural travelogue down the LH from San Francisco to New York City. It’s a sequel to our earlier album, Rivers of Asphalt — an aural travelogue down Route 66. In fact, I originally intended on releasing both together as a double album when I began composing it way back in 2003-4. There are motifs shared between both albums — including two versions of Open Road Illinois, since the LH and Route 66 actually share the road for a bit in Plainfield, IL. RIP, Bel Air Drive-In sign!

The Lincoln Highway version of this track is more concise. Jus’ sayin’.

Well, that’s all I’ve got this time out. Expect another update before the end of the year, if not sooner! Thanks for reading and listening!