Well, it’s been a few months since our last update. If you follow our Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter/X account, or even our new TikTok account, it makes it easier to keep up with our latest activity. We are especially lonely on TikTok, so give us a follow! I expect to post more live performance videos on TikTok, Instagram/FB, and YouTube moving forward.
This news update covers the latest goings-on here at Eternity’s Jest Records. I always hope to post more updates here, but keeping up remains a much easier proposition on social media. Nevertheless, let’s dive into what’s been happening.
Church of Hed – The Fifth Hour Coming Soon
I am at work mixing and mastering the tracks from our upcoming album, The Fifth Hour. It’s the latest release in our series of more immediate and improvisational work, not unlike the Quarkspace Spacefolds Series. Of course, Stan Lyon sits in on a few tracks, playing guitar, bass, and synth. Yup, Dink bought himself a Korg Minilogue XD!
The album is also graced by indie rock legend Jonathan Segel from Camper Van Beethoven! Jonathan provides his unique stylings on violin, guitar, and even bass. The mighty CvB served as an important inspiration for me in the mid-80s and beyond. In short, they made the indie music world safe again for psychedelia (at least according to my limited musical worldview of the time.) They remain one of my favorite bands.
The Fifth Hour features a wide array of material. The album includes long deep exploratory space excursions as well as shorter pieces. Here are two of the shorter tracks I recently released on YouTube. Both feature the Lumi Keys keyboard controlling Moog’s Animoog software synth.
Expect the album to drop within the next month or two. We’ll let you know!
Crafting Musical Pieces for TabMuse
You might know that I also publish TabMuse, a resource for music technology focused primarily on synth and effects reviews as well as other topics. When I get something new to review, I now try to create a musical piece and craft a video for it. Here are a couple examples, check out our YouTube page for others.
Xils-Lab’s PolyKB III synth offers a unique design based on the legendary PolyKobol synth of the early 80s. Here’s a little four-part piece using four instances of the PolyKB III in the role of lead, pad, bass, and effects respectively.
Igor Vasiliev is a top-shelf synth maker for the iOS and Mac OS platforms. We used his SynthScaper on the title track of Sandstoned, providing the sonic ambience of Ohio’s Lake Erie coast at night. His new NoInputMixer app lets you explore the no input mixing trend on an iPad. I crafted a few soundscapes using it. Here’s my favorite.
Expect more little projects like these in the future. Explore our playlist for other examples. Maybe we will combine the best into an official release someday?
TabMuse Takes a Deep Dive into The Father Road
I also used TabMuse to publish more detailed liner notes exploring the production of our most recent album, The Father Road. We discuss the album’s concept and recording approach as well as the gear used on the release. The notes are encapsulated in a prologue and four sides, mimicking a vinyl version of the album never to be released. Links to the four sides are inside the prologue, along with cross links within each article.
Other Albums in the Oven
After The Fifth Hour drops, I plan on focusing on the next Rivers of Asphalt release, an aural travelogue down The Blue Ridge Parkway. This project only uses synths made by Moog Music and Make Noise Music, both located along the BRP in Asheville. We also use a few soft synths inspired by Moog, most notably XILS-Lab’s PolyM.
I’ve been creating little stems for the project that I plan on orchestrating and molding into larger pieces. Expect an album, squarely in the Berlin School electronic music realm, with no drumming. Moog never made a drum synth beyond their DFAM, which I don’t own. Here’s an example of one of the stems, quite possibly emulating a drive across the BRP’s famous Linn Cove Viaduct. It uses the iOS version of Moog’s Model D and Model 15 apps as well as a MoogerFooger effect.
Beyond that project, I am also working on cool drum beats for an album where I play all the drum parts first and then record the music. In the post-Quarkspace area, I miss having the drumming lead a track as opposed to recording the drums after everything else. Likely to be called “Batteur Electrique,” expect that album sometime in 2025, assuming the next Rivers of Asphalt project drops later this year.
Once that album completes, the focus turns to the Cycle project, which includes new versions of The Autumn Shrine and A Cold White Universe title tracks along with brand new pieces for spring and summer. I practice those piano-based tracks everyday and expect to upload performance videos of both later this year. Of course, we will probably make room for The Sixth Hour at some point during this release schedule.
In short, I am always working on multiple projects simultaneously, while the next-up release gets most of my focus. As always, thanks for the support and thanks for listening!