Echoes from Another Place

 Echoes from Another Place

A write up about the album, Echoes from Another Place by the audio project known as Static Apparitions.

Static Apparitions is an audio project that I work on with DNA Girl from Astro Al. We both have different stage names for this project rather than the ones we use with Astro Al.

So you’re probably asking yourself, “How is this any different than Astro Al?"

Well there’s two key differences between Static Apparitions and Astro Al.

1. While some Astro Al stuff is improvised, 100% of every Static Apparitions tracks are 100% improvised recordings which are then cut and edited to produce the end result.

2. There no lyrics or audible spoken word pieces in a Static Apparitions track. There are some samples and some times spoken bits are recorded but they are distorted so that they just become part of the landscape. All vocals are wordless.

If anyone has a time machine so that Static Apparitions can go back in time and record soundtracks to Italian 1960s/1970s horror flicks we'd be game to take that trip.

Ok, now with all that out of the way, let’s break down this album a bit track by track.

Echoes from Another Place

1. Alien Disruption 4:11 - Some nice swinging guitar from Madame Inconnue on this one. The end is all about signals from the EMF field. For more info on that check below. 

2. Sounds from Another Place 6:23 -Got some dark distorted tones contrasted by the light sounds of a tongue drum. This song is a good example of what we're trying to do with Static Apparitions, create art with collected sounds. I think I named this track but I'm not 100% sure.

3. Space Orb Sonata 5:12 - Madame Inconnue named this one. I think she might have named almost all of them. The Jupiter III analog synth is on this one. You can hear it in some of the "chirpy" synth sounds. 

4. Rising From the Tomb 5:09 -Some fun distorted layers of guitar on this one curtesy of Madame Inconnue. Really good playing my friend.

5. The Musical Diary of Duchess Daphne Dukane  6:59 - Vocals and sounds. I believe this was partially recorded somewhere outside, but I'm not sure where. This is a mashup of a few different recordings. Name of the track is courtesy of Madame Inconnue.

6. Secret Basement Lab 5:11 -This is only track I'm certain that I named. It just sounded like a basement lab in an old school horror flick where the mad doctor is building a monster for science or revenge or both. At least that's what I hear.

7. Raven Cry 5:10 - Some textural guitars and moody synths. Ravens are associated with many things in different mythologies. Why is it a Raven Cry? Great job Madame.

credits:

Madame Inconnue: vocals, guitar, percussion, octave mandolin, mandolin, synth

Baron Vincent Von Lugosi: cassette recorder, sampler, weird sound generator, Jupiter III analog synth, saw, zither, TV/VCR combo, synth, percussion

The cover photo was taken on George's Island in Boston then distorted.

One might ask, how do you play a TV/VCR combo? On Etsy, I discovered someone selling an Electro Magnetic Field Microphone. It's a microphone that picks up electro magnetic fields. Held up against a TV/VCR combo it makes some pretty wild sounds especially if there's nothing but white noise on the TV. It works ok with a tape playing, but doesn't quite have the level of strangeness that the lack of signal to the unit feeds into the microphone.

Here's a link to an EMF mic 

Yours in static based art,

Count Robot