As many of you know, we’ll be releasing our first soundtrack project next month. I’m not entirely sure how this came about to be honest with you. The Scarlet Letter Press & Gallery in Salem, MA will be holding an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired art show throughout October and I believe Alexandria Noel was in contact with them to submit her own work. As far as I know, Neil took the liberty to ask them if we could contribute music for the gallery (without my knowledge haha). To my surprise (when I eventually found out!), Rebecca from the Scarlet Letter accepted his offer. Not only that, but she suggested making a CD to sell at the art show as well. Neil told me all of this and I panicked. It was almost May and the art show was in October. That would give us roughly 4 months to write, record, mix, go through the mastering process, design the album art, lay it out for the pressing plant, do test runs of the art, go through the submission process to the plant, allow a few weeks for production/delivery, etc. I’m used to taking my time. The only deadlines I’ve had have been self-imposed. This would be the first time I’d have to do it for someone else. I panicked!
That all ran through my mind the second Neil told me about the project but, luckily, it seemed like he had the whole thing under control. He said he’d like to make an album focusing on Poe’s personality and life instead of his writings. I instantly loved the idea. I thought it would compliment what we are and what we do much better this way. Neil had the idea of keeping the music sparse, minimal, piano-based, and inspired by the 1800s to attempt capturing the atmosphere of the era in which Poe lived. We intended to make a short release of ambient pieces (this is an art gallery, after all…) but that didn’t last long… We ended up going overboard, I think, but the results are by far the most elegant, surreal, cohesive, and oddly professional work we’ve done to date. While the music is largely instrumental, it is emotionally engaging and voices run throughout the work in odd places. However, there is one song with a full-on vocal performance, too.
There will be a special edition of the CD available through our mail order as well as a standard edition. The standard will be available locally at the related art events throughout October. We will tell you of those as we confirm the details. The special edition will be limited to 50 copies. It will come in a fabric slipcase that’s screen printed with album-related art. These will be in 3 colors: 10 copies will be gold metallic ink on crimson fabric, 20 copies will be gold metallic ink on black fabric, and the remaining 20 copies will be black ink on white fabric. Also included will be a 9.5”x12” screen printed poster of album art. These have been hand numbered one through fifty. A postcard print of Alexandria Noel’s “Masque of the Red Death” will be in there. And, finally, a 1476 patch will be included. This will be a white 1476 logo printed on black fabric. Everything mentioned here has been designed, hand-printed, cut, sewn, and packaged by us.
Regarding the creative process, Neil and I worked independently of each other for about 2 months before we played show and tell. From that point on, we contributed to each others’ songs to help finish them off. I’d like to say this will be our first release where you will hear Neil playing piano and synths (as well as drums) showing you his own writing talents. His 3 songs titled Extraction Environs, Illness Environs, & Death Environs focus on the physical aspects of Poe’s life where my 5 remaining songs focus on the emotional & psychological aspects. Luckily for us, these unintentionally became great counterpoints to each other—giving the album a better sense of balance.
My talented and elegant Neptunian cohort Mei Ohara played violin and cello on more than half the album. On most of the songs, she read sheet music to record her parts without ever hearing the music first. For some reason, this excited me very much and the results are wonderful—very emotive and “in the moment” as they say. I’d also like to point out that we played this music. There is no piano programming. It was a slow and painstaking process in most cases but we wanted it to feel real so that’s what the performances are. Most of the samples and all of the drones you will hear, we created ourselves. In a few instances, we recorded separate pieces of music & sounds specifically to chop up, sample, and use in other songs.
Here are 2 songs: Little Love Voice written for Poe’s wife where you can hear Mei play. The second song is Extraction Environs, one of Neil’s songs (and definitely one of the trippiest on the album!)… We hope you enjoy!
https://soundcloud.com/1476cult/iii-little-love-voice
https://soundcloud.com/1476cult/ii-extraction-environs
Leave the Earth!
Robb
9:IX:2014