November 15, 2008: Violence and the Sacred has two pieces of news:
New Viosac website
1. A major reworking of the Viosac website. The design was done by John Whyte and the coding (slowly) by Graham. The focus is to highlight as much old and new Viosac content as possible: we’ve uploaded over 40 MP3 files of older material, expanded the discography, and added photos and additional content to the history page.
2. The release of Rusty Pile.
Rusty Pile is a 59 minute CD recorded over the last 2 years. It has been self-released by Violence and the Sacred. The recordings range from dark ambiance to mechanical cacophony, including tributes to the pioneers of electronic music, intensely rhythmic instrumental pieces, tape-loop and turntable compositions, and Shakespeare sonnets paired with electronics.
Rusty Pile Cover
Rusty Pile’s recording and mixing were entirely analogue (8-track and quarter track reel-to-reel), as was the instrumentation: we used the entire range of the Korg MS analogue synthesizer series, a tape echo, turntable, and a number of homemade instruments (electric cello) and Cal’s famous folding guitar. The only digital instruments used were a Yamaha a TX81Z and an RX5 drum machine. After mixing, the final tracks were converted to digital using a Mytek Stereo96 ADC.
Sticking to analogue is more a preferred method than philosophical statement. However, in some ways I feel that creating a limitation (8 tracks, sequential tape, one-time recordings, no digital editing or enhancement) forces me to put more effort into the quality of the initial recording, and results in more musical flow to the sound. This is entirely subjective, of course. After the experience, I’m convinced this the right way to go.
Please get in touch to discuss any of this further.
Rusty Pile can be purchased online on the main Viosac web site. Two complete tracks and a section of a third are available as MP3s on the Viosac Media page.
NOW we have to move on to the completion of the next project, the CD: You are Planning to Enjoy the Apocalypse. The artwork is 80% complete. The music was finished a few months ago, but recent events (death of Anax, etc.) have caused me to plan to redo some of the tracks. We’re hoping for a January release.
