"Biomorphs", (1987) is an album of experimental sounds using the Casio SK-1 Sampler, which was made available in 1985 for the ridiculous price of $140, the (FM) Yamaha DX7 released 2 years earlier sold for $2000 with no sampling capability. I immediately bought one of the million units that were sold, (you might have had one). It is lo-fi, almost a toy, (see specs below), but, over the years it has gained almost a cult like following. Using only samples of my infant son's vocalizations, this album was put together when the airways were filled with Madonna's "Material Girl" and similar crap. There were only a handful of weekly ambient/space radio programs like "New Sounds" and "Hearts of Space", the internet was 20 years away. I thought I would share this work, from 38 years ago, with this community of creators, who may have been involved in similar explorations back in the electronic stone age. : ) (Note: these pieces are in their original state, unedited by today's technology, there are pops, clicks and tape hiss)
A philosophical note, the source for these raw, sweet and even excruciating sounds was my pre-selfaware infant son, at that early stage of development he was able to express his state from ecstacy to anguish through sound, and one day perhaps through music.
If you like deep dives into alternative spaces, the last track "Primordial Soup" is a 25 min. ambient float through a steamy soundscape teeming with primitive lifeforms.
Casio SK-1: 32 key, 8 bit, 9.38khz, 1.4 second max., 4 voice polyphonic, 13 envelopes (the keyboard is non pressure sensitive a major limitation)
Timecodes
0:00 - intro
0:08 - Alien Lifeforms (6min.)
6:00 - Xterra Sex (4min.)
9:57 - Alarms on Mining Asteroid (2min.)
13:05 - Nightmare Vivisection (2min.)
14:44 - Rex (2min.)
16:39 - Uma Jamming (2min.)
19:07 - Primordial Soup (25min.)
Track 1 Alien Lifeforms art "Struggle for Survival" ca. 1980's oil on canvas
Track 2 Xterra Sex art "Strong Survive" ca.1980's oil on canvas
Track 3 Alarms on Mining Asteroid art "No Light at the End" ca 1980's oil on canvas
Track 4 Nightmare Vivisection art "Head of John the Baboon" ca. 1980's dye on paper
Track 5 Rex art "Rex" ca. 1970's charcoal on paper
Track 6 Uma Jamming art "Coming" ca, 1980's oil on canvas
Track 7 Primordial Soup art "Bioinverted" ca. 2010's fabric dye on paper
This channel is about my art, music and life interests.
As an artist I paint surrealism, biomorph and abstract oil on canvas. My paintings can be dystopian with psychological angst and social discontent because my philosophy is absurd existential influenced by Albert Camus and Friedrich Nietzsche. Philip Guston opened the door to my artistic sensibility.
The sounds I create in my Blue Grotto recording studio are ambient, primal, space, electronic and experimental. I owe a debt to Brian Eno and Harold Budd for leading the way.
As a music lover I am an audiophile and have a good sound system, hope you do also. The passion and emotion that sound can induce is one of the greatest pleasures a human can experience.
I am drawn to outsider literature by the likes of Franz Kafka, George Orwell and Samuel Beckett.
The unfathomability of quantum physics and the universe is a constant amusement.
#artist #ambientmusic #audiophile
