Jabun - Tides

Following my generative and experimental 3rd album as Jabun – Generation Supernova, on the anniversary of its release, I announce Jabun’s ambient and experimental live 4th album – Tides.

After releasing my first semi-live-performed Jabun album 15-4-20 in December 2020, I decided to treat myself to a new piece of gear, a KORG Volca Modular. I’d been studying the works of amazing electronic musician Suzanne Ciani, along with her explorations of the Buchla modular and West Coast methods of synthesis. Listening to her Buchla concerts for the first time was an amazing moment for me, much like when I first heard Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex. It was so far beyond and outside my understanding of what music could be and I loved it! The moving and evolving textures, the live electronic performance, the sounds which were beyond the range of what my current understanding of synthesis could achieve. I desperately wanted to learn and experiment more with this West Coast method and Ciani’s style of live performance. With even the smallest Buchla system priced way above what I could possibly dream of, the KORG Volca Modular was the coolest thing I could find within my budget which could give me a decent platform to learn on. I happen to be a huge fan of KORG too which made it an easy decision (just look at my desk).

At the beginning of 2021, Generation Supernova was already almost complete ready for release in April, and meanwhile I was tying up the last of the songwriting for Better Than The Book’s next album to begin recording around March. With all my available recording days spent tracking guitar, bass, organ and more for much of that spring/summer, I spent my evenings experimenting with my new synthesizer, learning more about this upside down feeling West Coast synthesis style vs my familiar subtractive method. On the evening of March 24th 2021, on a whim I decided to set up for recording with my Volca Modular for the first time (+ some other equipment), start playing, and just see what happened. The result was the recording which would eventually become Inner Space, the bonus track on this album. It was... something? I was pleased to have made the recording, but the piece wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing thing, a bit janky sounding and all over the place... Later on I would find that simply by slowing it down and adding some extra effects, it would transform into something much more meaningful, but it was start at least.

With another lockdown making for another birthday spent away from family and friends, my twin Eamon sent up a super cool gift to keep my spirits up until we could meet again. It was a build it yourself synth kit made by KORG, the Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer, an amazing gift which sounded fantastic! After familiarising myself with it and even programming a custom noise oscillator which I distributed freely online, I realised it had an amazing effects section which I could run my other gear through, and the combination of the Volca Modular and the NTS-1 especially was an ambient dream team! After more practice, and the busy times releasing Generation Supernova (and meanwhile recording instruments for Better Than The Book’s new album), I started making a point to make sure I sit down at least once each month (mostly) and just record some sort of live electronic performance. By mid August (especially after a very inspired 808 Day evening), I had collected a fair few performances which had started to weave an ocean themed narrative of sorts in my mind. For the rest of the year, I continued to record live performances to complete that narrative. Some tracks came from brand new ideas, while others used elements of Jabun ideas from the writing sessions of 2019-2020. Most importantly though, all were performed and recorded live in 2021, and the result was the 4th Jabun album: Tides.

Tides is a 70+ minute collection of 9 ambient and experimental live performances, together telling the tale of a fateful voyage at sea. The album begins by setting sail from The Beach at night and riding the rhythmic Waves, before being encountered by beckoning Sirens and lured into a terrible storm. Following The Storm, floating among the wreckage, you have nightmares of Ghosts, the other souls taken from the living world by the waters, but you survive only to wake up to despair, realising you are Lost At Sea. With no hope or strength left, you feel the Gravity of the situation, both figuratively and literally, as you’re pulled below the surface to meet the same fate. But with the sorrow comes a sense of acceptance, as below the waves you find a world much calmer than the one you endured among them. You sink peacefully to your final resting place, the deepest depths of the vast ocean: Mariana.

Each track from Tides was performed live and recorded as a single take during 2021 with only the lightest of further processing to bring the album together in mastering. Included in the album is a bonus track, Inner Space, which while initially recorded live was slowed down post recording and further processed in a similar way to the semi-live 15-4-20 album. It provides an ambient epilogue to the album, a modular synth soundscape representing the deep and vast Inner Space that is the ocean.

01 The Beach
Recorded on July 10th 2021
Equipment used: Moog Werkstatt-01 Synthesizer, KORG SQ-1 Sequencer, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

02 Waves
Recorded on August 8th 2021 (808 Day)
Equipment used: Roland TR-08 Drum Machine, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

03 Sirens
Recorded on August 8th 2021 (808 Day)
Equipment used: Roland TR-08 Drum Machine, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

04 The Storm
Recorded on August 8th 2021 (808 Day)
Equipment used: Roland TR-08 Drum Machine, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

05 Ghosts
Recorded on July 14th 2021
Equipment used: KORG SQ-1 Sequencer, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

06 Lost At Sea
Recorded on October 14th 2021
Equipment used: Ableton Live 8, M-Audio Trigger Finger
Live performed audio captured by Ableton Live 8

07 Gravity
Recorded on November 17th 2021
Equipment used: Sampled Piano, Ableton Live 8, M-Audio Trigger Finger
Piano samples originally recorded December 30th 2019
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler
Live performed piano audio captured by iPhone 5c

08 Mariana
Recorded on June 8th 2021
Equipment used: KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer, KORG Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Digital Synthesizer
Live performed audio captured on Akai MPC 1000 Sampler

09 Inner Space [Bonus Track]
Recorded on October 15th 2021
Equipment used: Sampled KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer + KORG SQ-1 Sequencer, Ableton Live 8
KORG Volca Modular Synthesizer + KORG SQ-1 Sequencer originally recorded March 24th 2021
Live performed synthesizer audio captured by Ableton Live 8
Final (non-live) audio rendered in Ableton Live 8

All tracks mastered in Ableton Live 8

To my ears, Tides is undoubtedly my most experimental album yet, with much of it more like soundscapes than actual melodic music. Despite the extended length, I decided to include the full performance for every track, as a captured moment in time, rather than a premeditated composition on a studio album. Similarly, I wanted to keep editing to a minimum, with only minor adjustments, and the mastering really just to balance the tracks against each other (and my previous discography) and add a little bit of sheen. Whether you sit down to listen intently, have it on in the background while doing something else, or simply immerse yourself in the sounds, I hope you enjoy these uncut live ambient experimental performances, a collection of meditative moments from another strange year of restrictions and lockdowns.

The photo for the album artwork was taken on the morning after Eva and I's 8th anniversary while we were visiting Whitley Bay on the North East English coast in August 2021. It was super misty that morning and I really liked the vibe which fit with the ambient ocean journey narrative I'd planned out for what would become Tides. This photo is actually 5 photos of the ocean layered over each other for a slightly blurred and dreamy vibe. Interesting to note too that all of the Jabun albums so far have featured sky and/or sea imagery. I guess that's just the way my mind wanders?