12k continues in its tradition of collaborative releases presenting a first-time pairing between German artist Arovane and 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Having become aquainted through their shared love of music technology, Uwe Zahn (Arovane) and Taylor Deupree only found it natural to work on a project together based around one of their favorite synthesizers. As Zahn recalls:
“After a long email conversation, Taylor and I came up with the idea of recording an album only with sound sources from the Nonlinear Labs C15 synthesizer that we both own. The first sketches were made with an exchanging of C15 patches and a constantly growing shared sound pool that led to the structure of the first songs. Prefering to work in person, but hampered by the pandemic, we resorted to sending projects back and forth. and developed an organic method that inspired and excited us.
It was very exciting to see how Taylor’s skills in the field of mixing combined with my experience in sound design. We both share a love of experimentation, gave each other very free rein in manipulating each other’s sounds. Most of the tracks are based on improvisations, loops and many layers of sounds processed in our studios. The results became our album Skal_Ghost.
The songs continued to evolve as the duo worked. Distilling the rich sounds down to their most important textures and forms and creating many layers of processed and re-processed sounds all embued with their love of synthesis and sound exploration. Arovane’s dense textural beds of tone and harmony lay the foundation for the more broken and fragile melodics of Deupree’s organic loops. Deupree concludes:
“It was exciting for me to work with one of the great sound designers of our humble music scene. Uwe and I not only both have a love of all things music technology-related but quickly developed a friendship as well shared stories of food and our homes. The music really became the seed and bond of friendship. Working and exploring sounds together is great, but the real takeaway is the story-making, learning and enriching of our lives. This is always the true goal of collaborations for me.
Skal_Ghost is a deep and haunting release with rich details and small worlds packed into each sound and movement. The album is a natural melding of styles and techniques and certainly not the last we will see from the collaboration.
Album Credits
Recorded winter and spring at Saale Studio and 12k
Mixed and mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12k
Photography by Taylor Deupree
Thank you to Stefan Schmitt (Nonlinear Labs), Micah Frank, and to Mother Nature for inspiration.
Published by M&S Industries / Warner Chappel and 12k Music (ASCAP)
