notes: Kintsugi

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold-infused lacquer, highlighting the breakage rather than disguising it. It’s about finding the beauty in broken things, honoring the history of an object rather than pretending to perfection, acceptance of change. The idea particularly speaks to me right now as I’m going through some difficulty with anxiety, and I know that one of the best ways to deal with it is finding a kind of acceptance of things.

There are variations of kintsugi which merge pieces from different objects — and that’s the story of how this album came together. I recorded many individual drones, sequences, or other parts in separate sessions, and then found fragments that fit together, joining them with additional material to make a whole. Once I had 14 of these assemblies, I chose to fuse them into three longer-form tracks, as a way to encourage a more engaged style of listening.

No so-called “AI” was used for the creation of any part of this album.

In the notes below I’ve omitted basic utilities and modulation, EQ/dynamics, etc. All tracks were recorded in Bitwig Studio. For controllers I primarily use a Linnstrument 128, a Tesseract Sweet Sixteen mk2, and three Nektar NX-P expression pedals with a MIDI Expression Quattro. For mastering: Wavesfactory Spectre, Toneboosters Equalizer Pro, Waves Curve Equator, DDMF MagicDeathEye, RJ Studios Sideminder Max, Voxengo Elephant and OVC-128. Hardware devices are in bold and software/plugins in italics. “REDACTED” is a an audio processor currently in beta test; I’ll update this page once it has been officially announced. Times for each segment are approximate due to long overlap/crossfades in some cases.

Part 1

Kintsugi (0:00 – 2:33)

  1. RYK Algo into Make Noise Mimeophon, sequenced by Noise Engineering Mimetic Digitwolis (MD2) (using two channels, with one offsetting the other, Mimeophon as clock source).
  2. Arturia Synclavier V, Bitwig Harmonic Split (to cut non-fundamental harmonics), TAL G-Verb, Audiority Big Swarma, Noise Engineering Imitor
  3. Dawesome Kontrast droning, Arturia Rev Plate-140, Phonolyth Velvet Machine

The Center Cannot Hold (1:38 – 3:23)

  1. Maurizio Uber Bassses Miezo, 2x Pedal Partners Mesmeriser in stereo (sampled and looped).

Chicken Suit Frog Suit (3:09 – 6:22)

  1. A sampled snipped of voice 2, played in granular fashion with Bitwig Sampler, Unfiltered Audio SpecOps & Velvet Machine.
  2. Make Noise QPAS pinged and sequenced by Make Noise 0-Ctrl, with quantization from MD2; Imitor, Dawesome HATE
  3. Xaoc Odessa, Mutable Instruments Blades. Sequenced from 0-Ctrl with quantization from MD2, with clock division and modulation from Noise Engineering Clep Diaz.
  4. Odessa‘s sine output to Make Noise Spectraphon (SAM mode), FMd by side B with modulation from Clep Diaz. Velvet Machine inside of a ZPlane Peel band.
    Big Swarma on the full mix, and Valhalla Supermassive at the end.

Eternal Blippery (6:12 – 8:24)

  1. Kontrast, Aberrant DSP Lair, REDACTED

A Broken Calendar is Right Every 400 Years (8:07 – 13:36)

  1. Mario Nieto’s Harmony Bloom sequencing Kontrast. Through Imitor, Fors Sala, and 3 instances of Rast Sound Madfilter in parallel and a fourth in serial.
  2. Madrona Labs Aalto, OBNE Dark Star V3, Mesmeriser, Walrus Audio Slöer.
  3. Spectraphon (chaos mode), Make Noise Multimod, Whimsical Raps Silhouette, Noise Engineering Lacrima Versio, Dark Star V3, Bitwig Loud Split (with Velvet Machine on loudest bands). Modulation is from Auza Wave Packets
  4. The entirety of “Eternal Blippery” in reverse, mixed low.
  5. IME Kermit mk2, Multimod, Lacrima Versio, Silhouette, Make Noise Strega, Audiority Xenoverb.
  6. Kermit (same settings as voice 5), Takaab Nearness, Strega. (Dubbed in after the main recording session.)
    Some short sections of the full mix were reversed in Sound Forge, processed in Velvet Machine and then mixed back in.

Part 2

Auriga (0:00 – 0:48)

  1. Brainworx BX_Oberhausen, u-he Uhbik Runciter, 2x Mesmeriser in stereo, ToneBoosters Equalizer Pro (with modulated peaks and dips).
    Recording reversed, processed in Mesmeriser again, re-reversed and mixed back in. u-he Uhbik Tremolo to flutter the high frequencies.

If I Had a Crowbar (0:46 – 5:04)

  1. Arturia Minibrute 2S, Supermassive, Cytomic The Scream, u-he Uhbik Phaser. Sequence from MD2 (addressed by Multimod) and modulated by Multimod and a sequenced envelope from Mutable Instruments Stages.
  2. Oberhausen, Runciter, Noveltech Character
  3. Wave Packets, QPAS, Mimeophon, Audiothing Lines, Dark Star V3, Slöer. Wave Packets follows the Minibrute’s square oscillator with its FSYNC jack.
  4. ALM Akemie’s Castle, Rabid Elephant Natural Gate, REDACTED, Sinevibes Integer, Minimal Audio Ripple Phaser. Sequenced by MD2.

The Whisper of a Moth (4:48 – 11:30)

  1. Kontrast sequenced by 510k Polyllop, Spectre, Velvet Machine, Nudist Audio Nudistort, Bitwig Loud Split (with Integer on the loudest bands)
  2. Whimsical Raps Just Friends, Mutable Instruments Rings and Silhouette in a feedback loop, Native Instruments Raum. JF’s pitch & Ramp played on 0-Ctrl.
  3. Odessa FMd by Just Friends, Blades, u-he Uhbik Ambience, Valhalla Delay.

It Doesn’t Need To Be Compelicated But It Will Be Anyway (11:06 – 13:24)

  1. Odessa, Blades, 2x CRQL Uzu in stereo, Bitwig Grid [delay and crosspanning], Bitwig Loud Split (mid and loud bands panned right and left), Inertia Sound Systems Hinder
  2. Just Friends self-FMing, Multimod, Nearness, SpecOps. Modulation from 5 square LFOs from Stages.
  3. Waldorf Streichfett, Plogue Chipcrusher, Audio Damage Circa, Valhalla Delay, Big Swarma
  4. Noise Engineering Loquelic Vereor, Moog MF-103S Phaser, Valhalla Plate, DMG Cyberdrive Core.
    Velvet Machine at end.

Part 3

Wolpertinger (0:00 – 4:59)

  1. Rings sequenced by MD2 & 0-Ctrl, feedback patch with Nearness & Silhouette, Noise Engineering Librae, Bitwig Frequency Shifter
  2. Harmony Bloom sequencing Sonatura Superhet, Valhalla Delay
  3. Bitwig Grid [3x sine swarm oscillators, lowpass MG & Ripple filters, feedback through Multimod], Arturia EFX Refract, 2x Ujam Finisher Retro (in mid/side split), Big Swarma, Uhbik Tremolo, Noise Engineering Desmodus, Velvet Machine
  4. Rings output from #1 through Bitwig Frequency Shifter, Aberrant DSP Cataclysm (pitch tracking hum/resonator), Valhalla Delay

SkippyQ (4:52 – 10:24)

  1. Kermit, Blades, modulation from 3x Stages LFOs, Bitwig Delay+
  2. Algo, QPAS (BP output through REDACTED into Nearness, SP output into Nearness)
  3. Synclavier V, Kilohearts Filter Table, Sinevibes Droplet. Played on Linnstrument 128.
  4. Arturia CZ V, 2x Bitwig Frequency Shifter+ in series. Drone looped in Bitwig Grid, pitch-controlled by an LFO-driven AR envelope
  5. VCV Rack [Befaco Noise Plethora with 2x WT LFO], SpecOps, Librae
    Valhalla Plate on voices 1, 2, & 4.

Inshadow (9:30 – 15:24)

  1. Just Friends & Silhouette. JF Mix output patched to Sil’s All input, Sil’s L & R outputs fed back to two of its inputs and Light/Shadow monitored in mid/side. Sampled and looped in Bitwig Grid.
  2. VCV Rack [Befaco Pony VCO through CV Funk Alloy, modulation from Befaco Rampage & WT LFO], Impact Soundworks Gameverb, Spectre
  3. Blades pinged by MD2 sequence, Silhouette
  4. Silhouette Spot output from #3 through Multimod (with sine shape for pitch disruption), Mimeophon, Integer
  5. Mimeophon output from #4 through REDACTED, Mutable Instruments Beads, Velvet Machine & Auburn Sounds Selene
    U-he Uhbik Grainshift on full mix (mix level comes up every on every 4th cycle of voice 1)

A Haunted Place (15:13 – 21:31)

  1. Inear Display Lancinantes, Lese Smear
  2. Neutral Labs Elmyra 2, 2x Mystic Circuits Blinkus, Nearness, Finisher Retro, Valhalla Room
    Valhalla FutureVerb at end.

Will It End? (21:04 – 28:31)

  1. Rings, Blades, Multimod (acting as reverse multitap delay). u-he CVilization (as autopanner) and Bitwig XP filter in a feedback loop. Heavy EQ to suppress strong resonances and make it more balanced; pops in the sub-bass range treated with FutureVerb and Spectre.
  2. Polyllop sequencing Gforce Halogen FM, through Cataclysm, Equalizer Pro (with modulated peaks), 2x Mesmeriser in stereo. Sampled and looped in Bitwig Grid.
  3. Bitwig Grid [sequences, Bite oscillator, 4x Vowel filters panned by a quadrature VCO patch; amplitude modulation from two Triangle oscillators and phase modulation from one of them]. Imitor with its input filtered by Equalizer Pro.
  4. Bitwig Grid [square osc driven by sequences from #3] to the F-Sync input of Wave Packets, Mystic Circuits Ana 2, Natural Gate (controlled by the pitch sequence through Blades highpass filter), Phonolyth Cascade, SpecOps, Valhalla Delay, Dark Star V3, Slöer.