nautilusanalog

[nautilusanalog]

Stream & Download my full length album, Highlands on Bandcamp.

[nautilusanalog]

HIGHLANDS, by The Nautilus -- New IDM/ Instrumental chill album available for FREE on Bandcamp!

[nautilusanalog]

SHADOWLANDS // TRACK 9 (Highlands track stories, #12)

The last track created for Highlands! I had an idea for something like this bouncing around in my head after spending about a week listening pretty heavily to a lot of Brian Eno at work. Specifically, his music for art installations around the world I found particularly inspiring. Elements like the sporadic, pitch shifted bells (which almost sound like droplets of pitch on a steel drum, or setting down a metal bowl on a tile floor) are pretty much inspired sounds I attempted to recreate from a few different Eno tracks. For the majority of the production of Shadowlands, this track did not have any drums whatsoever- no real beat other than the sporadic bells over top of that slow yet driving bass. Near the end of production I realized something simple, dark, and pitch shifted would compliment the atmosphere of the track nicely, and add an element of change to the end of the track. It also would prevent the song from being too much like some of Eno's installation work, and I'll be the first to admit that this track in particular is the closest thing to a cover on Highlands. This is one of my favorite songs on the album, almost for that reason. I think the layers of sound happening in this give a dynamic soundscape. It's almost the opposite of Highlands (the track)- if that's a bright, sunny, dusty ride down a dirt road in the hills during the summer, Shadowlands is very much a quiet walk through the empty woods in the middle of the night. I tried to keep the bass line in this from becoming too repetitive by staggering the overall riff a few different ways- making some notes late, others early at random. I think to me, that represents a little more of that unpredictable nature of being in nature at night. A lot can happen- especially way out in the middle of nowhere. For a while, I wanted to have this track at the end, but I think instead it serves as a nice transition out of the 3rd quarter of the album - which, to me, represents "Loss" (more on this in future posts- the album is tracklisted in a way which breaks it up into four sets of three tracks, which all attempt share an element of mood or atmosphere) this track is the final trudge through the swamp, through the chaos following Swamp and Power Station and into the final quarter of the album, which represents "Redemption." (Again, more on this in future posts)

Notable influences for this track:

Brian Eno - Markgraph

Aphex Twin - #7

Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl

[nautilusanalog]

IT CAME FROM THE SWAMP // TRACK 7 (Highlands track stories, #11) This is one of those tracks where I knew, right from the start, that I wanted to make a song that acted as a sort of vignette deep into a murky, wet, nightmare of a swamp. I knew that I wanted the track to be driven primarily by the atmosphere, with a sparse and slow (if any at all) beat and a strong organ presence. I played a lot with dissonance and atmosphere in this track- pitch shifted bells, accordion-like layers from an organ up top, breathy gurgles and noises underlaid with bubbling mud- it's about all the things you hear in the swamp, and the things you think you hear in the swamp as well. This clocks in as one of the shorter tracks on the album, and I think it's because the chorus of the track, where the Hammond organ takes over for what I really felt was a rather dreadful and dirge-like progression of harmonics and noise from the organ coupled with some pretty long tape delay. I think that played it's part so well for me in a way, that I didn't feel any further explanation or context of that progression was going to serve it any better. I decided to keep the track short, and have it serve as a bridge into the darker second half of the album. Chronologically this was one of the last two tracks to come about for Highlands, and was really a spark for making a push to finish this album. Prior to this, I had taken a month or two off to focus on a few other projects. So I felt the sense of vignette or atmosphere in this track really helped turn the focus back onto Highlands.

Notable influences for this track:

Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl

Aphex Twin - #16

Neroche - Dark Arcadia (Radio Edit)

[nautilusanalog]

EAGLE’S NEST // TRACK 12 (Highlands track stories, #10)

The final track on Highlands. Not the last one that came through the pipeline, but this song always felt like the best way to close things out for this album. This track started as a more atmospheric piece-- the beat in the song was something added near the very end of production and was originally only near the very end. The track grew out of two ideas-- the first was using very spacey, modern sounding pads to create a soundscape somewhat urban in nature. The other was utilizing the background recording of a storm and using slowly melodic pads and chords to accent the storm and give it a feeling of flow and emotion; together, these ideas formulate Eagle's Nest. The storm that fades in and is present throughout the entirety of the track was recorded in April of 2017, on the balcony of my 24th floor apartment in the middle of downtown Chicago. I recorded a half hour of thunderstorm using my Zoom H6 recorder on my balcony, all the while sitting on the porch and enjoying the storm for myself. The highlights of the recording were interesting to me because of all the things I didn't notice, sitting there while it happened. Of course, the massive thunderclap at the end is actually the sound of lighting striking Trump Tower about a block over, and that was loud as hell in person. That's the kind of thing you feel, and it just reverberates throughout all of the buildings and streets for what seems like whole minutes when you hear it happen in person. Obviously, that was a sound I was excited to play back and hear (hoping it didn't clip, which it didn't), but what really blew me away about the recording was (first) realizing the background ambience of the city was mostly already there (that car horn right after the thunder is part of the recording, and there are many other examples if you listen closely) and that the wind and natural variations in rain volume and velocity gave the storm a sense of flow and story of it's own even without adding anything. I found all of this inspiring, and so I cut out a six minute segment of the storm (it was a 30 minute recording) and started layering sounds I had saved over it. (I often do that- if I find something neat, but it doesn't fit what I'm working on right that second, I'll save it and come back to it later) I started pulling from my most atmospheric and ethereal pads and sounds and then felt the almost trance-like beat develop very naturally- I heard it in my head, and within a few minutes dropped in those drums pretty much exactly as they appear in the final track. I think the storm and the rest of the track compliment each other and weave in and out of each other in a way that gave me just what I was looking for-- the feeling of being out on my balcony, covered from the rain but watching sheets of water pour down around me, thunder and traffic and energy surrounding every bit of the city around me, except for my little Eagle's Nest.

Notable influences for this track:

St. Germain - Forget Me Not

David Axelrod - The Human Abstract

Kaya Project - Good Morning London

[nautilusanalog]

PEWETOLE ISLAND, CA // TRACK 10 (Highlands track stories, #9)

To me, this is the most unique track on the album-- in the sense that it is much less about beat and rhythm, and way more about environment and soundscape. This track was actually originally titled "The Atomic Clock" and was inspired by the inner workings of a clock- a remarkable machine with many moving parts, and which repeats it's function endlessly based on the time of decay for a caesium-133 atom. The track revolves around a Twin Peaks esque 80's guitar soundtrack progression, lush and soaked with reverb. All of the percussion on the track is made up of sound effects which are inspired by clocks, from bells to chimes to ticks and tocks. I had a lot of fun making this track, and several of those sounds grew out of the sounds constructed for Dynamo. Further still, many other sounds which did not fit this particular sound went on to be used in Eagle's Nest. This set of three tracks was created and laid down over the course of one week, one right after another. The final title of the track- Pewetole Island, CA- is actually the location of the cover art for the album. This art, photographed by my cousin Jordan Gillgren, was something I knew as soon as I saw it that it had to be the cover art. After inquiring with her as to the source of the photo, I was ecstatic to learn she had taken it personally and knew the location of this island and what it was called. I thought it fit so well-- the name fit the place, and hearing this song, I felt the song felt the environment of the photo too well to ignore it. I also thought the photo was so incredible as to warrant a mention in the track listing. To me, when I see this photo and hear this song, I'm taken to a place like Pewetole Island, some place remote and removed, and beautiful. This photo is Highlands-- in every bit the same way the title track is inspired by the highlands I grew up around in Ohio, this was a photo which to me allowed the concept of Highlands as a whole to be brought to the forefront in a very visual way.

Notable influences for this track:

The Orb - Pomme Fritz (Meat 'N Veg)

Two Lone Swordsmen - As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye

Boards of Canada - Wildlife Analysis

[nautilusanalog]

DYNAMO // TRACK 11 (Highlands track stories, #8)

A dynamo, from a historical standpoint, was the first machine capable of generating direct current electricity for power and industry. In this, context, it typically consists of an electromagnetic field generated by magnets, through which several coils and windings rotate and produce electric currents. This song was inspired by the motion of such a device; first invented in the mid 19th century, they were powered by steam often times and were rather crude, when you consider how much the invention would eventually contribute to our modern society. The constant motion- the rotation of the coils and all of the moving mechanical parts- serves as the catalyst for the main synth lead in this piece. The constant, four-note arpeggio sweeps down through a single chord and continues through almost the entire track, which is also the longest on the album. After Dreampop, I was somewhat on my way out of experimenting with pitch shifted percussion, at least for the time being, and so in stark contrast from my previous work, this song uses a more traditional electronic drum machine, in combination with a click stick percussion track- a dry, continuous beat which almost resembles the mechanical crackle and pop of moving metal parts. Something like the pistons of an engine. A lot of what inspired the sounds in this track is very inspired by Victorian and early 20th century technology- another prime example is found in the high-pitched "glass shards" sounds which cut through the mix throughout the entire track- these again are an interpretation of a steam engine, the squeaks and whistles associated with engines of the time. This was also the first track on which I really put to use a Solina string synth, to get the dark, somewhat dated sounding string sounds. I don't normally incorporate much orchestral stuff in my music, but it felt appropriate given the music of the time period I was exploring, and as such they stayed in. The main synth is a Prophet V, and the glass shard sounds are produced by a Modular synth. This is one of my favorite tracks I've ever produced, and one of my favorite elements of it is the somewhat unconventional chord structure- it's more of a 2-1-2, one-one arrangement which can be jarring at first, but is something that stuck in my head since I first tried it. The chord is held for two full bars, while the third is held for one, and the last for two again. This song inspired the next few that came after it- in terms of structure and experimentation, this became the focal point for the latter half of the album, and was the hardest track to place in the overall track list. I think as the penultimate track, it does represent a culmination of the ideas on the album, before slowly fading into the final serene and ethereal goodbye of the album with Eagle's Nest.

Notable influences for this track:

Massive Attack - Future Proof

Metamatics - Colmic Zeus

Bonobo - Cirrus

[nautilusanalog]

Happy Halloween 🎃 here’s a new track.

[nautilusanalog]

DREAMPOP CAROUSEL // TRACK 2 (Highlands track stories, #7)

This song happened completely by accident, in a lot of ways. I hadn't actually worked on anything new in a little while; I had spent several weeks focusing on reworking songs I wrote for Tomorrow Calling which I thought might also work on Highlands. I also spent about a solid month in between tracks focusing on mixing the Wilde EP, The Pearl. Dreampop Carousel kind of arose out of the tail end of that project, I had this idea for a keyboard-led song with a prominent drum beat and lots of radio static and bleeps/ bloops for a little while, and this actually just happened, all in about one night. I spent a lot of time on this one tweaking drums, and also refining the sound for the keyboard. I ended up settling on an Arturia simulation of a Wurlitzer organ, and again implementing the pitch-shifted drums I mentioned in the write-ups on Rosebud and The Archaeologist. I also pulled the vinyl sound effect sample from Rosebud and again through it on here, adding that warm crackle and pop to the background. The radio samples fade in and out, and the song as a whole represents the world going around. The "Dreampop Carousel" of modern life- we go in circles, literally and figuratively, orbiting and rotating and also seeing the same pop culture- from ads, to radio, to movies- in an almost very predictable cycle. This song represents my feeling on the blissful existence we enjoy and promote, while hurtling around a star in a solar system in a galaxy, in a universe full of galaxies where everything is made of energy, and even mass is energy, and all we enjoy is energy. We are energy. Yet, we are able to sustain our dreamy carousel ride we call life- over, and over, and over again. It's a happy song, but maybe only on the surface.

Notable influences for this track:

Massive Attack - Risingson

The Irresistible Force - Power

Bill Van Loo - A Rhodes Jam

[nautilusanalog]

POWER STATION #5 // TRACK 8 (Highlands track stories, #6)

This is actually an example of a track which I wrote twice- the first time was for the Tomorrow Calling EP sometime around the middle of last year. It probably pre-dates everything else on this album, but I had kind of abandoned it for a period of almost a year. I knew I wanted to go back to it-- it didn’t turn out the way I expected the first time around, but when I took another look at it while working on Highlands I really realized it could fit with the other material I had been working on at the time, and redeveloped it from the bottom up. I saved a few synth software instruments I had created for the first iteration, and then ported them over to a brand new project entirely. I think version two, as it appears on the album now, is much more in line with my original idea for the track. My brother put it best- I sent an early demo out to him to listen to at some point, and he described it as a Mark Mothersbaugh inspired “if the Rugrats had a murderer inside the house” song with a hip-hop feel to the beat. I’d say that ends up being more accurate than I’d care to admit, but nonetheless the title as it appears on the album (Power Station #5) comes from my experience listening to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II for the first time and being inspired to want to create a piece that sounded like a musical re-working of the inside of a power plant.

Notable influences for this track:

Aphex Twin - #15

Amon Tobin - Foley Room

Aphex Twin - Acrid Avid Jam Shred

[nautilusanalog]

BATHYSPHERE // TRACK 5 (Highlands track stories, #5)

This track may be the most time consuming I've ever produced. I had previously written an "underwater" song to coincide with the project name (The Nautilus) and it ended up being something I spent entire days working on-- and then threw away entirely. The only portions I saved were the Sonar instrument and the bubble samples. The sonar is not a sample; rather It's a synth built into Logic which I manipulated to sound like a sonar. That was a fun challenge in and of itself, and it inspired a great deal of experimentation down the line in many other tracks on the album. The idea was to keep it entirely ambient, at first. To have that rolling arpeggiating synth carrying the rest of the pads and sound effects through. I realized pretty quickly that I was having this idea of a fast paced but simple beat running in and out through the whole track, and consequentially the drum part was born, almost all at once in a few minutes. What really took figuring out here was the mix, the use of reverb and atmosphere at the correct levels, and knowing where to set the leads relative to all of the background noise happening. I ended up settling on the idea that the drums must be prominent, and all of the stereo pads on top to give a sense of vastness or space in between those high frequency bleeps and bloops, and the bass pads and arpeggiator. That, and the little splash about 2/3 the way through which ushers in the only real "synth lead" in the track- a couple of soft pads to represent a "surfacing" of sorts and a sense of hope. Still a dark track, this was almost made in conjunction with Searcher and with the idea that they'd always appear side by side, in that order. (Searcher then Bathysphere) At the end of the day, it's a nod to my inner affection for nautical stories, gear, and vintage old fashioned diving equipment. 20,000 Leagues and old brass dive helmets- not to mention The Nautilus itself.

Notable influences for this track:

Two Lone Swordsmen - Hope We Never Surface (and the whole album Stay Down) Radiohead - Idioteque Aphex Twin - #3

[nautilusanalog]

SEARCHER // TRACK 4 (Highlands track stories, #4)

This was originally only intended to serve as an interlude. Only within the last few months did this become something I really truly thought was worth keeping around- it was something I made very quickly one evening last December. I was inspired by a few things and knew I wanted to make something with a driving piano part and have it contrast with a very prominent percussion part. While it still ends up, in a way, serving as the opening of Bathysphere (the low synth pad continues from the start of this track up through the entirety of Bathysphere) it definitely has come to hold enough meaning to warrant it's own title. The idea behind it- from the tick-tock like metronome in the background to the really Nintendo-like backing synths during the percussion fills, was to instill a sense of looking for something. I had to write about a film in college once that dealt with the concept of the thrill of the hunt- the idea that you could be a treasure hunter, for example, and spend your whole life searching for something you don't find. Or, you could be the one who finds the treasure, but never really wanted it. These types of characters don't want the Gold, they only want to find it. That message continues to speak volumes to me, years later.

Notable influences for this track Aphex Twin - Avril 14th Bonobo - Kong Amon Tobin - Easy Muffin

[nautilusanalog]

ROSEBUD // TRACK 3 (Highlands track stories, #3)

The third track I laid down for this album-- Rosebud-- is one of the most dissonant, and dark. The track prominently features a vinyl record crackling and popping in the background, over which a clean organ plays single whole notes. The bass part in this track is actually a standard House bass line, just slowed down a bit. It weaves in and out of the drums that come in, which feature a funny little "missed beat" at the end of every other measure. As such, it sounds a little more wacky than it is-- both parts are still 4/4 and fairly simple. The bell part which acts as a focal point, or even chorus of sorts, is a sample I pulled from an Apple library and slowed down significantly. It's a jazz bell/ xylophone sample that I doubled up and pitch shifted one of them a little. The result is this clanging, dissonant bell sound which adds focus to all of the rest of what's going on. Thematically, this is completely a song about temptation. I wrote it shortly after coming off the heavy opiate pain meds I had been on for months after my ATV accident-- dealing with a completely broken humerus, and fractures in my nose and shoulder blade-- plus unfortunately numerous other comparatively minor (but still painful) issues. I was on a lot of pain killers, and I came to enjoy the feeling of taking those couple pills and feeling like everything was OK. I floated through months, coping with the way I was feeling physically, and knowing I was going down a dark path mentally. When I finally decided I had to stop taking the double-strength vicodin and Oxy, I spent several nights in bed crawling up the walls, not sleeping and overwhelmed with the feeling that even if I didn't want to take them, if I just took a couple pills I would fall asleep and everything would be OK again. Nevertheless, I didn't-- I stopped cold when I knew the pain was manageable by itself. But the temptation was- and to an extent is- and may always be there. I wrote this track to expel a sort of darkness from my mind, and weirdly enough it worked. I remember putting this track down (or a general idea of what it would become over the next 10 months, at least) and feeling much better almost right away.

Notable influences for this track:

Rob Dougan - Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Variation) Boards of Canada - Gyroscope Neroche - Outpost (Original Mix)

[nautilusanalog]

the nautilus, now available on YouTube

[nautilusanalog]

HIGHLANDS  // TRACK 1 (Highlands track stories #2)

The title track of the album-- written about a week after The Archaeologist-- originally entitled "Monroe Highland Ditty", this track is one of the few on the album that contains actual real instruments recorded the old fashioned way. The two acoustic guitar parts are, well, actual acoustic guitar parts. The Irish Bouzouki and Pipa are both software instruments, as is just about everything else. I sampled an outdoor field recording to use as the backdrop in the beginning and end. The track is very repetitive in nature, featuring a on-off contrast measure to measure between full-on arrangement between the string instruments bass, and drums, followed by a trailing bass tail and the alternating notes on the Pipa. The whole idea here was to provide contrast, yet keep the repetition happening. When I sat down to finally put this track down, I was thinking of the endless hills in and around Monroe County, OH, and my experiences the last ten years riding through densely forested hills and endless dusty dirt roads. The repetition and alternating nature here represent, to me at least, the experience of being on a long ATV ride, an activity which, even if repeated on the same roads every day, leads to new views, experiences, trails, thoughts, and even ideas. The track ends sharply, somewhat with no warning. This was very intentional-- I wrote this piece about five months after being involved in a horrific ATC accident on the very roads I've grown to love, and the sudden end to the track, which leaves a few stranded drum beats and then nothing but the same ghostly synth drone and the forest ambience the track started with, represents completely the reality that no matter how beautiful or freeing it feels to be there, it only takes one missed turn to end up in a very dangerous, if not deadly, situation-- and the endless life and nature that surrounds you won't be of any help then.

Notable Influences for this track:

Boards of Canada - Satellite Anthem Icarus & Dayvan Cowboy

Tosca - John Tomes

[nautilusanalog]

[nautilusanalog]

HIGHLANDS, and album by The Nautilus - Now available for free on Bandcamp!