This album project was started during the first Covid lockdown and to some extent reflects the deep sense of isolation that prevailed during that period, where we all felt the strain of being alone in our heads and slightly disconnected from reality.
The album explores the fantastic world of Susanna Clarke’s bestselling novel ‘Piranesi’. Enter a surreal world, seemingly infinite, enigmatic, and mysterious and wander alone through vast empty halls, adorned with marble statues, listen to the surging tides, and cries of seabirds . .
. . reality or merely an illusion – a trick of a mind in isolation.
The book had such a profound effect on me that I immediately re-read it and the labyrinthine halls and rooms conjoured up not just powerful images but triggered the ideas for a soundtrack.
The eight tracks depict specific locations and events in the novel and were conceived as parts of an imagined score were the novel ever to be adapted for television:
The First Vestibule – The Arrival of the Albatrosses – The Drowned Halls – Room of the Gulls –
Out from the Clouds – Room of the Giant Statues –The Ninth Vestibule – The Day of the Flood
Featured instruments include Eurorack Modular (especially my Klee sequencer), Korg ARP2600M, Moog Subharmonicon, Roland SE-02, Doepfer Dark Energy, recorded into Pro Tools.
Perhaps my favourite track is the one featured above, but the whole album is available on 12″ vinyl and CD from my Bandcamp site.
