#1

hey everyone, just wanted to share a project I’ve been working on for quite a while now:
A Stroke of Blue my first album, released today at n-so.bandcamp.com with pre-order available for a small run of cassettes for those interested, shipping a little later this month.

its a mix of very rhythmic and very non-rhythmic tracks, with an emphasis on piano, Juno-6, and tape.
modular used here and there.

much love to any and all support, and to this amazing community for providing constant inspiration.

~Nick

(artwork by Salman Khoshroo)

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51 Likes
Cassette releases
#2

Congrats on the release, @n-So! Looking forward to diving into this.

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#3

Listening to this right now. Stunned by how beautiful it is. Very happy you’ve shared a full album. Congrats! :slight_smile: Oh, Anson is my favorite so far.

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#4

been loving your recent insta posts so i grabbed a cassette! keep it up

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#5

beautiful front to back! congrats. i love the transitions between the Blue movements, and going from those crystal-clear recordings to tape loops in the next track is wonderful. here’s hoping you take this show on the road!

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#6

Absolutely beautiful. Excited to receive the cassette!

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#7

Sitting at my desk, watching the storm outside with A Stroke of Blue washing over me and it’s just perfect.

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#8

@n-So fantastic :slightly_smiling_face:
nice work

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#9

Got the cassette too, really good work!

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#10

this is has been on loop for the last few days now.

it’s so fucking good.

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#11

this is so good…

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#12

just listened to the first track of this but intrigued to listen to more. you should check out this album if you haven’t already

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#13

incredible work @n-So. ‘Isness’ is particularly stunning. every time I go down a “minimal music” rabbit hole, I’m really just looking for this song. wonderful to have it materialized.

gorgeous, gorgeous.

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#14

thanks so much Dan! I definitely want to do a project at some point that focuses on this style even more

#15

Now that I have a (mono, d’oh!) tape player I’m finally giving this the attention it deserves and I LOOOOVE the piano work on this!!

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#16

thank you so much for the kind words and your support!! :relaxed: the only tape player i have is also mono, and it was fun to hear how it summed when I got the tapes, in particular Anson in mono on cassette on an old player was pretty cool to hear.

the piano ended up being a way bigger character on the album than originally envisioned but I fell in love with the sounds I was getting out of it and with a new kind of minimal composing I’d been experimenting with. will hopefully being going into more detail with @dan_derks in the future about this on the podcast. (sorry dan if that’s a spoiler) :sweat_smile:

I think the next project is going to dive even deeper into a more minimal/experimental style and with more hand-dampening and other treatments to the strings, combined with more drum machine/modular stuff- for that vibe where you aren’t quite sure what’s “real” and what’s synthesized.

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#17

it is, but only the best kind. this album is gold. er, this album is blue? it’s fantastic, whatever color it is.

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#18

new album idea a stroke of gold

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(okay this fake cover actually looks pretty sick)

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#19

I’ll be sure not to miss the cassette release of your next recording.

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#20

I just listened to the E.P. while riding a train across Tokyo. It is very beautiful, and Blue III was my favourite. Thank you for sharing your music!!

1 Like