#1

Happy to be able to share my new album with this community! This one feel a lot more raw and minimal than my last release, and by contrast was written in a short space of time while the last one was in the works for over a year and a half!

Ruminations_Final Artwork_1400x1400
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This is the little blurb that I’ve written about it:

"…

Ruminations is the third album by Puscha, written entirely through the lockdown period in Narrm/Melbourne during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this release was written during a time of forced isolation, where the days themselves became a continuous, recurrent experience. Ruminations is a manifestation of persistent thought loops and mental obsessions, as a thematic follow up from Puscha’s last album, Echolalia.

The recognition of Puscha’s ruminative thought patterns coincides with the concept of cycles, which has been a central source of inspiration of Puscha’s work so far. Cycles can be found in everything - from the ocean’s undulations to a beating heart, from an electronic oscillation to the cycle of life and death. Puscha’s music explores this by seeing how far they can push looping melodic and rhythmic phrases using poly meter and dynamics on a micro level. These pieces were improvised recordings with few takes and even fewer edits, in an attempt to break ruminative cycles.

…"

Main voices were Verbos Harmonic Oscillator, dual Mangroves, STO and a touch of Telharmonic, going through QMMG, LxD, FxDf, Sisters, and processed by Morphagene, Dual Looping Delay and Mimeophone. All sequences were written and performed on kria.

Thanks to you all in this community, it was a real help through lockdown being able to feel a part of a great and open social space like this :slight_smile:

If anyone would like a free download code please feel free to ask!

Much love and thanks for all the inspo x

36 Likes
#2

This is great work, really digging the sequencing and tones. Beautiful.

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#3

Thanks so much :slight_smile: Really kept the patching streamlined and straightforward on this one, and all melodies were actually very very simple! The heros were Verbos Harmonic Oscillator, DLD and Mimeophon.

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#4

Enjoying this a lot - thanks for sharing

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#5

Thanks for listening! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

#6

Really enjoying the production here, expertly done. Thanks

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#7

Appreciate that, thanks heaps! I kept the production relatively simple, really, mostly just stereo one takes straight out of the modular through a Meng Qi Please Exist :slight_smile:

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#8

Enjoying the album a lot here. Thank you for sharing.

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#9

I tend to rely heavily on recording separate tracks and a lot of post production to get mixes sounding good so it impresses me when folks get it sounding this good in a single mixed down take.

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#10

This is great! Exactly where my head is at right now.

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#11

Thanks @Jensu and @spacelordmother :heart:

@Byzero funnily enough I have tried recording modular as separate tracks (not recorded all at once though) and it just didn’t sit right for me and took away the magic! I treat my modular as an instrument more than a studio tool though, so perhaps that could explain something.

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#12

Very nice compositions, love the album art too!

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#13

Thank you! The artwork was done by my partner who used to be a fashion photographer in London and liked to use unusual film formats. This was made up from some very rare and out of date chocolate Polaroid film that she got as a gift a while ago. The images used were two photos that didn’t come out right, but had some beautiful textures, that were put together in Photoshop with some colouration.

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#14

Lovely, the image really does have an “analogue” feel to it.

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#15

Will this be on Apple Music?
Thanks!

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#17

@encym, she did the artwork for my last album too, same pack of Polaroid, a ghostly multiple exposure photo of an Australian native fir tree:

Echolalia Final Artwork
Echolalia Final Artwork1400×1400 1.11 MB

@eblomquist, it should be available on all streaming platforms by the 3rd :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#18

Great work! I especially like the transparency and intimacy that you have achieved - brings out nice detail.

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#19

agree with everyone above this is awesome. would love to hear more about some of the patches that went into this album and how the conceptual elements were reflected in compositional and synthesis techniques

also a big fan of your instagram presence (particularly in awe of the sounds in this video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAwk_m1HSaZ/)

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#20

Thanks so much @Joule and @muscat, I am very humbled by the positive feedback you have all offered! :heart:

@muscat, happy to write more about patching and concepts, anytime. Is there anything in particular you’d like me to write about?

I guess in a general sense, I’ve been exploring for the last couple of years what I can get out of using delays as a type of looper being a central part to how I compose sequences. By running quite simple, polymetric melodies through a delay, different elements in different times create a “more than the sum of its parts” kind of psychoacoustic effect, where each repeated layer from a delay makes it sound like much more is going on than there really is; a few different looped notes quickly becomes a complex harmony and counter melody.
This ties in with who I am on a very personal, creative level, both conceptually and in practice. My musical journey started almost 20 years ago with playing guitar and becoming obsessed with loopers and delays as a way to create rhythms, harmonies, and do things that would otherwise be impossible with a guitar.
For the fun of it, here’s a piece of music that I wrote as an 18 year old that shows where this compositional approach began:

So in a way I feel like after many years of trying different approaches to writing music (in bands and in my bedroom recording instruments layer by layer) I’ve come full circle back to where I started, but in a much more advanced and mature way. This is an approach to music that I’ve ruminated on a lot over the years! And relates with philosophical thoughts that I have about cycles/vibrations, as mentioned in my statement about this album. My last album was called Echolalia, based on similar compositional ideas and themes, and it took me a long time to put together and release (the oldest track was a year and a half old by time of release!). This felt really frustrating and I was really over it by the time it was out. So I took lockdown as a challenge to do the opposite and see if I could put together a release that isn’t overthought and overcooked, which was also helped by having a label offer a deadline for me to work to (Cold Tear Records). So all pieces on this release where written quite quickly, and were based on improvisation.
On a more personal level, I deal with thought loops and obsessions, at times in negative ways, and my music really helps with dealing with that. Lockdown really felt like every day was a repeat of the last, and so my modular obsessions helped to break those cycles too, as well as give me something more positive to obsess over. The opening track Arrears was written during a period when it was looking like my partner was going to lose her job and I was really anxious about being able to pay rent.

I could go on, but wow I’ve already written a lot! Haha.

2 Likes
#21

Thanks for that explanation! It’s cool to see the connection between the ideas you were exploring back as an 18 year old and the way you’ve developed them now :smile:. I’ve gotten really entranced recently with using delays as loopers and chaining multiple delay lines, so I definitely resonate with the techniques you mentioned aesthetically and also in the sense of getting stuck in these mental loops.

Glad to hear that you were able to execute quickly on this album and trust your gut!

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