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Guts
Of Darkness (CAN)
Syn this is the
synthesist David T. Dewdney. In 2002, he had impressed me with the
publication of his first opus Soundwave Traveller, classified 5th best EM title
of the year. At the time of an interview, he mentioned to
possess more than 70 hours of recordings. The Glass Bridge did therefore
leaves this gigantic musical bank that rests in the intrants of his
creativity.
After an intro very floating, where the synthetic strates multiply
themselves in softnesson of frugal laments, The Glass Bridge Parts I-III
animates itself towards the final minute with a curled sequencer
that recalls strangely the analogous dialect of Jean-Michel Jarre on
Equinoxe. Piercing the rhythm progresses on of beautiful ones put to bed
syntheticmellotron's, atmospheric percussions and a synthé blowing silky
synthetic agreementsand sharp, in the even grinds that Jean-Michel
Jarre on Magnetic Fields did. Shadowfall is a long title
floating and very atmospheric. A crossroads between Meddle of Pink Floyd and
Music for Airports of Brian Eno. Long, floating and very very touchy. Heart
of Orion is a long tiraillement between the dense atmospheres and
musical brightnesses that arise here and there, without really to taking
form.
Syn's Glass Bridge, well.. is a personal opus. The creation kind that
some says long on the character of an artist… Syn did big things, notably
all from the beginning. For a reason that I am unaware of, the personage
became bigger than its fans, than the music itself. This is an opus to the
unfinished atmospheres. A title that should have remained in the the
bank of Mr Dewdney. This squarely the production kind that did the
delights of the journalists, and columnists, that would want to fall to
shortened arm on the MÉ to disparage that this is cultural masturbation. Abstracted
art. I do not like negativism, but with The Glass Bridge, Syn uses the
reheated that already outfitted, fully and with more of originality, of
others tables.
Sylvain Lupari, Guts
Of Darkness - The French Website for Dark and Experimental music, 2006
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FutureRetro - Artist
Spotlight (USA)
We now intercept a transmission of
frequencies from Scotland's Syn303. Teleporting us back to the days when
acid was minimal.
Where did it all begin for you?
It all began for me when I was ten years old when I first heard Tangerine
Dream's 'Rubycon' at a relatives house, the music was very strange but
wonderful, from then on I became interested in electronic music and started
buying artists like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze etc on vinyl by the time
I was 12. And also when I was at High School they had a Roland Juno-6
synthesizer, and I persuaded them to let me have as much free time using it,
the thing that hooked me was the arpeggiator where you could create
arpeggios reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's complex polyrhythmic sequences.
How long have you been making music?
Well... since synthesizers, even secondhand, are still quite expensive to
buy, it took me a good few years to scrape the money together from working
and doing odd jobs to buy them. I started making music in the summer of
1996, I never learned to read or write music, as they taught classical music
at school which was boring. So i decided to teach myself the basics of music
and structure like chords and melodies. Later that year i started to do a
free-form of composition called 'Improvisation' where basically you just
make it up as you are recording, sometimes the results can be quite
remarkable or terrible. I have been making music for 10 years now and will
continue to do so.
You have a lot of experience using analogue gear, any past favorites in
particular?
Oh! I've been through quite a lot of synthesizers over the past 10 years, my
first synthesizer was a Roland JX-3P with the PG-200 programmer obtained
quite cheaply then a Roland Juno-60, a Korg MS-10 and some cheap digital
sequencers like a Kawai Q-80. Over that time i have been through lots of
makes of synths, still doing it yet, it's a thing people call GAS or gear
acquisition syndrome, but im not a collector, most musicians find it
difficult to settle on a favourite particular piece of gear and i'm one of
them.
My past favourites are the Roland Juno-60, MC-202, JX-3P, Korg MS-10. My
current favourites are my ARP Odyssey, Doepfer Modular, Roland TR-808 and
the Revolutions, my TB-303 tends to sit alone since the Revolutions arrived.
How would you describe your music?
My music is currently described or is under the genre of what you call Retro
or what is termed loosely as Berlin-School electronic music which is in the
same style as 70's Tangerine Dream, although this particular form of music
is not as quite as popular as the techno/minimal or the underground dance
scene. By merging the two styles of Retro and Techno I get the best of both
worlds and I can switch between the two of them when i like. However
listeners of my Retro-side as Syn, don't like the idea of me doing
minimalist-techno or acid as i have discovered. So I will move between both
genres.
What are some of the artists /genre's that have influenced your music?
The biggest influences on my music are Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze,
Richie Hawtin (funny enough Hawtin was a keen listener of early electronic
music at an early age) much like myself. 80's electro was another big
influence, a list of my influences can be found on my myspace website linked
below.
At what point did you start releasing your own original tracks?
Since I started making music in 1996, it took me 7 years before I got
anything released or that i had recorded, I found an EM (electronic music)
label in Germany called Spheric Music run by Lambert Ringlage www.sphericmusic.de
who released my debut long format CD album titled "Soundwave
Traveller". Then I was picked up by another German based EM label
called SynGate Records and they released a further six CD albums of my
music.
Under what names have you released music?
At the moment my music is released under my alias as SYN, as I have yet to
find a label to release my minimal-techno/acid recordings under my alias of
Syn303, hopefully someone will sign me up to release that side of me.
Are you currently signed to a label, or looking for one?
Yes I am signed to Spheric Music in Germany, and have an non-contract with
SynGate Records in Germany, with both these labels I can come and go as I
please without any restrictions.
What equipment do you use when making music?
Some musicians have a tendency to use everything they own in their
recordings, I tend to pick and choose the gear I want to use on a particular
track, if I don't require a certain synth or a drum machine, then i put it
away until it's needed. I tend to adopt the "Less is More"
approach to making music, having too much equipment around you becomes a big
distraction and you just end up playing around with it instead of recording
your efforts. Great pieces of music are lost cause you simply failed to hit
the record button.
How are the Revolutions incorporated in your setup?
They incorporate very nicely into my setup, both are linked together with
one doing basslines and one doing lead-line sequences and having the sync-24
outputs is an added bonus to drive my analogue drum machines or my lonely
TB-303 (not for sale).
Is there anything in particular that you like about the Revolution?
Yes, It's very easy to use, extremely flexible, it makes a great musical
sketchpad as well and in particular you can change your notes as it's
running, you can not do that on the TB-303. Although I don't use the Remix
functions, since I improvise a lot, I just change patterns on the fly, but
Jered has come up with a mighty contender to the TB-303, so well done in
that respect.
Is your music multitracked or recorded live?
Mostly multitracked, but entirely improvised. I do all my own recording,
mixing and mastering, I had to learn all those skills myself and I'm still
learning yet!
Do you have a particular working method when writing tracks?
No! If you try to write a track, it keeps on forever changing cause you dont
like this part or that part or you think it could be better, annoying
really. I don't write anything, except for keeping some notes of bits and
pieces of basslines or melodies I want to use at a later time, for now
improvisation works best for me.
How does the Revolution fit in with the way you work?
They are my main sequencers now, I have an analogue-type sequencer also, but
now it takes a backseat or I use the Revolutions to control that as well. I
find the Revolutions very flexible, although I would have liked the Revs to
have 32-steps instead of 16, but you can chain patterns together for the
same effect.
Do you have any plans to play live?
I have been offered to play live in the past, but it costs money to
flightcase your gear, take it with you, so I primarily remain a studio-based
musician.
Are there any new releases or tours coming soon that we should check out?
New releases, no not yet, i want to try and self-release some of my music,
as my labels are very picky about what music I do and if it's viable for
release or not. I don't do tours, not ready for that yet, probably get
stage-fright or something like that. But hopefully I will try and finish 2
new albums this year.
Any words of wisdom for those just starting out producing music?
Yes, it's not about making money, it's about your own personal enjoyment and
watching others getting enjoyment from listening to what you do. Too many
see it as a way to make easy money, it can take months or even years to be
properly acknowledged. Just do your own thing really. If you get personal
satisfaction from what you do then you know you're onto a good thing... And
finally keep on twiddling those knobs.
How would you like your music to develop in the future?
I've reached a certain stage of development already, but there are so many
different avenues or approaches you can take to developing your style. I was
doing full on electronic music and techno, but now I've started to strip
everything back and become more minimalist and let the listener fill the
empty spaces between notes and beats with their own thoughts.
Interview by Ben Mahayni, www.Future-Retro.com
- Artist Spotlight
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