Horizontals V by Milieu

Sometimes I find things without looking for them, and this notion becomes especially apparent when I am going through older sessions and archived material seeking a specific recording, and something turns my ear in such a way that it feels entirely new again, and in that small moment, I can see and hear everything that could branch apart from that sound, like glimpsing a possible future in a vision.

"Horizontals V" emerged from one such moment, while I was perusing some six-operator FM synthesizer tracks from as far back as 2016, when I still lived in South Carolina. These pieces were prototypical things, at the time made for mulching and composting in the early Telekomm tracks, most of which remain unreleased today, for no specific reason at all. Some of these pieces led to the development of the "Daughter" album couple years later, but in 2016 FM synthesis was still quite arcane to me, and I used it experimentally.

While flipping through files from these sessions, my ear latched onto a certain three-note sequence, and I immediately cut a loop and saved it separately. That loop was then arranged in the left, right and center stereo channels in three different pitch iterations, and subtly filtered and delayed via Waldorf's D-Pole, with supplemental shaping from Airwindows and Arturia's Mello-Fi. "Horizontals V" is like three loop studies all playing at once, sometimes gathering in a beautiful chordal unison, and at other times, falling apart beautifully in a dreamlike drift.

It's an interesting feeling, to go back to old things and find new ones, and then step away and realize that you're never really a creator of anything, but merely the discoverer, and that the very real possibility exists that I have long since recorded more than enough sound to tape, and for the rest of my lifetime, and perhaps many others, I could walk back through those landscapes and find myself a stranger.

Tracklist

1.	Horizontals V	61:06

Credits

released January 25, 2025

W/P by Brian Grainger. Initially recorded at Botany Bay, 30th May 2016, using the Synprez six-operator FM synthesizer. Secondary arrangement and processing completed at White Pillar on 10th November 2024. Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Text by Brian. Design by ABM&D. This is Milieu Music number AVB102, the 102nd session in the Vibratelepathos catalog. (C) + (P) Oscillog ASCAP 2025. All nights preserved.

License