CREDITS

Dave Skipper - electric and acoustic guitars, synths, sonic manipulations; recording, mixing and production; artwork and design.
Vaz - tablas on tracks 2 & 6.
Matt Neighbour - photography of Dave Skipper.
David Heath - hints and tips.
Matt Osgood - mastering.
Gavin Courtney - web programming.
Merv Pepler (Eat Static) - provision of Korg Prophecy.
Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles) - provision of Pickboy guitar pick.
Karen Edwards - flute on track 5.

ESSENCE
n. 'that which makes a thing what it is'

Debut album which encapsulates the substance of my musical direction. Note the temporal palindromicity of the entire album. Also look out for the non-4/4 time signatures used in different places, and the variety of modes and scales utilised. No samples or pre-set synth sounds/loops were used: all synth parts are completely original patches created on the Alesis Andromeda (plus a few on the Korg Prophecy). The bulk of the lead guitar parts were improvised or semi-improvised.

NASCENT 2:40
adj. 'being born'

Syle: synth-based free-form ambience focussing on a tantalising lead guitar solo. The beginning of my recorded output as well as of the album. The underlying pad sound was recorded first, then the guitar solo was improvised in one take. All the other parts were layered around this guitar solo template. Note the small wooden flutey-thing played in the middle, and my alien vocal noises at the start and end of the track!

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SPUMESCENT 5:40
adj. 'producing froth'

Style: frenetic synth sequencing with extended energetic guitar solo. All in 15/16 until the final (more free-form) section. The trickiest part in creating this track was layering the sequenced rhythms in a way that sounded coherent and purposeful.

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INTUMESCENT 10:10
adj. 'bubbling up'

Style: progressive acoustic/electric instrumental rock, laced with Satriani/Nuno-esque guitar soloing. Essentially an ABA structure (west-east-west, like nascent). 12-string guitar was recorded first, then rhythm parts were all recorded manually one part at a time. Lead guitar semi-improvised. Note the doubled lead guitar in parts of the middle section.

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QUIESCENT 7:44
adj. 'resting, dormant'

Style: chilled mutant electronica with off-the-wall guitar and tinges of light industrial. The relative peace and calm at the heart of the album. Morphs through several different sections. Note the phrasing of bars in clusters of 3 (rather than 4) in the first sections. Second half is in 5/4. Forming smooth transitions between the sections was the major challenge on this track.

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IRASCENT 10:10
adj. 'becoming angry'

Style: progressive acoustic/electric instrumental rock with strong eastern flavours. A concoction of aggressive, syncopated 12-string riffs. A rawer sounding track, with less synth noises flying around than on other tracks. The lead guitar was recorded with a harmoniser to give a fuller sound, and to contrast with the soloing on other tracks. Intumescent determined the length of this track, so it was a challenge to structure dynamically and coherently.

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FERVESCENT 5:40
adj. 'feverish'

Style: experimental electronic/ rhythmic excursion with wild electric guitar. Started off with just the tablas recorded, having asked Vaz to just go manically wherever he wished to for a couple of minutes. I wanted a piece with particularly extreme squelches, frantic tabla rhythms and over-the-edge guitaring. The guitar focuses on whammy-bar and whammy-pedal (pitch-shifter) abuse.

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EVANESCENT 2:40
adj. 'fading away'

Style: ambient guitar noodlings. The chilled-out album closer that literally fades to silence. The lead guitar flurries have been time-reversed to add to the track’s atmospheric nature. The underlying pad sound was created from the pad sound used on nascent.

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