Samuel Regan - Behind Veils (Unknown tones)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

The evolution of Samuel Regan's sound leaps forward from the primordial soup of his last LP, to a living breathing ecosystem. Hear the interdependence & co-existence of the electronic matter, warmed by distance solar rays in swirling ambient gases & watered by Unknown Tone Records.

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

A note from the label: 

We are happy to welcome back Oklahoma native Samuel Regan for the first single "Acousma" from the upcoming "Behind Veils" LP. Samuel has been attending Mills Collage in Oakland, CA and has also been busy with new aspirations in digital synthesis and sound design while pursuing his degree in electronic music. This work represents another milestone for the artist and we are pleased to share it with all of you. 

-Unknown Tone Records 


A note from the artist: 

Dear listener, 

I’m honored to offer my new album, Behind Veils, my first release since early 2018. I share it with pride as a culmination of visions and ideas and a taste of what might be to come. I think this has been the most intensive and challenging artistic project I’ve ever completed; as I write this, I’m equal-parts tired and happy. 

A few weeks after my last release, I came into possession of my first synthesizer, software instruments and a decent computer. The subsequent experimentation developed into a two-year trip into the foundations of synthesis and digital signal processing, which seem endowed with a certain infinitude yet fraught with illusions of control. There was a shift from employing my familiar production processes. After resisting electronics for years, I found myself intoxicated by evenings spent working and playing with them, in a manner that more resembled “drawing from life” or cooking from scratch than a collage or a found sound. 

As the project progressed, my vision followed an almost biological inspiration: to cultivate emergent sonic abstractions that breathe and behave with the magic of organicism. I wanted the recordings to diffuse enveloping, uncanny landscapes and fill them with characters and geometries viewed from imagined vantages, each one its own world. I hoped to guide the strangest and most elegant artifacts out into the daylight, and into arrangements that would would allow them to dance and unfold like gestures in their own language. The work is dialectical - as much a document of exploration as the unified arrangement of sound and concept into which it developed. Its subjects include qualia, ontology and the cognitive niche; the noumenal, phenomenal, and liminal spaces that afford fleeting glimpses of their hidden natures. I claim little originality in speaking to perennial themes and experiences. I can only offer these tracks as a product of immense devotion, joy and growth. An optimism runs through many of these sounds that won't always resonate, but they'll welcome you back… A dose of unreality can sometimes be the loveliest medicine. May it take you on a journey! 

With all I have, 
Samuel Regan  
Credits
Composed, performed, recorded and produced by Samuel Regan (winter 2018 to summer 2020) at Chateau Casa (Oklahoma City, OK) and the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College (Oakland, CA) 
Vocals by Kina Bazrbashi (Mary the Colorblind Scientist, Degrees of Freedom, Siren Cycle) 

Mixed and mastered by Samuel Regan 
Additional mastering by Christopher Davidson 
Artwork from Luca Pacioli’s “De Devina Proportione” drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci (1509) 
Visual concepting by Samuel Regan, layout and design by Mark Kuykendall 

Video credits 
1. Acousma - directed and produced by Samuel Regan 
2. Emergence - directed and produced by Samuel Regan 
3. Difference Potential - directed and produced by Samuel Regan and Eve Maret 
4. (space untitled) directed and produced by Samuel Regan 
5. Mary the Colorblind Scientist - directed and produced by Kristian Dahlbom and Samuel Regan, cinematography by Keith Lo Bue 
6. How I Knew Your Name - directed and produced by Mark Kuykendall 
7. Degrees of Freedom - Directed and produced by Maximilien Luc Proctor, additional cinematography by Samuel Regan 
8. Siren Cycle - directed and produced by Samuel Regan, cinematography by David Webber 
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