Iris or Comfortable Too was my second album for Gears of Sand. For this record I limited my sound source to a grand piano which I recorded late one night my brother’s restaurant. The sounds are glitchy and frigid, but there are points of warmth and stillness deep inside.
Available from bandcamp
During the mid-2000s I played Gate (or Gate to Moon Base Alpha) every year as so. Coming off our Canadian tour, Ben Fleury-Steiner, William Fields, Aidan Baker and myself did a show in Philadelphia at GATE. I was experimenting with live looping using Casio SK-1, flute, melodica, effects pedals and Ableton Live. I was very happy with the results from this show. One of the pieces of this show became the track “Gate” from 2009’s vxvii which was then featured in Nora Gibson’s 2010 dance piece VESTED SOULS. Photo by William Fields.
Below is a recording from the performance that night:
In April of 2006 Gears of Sand label mates Ben Fleury-Steiner, William Fields and myself went on a mini-tour of Canada. It was a very fun trip. We made a stop at the legendary ambient music series “Ambient Ping” to do a show with the three of us, Pholde and Aidan Baker. Below is a recording of my set from The Ambient Ping. Mikronesia photo by William Fields, more photos from our trip can be found over at his page.
Tissue Paper Ghosts was my first official Mikronesia album released on Gear of Sand in February of 2006. The album is a loose concept album based on the psychic remains of a car crash. It was a real time capsule for where I was sonically at that time. It contains lots of DSP and computer based glitch processing of synthesizers, voices and percussion. The late musician, artist and spiritual traveler Flakes added some vocals to the track “Long Walk Up 611”. The album was very well received in the press and several choreographers have used tracks from TPG for their scores. Here’s a press release from Gear of Sand.
Tissue Paper Ghosts is a work of breathtaking ethereal ambient glitch. Mikronesia’s sound has flashes of Monolake and others in the world of clicks and cuts and trance-like minimal techno, but as a professionally trained musician with a keen sense of melody and rhythm he is able to really catapult his musical vision into a very special zone of listening. Originally released on Gears of Sand (GOS13).
Music and production: Mikronesia
Ghost vocals on “Long Walk Up 611”: Flakes
Mastered by Ben Fluery-Steiner
Available from bandcamp