Album Completion

The second Wende album/demo "Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft" is completed. I might make it available on this blogspot, and possibly a few other blogs in the near future. In addition, I hope someday to provide the option of purchasing a more complete product (booklet, lyrics, etc.) for a nominal fee. I am very proud of this album; it came out very close to what I set out to create, so many months ago. The whole album was mean to be "honest". There are lots of imperfections, and very little time or energy was spent on altering what went straight into the computer. There are no fade-ins or -outs, some slightly off guitar notes, a dropped stick, and even a nasal sniff on a vocal take. Basically what you hear is exactly what I was meant to play, in every sense of the word.

-Recorded through a Fostex MR-8mkII digital recorder, except vocals, which were recorded through a (very cheap) tape deck.
-All guitars were played on a Dean Evo Noir guitar, factory pick-ups, Eb standard tuning, with a single pick, now in possession of Dead Insomniac of Skinwalker.
-All distortion was provided by a Digitech "Death Metal" pedal, with both 1/4 inch outs used simultaneously. Level @ 12:00, Low @ 3:00, Mid @ 1:00, High @ 11:00.
-Bass was played on a Esp 5-string bass.
-Drums (unfortunately, as I would've preferred live drums, but such is apartment life) were played on a Yamaha DTxpress, Beech Custom factory preset.
-All keyboard parts played on a Yamaha DGX-505 portable grand.
-Background noise on tracks 2 and 6 public domain, found on internet.
-Background noise on track 4 is me walking around the north side of Rainy Lake, in the North Cascades, on 5-6 feet of snow.

This album/demo is very much inspired by philosophy. The lyrics and text outline aspects of my philosophy, but also what I believe to be a meaningful philosophy for others, and aspects of the philosophy of some of my favorite philosophers. My goal was two-fold: to create a repeatedly enjoyable album, and also to enunciate a meaningful and healthy morality that can be used and applied both personally and impersonally, toward all manner of situations.

Looking forward, the third Wende album/demo should be completed in about a year and a half (this seems to be the normal gestation period). I will also completely re-record my debut s/t album/demo, because I'm dissatisfied with how it came out, and I feel that I didn't do the music justice. Hopefully, I'll have that completed before summer is finished, then it's on to the third album/demo, which will be... different.

Zamiel - Feb. 14, 2011