Stripped by Brynen Sosa

Brynen Sosa, known for his lavish orchestrations, taste for absurdity, and technical prowess, attempts a different approach with "Stripped". A much more direct and intimate sound, this acoustic EP proves he is equally capable of giving us simple, yet effective songs with staying power.

"After the sonic onslaught of the 4th Mythology album, "All The Planets Have Aligned", I wanted my next project to be quite the opposite. Sparse, immediate, direct, and lyric driven. Or, stripped, if you prefer! Sometimes I like to put limiting exercises on myself, because if left to my own devices, I tend to make compositions and arrangements very lush and dense. For this recording, I had two self imposed limits:

- Tune your acoustic down a half step to Eb standard.
- No song can take you more than 20 minutes to write. Both words and music.

With those limitations, I sat down in late September 2018 and concocted 4 songs on the spot. One song "On Second Thought", was written around 2010, but with the same limitations, so I thought I'd include it here!

As far as engineering goes, there was also a limiting exercise: one acoustic guitar track, one vocal track. No overdubbing, no comping, no editing. Much of what you hear on this EP are first takes. Not everything, but enough to mention.

Everything you hear was recorded at my home studio in Vernon Township, NJ, which I have since dubbed "Oblique Studios". I hope to make hundreds of more recordings at Oblique in the future of varying styles. This is the start of that idea!"

- Brynen Sosa

New Jersey composer, guitarist, vocalist Brynen Sosa share his inner most thoughts with us. No matter how esoteric, goofy, or offensive they may be!