WARFIRE WELFARE by John Oliver

WARFIRE WELFARE began as a concept album of protest art music decrying the desecration of our forests and oceans. As the music emerged, one improvisation after the next, the music became more terrifying, strident, and haunting, expanding its evocation from the wars of man against nature, to include the war of man against man.

…the warlords should no longer receive our welfare…

The climate crisis is exacerbated by the global military crisis. While creating the tracks "Forest Spirits" and "For the Birds", I imagined the creatures of the forests protesting the destruction of their habitat. Then came darker, more sinister tracks, that I eventually titled "Warfire." At the end of the process, I created new works that took the feeling of the Warfire tracks underwater, and so the Ocean Spirit tracks were born.

For those interested in the synthesis methods, I use the following:

NOON synthesizer, an incredibly volatile touch plate synthesizer by Landscape Instruments, is the star of this album, featured on every track.

LYRA*8 synth by SOMA Labs – an "organismic" synthesizer with untempered oscillators.

MOOG's Subharmonicon appears on Sea Death.

Eurorack modules (granular synthesis, sound generators, and filters.)

All tracks improvised in one take directly to disc.

John Oliver
Apr 7, 2023

electronic and soundscape music projects, ranging from classic musique concrète, to granular synthesis, and dark ambient. My instrumental and vocal music appears on several other labels and compilations. See my web site for details.

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