Ranges Undreamt by Milieu

'Ranges Undreamt' is the first Vibra session with the 1983 Korg Poly 800 synthesizer, playing the Mixolydian scale with sequencing from Arturia's Keystep Pro, in conjunction with some filtering, FX processing and granular resampling within the R-EW Audioholistics modular system.

The Poly 800 is a widely known synthesizer, either loved or forgotten, and could be graciously considered the "poor man's Juno" (likely because both machines utilize digital oscillators, analog filters and similar chorus FX, as well as multi-voice polyphony) - although, as I am now fortunate enough to possess both machines, I can unequivocally state that my experience with the two machines has been entirely different.

Both have featured quite prolifically on many different Milieu and CH recordings, performing every melodic duty one can imagine, from bass to chordal keys to lead lines and long pad sections, but the Poly 800 has such a distinct voice and timbral profile that I find myself reaching for it quite often for its emotive expression rather than a simple utility to be performed, as I might consider an analog subtractive.

The piece offered here is a picturesque scene of three distant mountain peaks, stoic and snow-capped, forming a wall beyond which unmapped ranges continue. Holy mountains, being a concept shared by many different world cultures, no doubt influence many facets of art, music and philosophy, and these are potent considerations set before us in the natural world, which I feel deserve to be contemplated. Whether or not they are deific in any sense is beside the point, the focus here being a sensation that you are not the center of your world, that things far older and larger than you exist, and it is worthwhile to examine your placement alongside them.

Beyond these mountains that we have lived in the shadow of across epochs, could there be even more profound monuments? The mountains we can see beckon us to imagine the borderlands we cannot, and what is the creative act if not capable of imagining somewhere we have never been? In this act of subconscious communion, we can express things that are otherwise unimaginable, impossible to define, unheard, unwritten and unseen. Do we not then owe that wall of mountains an offering of gratitude for first giving us the reason to dream what lies beyond them?

Tracklist

1.	Ranges Undreamt	213:24

Credits

released December 20, 2023

W/P by Brian Grainger. Recorded at White Pillar, December 13 2023 using the Korg Poly 800, the Arturia Keystep Pro and the R-EW Audioholistics modular system. Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Text by Brian. Design by ABM&D. This is Milieu Music number AVB78, #78 in the Vibratelepathos catalog. (C) + (P) Oscillog ASCAP 2023. All nights preserved.

License