A220 by Limestone Ziggurat

Originally released on the 1st of June in 2021 at Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, as a part of the second "PSI-SOLATION" compilation. I've written a lot about my adoration for both Campbell Kneale's music as Birchville Cat Motel/Our Love Will Destroy The World as well as his storied C/Psi/P imprint - without both Kneale's work as a musician and his operation of that label, none of my work under any moniker would be what it is today, and Milieu Music as a label might not exist either. So it follows that when Limestone Ziggurat was ready for the world as a new project of mine, it meant so much to me to be able to debut it at Kneale's label, and I cannot thank him enough for indulging me an album-length work submitted to his compilation to make this happen.

So why this piece, to start with? It wasn't really a completely unique or remarkable piece to debut an entire project with, but this was sort of the point at the time. I'd conceived of a project that would use primarily the modular system to make things as early as 2020, my thinking also coinciding with the pandemic, and at that time I wanted to let it gestate through various informal and primordial sessions (some have since been released as 'Adamantinarx' and the forthcoming 'Isotelus') in order to determine what the project would *actually* consist of, after the novelty of whatever self-imposed "newness" wore off and work continued in a more settled fashion.

"A220" was one of a crop of sessions from early 2021, which were strong indicators that Limestone Ziggurat had arrived. It was recorded live, and a broadcast of this session was attempted, but errors kept it from being usable and whatever visual record was made at the time has since been lost. The name and the sound both refer back to the sonic seed at the center of the recording - an A220 pitch in a test oscillator tone present in Behringer's 305 mixer, designed as a reference for tuning other oscillators against, which somewhat infamously does not remain in tune if it is left to oscillate.

This simple sinewave was both multed and re-processed through things like Clouds as well as augmented by other oscillators in the early modular system, such as the 3340 "Curtis chip" VCO and Cre8audio's Chips dual-oscillator, and more sinewaves via self-oscillating low-pass filters and phasers. There were multiple LFOs from Behringer and Dreadbox driven into the audible range, and Mutable Instruments' Rings was employed for thick resonant slabs that waft over the foundation of held-tones. I cannot remember exactly, but I may have also been using the "Blue Marvin" ARP 2600 remake from Behringer in this session too. I did not start keeping detailed patch notes until later on, and somehow, that missing information makes "A220" more interesting to me now.

Knowing I wanted to give "A220" a proper singular re-release now that LSZ has blossomed into what it is, I sat down last September to record a completely new take of "A220" using the system as it now exists. This session has been offered here in support of the first, labeled as "Phase II," and the very simple patch notes have been included in the track information. It consists of the same A220 test tone oscillator alongside three other Behringer sinewaves from the 1004, 921 and 140 modules - the latter being an LFO driven into the audible range.

This reissue also comes with a brilliant photograph taken by a friend on the other side of the globe who generously offered me her talents back when the project I wanted to use the image with didn't even have a name. It echoed a photo I took of my own backyard, and both are included on the physical edition of this set.

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