EARLABS 3

Composed between November 2006 and June 2007 by Jos Smolders (Tilburg, The Netherlands), Christopher McFall (Kansas City, USA), and Sascha Neudeck (Vienna, Austria). The composers have never met in person; all the material for this release was exchanged digitally. Mastered at EARLabs, Tilburg, 2008. The first collaboration was between Jos and Christopher. Sascha joined the project a while later. The initial material (two compositions) was prepared by each participant and then exchanged via a web server. The files were subsequently edited by each composer, often several times, until arriving at a mutually-satisfactory result. Christopher McFall says: 'I'm still thinking about how the three of us came together to create this project. A tricky endeavour. I will say that it's a very fitting synthesis of the predominant [stylistic] elements that each of us brings to the table. Sascha's workings seem beautifully controlled, exhibiting an elegant attention to tonal structures-static-like interrupts, coupled with exacting dynamic structuring. The field recordings that he used for this project are quite robust. Jos' compositions have a [distinctly clear] sound quality. The patterning in his works,especially those involving voice-based manipulations, is wonderfully pronounced in both character and dynamic. I see my own workings as dense textural arrangements and drone-based drifts. First edition of 300 copies.