Category: Anderhill

Falling in and out of Consciousness

Here’s another album by A Cult of Lies. This dark ambient/drone album includes three previously-released tracks and two new compositions. Purity, Uncharted Waters, and In the Direction of the Apparent Course of the Sun were all released as singles in the past few months. I’ve recently composed two new tracks to complete the album.

The two new tracks are titled Falling in and out of Consciousness and Subatomic. Although I didn’t set out to have a theme to this album, it seems to explore the idea of attempting to understand the subconscious mind through tones and textures, guiding the listener on a journey into the unknown.

The photo is an experimental image of a lighthouse at night on the coast of Maine. – dse

Pop, Smack, Sugar: Pure Digital from Pop to Death

Here’s the first Anderhill release of 2024. Pop, Smack, Sugar: Pure Digital from Pop to Death is an experimental electronic album that explores pop and post-pop sounds. You’ll hear the classic sound of Anderhill’s electronic sax, but the overall sound splits ways from older Anderhill with big drums.

I’ve been musically blessed and cursed with a heavy pop influence my entire life. Both as a songwriter and a composer, it seems no matter how hard I try, pop always bleeds through into my musical compositions.

So, for this project, I decided to embrace that pop curse and use heavy drums with a straight-up pop sound. Working fully inside of the digital audio workshop, I strictly use digital sounds only. This is ironic as I’ve recently built an all-analog guitar-pedal rig, and I’m a much bigger fan of analog than digital.

The song titles were simply chosen as a mostly-random list. However, “Pop” and “Death” were purposely chosen. The photo was taken at Old Orchard Beach, Maine on a cold winter day.

Listen and enjoy. – dse

In the Direction of the Apparent Course of the Sun

A while back, I said I would compose a new album using the aleatoric method before the end of the winter. Life has been busy and that may not happen. But I wanted to at least get a single in the can to start 2024.

This is new work by A Cult of Lies: In the Direction of the Apparent Course of the Sun. 

I used the aleatoric method to choose some parameters for this piece. I used a 12-sided die to decide the number of sounds and notes used. The number is five. I rolled for 5 of 12 sounds and five notes.

Sounds: piano, bass, electronic voices, human voice, mallets
Notes: D, E, F, Bb, B.

The track is heavily effected with reverb and delay to get the ambient and noisy sound.

The title is the definition of an old British word: Deasil. The word was used to describe correct direction or luck. Ironically, the photo was taken on a foggy day with no view of the sun.

I’m currently working on putting together a new series of effects pedals for electric guitar. Expect a project that incorporates electric guitar sounds and electronic amp noise later in 2024. – dse

The Sound of Household Appliances

People make jokes about recording the refrigerator or the dishwasher and calling it ambient music.

There’s actually some truth to the idea. The third EP that I composed as Anderhill incorporates a washing machine and a dryer.  The 2019 EP is called We All Must Rise. It includes the tracks “Washing It All Away” and “Deep Cycles.”

When I first made these tracks, I was just experimenting. It was fun. As I continued to compose and produce ambient music, I realized that the tracks were good ambient/drone tracks.

In 2020, I decided to create long versions of “Washing It All Away” and “Deep Cycles.” The result is the two-track, 20-minute EP, Laundry.

These two early Anderhill compositions helped to create the experimental foundation of my work in electronic music.

Using household appliances in my music has become fairly common. Heaters, fans, and refrigerators can all be heard in Anderhill music. Take a listen and enjoy. – dse

Spellbound

In 2022, the last track of the year was Non, an odd (non)musical piece with heavy effects. This year’s final Anderhill track is made of similar cloth. Spellbound is barely held together by a thread.

I titled it Spellbound because it sounds like someone is spelling words out throughout the entire track. This year’s final composition is a little more musical than last year’s Non.

You can hear classic Anderhill tones in the mix that go clear back to 2019’s Time & Texture EP. You can even hear a touch of the 80’s sound of Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings” in the mix. But this track is much more psychedelic than either of those examples.

The photo is my own abstract photography of Portland Maine at night taken from South Portland across the Casco Bay.

Although I might not put as much focus on experimental electronic music in 2024, you can expect some new Anderhill compositions. For now, enjoy the last track of 2023. – dse

Portrait of An Abstract Personality w/Ghost On This Earth

After I composed six tracks that you can check out on my Anderhill album  Zero to One, I sent them to Ghost On This Earth to tweak at will. The result is this dark ambient album with some unique and quirky sounds in the mix.

This is Portrait of An Abstract Personality, a collaborative project of Anderhill and Ghost On This Earth.

The cover art is an original drawing from Ghost On This Earth.

I gave Ghost On This Earth full creative freedom with my sounds from Zero to One. I said, “you can cut it up into pieces, slow it down, speed it up, reverse it, change keys, layer over or under, whatever. Have fun with it.”

Here’s what Ghost On This Earth told me, “I believe I took two parts from each track, (from Zero to One), via the slice tool and I added effects. Basically, I used a lot of reverb and reverb decay and a lot of equalizer treatment on high-pitched parts, and also a low-pass filter. Automation clips also played a big role in the production.”

Ghost On This Earth added, “I took inspiration from artists such as Eno and Ekoplex.”

The result is the dark ambient album Portrait of An Abstract Personality. It was a fun and fast project. Maybe we’ll do more in the future. – dse