Dark Equilibrium Track by Track
I often ponder hauntology, by that I mean possible futures that were possible but didn’t happen.
It strikes me that an infinite number of different futures is possible at any given moment.
These themes trouble me and sometimes keep me awake at night; War and it’s consequences; climate crisis and the lack of action; alternative futures, all in all some, very real, ghostly moments in between sleep and awakening.
- Looming Deep 8:13
- Winter Solstice Für Letze Generation 4:05
- Sharp Symphony 01:56
- Awakening 5:15
- Drive out the Devil 8:13
- Fern Unfurling 01:50
- Slow Return to Zero 6:20
- Aviator (album version)7:20
- Futures 7.30
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Looming Deep
Imagine the sound of an ice shelf collapse, imagine the dark freezing, foreboding waters, the rush of a huge wave heading away to devastate a low lying island. Imagine the terror of the islanders, fleeing to unwelcome refuge in the UK, or staying to face certain death, trapped, unable to ride out the wave, or hide.
This is the stuff of nightmares that becomes inevitable with every day of carbon increase. In some places it’s already a reality.
Looming deep is a metaphor for where we will all end.
Winter Solstice Für Letze Generation
Winter Solstice always conjures up a feeling of unease, bring in the flock, batten down the hatches, one last big feast before the winter bites. In another part of the world people (Die Letze Generation)are defying winters icy tears to protest, taking to the streets, using every opportunity available to them to raise awareness and consciousness about the climate emergency. This is my tribute to them,the self titled Last Generation in Germany, and to Extinction Rebellion in the UK. What if they are the last generation? Such sadness fills my heart at this prospect I can hardly speak. I have such admiration for their bravery in the face of overwhelming public denial and government inactivity.
I hope with all my heart they are not the last generation, but if they are at least they can say they tried, they truly did.
Sharp Symphony
An ode to identity and consciousness. I learned that every time we fall asleep, when we awake, we reinvent ourselves, our identity from scratch. This means we can completely reinvent ourselves if we wish. As an aspiring electronic artist I find this concept really exciting. I hope that the joy of waking up today as the person you want to be is felt strongly in this tune.
Awakening
Slowly but surely the people are getting the message, positively making the right choices and turning the tide, if we get twenty five percent it’s possible we can change history. It’s a slow lumbering awakening, like a landslide, hopefully once in motion unstoppable. Whether it’s too late we cannot know. But the snowball is slowly rolling and gradually gaining pace.
Drive out the Devil
In some people’s heads, disease and pandemics are believed to be the work of satan or a conspiracy. For these people there is no hope, they are delusional and sadly if a pandemic like Ebola hits, then they will die without vaccination. Even in less lethal cases they are at great risk and, put other people, even their own loved ones at great risk.
This is dedicated to their victims, for whom the dancing, singing, and praying to ‘drive out the devil’ sadly didn’t work.
Fern Unfurling (further explanation elsewhere in this blog)
This is the sonification of an image by Paul Giblin, Paul sketched the fern as part of a larger exhibition auctioned for a cancer charity. I used sonic scanning to turn the image into a synth patch. From that emerged this combination of chords. A short but sweet ode to nature and it’s beauty.
Slow return to Zero
After lockdown all the politicians were trying to enthuse everyone to return to whatever so called ‘normal’ was for them. Personally I believed, and still do, that there never was a normal, and I also know life will never be the same again for many people, especially those who lost a loved one to covid for whom I feel incredibly sad.
This is my sunny riposte to those politicians, it’s a slow return to zero, zero in this case is my belief in peoples will or ability to conform to populist stereotypes, they never have, they never will and I love them all the more for that.
Also Definition; Return-to-zero (RZ or RTZ) describes a line code used in telecommunications signals in which the signal drops (returns) to zero between each pulse. This takes place even if a number of consecutive 0s or 1s occur in the signal
Aviator (further details elsewhere in this blog)
Inspiration for the Aviator
I have a tattoo on my arm, part of a montage, its an aviator. I don’t know why exactly, but the tragic story of my uncle Terry, told to me when I was a small boy, stuck in my mind. A kind of moral warning not to behave irrationally.
Sadly, just as with my grandfather who died between the wars, I never met uncle Terry. He tragically crashed his aircraft between the wars in a freak accident. Try as I might I’ve never found any details of the crash, or of his military service, or very sadly where he is buried. (Also strange is my grandfathers story from the navy, but that’s for another time).
Futures
An infinite number of futures are possible at any moment in time. When I first began to comprehend this it blew my mind. I realised that in an instant humanity could shape the future. So many wrong turns, unrealised futures, regressive acts have led us to very negative consequences. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can, either collectively or individually, imagine positive, progressive futures and bring them into being simply with our thoughts, imagination and ingenuity. Why we choose the opposite I cannot grasp, this leads to a slightly melancholy theme, where the image is beautiful, but the music is yearning for something unreachable
Lillian Smith
"If you take people to the edge of a void in which nothing is familiar and the outcome is uncertain then they will kick and scream"
David Toop Into the maelstrom P8
"Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness"
Nabakov memoirs Speak memory
Album written, performed and produced by JoeKBaker
Mastered by Antony at RedRedPaw
©️All rights reserved GH records and SAS records
Thanks to Laura Rose-Baker, Paul Giblin, Vinnie Grist, Daryl Coles, Phonic FM and the Future Sound of Exeter for your support and, of course, all those influences and friends too many to mention
Spine: Dark Equilibrium:PolarVoidX: GH14 SAS 16
