Michael Whalen - Sacred Spaces (2020)

Sacred Spaces has been an album many years in the making. First, it started as a classical project in the late 2000s. Michael thought that he would write a "string symphony" based on his search for spiritual path. A three-movement piece was plotted and a number of musical themes were developed... and then nothing for years. In 2018, Michael picked-up the project again but decided to put the classical treatment aside in favor of a large scale electronic project. He picked some of the existing melodic material to work on for the recording. He then started to create sounds for the project. Over three months, he created over 800 sounds, textures, loops and timbres. "After working on thousands commercials for over 30 years" Michael says, "I am not sure how many of my listeners know how much sound design work I have done. Honestly, sound design is a skill that is at the same level as my melodic skills - I think. I am surprised how many new timbres I made that I had never created before. A whole new palette. Once I had the sounds all set, the album happened very quickly."