Mick Chillage - A Moog & A Kalimba (2020)

In early August 2020 I was tinkering with my rather basic 5 note Kalimba, I liked the harmonic tones I was getting from it by strumming it and letting my fingernails drag over its keys or lamellas as they are known as, playing randomly and rhythmically.
I decided to record an improvised session using my Zoom H1 recorder.

I imported the recordings into Ableton live and started to manipulate the recordings in various ways, which created an eerie/alien like metallic sound which became the foundation of the track.

I then turned to the Moog Grandmother and tuned it to the manipulated Kalimba and began creating various patches, improvising and recording and multi tracking until I had a structure that began to work for me.

For additional depth, I turned to the Prophet Rev2 and I created some polyphonic atmospheres/drones that shift and became the second foundation.

Once I had enough elements to play around with I began to arrange the individual performances/recordings with the hope that the elements would work as a long form piece.

During this time, the track seemed to take on a life of its own, the mixing and arranging seemed almost effortless a synergy of acoustic, analogue & digital technology resulting in an alien yet haunting feel but with a sense of hope and optimism.