Celer - Trance States (2016)

If you're familiar with working with fm synthesis, you probably know that at one point or another, trying things randomly is one of the best ways to come up with something unexpected. I was working on some pieces for electric piano, and just to make the sustain easier to manage, I put the keyboard on top of it. After changing a few settings, and playing some notes, I found that they continued endlessly (as long as the pedal remained depressed), and the different combinations of keys created very disorienting, yet beautiful layers. Some combinations seemed to work really well, and others didn't - even chords and proper key combinations didn't always sound good. Again, random worked.

These are home recordings in preparation for a live setting for a show in Tokyo with Fabio Perletta in 2015. It worked more or less - but it all depends on the environment, or which way you turn your head.

'Trance States' was recorded on a Yamaha DX7, DX5, and DX100, a permanently depressed sustain pedal, and no effects or post production. Included below is a DX7 patch from one of the tracks.