Doug Wyatt (left) and Christoffer Lundquist
Doug Wyatt, considered an innovator in the world of music technology design and programming as well as a musician and composer, is in the midst of creating a new, largely instrumental album by fusing high-tech and classic analog instruments and production techniques.
Christoffer Lundquist (Roxette, Ulf Lundell, Per Gessle, and Gylenne Tider) is producing the album, which is being recorded in Sweden at Lundquist’s studio, The Aerosol Grey Machine (AGM).
Justin Winokur, creative director and co-producer, states, “Our goal is to allow the music to be created on the right technology—we want to use the tools that each individual note begs for. Sure, we’ve used the new stuff found in most ambient and electronic music: Logic, Digital Performer, Absynth, the Access Virus, chopped up drum madness from Reason. But we’re also using classic instruments and production techniques such as analog tape, a live drummer, orchestral instruments and real echo chambers.”
The AGM Studios team will dig into old pump organs, tube amps, cembalo (an ancient instrument like a harpsichord, only bigger), Hammond and Wurlitzer organs, Rhodes electric piano, vintage distortion pedals, tape loops for analog delay, and several acoustic pianos and toy pianos. The album will be recorded to 40 tracks of analog tape—a 16-track and 24-track machine locked together—and will be mixed on an analog console with vintage analog outboard effects and dynamics.
Wyatt currently serves as an audio system software engineer at a high-tech company. He is best known for inventing several key music technologies including Open Music System (OMS) software, which he co-designed with Opcode founder Dave Oppenheim; inventing and programming Studio Patches and the Studio 5 MIDI interface firmware routing design; creating the Galaxy Universal Librarian and programming many of the now famous software editor/librarians for synthesizers such as the Yamaha DX7II and TX802, E-mu Proteus, and Kurzweil 1000 series.
“Normally the acoustic and electronic worlds have some objection to each other, but here they will be blended together seamlessly,” says Winokur of Wyatt’s latest musical endeavor. “The music bridges and marries an organic feeling with ambient and electronics so that the style isn’t defined by the gear itself. We hope the album appeals to listeners who may not have gravitated to ambient or electronica, but will welcome the addition of an analog, organic feel that may be more intellectually and emotionally accessible.”
The yet untitled album is slated for an October 2005 release.
For more information on Wyatt, visit www.dougwyatt.net. To learn more about AGM Studios, visit www.junkmusik.com/agm.html.
