The Beauty of Decay

The Beauty of Decay is an experiment in low fidelity audio. My goal was to create a musical recording that sounded like it was in the process of decay; I feel there is an inherent beauty in the old and worn and a nostalgia with sounds from old analog equipment. Inspired in part by William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops", I combined digital and analog techniques to achieve a sound that is saturated with tape hiss, reel to reel artifacts, phonograph needle cracks-and-pops, and field recorded sound effects. One method included literally spooling 1/4" tape onto the floor and crumpling it up until it was creased, wrinkled and cut. Originally a full length record recorded in 2005, I never released it for some reason, maybe a doubt that it had a real voice or feeling. Eventually, I was able to re-imagine the project with this lo-fi aesthetic and I edited the album down to EP length, using only the material that lent itself to the new direction. Many thanks to my wife for waiting patiently while I fiddled with this album for 7 years, and to whoever owns the house on my street for not repainting it for at least that long.