Howdy folks, been outta town for a bit, but now I’m back and working on two new discs: “Minimalism” for the Optigan®, and “Marimba” for the Orchestron.

“Minimalism” is sort of a generic working title. It’s very specifically and shamelessly Philip Glass Ensemble (circa late 70s / early 80s) style chord patterns. But I don’t want to call it “Philip Glass” for potential legal reasons. Maybe I’ll call it something a little more clever like “MNMLSM” or “Half Full” or “Fill Up Glass” ok stop me before it’s too late… if anyone has any title suggestions, send ’em my way! This disc is intended to be more versatile than simply for churning out fake Glass riffs. Set at a slower speed, it can be used in a more ambient way, and I’ve specifically worked out the voicings and special effects tabs to allow for good sounding extended chords when you press more than one button (ie, Cmaj + Emin = Cmaj7). Also, the rhythms are varied enough that you can get some cool polyrhythmic effects, etc. At this point, the keyboard sound is going to be a solo female voice, singing vowels from the various solfege syllables. I haven’t recorded this yet, though, so we’ll see how it sounds.

The next Orchestron disc will also be the first NEW Orchestron sound since, oh, 1975 or thereabouts: “Marimba.” This is a sound from the Optigan® tape archives. Note that this is an actual recording of a REAL marimba, not the fake Lowery Organ “marimba” sound found on various Optigan® discs. This marimba has never appeared on any disc until now, and I thought it’d be great for the Orchestron.

As soon as I have satisfactory test discs of both of these titles, I’ll make demo recordings and start the pre-ordering!