videographer/sound designer/musician/human.

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Dystopian electronic project Detraction has a new album out. This one fascinatingly introduces pop sensibilities through trip hop beats that weave in and out of the experimental, dense soundscapes. As a concept the whole thing feels like one is retrieving fond moments out of distorted dreams. The final track drones on as if the dreams are becoming more vivid until ultimately they wither away. Detraction juxtaposes joy and dysphoria in a poignant way.

via/Breaking And Entering https://breakingandentering.net/2021/09/02/audio-detraction-umami-land/

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This is a complex album. Production started in October of 2020, then it became a collaboration and then became a type of retrospective when unfinished tracks from 2017 were added and remixed. Umami Land is more or less a meta-album, spanning 4 years of input marked by collaborating with outside influences. It was a difficult recording to archive, and it had many phases in development. At one point it was almost decommissioned, yet the ice thawed and necessary improvements were acknowledged. Umami Land became a conglomeration of forces ranging from past/present/foreign input and output methodologies marked by a cohesive flow of texts, emojis and other goodness.
It’s not a perfect album by any means, yet it strives for the Sun.
I hope you all enjoy this splendid round of recordings.

A very heavy thanks to Matt Dardis, my prime co-conspirator on two tracks in this venture, and his profoundly-relentless artistry, meticulous track engineering and super-sense of humor. And a heavy thanks to Pat Glassel for letting me remix his ‘Quench the orange sun’ [a] into unrecognizable certainty, and for his grace on opening its release for this album.

All proceeds from this album are going to The Humane Society International until the end of time. Both collaborators wanted no monetary cut from this venture, so I focused on what we all love, that of the welfare of all animals large and small.

Track listing and attributes [b]:

1) Nostalgia (Dubec/2020)
2) [anxiety feeds paranoia] assassins at every corner (Dubec/2020)
3) Ritual (Dardis/Dubec/2020)
4) I’ll always love you (Dubec/2020)
5) On three legs (Dubec/2017-2021)
6) Apophenia (Dardis/Dubec/2020)
7) Everyone referred to him as Colonel (Dubec/2017-2021)
8) Syntax and Memory (Dubec/Glassel/2019)

Esoteric titles/design nomenclatures:

1) Nostalgia 102120 V4 – 8:1:21, 12.52 AM
2) [anxiety feeds paranoia] assassins at every corner 101120 PS v4
4) I’ll always love you 110320 102120 re ps rev 3 – 7:11:21, 12.12 AM
5) On three legs 072917v7 – 8:8:21, 12.50 AM
6) Apophenia/Rebirth (Dardis/Dubec) v2 – 8:5:21, 10.07 PM CUT
7) Everyone referred to him as Colonel 071117 [2021 redux 070421] vol adjust 082721
8) Syntax and Memory (Dubec/Glassel) QUENCH April 23, 2019, 9.24 PM CUT

Collaboration notes:

1) Ritual (Dardis/Dubec/2020)
Dardis supplied all source material, and Dubec stretched, reversed, layered, added some tambourine and conceptualized the final mix.

2) Apophenia (Dardis/Dubec/2020)
Dardis supplied all source material, and Dubec stretched, reversed, layered and conceptualized the final mix.

3) Syntax and Memory (Dubec/Glassel/2019)
Glassel supplied ‘Quench the orange sun’ [a], and Dubec added rhythm, synth, stretch, layering and final mix.

Final Notes:
[a] ‘Quench the orange sun’ by Perplexions:
https://soundcloud.com/user-164068566/quench-the-orange-sun

[b] collaborators are in alphabetical order, followed by year

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Sometimes time slips by.
Sometimes it rewinds,
and collects unspent energy.
Either way, time is a resource,
a curse, a pathway
into willingness
stillness, and procrastination.
Either way,
Time is itself
and you are
just Time in the Making.

060321

It’s happened before, yet how will it happen again?
Perhaps it will be done before it has started?
Perhaps it’s done and finished?
Perhaps it’s finished and no-one will notice.
Thus is creation, its own reflection,
incomplete science jettisons us
straight into absurdity.

060321 v2

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Spring is passing!
Birds are singing, fish weeping
With tearful eyes.

Matsuo Bashō, Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi, 奥の細道)

Such wonderful introspective qualities in all of Bashō’s work, where spirituality meets the Earth, like lightning creating an arc of light over the horizon. Then there’s Issa (Cup of Tea), another Haiku poet that I love, for his material tends to speak for the voiceless, and transcends the earthly realm, being earthly nonetheless, and like Basho, Issa’s work contains a heavy amount of voidness and beauty.

Even with insects—
some can sing,
some can’t.

Kobayashi Issa [all the time I pray to Buddha]

And my favorite of all time:

On a branch
floating downriver
a cricket, singing.

Kobayashi Issa [On a branch …]

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Breaking And Entering reviewed the video ‘Progression’ from the album ‘above/so below’ with some kind words:

Experimental electronic artist Detraction has a new video out from his recent album “As Above/So Below.” It begins with a slow-motion shot of a snow shower on a busy Milwaukee street, eventually switching to a rain shot filmed in reverse. In the second half, close-ups of the puddles flowing down the curbs reflect a fascination by perpetual motion of matter. Then we are taken into Fresh Thyme Market, where people are lined up with their groceries, ending with a shot of a big unicorn balloon. It seems to be a commentary about the movement of society against the elements while other objects remain perfectly still. Detraction is working on another album due out later this year.

https://breakingandentering.net/2021/05/28/video-detraction-progression/

Once again, big thank you to Ben Slowey and your pure words. Thank you once again.

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You’re ever so multilayered,
and complex in design.
Your breath is music,
as is your skin,
a beautiful canvas
resisting gravity,
and its
past trauma.
You are effervescent,
and thought provoking.
One with history,
and enlightening
trajectories in the making.
You are a child of the universe.
Born from the need,
for a better future and home,
for all sentient beings and distant cousins,
beyond Here/Now.
Yes, you are loved,
forever and always.
Just continue being
who you are,
and strive for the Light.

And

Life is a sequence of events,
as are thoughts.
One can be edited,
in real time, as
the other tends, to
fade quick and,
jump out of
step.
Eventually nothing makes sense,
to the observer,
the observed,
and so on.
We live in a dream.

via/030421-042621