"Signals" is an electronic music piece created with modular synthesizer and sampled percussion. I almost titled it "Mixed Signals", since that's certainly what the universe seems to be sending out to me and the rest of us in times like these....
A lot of music gets called electronic music. Many if not most people today hear the term "electronic music" and assume it’s referring to EDM. Or, maybe to ambient, or again to something else specific. However, the term "electronic music" IMHO is not a genre itself (Wikipedia to the contrary); it encompasses all the above genres and then some. In short, it is music made using electronic and/or electromechanical means. To see an amazingly long listing of electronic music sub-genres, go to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_electronic_music_genres
Wikipedia also has a good overview of electronic music and its history (despite the “genre” reference…):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music
The first actual electronic music synthesizer I ever owned was the Aries Modular that is still in service in my studio. Prior to that I had played around with other people's instruments and built a few experimental circuits to generate sounds. My entire studio then consisted of the Aries, 2 Revox tape recorders, a microphone, and a decent set of headphones. Making music before more current MIDI or DAW e.g. computer sequencing was a very different approach for me than the process I most often tend to use now. I started with modular synthesizer gear, percussion, experimental/abstract concepts, and a tape recorder paradigm for recording workflow! I wanted to get back to using that older/original way of thinking about how I compose. This track, with impressionistic references to the balance of order and chaos we live in, has as a result a wide dynamic range and can be intrusive and disconcerting. Just as it was intended!
As for all of those sub-genres? "Signals" fits in at least a few of them, and I'll leave it to you to decide which.
Mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Sean Magee
released January 8, 2024
Recorded: MW Gilbert at Alibi's Little Corner studio in Amherst, MA
Mastered: Sean Magee (Abbey Road)
Artwork by MW Gilbert
Gibex 020 2024 (digital)