Collin Sherman - Organism Made Luminous (2022)

On my fourteenth release, "Organism Made Luminous", I use the same process I have used on past releases, where I play all of the instruments myself and overlay the parts. This album is more synth- and electronics-heavy than my last several albums; while earlier albums certainly used synths and other electronics, the overall impression on "Organism Made Luminous" is that the electronics are more noticeable on more pieces than on my last couple albums.

“Failed Deontological Promise, or The Haphazard Application of the Rule of Law” opens the album with a wide-open section tentatively colored in by numerous synths and horns. The piece ramps up in intensity as the first section ends and, rather than a written melody, the horns come in together with forceful, cacophonous trills before beginning the solo sections.

“Across Three Fields” features a jagged melody voiced by the alto sax, with soprano sax and bass clarinet harmonies, over a simple three-chord progression outlined by a repetitive vibraphone vamp.

“Hegemonic Virtues” is a lively, busy workout for the soprano sax and Moog synthesizer.

“Dialectic Rejected” is a slower, moodier piece featuring a twangy guitar melody vaguely reminiscent of surf rock, only slower.

“Says Flowers” closes the first half of the album with a duet for alto sax and bowed Fender Telecaster.

“Late Edition” features alto sax and numerous synths. It’s notable that all the percussion sounds on this piece were created by a typewriter and loaded into electronic drum software to create the desired rhythms.

“Glassine and Glycerin” is another synth-heavy piece, with dense layers of sound broken apart with grain effects filters. This harkens back to my early ambient electronic albums a bit. Here, there is an alto sax soloing through the layered sound field, but the sax is recorded through the filter and envelope of an analog synthesizer, with the gate being triggered semi-randomly through an external control voltage signal. The sax voice is thus chopped up and mangled, which creates a fitting organic contrast to the dense electronic background.

“Space Mission of the Immortals” has this title because I think the melody, blasted out in unison by horns and synths simultaneously, has a sort of soaring, epic quality similar to sci-fi space operas of yesteryear.

The album closes with “Signal Isolation”, another sparse piece similar to “Says Flowers”, but this time featuring soprano sax, bowed electric box guitar with three cello strings, and some high-tone chirps from a modular synth.

I hope you enjoy this music, and thank you for listening.

-Collin Sherman, July 2022