Ghost Harmonic - Codex - Music CD

Ghost Harmonic are violinist Diana Yukawa and electronic pioneers JohnFoxx and Benge (John Foxx and the Maths). Working at Benge'sMemeTune Studios in Shoreditch, London, they combined the purity of Yukawa'sviolin with the complexity and textured noise of analog machinery. As Benge putsit, "there is something very satisfying about combining Diana's beautiful 17thCentury violin with a subsonic tone-blast from a Moog Modular." "It was fairlyopen," says John Foxx, "but I guess the underlying intention was we all wanted tosee what might happen when a classically trained musician engaged with some ofthe possibilities a modern recording studio can offer... multi-tracking, vast notionalspaces, long echoes, looping, retuning, layering, synthesisers, sound effects,vintage and cheap equipment etc. Also we wanted to improvise, since that seldomhappens in the classical world. Diana was a welcome revelation... She picked upthemes immediately and took them off in all directions. Very exhilarating." "Therewas a really good flow between us all," explains Diana. "You never know what toexpect in the beginning, creating a new dynamic between three different peoplebut I think it's our different backgrounds and influences that made everything cometogether with such fluidity." Using a tape delay system, Yukawa was able to playalong to her own parts, layering the sound. Any background noise was treated aspart of the recording. John Foxx: "I noticed an interesting effect when multitrackinginto long or complex reverbs - certain harmonics would be suppressed orenhanced and previously unheard ones would emerge from the miasma. This canbe really beautiful... I know a piece is going somewhere new when this sort ofthing begins to occur." "Benge's studio is so full of character that the energy of thatis embedded into the album," states Diana. The five tracks on Codex are linkedinto one continuous piece, by turns elegant, dark, and gently blissful. Some tracksrecall the overgrown cities of Delvaux and Ernst, especially "A Green Thoughtin a Green Shade" and "The Pleasure of Ruins." "Dispersed Memory" has astrange, alien atmosphere, as the dreamlike languor and melting time of theopening becomes more isolated and chilling. "When We Came to This Shore" isserene but eerie, like being pulled by the tides to a submerged city or underwaterforest. "Codex" closes the album with a sense of stillness and faded beauty.Limited hardcover book edition.