Read Part 3: Orbital
Read Part 1: Departure
Introduction
echospace [detroit] seriously ramped up its output between 2009 and 2010, continuing to release singles and EPs but more importantly unleashing debut albums by Intrusion and Variant as well as the epic White Clouds Drift On And On by Brock van Wey, which included a bonus disc of Intrusion reinterpretations. But in spite of a strong series of singles by cv313, [Dimensional Space] was still nowhere to be seen.
In the second part of this ongoing series looking at cv313 releases old and new, Stephen Hitchell talks about special projects, remixes, Seconds To Forever and his mastering work with Ron Murphy. A review of the special Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion] full length CD release follows.
Q & A with Stephen Hitchell
The “Seconds To Forever” EP was hailed as a classic echospace [detroit] release, but it’s probably fair to say that this CD came out of left field for many. What inspired you to release it as a single, seventy-six minute opus?
SH :: “It was originally made for a primarily ambient performance I was supposed to play at an after party for DEMF but the show was cancelled a few weeks before the festival, which is the reason it was mixed together as it was. A few years later I was working for a record label group in Chicago and we were cutting about forty projects a month with Ron Murphy @ NSC in Detroit.
I had the funding for my own label with the company I was working for and in the process of outlining the first releases brought this up to Ron’s house along with some other masters and worked on it with him. But after a few attempts at cutting it, Ron thought it was best I tried to cut down some of the bi-phase info and I ended up scratching it all together. It sat on a hard drive for years rather than on a record.”
The release sold out almost immediately, and in fact an extension of the originally planned run was needed. Did you expect this response from a more experimental release such as this?
SH :: “Honestly, I didn’t expect the demand. It was a one off recording I wrote for a live performance. I wasn’t even 100% sure about it myself beyond the live environment. At the time I had an intern working for me and he had been going through some of the folders on the NAS drive. He came across this particular recording and asked me, “Has this come out?” He was really drawn to it and suggested releasing it as a one off available via mail order, which is what he was handling at the time.
I wasn’t 100% sure it was the right decision but he was so convinced by the music I told him to go for it, so honestly, it was more his project than my own. I really liked him and he was so enthusiastic about it I let him take the controls and drive. I never expected all the positive reviews and people picking up on it. Matt did a good thing there. He helped bring to light things I hadn’t noticed in the past with the music recorded.”
Did the success and popularity of “Seconds To Forever” ignite renewed interest in the super-extended model that you’ve been exploring again recently with the Variant project?
SH :: “I used to play ambient sets at underground parties in the early 90’s and was always attracted to ambient rooms, light installations and the general atmosphere of chill out rooms. Falling Stars was a reflection of that environment, something you could literally swim in and sink into.
There’s a long history of loving music without beginning or end, something you could hear loop eternally and never get tired of. That’s the overall philosophy Rod and I take with our music, the one aspect of the production process we both agree on. If we need to change somethingafter an hour of listening to the loop, well, it isn’t right.”
Almost all of the CD releases on echospace [detroit] to date have filled every second of available space on the disc. Are you finding that even the CD as a physical format is becoming too limiting when it comes to the creative expression of a single release or track?
SH :: “YES!!! I had to cut so many songs down on virtually every album I’ve produced, the one advantage to digital is I can extend the recording length for as long as I want! The only real disadvantage to digital content is most people don’t take it as seriously, and in the end only ends up pirated all over the web, which devalues the actual content.
If people new what digital sales actually bring in to the label they would laugh or cry, one or the other. I sort of understand though as I’m a vinyl addict myself and if it’s not on vinyl it’s usually not worth my time. I’m sure a lot of people share that philosophy.”
This was one of the last projects you mastered with Ron Murphy. What was he like to work with, and how did he influence this particular release?
SH :: “Ron was someone I looked up to and revered and I was very happy to share time with him. I still remember the first time meeting him when I was 16 (over 20 years ago now) and walking into his garage based studio. It was like walking into to Disneyland to a kid; there was something magical about it.
He had an interesting approach to mastering, a lot of pro audio types would probably think he was off his rocker when it came to technology but he had a unique way of mastering. He was hooked on old Motown records and actually worked there many years prior, I think he tried to model that vintage sound even in electronic productions. He generally liked noise and wasn’t afraid to push records even if there was some distortion in the harmonics.
Ron taught me a lot about mastering, and the one thing I always took to heart was his thoughts on never fearing to explore and take chances. Ron did that – he pushed the envelope and no one could ever deny him of that. One of the first guys to cut a record backwards, put in lock grooves and push electronic music in ways most audio engineers ever could. Sure, the records were dirty, muddy in cases, but there was a character there that was most certainly NSC.
I consider it an honor to learn from him and have the time with him that I did. It helped shape everything that is Echospace!”
cv313 :: Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion]
Late 2009 through early 2010 saw echospace [detroit] issuing a series of twelve-inch single releases by cv313, including Infinit-1, Sailingstars and Subtraktive (more on these tracks in “Part 5: Transference”).
2010 also saw the first release of Seconds To Forever backed with the much lauded “Beyond The Clouds [Reprise],” and the stage seemed set for the release of the debut cv313 album. Instead, the label went quiet for the remainder of 2010 and it wasn’t until late 2011 that silence was broken by the low-key announcement of a special project available label-direct, exclusively via Discogs.com: Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion].
Originally released in a limited run of 150 individually numbered digipak CDs, a further fifty copies were printed almost immediately to meet demand. Luckily, for those that missed out on this original release, a 2014 repress is now available on the official echospace [detroit] Bandcamp site, or you can simply opt to purchase it digitally.
Though the recording appears as a single track on the disc it is essentially composed of four fundamentally different, mostly ambient mixes of “Seconds To Forever” that add up to an epic seventy-two minute trip that is not for the faint hearted. The first movement opens with the sounds of rainfall, insect chatter and the rush of wind through far off trees, the occasional echoing flurry of congas just audible in the far distance while deep bass pads bloom and burst into electrostatic fields. At this point the whole experience is far more reminiscent of the similarly hazy and rain drenched atmospheres of Variant’s The Setting Sun.
Six and half minutes pass before this heady and immersive introduction fades into the second movement of what is probably one of the most densely layered pieces Hitchell has ever created. Sweeping canyons of exquisite sub-bass bloom and thrum as thick eddies of vast, churning, blue-grey cloud banks swirl in a gaseous maelstrom. From time to time, the mysterious, regular clicking of footsteps or the soft scratching of a marker pen sketching on paper emerge, marking off time. Twenty-two minutes in and the bass finally disappears, dialing down the intensity and cooling the atmosphere considerably, the storm slowly fading to little more than a few jets of steam in the remaining seven minutes.
Not just epic in scale but also in contrast, the third movement then bursts through with shuffling, skittish keys, metallic hi-hats, trademark static hiss and pounding kick-drums, taking Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion] to new heights of intensity. It’s an almost relentless sequence that plays out over a pummeling twenty-one further minutes that are quite unlike anything laid down by cv313 before or since.
The transition between the third and final movement is perhaps a little sudden and awkward, but only because the two are so tonally different. The smothered, smooth and silky techno is quite at odds with the hiss, static and grainy, dub-fueled darkness of this final extended outro, so reminiscent of the loping gait and woozy, semi-conscious fuzz of “Subtraktive.” It takes serious effort and resistance not be lulled into sleep by these final hypnotic seconds to forever.
It’s a genuine rarity to come across an extended piece of music that successfully combines ambiance with true intensity, but Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion] manages to pull this off whilst still tipping a hat to the floor with its beat-laden third movement. There is nothing else quite like this in the entire cv313 canon. Absolutely essential.
Seconds To Forever [Extended Live Excursion] is available on CD and digitally from echospace [detroit] now.
