Ceyx Quest is the latest Handstitched*, by The New Honey Shade, aka audio-visual artist Mark Kuykendall, who, as well as recording himself also produces, masters and engineers sound for films and commercials as well as doing cover design, collage, installations, and directing videos.
Let’s talk about Ceyx. Son of Eosphorus and king of Trachis in Thessaly, that is. Myth has it he lived very happily together with his wife, Alcyone—that is until their habit of calling each other “Zeus” and “Hera” pissed off Mr Grumpy God sufficiently for The Big Z to lob a hissy fit thunderbolt at Ceyx’s ship while at sea. Having met a watery fate, Ceyx came upon Alcyone as an apparition to tell her of his fate; she promptly threw herself into the sea in her grief, and out of compassion the gods changed them both into halcyon birds, which build their nests when the water’s calm since both of them died at sea (see here). Oooh, those gods…
So what of Ceyx, and where does the Arp come in, you ask. So, Ceyx Quest is the latest Handstitched*, by The New Honey Shade, aka audio-visual artist Mark Kuykendall, who, as well as recording himself also produces, masters and engineers sound for films and commercials as well as doing cover design, collage, installations, and directing videos. And the classic Arp 2600 Synthesizer is what it was made with, recorded to a TEAC 3440 (+ Violins by Lindsey Neal Kuykendall), its ‘15 deep and mysterious tracks’ recorded at Unknown Tone Studio, Tulsa, OK (2014-2015), nicely bundled with two ltd ed. collage prints by artist, Michael Tunk.
Head Handstitched* seamster, Tim Martin—colluder/co-ludist in Karst for Cyprea (2012)—says, ‘after hearing Ozark Dream back in 2011 I was hooked on Mark’s approach to music, sound design and luxurious beard, it’s a great moment to release an album from him.’ Clips below: not beardy, but weirdy, sound from the new album and vision from old archived Found Oklahoma 8mm films (“Light Sleeper” from Lathe Of Heaven (2012)).
Ceyx Quest is available on Handstitched*.
