https://echospacedetroit.bandcamp.com/album/sequential-sleep Label & DOR: echospce [detroit] - 28/05/2016 Format: 2 x CDr limited edition & digital, 2 tracks Syles: Ambient/Dub Techno/Drone/Neo-Classical/Sound Art/Experimental/Dub/Field Recording Playlist: 00:00. sequential sleep [granular mix] 60:35. sequential sleep [modular mix] Credits: Written and produced by variant [Stephen Hitchell] Mastered in echospace Notes: Sequential Sleep is an ambient two-part CD release made for dreaming, a sonic travelogue set in multiple locations within a winter forest. Everything in its natural environment is magnified with a 7:1 field recorder that captures the purest form of nature. Utilizing newly developed forms of fm, granular and modular synthesis allowed this project to unravel in ways we never expected; like a visitor on foreign lands. Harmonic angelic sequences continuously ebb and flow, slowly moving, like the tides meet an estuary. Slowly evolving electric currents fluctuate in their purest essence possessing the closest reach towards a pure analog sound experience. The interchange and combination of field recordings and spectrum of sounds via various 16-step sequences become alive, taking on an organic yet expansive, and three-dimensional sound design which is out of this world. In the space-time continuum, every sound travels back down to earth within the spatial expanse, where recordings take on their own natural life in paradisiac existence. Based on the Sufi teachings of sound—appreggiation and vibration, this music's vibrational pull of oscillating frequencies are founded on chord repetition, so too like chants that heal and allow the mind to reach meditative states. These immersive zones are the platform for a pure, rejuvenating, aqueous trance-like experience of endless possibilities. Freely flowing and comforted, just as a mother’s womb, the unconscious mind embraces all. These are songs that warmly envelope, soothe and heal the soul. Nearly 2.5 hours, both sonic journeys are adaptations of the other and the essence of the vision. And, its sequences are steps into a dream, the steps into enchantment. Behind and beyond these recordings therein lies the inspiration of its mysticism: “WHEN WE pay attention to nature’s music we find that every thing on the earth contributes to its harmony. The trees joyously wave their branches in rhythm with the wind; the sound of the sea, the murmuring of the breeze, the whistling of the wind through rocks, hills and mountains; the flash of the lightning, and the crash of the thunder, the harmony of the sun and moon, the movements of the stars and planets, the blooming of the flower, the fading of the leaf, the regular alternation of morning, evening, noon, and night, all reveal to the seer the music of nature.” - The Mysticism of Sound and Music The opium of openness by which all that dream, in wakefulness, or in sleep become one in the same dream... Thoughts: Gently swimming on the sleep-trails of Max Richter’s phenomenal Sleep opus from 2015, Sequential Sleep is an ambient two-part CD release ‘made for dreaming, a sonic travelogue set in multiple locations within a winter forest. Everything in its natural environment is magnified with a 7:1 field recorder that captures the purest form of nature’. Utilizing newly developed forms of FM, granular and modular synthesis, Stephen Hitchell aka Variant has crafted a glistening LP, one which pulls you under in a wash of cloud, and texture and bubbling dub-space. Tip for the dub tech heads = Basic Channel, Gas, Pole etc. Sonic insomnia cures. -Bleep