Saul Stokes

Vast

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Unique electronica produced with hand-made synths.

tracks

: 1 Chrome Garden
: 2 Lighthaus
: 3 Far Away, Further
: 4 Stratum
: 5 Bursts and Blooms
: 6 Spy Cinema
: 7 Gliders

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notes

Saul Stokes' new release, Vast, features seven new compositions, unique and quirky explorations from this one-of-a-kind musician.

Stokes' sound bears undeniable connections to the electronic music pioneers of the 70s (Tonto's Expanding Headband, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre) but also ties into threads from the 80s post-industrial sound, the 90s chill-out electronica resurgence, and the 21st century pop-ambient aesthetic. With a pervasive melodic sense Stokes is able to channel the strange and deep sounds of his "hand forged" instruments (as he refers to them) into complex and evolving compositions, pieces which move easily from idea to idea, often ending up in unexpected places. The structures are unpredictable, one moment pop-like, the next textural and meditative, and the next shifting into an impetuous percussive riff. Vast is filled with a multitude of sonic ideas, but its best quality may be the space left within the music for the listener. It is possible to inhabit these pieces and find yourself in a place completely new and other, yet somehow familiar.

Saul Stokes was born in Seattle Washington, and after adolescent training on both the violin and trumpet, he discovered the tonal possibilities of the synthesizer. Stokes started creating electronic music as a teenager in the mid 1980's and soon his fascination with the palette of sounds available via synthesizer led him to learn the basics of analog synthesizer construction. While attaining a degree in Industrial Design, Stokes used his knowledge of synth DIY to build highly eccentric music devices, and began to restructure his musical ideas focusing on music created purely from home-made synthesizers and computer technology.

Stokes has performed live across the United States leaving behind the studio environment to focus on his hand forged equipment. The results are often a radical departure from his recorded compositions.

Vast is Stokes' Foundry debut, and his eighth album. Past releases include 2003's critically acclaimed Fields, the live recording Radiate, and a number of other titles on the Hypnos, Databloem, and Greenhouse Music labels. Stokes has appeared previously on several Foundry projects, including SUB.TERRA, Bibimbap, and Jonathan Hughes' Fluidities.

reviews

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Saul's work is an exemplary fusion of experimentalism and electronica.
author: Chuck Van Zyl
The music of Saul Stokes seems to have two centers. The first accommodates the current ideas of tonal and rhythmic organization while the other freely seeks original timbres outside conventional sonant hierarchies. On his previous several releases, Stokes has navigated the paradox of using technology to express a wide range of human feelings quite well. Vast (62'10") is Stokes' most accessible work so far and strongly forges ahead on paths parallel to both mainstream and experimental music. The seven tracks are intermittently lazy, loose and open yet elsewhere demonstrate a knowing affectivity in their tight arrangement and harmonic contrast. Stokes ushers the concept of musical indeterminacy down to the level of circuit design. His hand-built, self-designed tone generators often produce sonically unexpected but esthetically welcomed results. The drifting oscillators, distorting filters and general irregularity inherent in his homemade devices produce a range of chaotic characteristics honed out of commercially manufactured keyboard synthesizers. As high-concept as this may seem, Stokes manages to infuse a sense of wonder into his compositions. Be it in dreamy melodic figures, expanding harmonic progressions or basal body beats, the music of Saul Stokes speaks the electronic infinite word. His work is an exemplary fusion of experimentalism and electronica.