more from
Machine Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Observatory

by Cape Canaveral

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Cape Canaveral's new album, The Observatory, is available on special limited edition CD, with beautiful artwork.

    Comes in a full-colour card jacket with a glossy finish and with a printed CD.

    Please note Bandcamp will add a little tax.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Observatory via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    edition of 50 

      $15 NZD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

      $10 NZD  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 10 Cape Canaveral releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Peak Endure Endpoint, Far, The Observatory, In The City I Can't Sing, Inconvenience Me (Limited Edition), Seven Dollars, Inconvenience Me, Threat of the Romantics, and 2 more. , and , .

    Excludes supporter-only releases.

      $28.60 NZD or more (35% OFF)

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Far 05:26
6.
7.

about

Following July's single, 'In The City I Can't Sing', Cape Canaveral's second full-length album - The Observatory - is released on 26 August 2022.

Cape Canaveral aka Kevin Sorsby was a key player in the creation of Machine Records in Cardiff back in 2001 but until recent years his own releases have been few and far between. After providing three beautifully formed tracks on our first two Machine compilations in 2003/2004, it was twelve years until his first solo release, a warm and spacious three track EP called 'We Love Like You', appeared in 2016.

His debut album 'Inconvenience Me' plunged us into unexpectedly complex, angular sonic assaults, crafting astounding, intricate new sounds with little obvious precedent or reference point. Meanwhile Kevin's other project, Starlings, focuses on a raw, noise-driven aesthetic.

The Observatory provides the listener with unique challenges, surprises, and rewards.

We caught up with Kevin to discuss his new album.

Machine: The Observatory will be your second album as Cape Canaveral. It's quite different to Inconvenience Me. How did you approach it?

Kevin: It is different, yes. Sonically, stylistically, and in how it was conceived. Inconvenience Me was a series of tracks all made in one period and was more deliberate, structured, and shaped. The Observatory is more free-flowing and drawn from several ideas over a longer period of time. And it sounds different as a result. Some of the tracks predate the first album, a couple are new tracks made from old ideas, a couple are entirely new and made within hours. I was kind of was obsessed with time on Inconvenience me and keeping things as abbreviated as possible within the confines of the idea. But on The Observatory I wanted to do the opposite and let ideas breathe without worrying if it was too long.

Machine: Where does the name The Observatory come from?

Kevin: It just popped into my head one day. I was listening to some of my mixes and I heard a combination of sounds which sounded to me like someone saying “The Observatory”. It seemed to fit - a place where distant things can be observed. There’s a lot of distance in the album. I’ve always thought I ‘suffer’ from a form of audio pareidolia. I’m always finding subliminal words and phrases in sounds, particularly densely layered ones. A lot of track names come from that.

Machine: What's you favourite track on the album?

Kevin: ‘Far’. And ‘In The City I Can’t Sing’. Those are the ones I’m most proud of. ‘Far’ is actually a modern construct of recordings I made 23 years ago with an idea I had 10 minutes after I found them again. So you can see the distance in there!

Machine: What's your process and setup up for making these tracks? I know for Starlings you work in a specific way. I'm guessing these tracks come together differently, using different tools?

Kevin: There’s a lot of sequencing in there, whereas Starlings to date has pretty much none. But I tried to be more free-form with the sequencing. I’ve been a fan of something called C-sound since the late 90’s. A kind of granular synthesis programming language. There’s some great software which you can use to create amazing sounds, loops, and textures if you can get your head round it. My first proper attempt was ‘Cecilia’ on the Machine Music 1 compilation. There’s actually a lot of parallels between ‘Threat Of The Romantics’ off the first album and ‘Cecilia’. It’s not for everyone and it can all sound the same, but I try to play around the edges with unusual sounds and settings.

Machine: I think I remember you showing me granular synthesis when we first met in Cardiff, back in 1999/2000. Do you start with specific ideas and try to realise them, or is it more of a discovery process?

Kevin: Both, although I seem to be travelling more in a discovery direction these days. I think I’m better at trying something and seeing what happens these days rather than try to aim at something specific and largely failing. That said, ‘In The City I Can’t Sing’ was a very specific set of ideas which I managed to execute almost as well as I’d hoped.

Machine: I mean, it sounds amazing! A question about your approach of having different names/projects. What is the reason for that, how would you describe the difference, what do they have in common?

Kevin: It's a good question. I think in part it's because I don't really feel I have a consistent style, either sonically or just in terms of approach. I'm quite erratic. So on one hand it's a way of organising disparate sounds. But also, throughout my (musical and general) life, I found I tend to work much, much better with limitations presented so sometimes I might 'force' a limitation by only writing something within what I call Cape Canaveral. In particular with Starlings, I kind of have a set of imagined 'rules' about working processes, sonic styles, structure and so on. Doesn't mean I can't break them, but it means I have a blueprint I can use as a set of 'limitations' and I find that helps me be creatively focussed. It might not surprise you if I said I think I have a couple more names and projects in the back of my mind! Stuff that is neither stylistically Cape Canaveral or Starlings to me.

Machine: Can you tell me more about these rules, or would you have to kill me…?

Kevin: There's no magic formula. For Cape Canaveral, an overriding thought is to try to sound organic. Beats are okay, but they need to sound less 'programmed' and more 'evolving'. I'd say with Cape Canaveral it's more about things not to do. Limitations again. So I wouldn't download a loop or use an out-of-the-box synth and use those to underpin the track.

Machine: You use Logic right?

Kevin: Yes. Logic uses AU’s. There’s the default Logic plugins (which are pretty good if you know how to use them) and I have a range of free and purchased plugins. I only tend to use a few go-to plugins. I predominantly work with audio files. I mean 95% of what I do.

Machine: You mean as opposed to MIDI?

Kevin: Yes. I occasionally use MIDI (in the box so to speak) to programme something specific. But I mean, I've used this process maybe twice this year. I never quantise anything.

Machine: So what's the input source for a Cape Canaveral track, are you recording external sources?

Kevin: Everything is either a recording I've made somewhere along the line, or a mangled version of a recording I've made somewhere along the line. I have had to use an OOTB sample on a couple of tracks where I couldn't get one I made to work or sound good. I'm really averse to using samples unless I've made them myself. The early tracks I made as Cape Canaveral used way more OOTB samples than I do now. I think The Observatory doesn't actually use anything I've not made myself.

Machine: You're blowing my mind. All the percussive sounds as well?

Kevin: On Inconvenience Me, there is some drum sequencing but all the samples are either made or recorded by me. There's no quantizing, everything is live played and layered, things tightened up by ear. The really early tracks like ‘Peak’ were heavily sequenced, but that was whilst I was learning. I was once told by an old sage musician that 'you have to go there, in order to come back'. In this sense, I spent a long time with complex MIDI sequencing and looping and what I ultimately learnt is that I didn't want to do it, so I went back to basics.

Machine: That’s amazing. So, if I can be really specific, how did you arrive at for example the synth sound in ‘Unknown’ on Inconvenience Me? That sound always stood out for me and I guess had assumed that was a soft synth rather than a sample you had created.

Kevin: It's a bounce I made decades ago, of a layering of other sounds from a hardware synth (I don't recall the make) with some effects from an AKAI hardware sampler. I just used this bounce as a source in Logic's sampler.

Machine: That has given me a whole new level of admiration and appreciation for what you have accomplished. I didn't realise the extent to which you were crafting your own palette I guess. Not just mixing the colours, but creating the pigment itself.

Kevin: I guess I do. It’s not always been like that, but certainly as I’ve developed I have increasingly tried to make everything. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against loops and drum sequencing, I just think that’s the easy option and contributes to the background noise. I do generate my own loops and sequencing on my phone and iPad but I capture it all as sound rather than a series of triggered samples. That means I have to think about what I’m going to do with it rather than just let it play.

Machine: I really struggle with finding that point of difference sometimes - as in, how is this sounding like me? I tend to solve this differently though. So, now I've popped on 'In The City...' and I am wondering what exactly I am hearing. I hear a percussive element with resonance and effects. Which I did before. But now I'm wondering what actually is that basic element? I guess I assumed it was some sort of MIDI instrument, without even really thinking about it?

Kevin: It’s a kind of woodblock I recorded once, made into a sampler instrument. Everything there is either recorded my me or is effects. To me, the idea of that track is much bigger than the sound. If you take the effects away, there’s little going on.

Machine: Absolutely, I hear the idea, I was just applying a new, more practical lens than I had before.

Kevin: The idea started from a single, barely audible snippet a few seconds long on the ending of another track that hasn’t been finished yet. I just heard it and then immediately the whole concept for ‘In The City’ appeared in my head, I shelved the other track and suddenly I had a 25 minute track which I could quite easily have made longer whilst still within the idea I had.

Machine: What's the importance to you, artistically, of these creative decisions? You called using sounds OOTB an easy option and mentioned background noise. What are the qualities you admire and are striving for? What's at stake?

Kevin: To answer the question I really think I can boil it down to: differences. I’ve found that in all my musical endeavours I’ve tried to do things a bit differently, sound a bit different, work differently. Doesn’t need to be that dramatic, but I do need on some level to try to be different or sound different, in an effort to distinguish myself. In all my bands, I wasn’t the best bass player around but I was known for having a different style, or sound. At the Welsh College of Music and Drama I got in on the strength of one track on a demo I made. 90% of people there were far better players and musicians than I was but had a different style, different sound to everyone else and I made sure I was good at it. So I didn’t fall into the background noise. I’ve often wondered what I strive for though. I guess it’s validity.

Machine: "Why am I doing this?" is often a very hard question to answer. Especially with creative work.

Kevin: I guess, to be striving for being a little different is also striving for the enjoyment of sticking your head above the parapet. Isn’t there a certain thrill in being ‘out there’ and being shot at? I found gigs hard to do but there was a certain point in each one where I felt bulletproof and ‘this is fucking great’.

Machine: I wouldn't have but it that way but I have definitely had that bulletproof feeling when playing live. I have found the battle is more with myself, the nerves.

Kevin: We’ve talked about careers, and at the end of mine if I’m asked what I’m most proud of I will say, an amazing recording I made.

credits

released August 26, 2022

Made by Kevin Sorsby.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Cape Canaveral London, UK

contact / help

Contact Cape Canaveral

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Cape Canaveral, you may also like: