🐣 R23X — TERRA_II

⌾ LISTEN TO R23X TERRA_II ⌾ Described as an "adventure to a long-forgotten space station/arcade orbiting the now-vacated planet once known as Earth," the two morsels of music that comprise R23X's latest release – Terra_II – act like a soundtrack to an imaginary videogame. They set the mood, induct you seamlessly into the world at the heart of this project.

The two parts to this single represent of the adventure to the eponymous space station/arcade: Terra_II. Partly summoning the steady pace of a space shuttle journey with its swaying march of layered beats, this track for the most part feels like walking around an abandoned space station.

There are the hollow synth boops that summon this sense of forlorn loneliness, the emptiness of robots with nothing to do—something once great rediscovered. But there's a cheerfulness to the coldness in the track: the two-chord vox sounds, the cut sample in the background, the videogame noises throughout that still erupt from the forgotten arcade machines.

But the last part of the track changes tack. Following a tiny break, where you feel the silence of creeping through a dripping tunnel to a new area on the station, the airy, analogue chords (conjuring the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VII) change dramatically. A now brooding, maybe more monstrous atmosphere hides in the hallways.

Part of the "mystery" at the heart of Terra_II as a whole.

'G.A.I.A. Probe' represents the (perhaps) discovery of something that might shed light on how the "thought-to-be destroyed space station has thrived and adapted in ways thought previously impossible."

It's just 54 seconds of sound, but for the duration of its series of rising, textured synth chords it shifts between beauty and decay, discovery and devastation. Synth vox suggests a hint of eerie humanity, no matter how long ago; the clinking bleeps ping a simple melody of inevitable but untimely shutdown.

Equal parts delicate and laden with the possibilities of space, shades of human emotion mingle with overtones of the sad uselessness of prodigious machines mired in neglect. In Terra_II, R23X marries with vivid colour and detail a scene of moody mystery with that strange lightness and gravity with which videogames consume and enthrall.

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• 🔔 Part of a project called EarthCade, created by R23X (Marc Junker) and Drew Wise (game developer, artist), which originally began as a game idea: "an exploration of bright and colourful animal characters who built a a self-sufficient arcade (The EarthCade) where everyone is welcome and included."

  Junker explains a little further. "We started the project with the idea of donating a portion of profits from every item sold to various charities (VOKRA, WCS, etc) that may prompt the audience (or their kids) to discuss/think about ways they can change/contribute for a better future on Earth!"

• 🔔 Terra_II is available now on Yetee Records, an offshoot of The Yetee, purveyor of art, apparel and more, where both Junker and Wise are both art directors. You can purchase Terrace_II on Bandcamp, if you like. And you can find more EarthCade products here.
• 🔔 We first stumbled across R23X in 2014. Check out the track that introduced us to R23X, 'Dry Summer'.

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📠
☟ R23X Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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R23X – DRY SUMMER

Making your songs sound as polished and modern as possible is certainly a thing, but so is completely opening oneself up to the opposite – letting things unpredictable things happen to your productions. This is certainly the case with Canadian artist, R23X (stylised as あるR23エクス) – ostensibly named after the World War I era British airships of the same name – who distorts his songs using a VCR, amongst other things.

Instruments are recorded via audio interface onto VHS, the tape is taken out, bent, scratched, put back in, pause/unpaused for delay and warble; the piece is recomposed, with other instruments added, and the process repeated (this was all explained to me by the man himself).

So let's listen to 'Dry Summer' together.

The title is apt enough, with percussion sounding like a sheer swish of coarse sand fighting in a storm of static laden with warm chords; a super-high-pitched melody shines through this languid haze with backup from 80s-style power drums, all of it lurching towards a fade-out finale served up with crushed chiptune sounds. A wholly lo-fi outing, in the style of vaporwave, yet it utilises no samples and contains no ounce of funk – it illustrates the paradoxical positive lassitude in a heatwave-type scenario.

"My daily work as a composer and sound engineer requires me to focus on higher quality audio and often palatable music and sound," R23X explains further. "This project […] is lo-fi or procedural in nature because I find it so darn textured and interesting to listen to/create. Once you allow less predictable elements (like tape damage, fuzz, delay) to become a part of your compositions, they have the potential to become something unique and not something that I just "thought up" but rather something that I set parameters for and allow to happen." In this sense, the music of R23X is something that you could truly called experimental – in the very nature of the word.

He continues: "I am interested in prepared piano for this very same reason. I find art/music that deviates from formal processes so much more interesting. But with the VHS stuff specifically — nostalgia is definitely a part of it. There is something I find satisfying about the nostalgic tenor of the project, but also the anachronistic of using outmoded tech to record music and other things — like contemporary music. It's fun!"

• Check out R23X's art project (to which this musicmaking is "tangentially linked," he says) VHS Stills
• R23X is working on an EP! "I'm hoping to release it on a short run of VHS tapes with some abstract video art to accompany."

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Listen to R23X on SoundCloud

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