in the studio with Projekt’s Robert Logan

in the studio with Projekt’s Robert Logan

“Sovereign” – Listen at Bandcamp

Robert reflects, “‘Sovereign’ is a piece that seemed to compose itself over the course of a few months. It was partly inspired by the number of months I spent in Mozambique and something of the majesty of the land and people – as well as the music I encountered – influenced the entire composition. The piece utilises a large range of analog and digital synthesizers – including a custom ‘vocal’ synthesizer I created with vowel sounds to ‘sing’ the lead melodies that were played in – as well various kinds of hand percussion, vocal sounds, field recordings and much more besides. In the second half the music shifts and the opening melody returns, now feeling quite different against the new form the rest of the music has taken. The feeling that seems to be invoked in the second half is especially important; I’d describe it as ‘otherness.’ Japanese music also influenced this composition, particularly the ‘royal’ aspect of the ending.”

“The Weaver,” the fifth track on Robert Logan’s Sculptor Galaxy, was inspired by an enrapturing experience of the natural surroundings he encountered while working alone at his village studio in the Hungarian wilderness.

“The Weaver” – Listen at Bandcamp

Robert comments, “The weather patterns during the piece’s creation were wonderfully temperamental, with some incredible storms rolling in which shook the walls of the room where I created this music. But while those sounds and atmospheres did infiltrate the track’s formation, it was the unusual, wet stillness in the aftermath and quiet observations of plant life and intricate plantal sequences that particularly inspired the feeling behind the piece. Indeed, “The Weaver” has a somewhat different tonality to the rest of Sculptor Galaxy (even though the album is a continuous journey best heard as one long piece) in that it was written note-by-note in a microtonal 31-tone scale system, and an inspiration to its detailed interlocking threads was a book called The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants which explores the mathematical beauty and organisation of plant structures, along with minimalism/systems music. The piece’s dynamics flower in and out in rhythm to organic cycles.”

Robert Logan Sculptor Galaxy | CD for $14 at Projekt / Download for $10 at Bandcamp / Download for $9.99 at iTunes

Expose Online wrote: “(Robert Logan’s) disc takes the explorative route in lieu of the predictable, and for that I’m calling Sculptor Galaxy one of the best electronic based releases of (the year).”

After six solo electronic/ambient albums and his 2016 collaborations with Steve Roach (Biosonic and Second Nature, Projekt) Logan’s new album blends unusual electronic and acoustic sources, terraforming bright, melodic molten sound with an enraptured experience of the natural world. Vibrant electronic performances, detailed tone-sculpting, processed natural sounds (captures from Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Hungarian village life and the UK’s shores), and unusual acoustic instruments inform a musical world of exotic majesty and boundless adventure.