Donnacha Costello – Before We Say Goodbye LP [Poker Flat Recordings]
There are some really nice sounds on this album, “Leaving Berlin” is my fave track, followed closely by “Roll It On”, the beatless tracks “Last Train Home” and “The Tug” are really nice too. I’m a big fan of Donnacha Costello, he makes excellent deep, minimal, techno music with emotive melodic sounds, melancholic moods, and memorable synthetic parts.
Check out this great feature on his studio and music production from ResidentAdviser:
Machine love: Donnacha Costello
I’m impressed he has a Synclavier, he puts it to good use on this album.
Oh, for those who are not familiar, the NED (New England Digital) – Synclavier was a keyboard and rack system that was a FM synthesizer, sampler, and developed into a multi-track audio hard-disk recording and sequencing system. It even allowed you to change the tempo and not pitch (or vice versa) of audio files in real time. Stuff we can do easily inside a laptop now, but the Synclavier came out in the mid-late 1970’s and cost 200k-500k! Not long after, the Fairlight – CMI came along to compete with it, I’m sure you’ve heard of that one. Only the big names in music got to play with these in the 1980s. Check out the notable Synclavier users listed on the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synclavier
I love this great photo of producer Trevor Horn at his SARM West studio in the 1980s, you can see a Synclavier system on the right.
Speaking of the Fairlight, they are building a limited run of new CMI 30A units, to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary, you can put in your order for one at the link below… Grab me one too.
http://www.fairlightinstruments.com.au/
Back to Donnacha Costello, check out his music…
More data:
http://www.myspace.com/donnachacostello
http://www.minimise.com
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Donnacha+Costello