8 July 2024
This latest album has a variety of synth- and piano-based songs, as well as a rather Icelandic-sounding post-rock song. The album's title, 'Forlorn!,' is a reference to Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale.'
16 January 2024My latest album, called called 'Retrofuturism in Red & Black,'' is my most comprehensive foray to date into what I describe as dark 80s synth-pop. It's almost entirely synth based and features various kick and snare samples from the Detroit techno realm.
21 June 2023
I have a new album called 'Beneath the Waves.' Apart from the mostly dark 80s synth-pop and rock songs, the song 'The Moon Would Turn Away' features the Yangqin (a Chinese dulcimer) over breakbeats. The album's title is a double reference to the subconscious. You can stream it everywhere, including Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp.
2 December 2022
I have a new album out called 'The Robes of Democritus.' It's mostly dark 80s synth-pop with post-rock arrangements and a lot of guitar solos.The title is homage to the Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus, who is credited with popularizing the notion that the world is comprised of atoms, particularly to the fabric he wrapped his body in.
2 June 2022
My latest album is called 'Ephemera' and is about permanence and all things transitory. It's availabe on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp - everywhere!
13 November 2021
I have a new album called 'In Delta Fields.' It's like a soundtrack to a night's sleep. This album features a lot of synthesizers (including a Moog Grandmother), various different kick and snare drums, a new kind of piano...there's even some yangquin (a Chinese dulcimer). The general sonic theme is dark 80s synth-pop. It's available to stream and download on all platforms.
12 June 2021
I’m really excited to be releasing this double album, called ‘High Technology.’ It was inspired by 80s synth pop, specifically the song ‘Boy’ by Book of Love. I used a lot of 707 kick and similarly 80s snare sounds. The modern accompaniment and processing that I used, however, rightly places the songs as post-modern throwbacks . But new wave music is in. And I’d say that 80s synth pop has been experiencing a resurgence since the soundtrack to the film ‘Drive,’ which came out almost exactly ten years ago. So this is my contribution. You can stream the album everywhere. #neo80s #synthpop
20 February 2021
On this album, 'Stellar Aggregation,' the banjo-driven song 'Azimuth Circle' recalls my previous album, and the synthesizer that sounds like a guitar on 'Amanthite' hints at my next album. Many of the other songs on here are piano-and-orchestra-strings based, often with distant impacts, xylophone strikes, cello plucks, and break beats or hip-hop percussion. It's on all streaming platforms.
27 December 2020
This new album of mine, ‘Siren Songs,’ has banjo on every song – and guitars on none. I got a vintage banjo with an attitude John Lennon had towards the tuba. (He said, “I’m an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I’ll bring you something out of it"). I combined the banjo with piano, orchestra strings, and sometimes with break-beats. I approached the banjo as a guitar player, in a style closer to Irish folk than to bluegrass. The result sounds like my kind of Icelandic post-rock, but banjo post-rock.
29 August 2020
This double album, 'Fin de Siècle,' has sad songs that are breathtaking, songs that rawk, some mid-tempo songs that combine piano and breakbeats, a couple dark electronic songs, and a couple acoustic songs. It also has probably my fav song I've ever written (a kind-of mellow rock song, called 'Address to the Beloved'). Overall, it captures the Icelandic post-rock as well as the alt-rock styles that I like to listen to and marks my first use of orchestra strings. The album title refers to the period around the year 1900, which I had been thinking a lot about while reading 'A Fortunate Man' (1917) by the Nobel Prize winning author Henrik Pontoppidan - August to December 2019. Album one is tracks 1—11. Album two is tracks 12—22.
23 May 2020
Black Humor is essentially my first album. The songs were written in the years 2005 through 2008 (and are the A-sides to my album, The Curtain Window). I was recording this album at (the Grammy-nominated) Baker Studios in 2009. The project ended abruptly and was incomplete. Last year, however, I got those session files. And some of the things I've done to complete the album include rerecording most of the rhythm guitars and vocals and adding the guitar solos to the song Affection. But all the drums, strings, synthesizers (and more) that are on this album were recorded at Baker Studios - much of which written and performed by Joby Baker. All the Wurlitzer piano was written and performed by Casey van Wensem. Some of the bass parts were written and performed by Alan Anton (of Cowboy Junkies fame), who also contributed much in the way of ideas. There are even guest vocalists on the song Pastiche by two women who I only know as Marion and Sabrina because that's what their vocal tracks are labeled. The result is very much a collaboration. For their contributions, I thank them all.
30 November 2019
I wrote the 12 songs for my album 'Circuitry' over 12 weeks from May to July of this year. The album is about connecting and being connected with someone else. These songs are lush – full of real and synthesized strings and string plucks, pulse engines, a couple of different delicate-if-not-thin-sounding pianos, and more. Much of the album resembles the sonic landscape of a barren tundra.
20 July 2019
I'm pretty stoked to be releasing 'Dopamine Junkie' on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. What's different for this new album is the combination of piano and break beats.
2 March 2019
My latest album, 'Blood Red, Warship Grey,' is comprised largely of piano-based instrumental songs. Almost entirely post-rock and cinematic, dark sounding, and with a dynamic range from delicately pretty to full, orchestral, and crushing, these eleven songs were written from June to December 2018.
17 December 2018
I have a new album of new songs called Fossils of Flowers. Increasingly post-rock in structure, the songs often have arrangements bordering on classical, along with the now-familiar guitar onslaughts, shoegaze songs, and textural soundscapes.
26 February, 2018
My latest album is called The Curtain Window, which refers to the opening and closing of the senses. These are some of the songs I wrote between 2003 and 2009. (You can expect more songs from that era in 2019). Sonically, this album is characterized by lots of treated piano and analog modulation. Meanwhile, I've begun recording an untitled album of new songs. (Expect lots of horns and strings for that one!).
9 December, 2016
My new album, Colorfield, has landed! You can presently stream and download the album for free at theauricle.bandcamp.com I would like to thank Jordan Davis and Katie Scheper for being guest vocalists on the album. Eric Hogg was my post-production consultant, and he mastered the album. Colorfield consists of ten new songs and features several new instruments, such as a cinematic percussion suite, bowed arch-top tenor guitar, french horn, and xylophone! The title of the album is homage to the cool, hard-edge abstract painting movement of the 1950s. I see my music as in some ways a sonic equivalent. (The album art is a painting by me).
19 August 2016
I'll be releasing my next album this autumn - called Colorfield, in tradition with the cool, abstract painting movement from the mid 20th century. This album is somewhat of a sonic departure from my previous albums. It has lots of strings. And along with the drums there's a cinematic kind of electronic percussion. Most of the guitars are cleaner and were recorded with a different guitar than I normally use. The album will also feature at least one guest vocalist. Stay tuned for previews via Twitter and Facebook.
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25 Sept 2015
I'm pleased to announce the release of my latest album, called Aviarium. This album has lots of heavy, industrial sounding toms, psychedelic guitar solos, and includes two songs that feature cello work by Emmanuel Ortega. The title of the album refers to the William Blake line, "Every bird that cuts the airy way is an eternal world of delight, closed by your senses five." As such, I've declared a motto for the album: 'Ideas are thoughts with wings.'
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10 July 2015
Album Update: I'm at that liminal stage between tracking and mixing. Expect Aviarium to be released on Bandcamp in September!
Here's the track list:
1. The Lamphouse
2. Not in My Lifetime
3. The Nightlife
4. Energy
5. Attachment
6. My Wedding Ring for the Cause
7. The Bravest Face
8. My Biography
9. Missing Out
10. Age Old
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April 2015
Welcome to the new website, designed by yours truly!
Presently, I'm in the tracking stages of recording my next album,
Aviarium. The drums are done, and I'm almost done recording the
rhythm guitars.
