GORDON, PETER - Eighteen

"New York Downtown producer/composer Peter Gordon returns with Eighteen, his first album in three years. Gordon on Eighteen: "Eighteen: the year of release, 2018. Eighteen: the age at which I first used a synthesizer. In creating Eighteen I worked independently in the studio, building up tracks with synthesizers and found sounds. After working with the tracks for several months, I shared them with some musicians, who added instrumental layers, sharing a similar working process in our personal recording spaces. The musicians are: Gabe Gurnsey (drums) of Factory Floor, Larry Saltzman, (guitar) known for his work with Arthur Russell and in demand by acts such as Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Nowinski's (bass) credits include Les Paul, Matt Mottel, (electric piano), is half of Talibam!, while Lewin Barringer (guitar), is a producer in Philadelphia. After mixing the final tracks, I brought the mixes to Berlin. There I worked with engineer Mike Grinser who helped to give the album a unified sound. I think of this album as electronic music. It was created in my home studio, using analog and digital synthesizers, found sounds, and instrumental parts contributed by friends. Finely crafted melodies and harmonies are set against subway noises, street construction, and distant foghorns. Deliberateness paired with randomness: this is what guided the artistic process.

My father was a radio journalist so the reel-to-reel tape recorder was a ubiquitous presence growing up. From an early age, I experimented with the tape machine: recording, overdubbing and splicing tape, but electronic music was on my radar as well. My first exposure to an actual synthesizer came when I recorded my first single at the fabled Sound City Studio in Van Nuys, CA. The studio had a custom Neve board, but it also had a Moog modular synthesizer. I asked and they kindly let me experiment with it. Soon, I enrolled at the University of California, San Diego after I discovered they had separate studios for their Moog and Buchla systems. These large modular synthesizers were affordable then only by institutions and rock stars. But these would be soon eclipsed by smaller, cheaper synths in the '70s and early '80s in the same way recording studio technology became accessible in the '90s. Thus, the personal computer and digital audio allowed studio quality production in the home studio; electronic music had become democratized. Handmade music by way of digital technology; this is the music of Eighteen." - Foom.