It took quite some time to finish (over 2 years). I recorded it here in Sydney. I did a number of sessions in various studios here. 4 of the tracks feature the band of Chad Wackerman, James Muller and Brett Hirst. We recorded with engineer Guy Dickerson at Chad’s studio. Sadly Chad has returned back to L.A. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him here. He really is an unbelievable musician with an original approach. The album was an opportunity to experiment with Synthesizers. Allan Holdsworth’s CD Flat Tire really knocked me out and proved to me that synths can be beautiful if used creatively. Getting Chad involved seemed like a great idea especially because of his involvement with Allan, and because he was leaving and I could see that the opportunity might not arise again. The first sessions that I used on ARC involved Nick McBride. We did some recording with Mike Bartolomei at his “one chook” studio. I played bass on my little “Voce” organ module and I overdubbed the rest on my home computer. The other sessions where recorded at Electric ave studios and the engineer was Phil Punch. The drummers at Electric Ave where Felix Bloxsom and Andrew Gander with Brett Hirst and Phil Stack. I played some duets with the drummers on Clayton Doley’s Hammond C3 which lives at Phil’s studio. Track 2 “ARC 1” was supposed to be incorporated into “ARC 2” but was so funny that it seemed to stand up better by itself.
I wanted to have a live feel but have the opportunity to overdub. We played live in the studio and included improvisations but left space for further solos. All the Synthesizer studios where overdubbed. I used plenty of different keyboards, including:
Fender Rhodes, Yamaha C2 acoustic grand, Hammond C3, Yamaha QY70, OBerheim matrix 1000, Oberheim Xpander and Voce V5 organ module.
James Muller http://www.jamesmuller.com/ played some great solos which we recorded at my house.
Available from http://www.birdland.com.au and http://www.chaosmusic.com.
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