Surachai

Form Volume II consists of four archived performances and four new recordings. Form Volume II can be found on Bandcamp. The vinyl is shipping out around December 16th, 2014. Since most time, effort, and money went into the physical product – I’ll start there and work backwards.

Vinyl
As a response to the deluxe presentation of Ritual and because Form Volume II wasn’t supposed to exist, I decided to keep the theme of non-existence with the vinyl and artwork by calling it the Void Presentation. Firstly: there is no artwork. The vinyl is clear and with no center sticker making it an entirely transparent vinyl record. Again, the record is pressed at GottaGroov Records. The transparent information card was manufactured by Offbeat Press and the reference I gave them was the winning ticket to Fhloston Paradise from The Fifth Element. The clear jacket is also clear and originally intended for picture discs. If you’re not looking for this album, you’re not going to find it – basically its a marketing nightmare.

Pre-Master & Mastering
Because all tracks were recorded in single takes to stereo or mono tracks and mixing was performed on the fly, the results were raw, hugely dynamic, and sometimes lackluster. All tracks were mixed afterwords and pre-mastered with the Thermionic Culture Vulture Super 15 with a couple dynamic processing UAD plug-ins. I turned these pre-master versions into Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities to officially master the album and tame the inconsistencies between the tracks while preserving the dynamics.

“In general, I used all the different input/output transformer stages on my gear, driven just enough to saturate a little. Dave Hill Titans were used to add weight and body, Knif Vari-Mu II mid/side compression to glue things together and further enhance the stereo information followed by a BAX EQ to help open things up a little more where needed. And I also ran them through some custom op amps built around a 1970’s design that impart a smooth character.” – Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities.

Recording
Despite the length of time between recordings, the recording sessions were almost identical to each other: construct a patch, tweak the patch anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 weeks, record the patch, keep the 1st or 23rd take. There were no limitations of modules used and as you can tell in the videos, there were plenty – although the last track is using only one module.

Background
Form Volume II is not supposed to exist. The album started with Aaron Funk requesting source audio files from a few Form session videos. That was an easy ask: track down the sessions folders, zip up a few bounced files, and send them over Dropbox – that should have been the end of the transaction. But this small request spiraled into obsession to the point where I found myself finishing an album I hadn’t known I was working on for more than two years – in the mountains of Tennessee. The first four tracks were previously recorded from June, 2012 to August, 2014 in Chicago and the last four tracks were recorded in a weekend with Richard Devine and his live system in Tellico Plains, Tennessee in August, 2014.

Release
I’m writing this a day before the official release and am confused after looking at Bandcamp’s best seller’s column for electronic vinyl. Currently, Make Noise Records: Shared System Series – Surachai 7” is number 1 and Form Volume II is in third place. What does this mean? For Make Noise Records, its makes a bit of sense – We’ve released some of the top names in experimental music on our short 5 record, 2 year stint and mine being the last, the momentum is expected. As for Form Volume II, for me, its incomprehensible at best. I haven’t utilized active PR for the past 3 vinyl releases and am constantly hopping labels and switching musical styles. The only thing I can think of is that I know who you all are. I order, assemble, pack and ship the vinyl to you and that must mean something. Whatever it is, thank you for all the support over the years.

Form Thirty Recorded in Chicago, IL. June 9 2012
Form Thirty-Two Recorded in Chicago, IL. November 12, 2013
Form Thirty-Four Recorded in Chicago, IL. May 3, 2014
Form Thirty-Five Recorded in Chicago, IL. August 12, 2014
Form Thirty-Six Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Seven Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Eight Recorded with Richard Devine in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014
Form Thirty-Nine Recorded in Tellico Plains, TN. August 31, 2014

Limited to 250 copies of vinyl
Mastered by Shawn Hatfield of Audible Oddities
Released by BL_K NOISE

– Surachai – Form Volume II

Opening up the night on the 2nd day of the festival in Chicago on September 27th. Planning on ripping apart the sound system. On at 6PM sharp.

– Cold Waves III

The first four tracks of Ritual

Ritual was composed entirely on the Cwejman S1 MKII. Digital release date: May 12th, 2014. Vinyl ships June 1st, 2014. The Ritual Process article covers Pre Production, Recording, Mixing, Mastering, Artwork and Vinyl Preparation of Ritual – and will feature the rest of the album artwork. It can be viewed at TRASH_AUDIO.com

For my previous albums I’ve worked with some of my favorite visual artists that I’m fortunate enough to call friends and Ritual was no different. I’ve followed Emilie Elizabeth’s photography for years and have always admired her style, sets, and aesthetic. John Crawford was also involved throughout the process and provided his post production expertise that helped the images reach another level of unsettling. Honestly, they made me a bit uncomfortable by asking for my input so often. Here is Emilie Elizabeth’s interview in its entirety about how the artwork for Ritual was created. – Surachai.

Initial Instructions
Surachai hit me up back in December to see if I was interested in shooting something with a “minimalistic black/white occult” feel after seeing the images I shot for DJMREX and the photos for Skinny Puppy I worked on with John Crawford. Surachai sent over some reference images that included various occult-related photography and illustration: figures in cloaks and hoods, illuminati-esque symbols, bizarre Asian illustrations of porn and torture, etc. Pretty much Surachai in a nutshell.

Pre-Production
I thought this would be another good opportunity to work with John. He definitely inspires me to experiment and not rely on the same old tricks I’ve been for the past few years. John and I got together and began putting a few ideas together based some of the recurring themes we saw in the initial reference images. I think Surachai also sent us the music around this time, which was very helpful. The goal was to find a story in all of this so that we could create a series of images that made sense together.

Reference 1

We presented three concepts that were esoteric and/or eerie. At some point in our image research, we began to focus on still life paintings from the “Vanitas” style of the 16 and 17th centuries. John’s been really into H.P. Lovecraft lately, so that was a major influence. We were also leaning towards the idea of incorporating alchemy somehow, especially considering the name of the project and the overall feel of the original reference images. In addition to the still life images, John created two comps based on images he found online and these ultimately became the concepts Surachai chose and we based the entire shoot off of. Surachai gave us a few notes, a quick lesson about the Cwejman and we kind of took it from there.

Production
When you have so many variables – location, models, props, wardrobe, concept, style, etc, you can pretty much rely on the fact that some things will not be exactly what you expected in the beginning. For example: We were originally looking for a Shelley Duvall type to play the Witch. The location we ended up using was nothing like the Victorian-style attic shown in the original comps. The scene shown on the inside of the album wasn’t even discussed until a day or two before the shoot. This was only the second project John and I had worked on together, so there was still a learning curve and as with any collaboration, we had to figure out a way to achieve an end result we would both be happy with.

Reference 2

We were both involved with selecting the location, models and props. Wardrobe is more my thing, but before the shoot, I didn’t think it would be very important. My friend Tosh Yanez is a great wardrobe stylist and luckily had a few pieces handy that worked… the long gown designed by Bao Tranchi definitely helped to inspire one of the final shots. We were all on the same page for makeup and hair and Amber Kerns knew immediately what we were looking to achieve.

For the two days before the shoot, we attempted to come up with a loose shot list. We knew we needed to tie the story of the two figures together somehow. John had the idea that one was controlling the other. Since we knew the Witch would be featured more heavily, it made sense for her to be controlling the Alchemist. I also began compiling images that were more specific to the style of photography. I knew Surachai was leaning heavily towards black and white and high contrast, but I felt like we should provide a strong color option as well. At the time, I was looking at a lot of work by fashion photographer Elizaveta Porodina who is brilliant with her use of color, both in camera and in post.

Reference 3

The day of the shoot was challenging. We booked the space for a half day, which was extremely ambitious considering the amount of shots we wanted to get. Somehow we pulled if off thanks in part to an amazing crew of people and some additional time granted by the location. Also, Harwood (the Alchemist) stayed to help us pack up. The man’s got some amazing stories… and for some reason, sunglasses for chickens so they don’t peck each others eyes out. Please, everyone hire that guy because he’s awesome.

Post Production
The next day, John and I got together to start making edits and to talk about how we should proceed with post. The cover shot was obvious from the start, so we were able to narrow that down to just a few options pretty quickly. John began coming up with some ideas to try in post, partially based on some of the reference images I pulled early on and partially based on ideas he came up with on his own. Most of the images in the digital packaging were included in the original group of edits. We went back and forth until we had 6 images and from there, we narrowed it down based on which images made the most sense together visually.

Background
John and I are typically hired to do more commercial work, despite the fact our personal taste is not very commercial. I do enjoy working for all of the clients I’ve had, but it’s been really nice to have more creative opportunities lately. The first time I fell in love with photography was in 1995 while photographing a bunch of waspy girls dressed in my clothing, prancing around a cemetery in Ann Arbor. I still go back to some of my early work and miss how pure it was. Projects like this allow me to combine the last 10 years of experience as professional photographer with some of the experimentation that I’ve greatly missed. So thank you for that!

We’re both really, really happy with the way the shots turned out. We were both challenged in ways we didn’t expect to be, which I believe is the best way to evolve as an artist. However, I’m a little surprised at our inability to work a few cats into the photos. Next time… and probably several times after that.

Witch – Alli Cripe
Alchemist – Harwood Gordon
Wardrobe – Tosh Yanez
Hair and Makeup – Amber Kerns
Photo Assistant – Adrian Espinoza
Post Production – John Crawford
Layout – Caspar Newbolt

– Emilie Elizabeth
– John Crawford
John Crawford’s Mock Up

Because of the intense details of around three thousand lines, printing shirts wasn’t considered as an option because it seemed impossible to capture the intricacies. Offbeat Press took on the challenge and produced an interpretation of the logo that looks incredible. This logo was originally created for the silver inked cards that came with the Embraced vinyl. There are a total of 15 of these shirts in men’s sizes and currently are no plans to repress.

SOLD OUT

– Offbeat Press

Here’s some US black metal for you that’s somewhat different than what you normally hear on a day to day basis. Usually the sole work of multi-instrumentalist/composer/vocalist Surachai Sutthisasanakul, he’s brought in a few musicians to help out this time around, with the result being a pretty full sounding, eclectic brew of extreme sounds. Non-stop tremolo picked riffs, blasting, and tortured vocal wailing assault the listener on the opening “Ancestral”, and it’s not until the tracks final three minutes that the chaos drops and some futuristic sound effects blip and bleep to close it out. “Embraced” is more of a haunting piece, the riffs keep raging but the vocals are more subdued and there’s layers of keyboards softening up the arrangement. “Surrender” kicks off with those geeky synths before the furious black metal onslaught lurches back in, vocals shrieking about the mix over furious blasting and riffing. Though parts of Embraced are really well done, there’s just a tediousness and sense of monotony throughout too much of the album that brings it down a bit. Perhaps if these songs were shortened a bit, the end result might have been a tad more enjoyable. Worth a listen though if you like experimental US black metal.

– Sea of Tranquility