022.5 - The Deep Dive - Kunisaki - Transient Notes and Interview

 

The deep dive is for readers who want to dig further into the album by reading the notes and pre-review interview that is done with each artist.  It is best read after the review.

 

Notes

Good Night - The album starts off with a very quiet tone and rain.  The tone slowly builds into a soft synth pad that alternates between two chords.  This sets the foundation for the entire song and really gives a strong introduction to what the listener is going to be in store for the duration of the album.  The way that the two tones resonate really gives it a gentle wall of sound, it's not overpowering or even loud by any means, it's just all encompassing.  I really like the way that this is mixed.
After the minimalist chord progression is established as the backbone we are the introduced into some twinking melodies.  The melody is simple and is not complex at all, but what it does do is further develop the concept and visual imagery of the song.  The song is called good night and it paints a very pleasant picture of falling asleep.  The backing chords provide the alluring cover of night, the melodies are the beginnings of dreams dancing in our heads.  
The interplay between the backing chords and the melody continues for a couple of minutes and offers a very pleasant take on dream music.  There is no darkness here, these dreams offer us respite from whatever we are suffering from… this is a place of peace and contentment.  
Eventually a second melody joins in.  The choice of instrumentation here is also of note.  The initial melody that joined in has a very “twinkly” feel to it, very shiny and bright. The second melody that accompanies is a piano and gives the song a bit of body as well as familiarity.  Everything to this point has been synths and the inclusion of the piano gives it a human and familiar element that really grounds the song.  
There is a large tonal and structural shift that happens towards the end of the song.  Everything that has been built up is quickly but gently stripped away as the song begins to fade away into nothingness.  Rain is reintroduced and it guides us into the gentle embrace of sleep as well as the next track.

2 -This song is a direct continuation from the first track, they blend into each other perfectly.  The rain acts as the transition element from to guide the listener into these new melodies and instrumentations.  
The opening melody is open and minimal, taking its time to build and letting the listener take in the individual notes.  I get this picture of looking up into the rainy sky and just taking in the beauty of nature, slow deep breaths as individual droplets fall on my face and I am just swept away by forces that are well beyond my control.  It's delicate and fragile, and also extremely powerful.  
After some time the song truly begins to show its character.  A synth pad slowly swells below the individual notes and is then taken over by a completely different melody.  We’re still in the same key here but this is much more active than the initial notes.  The rain is still there but now we are walking or traveling through the rain, the song now has a direction and a sense of purpose.  As the melody begins to really take shape we have just a hint of percussion as well as an arpeggiated synth moving the song forward.  This is one of the most active sections of the entire album, and while it is brief it is a defining part of the record as a whole.
The song ends as it started, with rain.  That fades out and silence leads us into the third track.

Moments - I think it was around this point on my first listen that it really hit me how well this album is put together.  The way that this song fades in from the silence is pretty much the perfect, and now in retrospect, the only way that I could see a follow up to the previous song.  Wow this is put together well, the flow of this album is exceptional.
The track acts like an interlude track but still, the melody that is included here is singular in focus and rather than just being a filler it guides the listener from one part of the album to another.
The name of the song is well placed.  The song feels like a moment in time.  We are seeing a single melody repeated over and over with slight variations on a theme with the other elements added in.  We are watching something unfold before us in just a singular moment in time.  Perfect name for the track.  

Nothing but Whispers - This is another short track similar in scope to moments but very different in execution.  This one has a singular tone that is the driving force rather than any sort of melody progression.  It's like we're just looking at some type of monolith or mass in wonder.  It's not overwhelming but it is massive.  
The end of the track is very curious.  It has a tape player stopping and that is the end of it, nothing further.  Like we were watching a vcr or something.  Interesting transition, definitely attention grabbing.

5 - This is by far the longest song on the album and it takes it’s time to show its true colors.  Starting off very soft with nature sounds, like the calm after a rain storm.  Birds are chirping and a soft wind blows before the slow chords of the song come in.  Its over a minute before the song transitions fully into something that would be considered truly musical.
Once again the backbone is formed by two chords, and this time they are accompanied by waves crashing in and out.  Lulling us into a sense of security and familiarity.  A gentle melody starts atop all this right around 1:50, still slow and still relaxing to the listener.  There is true peace to be found in this, its almost meditative the way that it winds in and out.  
The true melody starts right at 2:45, and while not complex it is very well defined and it is attention grabbing compared to everything that has come before it.  Its almost curious in its execution, simple yet innocent.  I get an image of a child exploring around a forest or beach.  There is joy and peace here, I really like this.
The melody goes through several permutations, the main one being the synth.  There is a ‘breakdown’ per see where only a piano plays the main melody prior to the full sound coming back.  This break is incredible, it strips everything away and lets us just take in the simplicity of everything.  The way it fades out its almost like the end of the first chapter of the album.  The song following this has a very different feel to it and the extra time this track takes to finalize itself is really worth mentioning.  It really lets the listener take it all in before the change in mood.  Great pacing.

Packed Streets - This song starts off faded with the strongest beat found in the entire album.  Huge contrast from anything that came before.  Whereas everything prior to this has some element of peace or wonder to it, this has a very ‘cyberpunk’ or urban feel to it.  The synths used have a harder edge to them and the way that the song is arranged gives me the feel of walking down a street at night looking around rather than peacefully taking in nature.  Again huge contrast.
The song itself belongs on the album, the structure is very similar to the compositions before it.  It has a singular focus and never overstays its welcome.  The beat stays consistent throughout and really is attention grabbing, largely because of how sparse the use of percussion is in this album.  
The synths are phased in and out and really drive the song in the urban direction.  They have this three dimensional quality to them where it feels like we are passing things or something is passing us by.  Maybe cars or other people? Probably something mechanical the way that the synths sound.  Really nice place to put a song that breaks up the flow of the album, keeps us on our toes.

Sloan Great Wall - Another one of the longer songs on the album.  This one harkens back to a bit of the calmer opening songs but still has less of a sense of wonder and beauty and more of an urban feel to it.  
There is this feeling that we are moving somewhere in this track.  The way that it starts is slow but again there is this 3d feel to everything, like we are traveling somewhere rather than individual pieces passing us by, this is more like a whole landscape.  Very interesting use of instrumentation and arrangements.
The whole track is almost minimalistic.  Actually much of this album is.  I really love how there are only one to two core elements to each of the songs and how they are used to maximum effect.  I really love how effective Kunisaki is with maintaining the minimalism throughout the album, yet giving the listener such a wide array of ideas portrayed through this simple concept.  Really excellent.  

Clarity - This track brings us back to the sense of wonder that many of the first few tracks had.  It's like we're staring up at the sky watching the stars play out their nightly dance.  There is a clock ticking in the background, maybe we're starting to realize that everything comes to an end here? Not sure, but this is a short but excellent track that reminds the listener of where we started in our journey with this album.  Maybe the clock represents the fact that we never realize how quickly things end? It's a curious addition and one I will have to ask about.

Phasing - Another shift from any other track on here.  The title here is extremely appropriate, the track contains a single backing tone that is phased through multiple variations throughout.  It has a deep, almost distorted guitar tone to it.  It’s like we are staring at a mass that we can’t quite comprehend, something like a tesseract.  We grasp the fundamentals but the details escape us.  
Again the track is short and contains a singular focus, and again I really love how Kunisaki plays with the listener throughout all these different themes that we have on the album.  

Skybound - Again it's a super simple idea that is portrayed throughout the song.  This one almost has a synthwave feel to it due to the synths chosen, ambient synthwave.  The main synth actually reminds me quite a bit of some stuff project lazarus has done, and that is a very good thing.  This song is called skybound and that really is exactly the imagery that I get out of it, we are going somewhere else other than this planet.  
The main melody is small and simple, just like watching stars as we leave earth and move into this new unknown universe ahead of us.  There is wonder here but it is very different from what we saw at the beginning of the album.  Here rather than nature we have technology, technology is leading us into new states of observation, it is forign to us but not frightening.  Really nice shift and a great great song.

11 - Another very short song, water running through a stream with almost nothing to accompany it.  It's a nice way to end the album as it kind of sums up everything we’ve seen to this point and brings us back into nature.  

Overall - This album is a collection of tracks that evoke a multitude of emotions.  The compositions are largely composed of one or at maximum two ideas, and this is one of the great strengths on display here.  The way the songs are composed are also largely minimalistic, there is only a few melodies on there that are more than a few notes at a time.  That again is a strength in the song writing on display, the ability to communicate different emotions through the use of minimalism is one of my favorite things in electronic music.  Really well done.

Interview

In the track Clarity, you use a ticking clock as an accompanying sound effect.  What were you trying to communicate to the listener with its inclusion?  What does this track mean to you personally?

One of my favorite video games as a child was called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, and within that game's soundtrack was a song called "Temporal Spire". It contained beautiful synthesized string-work and the sounds of a ticking clock throughout. When I would play through the game's location that contained that song - it felt entirely appropriate, as you were nearing the end of the game. Everything sort of stops, and the emotions start rolling in. I felt like I was being timed and I had to cherish every single second I spent up until the final bits of the game. I wanted to pay homage to this feeling by using elements very similar in composition, but I wanted it to be a brief stop on the album - something that wouldn't outstay its welcome. I know it can be hard to impose others to feel the same way I felt as a child, hearing a similar song - but if anything: I'm hoping the listener realizes that with this track, the album is coming to an end -but it's not over yet.

In your notes for the album it says that these were composed over the course of a couple of years.  When you put this album together did you have a narrative or something similar in mind that you wanted the listener to hear? Or do you consider this more of a compilation of your works?

"Transient", in a way, was the product of 2 years of exploration. Even though all of the songs were completed in 2020, I used melodies, foley, and ideas that dated back to 2018. When I was creating and compiling all of the songs on the album, there wasn't necessarily a direction, but I wanted to put everything together so there was at least a flow. I like to think that there is sort of a discernible 'first-half' and 'second-half' and maybe even a proper flow, but ultimately it serves as more of a compilation of various sounds and ideas.

The first five tracks really have a constant feeling of wonder and seeking something greater - at least to my ears.  Is this the intended theme? If not then what imagery comes to mind when you listen to this part of the album?

That is definitely the intended idea of the first five tracks! I felt the same way creating them as I do listening to them - and I'm glad it comes across that way too.

How did you get an interest in creating music?  What drew you to create the style of music found on Transient?

Believe it or not, hip-hop production sparked my interest in creating my own music. I loved how certain beats and backdrops could be crafted so personally and beautifully - but how simple the production itself could sometimes stay. Even though I am a fan of the genre, I found my sonic home in crafting ambient atmospheres and experimenting with them in my own way. I was drawn to create in the ambient lane of music because, after a lot of personal experimentation, I found it to be the most self-fulfilling. You could easily express emotions and feelings in any genre of music, but to me, trying to do the same thing under the umbrella of ambient felt more raw and much more personal.

What, if any, influences did you have on this album or in your musical works in general?

I am influenced by a mixed set of things in production: personal experiences, video game soundtracks, emotions, the work of other producers in similar or even sometimes completely different genres of music. It's hard for me to pinpoint one thing in particular for my general production of music, but I can say that "Transient" was created with my own personal experiences in mind.

Your composition style is very minimal and focused on this album.  How did you come upon this writing style?

To be honest, there was never a time where I said to myself, "I think it's time to produce minimalist sounds". When I first started out learning production, I actually tried to make songs as complex as possible because I thought that it would be the most impressive thing to look back upon. I was totally wrong about that. Even though the music I attempted making at this time looked really cool all layered out, I never felt accomplished - and the music sounded hollow. With enough time, I found more comfort in designing and putting together more minimal efforts. This led me to focus more on the sound and presentation of the work - and I'm more than happy focusing on these aspects in my efforts. I do believe that as I learn more, my style will evolve - but I wish to at least stay grounded in focusing on these smaller aspects of music-making.

What equipment was used to create this album?

The musical aspects of the album were all produced using a variety of VSTs. Some older Korg reproduction VSTs were my favorite to use. To play around with them, I have a cheap, 2-octave, very worn, but very loved Alesis midi controller that I saved up for and bought when I was younger. The rain effects were found on a cassette in my friend's basement dating back to the 90s. The foley throughout the middle portions of the album are samples whose sources have been lost within the 2 years of development. And finally, the running water on the final track was recorded by myself and another friend on a studio microphone at a secret creek tucked into the mountains of rural Arizona.

Packed Streets and Phased are very different from the rest of the album.  Packed streets has more of an urban feel.  Phased feels more like we are witnessing something beyond our comprehension, like the birth of an AI.  If anything, what was different when you wrote these songs?  Were you trying to communicate something specific to the listener with them?  

"Packed Streets" was honestly a strange inclusion on the album, but I also felt as if the album would feel much different if I never included it in the first place. I always intended for "Phasing" to be near the end of the tracklist, as kind of a finale of sorts. If I remember correctly, both songs were created at the same time - and I believe that I wanted to create a duality of sound. On one hand, you have something a little more tangible - it has a beat, it changes, it morphs, then ends. On the other hand, you have a droning sound that evolves but not as dramatically - and fades in just as quickly as it fades out. Afterwards, I think I didn't want to let go of "Packed Streets" as I realized it had a complimenting place within the middle part of the album just as "Phasing" does near the end. I think they fit into the spots they are placed and act as a way to tell where you are in the album.

The production on Skybound is a bit different than the rest of the album, more of a synthwave type feel on the main melody.  Was there any difference when you were writing this song as opposed to the more natural sound of the rest of the album?

After "Phasing", I think "Skybound" is where things finally begin to end. The melody is more active than any other on the album and is presented as a "wake-up call" signalling the album's upcoming, final track. There wasn't really anything majorly different running through my mind when I was writing this track as opposed to anything else on "Transient", I just knew that I wanted something a little bit energetic but also something that held onto the album's feeling of wonder.

Do you plan to continue the Kunisaki project? If so where do you see your sound evolving to?

I definitely plan on continuing the Kunisaki project well into the future! As I learn, my sound will definitely evolve. I feel like, with more time, I will start to create more refined works that stick to the same playbook of focusing on the little things.

This album comes across as different scenes or observations.  Ranging from someone staring up at the sky wondering what it all is (track 5), to walking the streets at night (Packed Streets).  When you wrote this album did you have an overall narrative in mind?  If yes, what are you trying to communicate to the listener? If not, how do you view this album in terms of theme?

I definitely do see "Transient" as that of different scenes and observations or moments throughout time. In our world, you can create a story around anything, so I feel like that loose-ness of planning within this project ultimately helped form a narrative that felt much more life-like to myself. In a single day, anything can happen - emotions can change, plans can fall through. I think that's really the feeling I hope the album gives off. Just sort of a reflection on life itself.

Is there anything you would like people to know about your musical projects or anything else?

I'm very excited for 2021. I've been working hard on new sounds and projects that I absolutely cannot wait to share! Along with that, I'm also in the process of planning some pretty exciting things for the near future.