Three weeks ago at winter solstice, something cracked open in me that hasn’t closed back up. At the time, I recorded/performed eight tracks in four days — minimal techno, ambient downtempo, arpeggiated grooves that just wanted to run. All of it performed live in Logic Pro, no backing out of the flow, just riding whatever showed up.

I wrote about it on the 26th like I was reporting from the edge of something, checking to see if the ground would hold. Three weeks later, it’s still holding.

Twenty-four tracks now. I’ve recorded all of them using the same process, and it’s become something like a ritual now. I start with sound sculpting to create patches, tweak synth parameters, find tones that feel right for whatever mood. Sometimes I’ll use my environment to inspire me (a soccer broadcast, sounds of the weather or animals outside). Then rhythm creation, usually starting with a kick pattern and building from there. Once I’ve got the elements curated and ready, I breathe out, press record and perform the track live for however long it lasts. No edits other than mixing after the take, just flow state and real-time filter work. What you hear is what happened in that moment—mistakes, happy accidents, all of it. The performance is the product.

As I’d hoped, I was able to get a Behringer TD-3 — the TB-303 clone I mentioned wanting in that earlier post — at the beginning of the month. Having something tangible in front of me has made the whole thing feel more real somehow. But it wasn’t just about tactile satisfaction. The TD-3’s workflow is so different from Logic’s that it changed how I think about making a bassline or creating rhythms. My mind had to wrap around the vagaries of a physical analog device instead of flat-land digital interfaces, and that shift opened up something for me.

Getting the hardware also sent me deeper into the lineage. Somewhere in the middle of all this making, I started curating a 90s techno mix project. Not just listening, but deep archaeological work — tracking down the foundational tracks, understanding the lineage, learning from the people who built this language I’ve always been yearning to speak. It’s ambitious, maybe too ambitious, but it’s feeding back into my own work in ways that surprise me.

The mix is teaching me things about structure, about patience, about when to let a groove breathe and when to push it forward. The nostalgic nature of the experience is great, but beyond that I’m trying to understand what made that era work so I can find my own voice within the tradition. It’s also helping me find where I fit musically, where I’ve always felt a little more home than elsewhere. Since my first experience and experiments in high school with the Roland MT-32 and that Mac Plus, I’ve been hooked on the idea of doing electronic performance.

It’s actually on the horizon now, not just as a wish but as a tangible goal. Taking this out of the studio and into a space where people can experience it in real time. I’m not rushing it: I’m still learning the hardware, still figuring out what a live electronic set looks like for me, but it’s becoming real.

And that’s actually the point. My album “Where’ve You Been?” was about processing the past. This is about making music from presence. Performing what comes through. That is, whatever capacity I have on any given day, whatever the channel offers, showing up and seeing what wants to come through and capturing that as honestly and clearly as possible.

The fact that anything is coming through at all still surprises me. The fact that it’s staying open, that momentum is building, that people are listening, and I didn’t expect that part.

More tracks coming. Hardware experiments continuing. That 90s mix still taking shape. Live performances are getting closer.

The channel stays open. I keep showing up. We’ll see what happens next.

Gear list:

• M1 iMac
• Logic Pro (Alchemy, RetroSynth, Drum Machine Designer, Live Loops)
• Behringer TD-3-MO
• Arturia MiniLab MkII
• Yamaha Pacifica
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (2nd Gen)
• PreSonus Eris Studio Monitors
  

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Listen to my latest experiments on SoundCloud