Vol. 1 by Airfolks

Airfolks is an experimental tape music project by Callie Day and Japhy Riddle. The name is a loose spoonerism of Fairoaks (Avenue), where it was recorded.

It started with a modified cassette, housing a short loop of audio tape with its ends spliced together. Various mostly-musical (but not always) sounds were recorded onto the tape using a Vestax MR 66 multi-track recorder. This recorder allows for six independent channels to be recorded onto the tape.

We would record one channel at a time. Often, we’d adjust the speed of the tape to alter the pitch, or sometimes we’d even record a channel on the other side of the tape so it would end up backwards. Once all the channels were filled up with sounds, we’d play the tape loop back, and control the volumes of each channel on the fly while digitizing the output.

This album contains twelve tape loops for your enjoyment. Some may be best appreciated with attentive ears. Some might be better suited as background music to zone out to.