Transparent by Eden Grey

Modular synth powerhouse Eden Grey serves up a catchy and sonically superb Extended Play, achieving so very much over a mere 17 minutes, you'll swear she's somehow condensed an entire record into four tracks. The care, craft and adroitness is apparent throughout, and sure to sell the uninitiated on her musical mastery.

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INTERVIEW
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George Ernst AKA Suncastle: As a guy who composes everything on his damn tablet, I'm always nervous interviewing people like you who are like.. bona fide modular geniuses, people whose genuine love and passion for their craft is glaringly obvious not only from their musical output, but in your case, your work with CV FREQS. You mentioned on Podular Modcast discovering a love for modular synths when working on your Masters. Was building a synth a huge eureka moment for you? Would you go back to digital or do you sort of mix and match?

Dr. Chelsea Bruno AKA Eden Grey: Building a synthesizer was my exact intention and helped everything come together in my mind, I wanted it to be personal to me, completely custom, to use it as a tool to make some sounds that were very unique to create and accentuate my own signature sound. Digital synthesizers and plugins sound great as well and I do a lot of combinations of both. But I could never see myself without my modular synthesizer which I will continue to build and explore for the duration of my existence on our beautiful green and blue planet. I love to send my synthesizer through effects and slice up recordings of it to use in tracks. Sometimes I will lay down the basis of the track with drums and keys, and play the modular synthesizer right over it in the same key, as in ‘Fall Complete’. Other times, the analog-synthesized melody is the lead and basis for the entire track, as in Leaf Circles. So many possibilities and I love changing up the way I work to often be pleasantly surprised with how something turns out.


GE: Do you think your location informs your musical style a lot? What influences, if any does Miami life have on your art?



CB: I moved from Miami FL to Columbus OH last summer with my son. I was born in Cleveland, OH, so when I was a little kid I grew up with seasons. That is one of the main factors in why I decided to move north, from Miami to Columbus. It is so beautiful in Miami but it also feels so fancy and like a permanent vacation town, and there are a lot of mosquitoes biting year-round and no changing seasons. I wanted my little son, Anthony, who is now 4 years old, to have fun seeing the leaves in the fall and snow in the winter. So for this album, living in the seasons again for the first time in 3 years, it was definitely inspired by the fall turning into winter.


GE: I like 'Fall Complete' as a title so much. I don't really know why, it's just one of those word combos that sounds super cool. But is it fall like 'autumn is over, time for winter' or fall as in 'AAAAAAaaaaa' down a mine shaft?


CB: In this case, yes, it represents exactly that, fall is finished and I captured the sound one afternoon with the bright white overcast sky glaring at me through the window. I want you to sense in the track the feeling of autumn finishing and winter moving in, a very transparent title. The fall was tumultuous, and I became homesick then missed my family and friends, I was stressed about relocating and living in a new place with my son all by ourselves. It was a lonely time, and this track reflects my aim to soothe myself and express some of my feelings to take the sadness and transform it into something beautiful to mark the passage of this time in late 2021. I like how I feel I have captured my early Autechre influence with this track.


GE: Where did the title 'Transparent' come from? And have you considered a Noise Rock EP titled 'Opaque'? Or a vaporwave EP titled 'Translucent'? I've got loads of these...


CB: That’s a great idea, no I hadn’t thought of that, but now that you mention it, I could definitely make a lo-fi ambient noise album called ‘Transcend’. I put a lot of thought into titles, that is for sure. The definition of the word is actually very interesting, obviously, I am inspired by being a parent to my son as he is the dominating factor in my music-making and my life in general. But I am not transgendered, so I am not a trans-parent, but I mean the definition for the music to be more like, I am an easily perceivable musical parent or the music is easily perceivable. I also like the computing definition of transparent: ‘functioning without the user being aware of its presence.’ My music is very sci-fi influenced, and I arrange all my tracks on the computer. I’ve always thought I am channeling the music, I feel like sometimes, most of the time when I am composing, working on the arrangement, or playing the synthesizer, I am functioning and even unaware of my own presence.


GE: How do I join the rock admiring cult? Is this like Scientology? Am I gonna end up on a boat tithing $45k again?


CB: I didn’t realize that this song might be mystifying or relatable to people. Haha, no, ‘the rock admiring cult’ is definitely not like Scientology or any other rip-off organized religion, but I guess you got the cultish vibe right. I had taken my son out to some riverbeds on a few very cold winter days, and we would just look at the rocks on the ground for a long time. So it is, essentially, admiring rocks on the ground. And it was so quiet and still out there, with no one around which is why I thought of the invitation to come to join us. But who would want to be out in the freezing cold weather admiring rocks on the ground? All sorts of rocks are beautiful in the way they naturally take shape and sit together in perfect chaotic randomness. And we will be admiring rocks more in the summer as well when it is not freezing cold.


GE: I love the weirdness of this EP. It really adds to the memorability factor, without it, maybe it'd just be another very good collection of songs. I think that's a harder thing to cultivate on all-digital projects. To anyone as of yet unsold on the merits of the physical world when it comes to music, essentially lazy folk like me with their tablets, working exclusively in DAWs, how would one go about dipping their toes into the world of modular synthesizers? If you know nothing, it can be very intimidating!


CB: Thank you, I also love how my music is so weird. Everyone is probably a little bit intimidated when they want to start building their modular synth. The best thing to do is to get a small skiff, and put a mixer, an oscillator or two and a filter, and a trigger CV source. Select the modules that you really like first. Then gradually, as you become comfortable with those modules, allow yourself to begin to explore more of what modules you would like to try. It doesn’t have to be complete to start but you have to pay close attention to what you’re doing when you’re building it so you don’t fry the module by plugging the ribbon cable in the wrong way, which is usually, almost always indicated on the module but still, there is no room for error. It’s just important to start somewhere and then learn it little by little. I started with a 104-hp skiff with a huge hole in the center. The hole was covered by blank faceplates so it didn’t even occur to me that the hole was there. I was so happy with the sounds, I could do so much patching experimentation with just a few modules. I am always here to answer any questions or to give advice about how to get started building your modular synth, which is precisely why I organize the CV FREQS events, to learn more about them myself and to help other people who are interested learn more about them.

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REVIEW
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Making her Triplicate Records debut with a fantastic electronic EP titled 'Transparent', Eden Grey's musical stylings are instantly likable. You'll wonder where this stuff has been all your life. Check her extensive Bandcamp discography already! Transparent is at times, dangerously chill, the next minute, it's overcome with neon techno paranoiac rumblings. Despite the wide range of flavors on sale here, consistency is an appreciated factor: the percussion is slick and crisp; the melodies sweet and breezy; everything about this brilliant little EP is endlessly likable. Grey achieves so much over a mere 17 minutes that you'd swear she'd somehow condensed an entire record into four tracks.


Opener 'Fall Complete' floats graciously into your field of audition. The aforementioned slick/crisp beats jazz up your radar immediately, though on this first foray it's the atmospherics; the synthesizers; the g-funk keys that cut through and ensure you're engaged from the get-go in what Grey has to say. It manages to be a sonically varied track, complete with a minimalist midsection without losing its momentum for a minute and striking forward-thinking and hopeful chords throughout. Best foot forward and all that. Check.


On 'Admiring Rocks' we have murk and menace and rock admiration. A bass that throbs sinister and cultish, yet plaintive lyrics. About admiring rocks. After a minute or so it's like... yeah... you admire rocks... and the artistic manner by which you're delivering said admiration kinda makes me wanna admire rocks too. Sign me up. The beat is slo-o-ow and steady, chipping away at your resolve to not admire rocks. We admire rocks, join us.


'Leaf Circles' is straight-up acid house, elastic and smooth. It too, rocks. Up goes the tempo, there's some real squelch and bounce throughout. Consistency was mentioned before, and though the first three tunes of this short EP couldn't be more different stylistically, the execution maintains a consistently high pedigree. This is one of those thrilling musical projects you can listen to, safe in the knowledge that you're hearing someone who has mastered their craft, and understands their chief musical brief is to thrill and delight; something 'Leaf Circles' achieves spectacularly.


'No Problem' would be laid back were it not for the techno-nightmare ambiance blazing away behind the skittery reverb-soaked pounding drum work. It's a brilliant closer but really would've worked as Transparent's opening mission statement just as well as 'Fall Complete'. In practice, it ties the overall package with a neat little musical bow, fading away all mysterious-like in a wash of noodles. The only thing odder than the idiosyncratic concepts served up on this mini-masterpiece would you, passing it by. Get on this.

Eden Grey composes music using her own techniques approaching music technology, in an effort to express the ineffable.

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