The title of this record is a reference to Ryan's time as a classically-trained percussionist. In the many, many, many hours spent with a metronome, they would play with the spaces between those clicks. In especially challenging times, they would attempt to expand and stretch those spaces into forever. Just existing in the between. This record is about these moments and places when we are living in those infinite spaces.
That time of intense musical focus was also their first introduction to an analog synthesizer. As a teenager, their drum teacher was Herb Flower, an incredible human with light beams of creative energy pouring out of him and his musical family at all times. A parent of another student of Mr. Flower’s was an electrical engineer who had recently been laid off during large cutbacks at Carrier, one of the major employers at that time in Syracuse where Ryan grew up. This parent, with their newly acquired free time, hand-built a drum machine, housed in a large wooden cabinet with 8 or so unmarked knobs, and they gave this synthesizer to Mr. Flower. The sound from that machine was glorious. And Mr. Flower, Raffa's drum teacher, would turn a few knobs, make a pattern and have them play along with it during rehearsal. These moments were such a gift, and they know those moments are still reverberating today. Ryan think about that time of experimentation, of exploration, of shared love of sound and music as a place that they can go to, a place we can all go to, whenever we choose.
Huge thanks to Jamie, Drew, Taylor, Bazza and the amazing folks at Air Studios for your incredible involvement in this release, Chuck and Chris at Dublab for inspiring and kicking off these sessions, Andreas, Nick, Patricia and Nico for your thoughtful early listening, everyone at Digilog for initiating this electronic music journey when I arrived in Taipei 5 years ago, all of the labels who worked with me in the past and the beautiful humans who support and run them including Matthew, Paul, Aaris, Joshua, Chris and David, my friends and family, and you the listener.
If you read this far and you live in Taipei, the vinyl is available at Waiting Room and THT, two amazing record shops worth exploring. Cheers from Taiwan.