For his new album, Paracosm, due out August 13, electronic artist Washed Out (a.k.a. Ernest Greene) took an entirely new direction from the purely sample-based work he’d previously made. Paracosm was crafted using over 50 different instruments—and it’s not just the amount that impresses but the variety he used, choosing to research and dig up sounds from old and rare analog electronic instruments, some of which are over 70 years old.
Greene couldn’t get his hands on the actual instruments so instead he used their virtual counterparts, plugins which allowed him to explore these otherworldly sounds and mix them into his musical cauldron, blending old and new. In part one of a two-part documentary which delves into the sounds and methods behind the new album, The Creators Project takes Greene to the Audities Foundation in Calgary, Canada, a living museum and recording studio where old electronic instruments are preserved along with their lineage and history. Greene met with founder David Kean to play some of the original instruments he sourced on the album.
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