Felix Machtelinckx Night Scenes
Vinyl Catalogue Number: SUBEX00144
Download Catalogue Number: SUBEX00145
General Release Date: 16/02/2024
Night Scenes, Felix’s solo debut is, in contrast to his previous work, more humble and less traditional, roughly hewn from a series of ambient soundscapes, earthy textures and playful structures. Felix’s voice, normally the flagship of his music, becomes more of a distant memory, an indistinct emotion feathered throughout the music. Many lyrics are improvised, sometimes unintelligible, conjuring haunted, uncertain undertones.
Similarly, the album is innately peripatetic to the core, being created, written and recorded in Lithuania, Belgium, France, mastered in the US, and finally released in the UK. In the first instance, some of the tracks were created for the contemporary dance piece Doggy Rugburn by Brandon Lagaert of Kaiho and Peeping Tom; others were created enigmatically for a film that never surfaced; while the remainder are the product of more personal work and research.
As Felix began to collect and review these disparate parts, the concept of a unified album began to evolve. With 'night' featuring as a suitably dark leitmotif, or backdrop to a series of emotionally fraught 'scenes', each track depicts a form of trauma, locked within the confines of the mind. Felix observes:
"Imagine yourself in a dusty old room unable to sleep. Emotions, fears and other demons haunt your mind. This in-between state makes your mind reach for other worlds. This is Night Scenes."
For the most part, Night Scenes was created using a variety of old, and rare, analogue equipment. With almost no digital editing, the record was primarily mixed through a vintage cassette desk, giving it a nostalgic character with a noisy undertone. Felix fully embraced the synergy of his emotional themes and retrograde gear, enthusing:
"A lot of textures were created on an old Soviet synthesizer that causes a blackout when you hit the lowest note on the keyboard. The dysfunctionality of the synths was often used to create rhythm and texture."
This unnerving ability Night Scenes has to comfort and confound the listener is summed up by Jordan Hudson, House Of Media producer, and music podcaster, when he concludes:
"Some songs on the album have this sort of fleeting comfort and tonality, which dissolves into a subtle rhythmic/structural or modulated disarray the moment I settle into them - this really fits with my experience of the night .. This record is a winner, and will be something I'll listen to a lot from here on."
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Equipment list:
Oberheim matrix 1000, Formanta EMS-01, Waldorf Blofeld, Korg Poly 800, Simmons SDS-800, Marantz CP 430, Scott A436, Tascam Midistudio, DDA D Series, Yamaha P210, IGS Tubecore
releases February 16, 2024
All music written and produced by Felix Machtelinckx.
Songs ‘Make Me Sad’, ‘Love Made Me B*tter’, ‘Fireon’ and ‘Hypnose’ were originally written for the dance piece ‘Doggy Rugburn’ by Brandon Lagaert.
Mixed by Felix Machtelinckx
Mastered by D. James Goodwin, at The Isokon.
Artwork "I Am Forgettable" by Michel Vaerewijck
In-camera positive silver-cellulose on metal - 23x19 cm
Model on picture is Doriane Dubost Dessertine
michelvaerewijck.com
Artwork design by Benoit Vangeel
