RELEASE THROUGH SOUNDTRACKING THE VOID: soundtrackingthevoid.bandcamp.com/album/parallel-vectors

PURCHASE FROM SOUNDTRACKING THE VOID FOR LTD EDITION CASSETTE AND BONUS MATERIAL

Parallel Vectors is the story of two people trying to find connections between the synthetic and the organic; an interweaving ambient work interested in process, place, and space.

Matt Parker and Stuart Cook currently transmit vibrations between London and Bristol, UK.

Parker and Cook began working together on Parallel Vectors to explore their interests in long-form field recordings and modular synthesis.

Parker, a sound artist and researcher interested in infrastructures and field recording techniques, began to dig through material from his previous four years of field recording research trips in search of single take long-form field recordings of locations and events evoking nature cultures at a time where — like many others — his movements and interactions with the wider physical world had become heavily restricted. Cook meanwhile, would spend late evenings taking a deep dive into modular synth building; reacting to his custom instrument, creating dense layered drones.

Following months of remote discussions on themes and concepts, with the darkness of winter setting in, the pair decided to work quickly and intuitively. Cook would initially produce a recording of a live performance using his custom modular instrument, which he would share with Parker. This activity was to take no more than one evening. On receipt, Parker would find a similar length single-take field recording from his archive of locations from around Europe. These included parklands, forests, off-grid research centres and locomotive transportation. The two sessions would be combined in parallel. Processed and arranged over the course of one night. Two nights of exploration for each piece.

Matt Parker is a Sonospheric Investigator, an artist researching the resonances between things. His multimedia works are influenced by the practice of listening to unsound vibratory ecologies and the economies of noise. His research engages with sound studies, media ecology, field recording and geohumanities through a spectral art practice. Notable works include The Imitation Archive 2015 (the world’s first sound archive of computer history) (British Library and The National Museum of Computing, Bletchley Park) and the internet infrastructure experimental sonic investigative documentary series The People’s Cloud 2016-2020. He is also a former member of the dark-electronica trio Nedry (Monotreme Records) and an occasional member of Capac (This is it Forever Records).

Stuart Cook is an original member of the experimental ‘new music’ hydra of Capac whose works include the climatic glacial throwdown of Sea Freeze (2015), the dark, familial adventure Through the Dread Waste (2018), and After Lights Out with Tom Harding (2020), a collaboration with poet Tom Harding exploring the nocturnal themes of his Palewell Press collection. He is an avid modular synthesiser builder and experimenter. His work outside of music as a practising speech and language therapist informs his compositional choices. He is interested in the musicality of speech, communication and linguistics in humans and other animals; he continues to explore this through field recording and modular synthesis.