1. 000200
2. 001000
3. 000800
4. 000600
5. 001200
6. 000500
7. 000300
8. 000100
9. 000900
10. 000700
11. ((....))
12. 000400
cd/dl/stream on Flag Day Recordings, July 2024
Order on my Bandcamp page or at Flag Day Recordings (US)
Associated Sine Tone Services (ASTS) is a new conceptual collaboration between analog oscillator wielders Jeremy Young (Montreal, CAN), Nicolas Bernier (Montreal, CAN) and Rutger Zuydervelt (Schiedam, NL). This record was entirely generated using sine wave oscillators and an array of electronic filters, stacks, and processing.
Although this project initially started with a bouquet of material put forth by Young to start, each track would eventually coalesce around the vision and momentum of one of the members individually, creating pocket productions that make the album in full, a diverse compendium of creative approaches to analog sound design.
Eschewing the codes and lexicons of “library music” here—despite the tongue-in-cheek reference to a canonical analog tape audio box in the artwork and graphic design, and the cheeky name of the project itself—the trio opted rather for a pop-melodic approach, which elevates each artist’s creative voice and personality. This is music, over sound design, contrary to what listeners might expect from an album entirely built from sine waves and the analog fidelity of vintage studio tools.
Like navigating a strange dreamstate, the score feels moody and cinematic at times, flowing melodically and rhythmically in moments accompanied by velvety textures and dense timbres with tertiary twinkles and artifacts occasionally vying for the listener’s attention. Hilariously, this entire endeavor was actually drafted in a dream by Young in 2023, in which this exact trio was on stage in a dark underground club, all dressed in lab coats, adorned with their signal generators creating music together. The following morning, Young got to work on an initial bank of oscillator loops and sent both the audio and the proposal to Bernier and Zuydervelt.
The dream came true.
Reviews
Ambientblog
The Associated Sine Tone Services shows a different – more playful – side of Rutger Zuydervelt, and also of his fondness for collaborations. ASTS is a ‘conceptual collaboration between analog oscillator wielders’ Jeremy Young, Nicolas Bernier (both from Montreal, Canada), and Rutger Zuydervelt.
As the title already implies, this music is generated using sine wave oscillators, combined with electronic filters, stacks, and (a lot of) processing. It is experimental electronic music – but it is surprisingly accessible.
As it says in the liner notes: “This is music, over sound design, contrary to what listeners might expect from an album entirely built from sine waves and the analog fidelity of vintage studio tools.”
The whole album also breathes a nice nostalgic atmosphere, as if it could have been the soundtrack for a 50’s science fiction movie. But it sounds many, many times better now than it did then.
Vital Weekly
Zuydervelt is a member of a trio called Associated Sine Tone Services, along with Jeremy Young and Nicolas Bernier. The latter two are based in Montreal and Zuydervelt in Schiedam, The Netherlands. They share a prime interest in using “sine wave oscillators and an array of electronic filters, stacks, and processing” – a proper old-school type of electronic music. It has a great cover, looking like an old box containing a reel to reel tape. The idea was not to play very abstract, long-form pieces of sine wave drones but instead go for a more “pop-melodic approach”, so most tracks are between two and four minutes and with 12 pieces and a playing time of 36 minutes; sadly, not a very long album. The music fills me with great joy, mainly because there is a notion of melody, a trace of rhythm, and none of this sterile sine wave approach. Young was an instigator here, following a dream he had in which he performed with precisely these two musicians and upon waking up, he went to work on a bunch of oscillator loops and invited the others to work on this. No single musician controls the mix, and it’s a collective thing, even with the geographical distance. The music sounds surprisingly coherent, best described as the sum of each musician’s solo work. Carefully placed sines, clicks and cuts, with the added electronic giving the music a different shade of sine wave and, at times, an excellent, distant sound (in ‘000100’), for instance, but overall, there is a beautiful warmth in these pieces. It’s not exactly pop music, but with hints at that.
Luminous Dash
Associated Sine Tone Services (ASTS) is een nieuwe conceptuele samenwerking tussen Jeremy Young (Montreal, CAN), Nicolas Bernier (Montreal, CAN) en Rutger Zuydervelt (Schiedam, NL), die we ook kennen van zijn project Machinefabriek.
Deze plaat is volledig gegenereerd met behulp van sinusgolfoscillatoren en een reeks elektronische filters. (Dit moesten we toch even opzoeken… Sinusgolfoscillatoren zijn apparaten die periodieke trillingen, signalen of golven opwekken, waarbij de frequentie wordt bepaald door een elektrische spanning, die op de daarvoor bedoelde ingang wordt aangesloten. Dit wordt veel gebruikt in zend en ontvang apparaten en in analoge synthesizers – nvdr.).
Hoewel dit project aanvankelijk begon met materiaal dat Young naar voren had gebracht, zou elk nummer uiteindelijk samensmelten rond de visie en het momentum van één van de leden afzonderlijk, waardoor we een diverse waaier van creatieve benaderingen krijgen.
Young droomde hierover in 2023: het trio stond op het podium in een donkere underground club, allemaal gekleed in laboratoriumjassen, versierd met hun signaalgeneratoren die samen muziek maakten. De volgende ochtend ging Young aan de slag met een eerste reeks oscillatorlussen en stuurde zowel de audio als het voorstel naar Bernier en Zuydervelt. De droom werd werkelijkheid!
Het trio koos hierbij eerder voor een poppy, melodische aanpak, die de creatieve stem en persoonlijkheid van elke artiest naar een hoger niveau tilt. Dit is muziek, boven geluidsontwerp, in tegenstelling tot wat luisteraars zouden verwachten van een album dat volledig is opgebouwd uit sinusgolven en de analoge getrouwheid van vintage studiotools.
Alsof je door een vreemde droomstaat navigeert, lijkt de sfeer soms humeurig en filmisch, doch melodisch en ritmisch vloeiend in momenten begeleid door fluweelzachte texturen en dichte timbres.
