Sculpture Projects
Everything or Nothing, track by track
The only release of new material from Sculpture Projects in 2023 is the two-track single, Everything or Nothing, featuring the title track and an ambient rework. Here, artist/producer David Gauntlett talks about the two tracks.
“In 2022 I released the music I had been making over the previous two years,” he says. “In 2023, I just worked on the one new thing, basically. You couldn’t say I’m pumping out loads of material. But this was a whole journey.”
Everything or Nothing
“The main innovation for me here is that, for the first time, this track has vocals. Not just my previous spoken-word style, but what we might dare to call ‘singing’. This is evidently something that has happened in music before, but it was a big deal for me.
The whole thing grew out of playing with the Erica Synths Bassline – that’s an instrument, I mean, called Bassline DB-01, made by Erica Synths. I recorded some parts on that and then it grew up and up. It’s meant to sound a bit foresty, but also has the sunlight, breaking through the trees.
In the summer I played the track, pretty much finished and as it is now, to someone who gave me some disappointing feedback. Then it took me two or three months of reviewing it and worrying about it, to eventually come around to the realization that actually – I have made it how I want it, and it’s meant to be like this. I did it. It’s mine. I don’t actually want it to be any different. This is it. That was quite a striking thought, although it took me a long time to get there.”
Everything Ambiance
“This is very much a B-side to the main event. I decided, in December 2023, that I didn’t want the year to end without me releasing anything. But I only had Everything or Nothing, and I wanted it to be more than a one-track single. So then I did this, reasonably quickly, an ambient rework in the general style of the two ‘Ambiance’ reworks on the Proximity Effect – Remix + Atmospheres single. But this time, of course, I had my vocals to use. This version also has some new strings, percussion and other new sounds.”
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