grief jars enigma (2025)

I recorded this album on my old Portastudio 424 Mkiii analogue tape recorder. I used to record demos on it but always used digital workstations to make the albums. I wanted to commit to the idiosyncrasies and limitations of the analogue technology, rather than the endless digital fiddling. The result is a smorgasbord of thumb-strumming and the closest thing to a live performance that you will most likely hear me make for the foreseeable future.

This project feels like a natural finishing point. For the last few years I have been inspired by Jaron Lanier’s book ‘You Are Not A Gadget’, and sought to make music that celebrated the flaws within my music rather than trying to eliminate them. I have enjoyed the process and felt proud of the outcomes, even when I am rarely happy with them. However, I’m keen to try some other things and would like to explore music in different ways and using different processes. Making an album with an old 4-track felt like the most obvious way to get started. Who knows where I’ll go next?

The album contains various songs that I had developed over the last few years and didn’t use on other albums. It doesn’t have the neat conceptual shtick of the last few projects, but I think it still hangs together as a decent snapshot in time. I consider it to be a bookend on a shelf, that sits with ‘my piranha’ at the other end. There are extra tracks for those who buy the digital download.

I hope you like it.

James