2022+
#This year seems to go faster than I anticipated, while at the same time it feels like things move very very slowly.
In the UK, the BBC – a much loved and respected broadcaster, where I used to work – appears to be in something of a meltdown, so it feels good to have left it some time ago.
The backdrop of a poor country economy, no love for the creative industries, fragile food supplies, very high energy costs, and a generally low morale, all presided over by a divisive government (this needs no expanding on), just makes any attempts to save face after Brexit, as a nation, all the more surreal. Much of my time since last summer went into finding work (in the tech sector) before a wave of layoffs hit, and then into securing that before some other significant thing had potentially happened.
The air feels like people retreating into their comfort zones. Not great timing as, on the back of a pandemic, I've been trying to get out of mine and have a more socially connected day-to-day. Plus I had to dial back Twitter before I was ready, for two reasons: 1] it has become too political, too toxic, too mainstream, and 2] my twitter client of choice no longer works (because of You-know-who being at the helm).
Technically I remain on Twitter, but the music artist in me is now on Mastodon at @eesn@mas.to. On it I stick to music or art in general, which means sporadic posts (shrug). More broadly I'm trying to transmit less, receive more.
With your help, I finally bought what feels like a grown-up instrument (not counting modular for many reasons) – the Novation Peak. I realised I'd held off for too long, mostly due to cost, but your support on Bandcamp made it much easier. A truly inspiring instrument. Novation sounds do feature in my music, especially Scateren-era, so this is, in a way, reconnecting today's Esem with earlier Esem.
Speaking of which, I'll be adding Serial Human to my Bandcamp discography soon. There are many reasons why it has been missing, but it feels like the right time to amend that. Meanwhile I have decided to delay adding my other releases to Spotify indefinitely.
Lastly, as once a tracker musician (= always a tracker musician), I've been bringing my Enveloped-era samples over to Dirtywave M8, which is ridiculously powerful for its portable size. Although I have modern replacements for many of those sounds, my journey to figure out why they resonate with me, and inspire me so much, continues.
That is all. You're up to date.
♪♫