about the cd

Continuing 12k’s tradition of collaborative releases, Skal_Ghost marks the first-time pairing of German artist Arovane (Uwe Zahn) and 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Acquainted through their shared love of music technology, they set out to record an album entirely using the Nonlinear Labs C15 synthesizer, exchanging patches and sending projects back and forth to develop an organic, inspiring workflow despite the limitations of the pandemic.

Both share a love of experimentation and gave each other full freedom to manipulate sounds. Most tracks are built from improvisations, loops, and layers of processed and re-processed sounds. Distilling these rich textures to their essential forms, Arovane’s dense tonal beds provide the foundation for Deupree’s more fragile, broken melodics, resulting in intricate, immersive soundscapes.

Deupree reflects:

“It was exciting for me to work with one of the great sound designers of our humble music scene. Uwe and I not only both have a love of all things music technology-related but quickly developed a friendship, sharing stories of food and our homes. The music became the seed and bond of that friendship. Working and exploring sounds together is great, but the real takeaway is the story-making, learning, and enriching of our lives. This is always the true goal of collaborations for me.”

Skal_Ghost is a deep and haunting release with rich details and small worlds packed into each sound and movement. The album is a natural melding of styles and techniques and certainly not the last we will see from the collaboration.