December 2024

I mentioned I'd write a post before the release date. This is that post. And tomorrow is the release date.

The next Sequester album is titled Cosmic Considerations.

You'll find it December 6th in all the usual places, such as Spotify and Bandcamp. 

(It's actually live now on Spotify, depending on your country, due to how they deal with time zones.)

The lyrics have already been added here to the website, and the Releases section has been updated as well.

Regarding inspiration this time around, you might recognize tracks 4, 6, and 7.

Track 4 (Egg): Based on the amazing short story "The Egg" by Andy Weir. You can read it freely on his website, or Kurzgesagt also did a neat animated video adaptation a few years ago that's on YouTube.

Track 6 (Heartsbeat): This would be referring to Doctor Who. More specifically, the idea of fixed points in time, or the "burden of the Time Lords," and knowing that these moments can never be changed despite how tragic they might be. And no, that's not a typo (two hearts).

Track 7 (Pillars of Eternity): A nod to Obsidian's game series of the same name. This instrumental is somewhat of a throwback to the first album's closer, Icewind Dale; I thought that parallel would be appropriate given the nature of these games, and the connection between Obsidian Entertainment and the former Black Isle Studios.

While I will, as per usual, leave the rest up to interpretation, I would like to comment on track 3: "Venus by Tuesday." This obviously outs me as a long-time lurker of the Collapse subreddit, if you're familiar with the meme there, but it is a topic that's close to home. Here is some data for those not too familiar with my provincial news:

6,450,650 hectares have burned here in British Columbia between 2017 and 2023. To give a sense of the scale, it would be like the entirety of West Virginia or Sri Lanka on fire. While 2024 isn't over yet, it has shaped up to be another terrifying year with more than a million hectares lost.

In the summer of 2021, a "heat dome" lead to one of our towns, Lytton, literally burning to the ground as temperatures reached nearly 50°C (122 F). (And now look at what happened to Jasper, AB.)

Then near the end of that same dreadful year, we had to face an "atmospheric river," which resulted in mass flooding and the tragic loss of thousands of animals.

Where I live, the spring and autumn seasons have greatly diminished over the years, as we now mostly jump straight from winter to summer and back again.

Needless to say, with business as usual being the only plan on the agenda, I am not too optimistic about the future and haven't been for some time. Here's hoping for a benevolent ASI emerging in the coming years?

Anyway, you can consider this song as a space rock anthem to our potential demise, if it do ya fine. (Yes, yer bugger -- I recently finished the Dark Tower series, and the slang is infectious.)

So there's your downer for the day. If you've been listening to my music for long, however, then you are likely used to the melancholy by now; I remember reading on reddit a number of years back that someone referred to me as "probably the gloomiest dude in power metal" during a recommendation thread, which got a chuckle out of me. I can't say they're wrong, other than perhaps the ongoing question as to which genres I belong in. I believe that you can still hear all my influences on each release, just to varying degrees. The prog and psych aspects are fairly consistent, but my teetering back and forth between something like heavy/power/thrash metal and then alternative/grunge/stoner rock really just depends on the song. I like to think that dynamic is what makes Sequester what it is, for better or worse.

I am overall incredibly pleased with how Cosmic Considerations turned out. I also really like the duration: six songs plus one instrumental outro track. It felt like the perfect amount to work on and listen to. This structure will be the aim going forward, should any more be made. As of right now, I have 355 demo riffs and counting on my computer (though that also includes those already used), so there is no shortage of ideas for future songs. 

You may not hear from me for a while, but I'll let you all know when the next release is nigh, providing the world hasn't ended yet, of course. (There you go -- one last jab of doom-and-gloom on my way out, may it please ya.)

Thank you for listening.

June 2024

I've finished recording all of the instruments for the next album except for a few guitar lines on the last track. I was meant to have finished those a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately I came down with a sinus and ear infection, resulting in my first ever experience with diplacusis (double hearing) where perceived sound in my problematic left ear has a slight echo and raised pitch compared to the right. I have another day of antibiotics to go, so hopefully it all clears up soon since everything I hear is dissonant and muffled.

This summer I'll be working on writing the rest of the lyrics and vocal melodies, which will then get recorded in the fall. The album should be done around November, with an early December release date being the goal. I'll do a write-up here on the website before that time, including the track list and artwork.

January 2024

Over the next few weeks, I'll be uploading the remaining four Sequester albums to Bandcamp, starting today with 2018's Hermit. I believe this will be the first time that all of my tracks are available to download in a lossless quality, since the former CD Baby shop (and other stores like iTunes and Amazon) only sold MP3 or similar files.*

https://sequester.bandcamp.com/music

As for the next (eighth) album, I'd like to have it finished before the end of this year, but we'll have to see how things go; I'll be sure to provide an update here once the timeframe becomes more apparent to me.

*Edit: I looked into this further. Turns out there was a period sometime between 2013 and 2017 (judging by forum posts) where CD Baby did offer FLAC. It was then discontinued, with MP3-320 being the highest option for a while, before they eventually shut down their digital store altogether in 2020. So if that's all correct, then this will indeed be the first time that my entire discography is available in a lossless format.

September 2023

After roughly eight years of chipping away at it whenever I could -- the last two or three being particularly arduous -- my game, Sclera, will finally be releasing on October 13th, 2023. A good looking date if I've ever seen one (Friday the 13th, no less) and just in time for the Halloween season.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2598560/Sclera/

Instead of a whole new website, I've just set up a Games tab here on sequester.ca -- plural if only for the surreal case that I should be insane enough to make more in the future; I'd rather keep my entire body of work all in one place, though, regardless of the media type or genre. 

While I know exactly what I would do for a sequel, time is the great barrier here. With the number of hours and stress that went into Sclera's creation, I could probably have put out another four or five Sequester albums; yes, music will always be my main creative priority. But having said that, Sclera is the ultimate passion project, combining my love of music, horror/dark fantasy fiction, and turn-based games. Even if I do only get to release one, niche as it may be, I can still be happy with this personal goal being accomplished.

So I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that the most enjoyable aspect of this endeavour was composing the music. You can listen to the main theme here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lo8Spxrow8

Work on the next Sequester album will resume in the new year. For now, "We're not going no further 'till we've had a breather."

December 2022

Not a whole lot of news to report, but I wanted to give you all an update since it has been over a year now.

I was hoping I'd get my game finished in 2022. Unfortunately, that won't be happening for various reasons. I'm still working on it nearly every day, though; it is just a lot of work, and life's obstacles can often get in the way. Right now, it is writing out the random encounters (essentially CYOA short stories) that is taking up my time. While I also have a smaller-scale, procedurally generated story system -- where paragraphs are broken down into their core sensory elements, and then random (but environmentally appropriate) selections are made to create the story -- the encounters currently being worked on are all the custom written, hand crafted ones. As the game is largely text based and horror themed, this is an area I'm being fairly meticulous with in order to capture the correct mood while also giving each skill check a chance to shine. But once I finish these encounters, it should be smooth sailing from there: finalizing assets, testing, general polish, etc. I'm aiming for a release next year, but the timeline for completion is harder to predict than it is with music production.

Speaking of music, some progress has been made there, but I'm very much focused on finishing this game. The songs for the next Sequester album are all loosely arranged, at least, and a bunch of the lyrics have been written, and most of the guitar tones and synth patches have been finalized... So with those types of decisions already out of the way, I should be able to just slip into the recording process without too much hassle. And damnit, am I looking forward to it. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," indeed.

October 2021

Hello everyone. It has certainly been some time. I've received a few messages asking if I was dead, so given the state of the world, I suppose an update is in order. Nope, not dead. I've avoided the Rona so far; a natural proclivity for extreme introversion I'm sure has helped. The record shattering heatwave here in BC this past summer wasn't fun. And in New Westminster, we've had a number of random fires from barges, old piers and buildings that keep filling the city with highly toxic fumes. I'm still alive for now though.

I've arranged a number of new songs, and finished recording the instrumentation for one of them, but it will be a while yet until the next album is released (probably 2023-2024). At the moment, most of my creativity has been dedicated to another project I've alluded to before, which I guess I'll finally elaborate on. I've been slowly working away on a small video game for a number of years, and the end point has actually started to appear. I've nearly finished all the programming at least, and my attention is currently on prose, visual art, and audio. The game is a turn-based strategy Lovecraftian roguelite with CYOA elements. It's definitely niche, but something I've wanted to make for ages. Due to how time consuming solo game development is, I'm not sure how many of these projects I have in me -- as Sequester is where my main passion lies -- but I do consider this a bucket-list item of sorts, and one I'm quite proud of. And the music will be more synthwave and ambient, channeling the likes of John Carpenter, which will be a fun change from my album material.

So that's all for now. In case any are interested, I'll post more info and appropriate links when the game is complete. Until then, thank you as always for the support.

June 2020 - Civilization

I've released a new album to Bandcamp consisting of a single 21:30 instrumental track, Civilization, an homage to one of my favourite game series.
The idea behind this one was to have a number of acts that would relate to different civ eras, where progressing through them would change the instrumentation and increase the phrasing being used. For example, while the first act consists mostly of percussion and 1-2 bar phrasing, the final act uses synthesizers and 6-8 bar phrasing. Everything is then tied together with guitars, drums, and a few subtly changing melodies that signal the start or end of an era.

Link: https://sequester.bandcamp.com/album/civilization