Spleen Arcana

The Field Where She Died – Story

Apologies in advance for my english, I hope that you will understand all the same what follows…

Gathering instruments

At the very beginning – ten years ago – my only goal was to write music. Inspired by my musical heroes, I was just curious to know how a song I write could sound. The first song was called “A Kind Of Heaven” and it’s the closing song of my debut album. Then, I thought it could be “useful” to record the music I wrote at that time, at least to remember it. I have to say that at the moment, I only owned a cheap acoustic guitar and a cheap Yamaha keyboard (PSR340). The day I had the opportunity to buy a drumkit of a friend was a huge step because I could imagine the drum parts for my songs and learn them. I had the songs and the instruments so I naturally started to think about recording…

First recordings

Recordings started with this blue device. At that time, I was quite sure to record my first demo tape on this tape recorder. I learnt some recording basics, like this fantastic “ping pong” process which allow you to record more tracks than the tape can even support! I could record my drum kit, my old keyboard, my guitars and my voice. Analog for sure! But as you may guess, it was not so great sonically speaking, even if I had some good feedbacks about this first demo tape (which included “A Kind Of Heaven” and “Tears Are Made To Flow”…) and was called “The Root Of All Evil”…

Then I switched to another device : A digital hard drive recorder. It was a revolution for me! 16 tracks instead of 4 four tracks, can you imagine? And still the possibility to apply the “ping pong” thing to record even more tracks. I took this chance to add some microphones to record my drum kit (so I had maybe three cheap microphones instead of one, lol), I could add acoustic guitar here and there, playing with different tracks and adding digital effects from this “modern” recorder. It was a genuine huge step because I had more ways to improve my arrangements. And the songs evolved by themselves.

At the same time, I was playing in a band called Shiver. We did some gigs when we played “A Kind Of Heaven”, “Tears Are Made To Flow” and some songs which are not recorded yet. Playing these songs in a band was very important to me because you need to think about how retranscribing the sounds and the various parts. Shiver was a really essential stage in my musical journey. But this journey had to become more solitary…

From the sea to the mountains

So I moved from the sea to the mountains and took with me some of my instruments like my cheap Les Paul, my Yamaha keyboard and a low cost bass guitar. I built a very small home studio in this new place, surrounded by mountains. Far smaller than my previous room but strangely, I was really productive in this time and I spent a lot of time recording all the songs I had. I really had to create and express myself. I had a computer to record as much music I wanted. I sold my previous out of date recording devices to buy a soundcard (M-Audio Audiophile 2496) and some other gear. I remember recording demos of all of my songs, using samples for the drums parts and playing guitars, bass and keyboards. I was not really sure about which road to take, I just searched for sounds, played and recorded. I didn’t even think about recording an album. Beside my songs, I joined a progressive metal band called Sismic. I really like their music with this Tool vibe… I wrote lyrics and sang in the band for some weeks, we did one gig and that was it. It was very enriching! I really liked how their drummer, David, played and as you guess, it’s the first drummer I contacted when I decided to record “real drums” for my album.
I spent two years near the mountains, recording most of my songs under the name of Magmor, I added some gear to my home studio like this Soundcraft M8 console (and I remember well running after UPS on the road at 8am to obtain the “precious parcel”) but I was aware that I needed more gear to record my album and I had to improve my skills in recording, which is, I agree, by far the most important. And then, I left the mountains for the sea…

Stones and Woods

To be continued…