Lots of writing and recording in the last year. Fits and starts. The flood gates opened, and closed up again. I’m situated by a mountain of half-completed work.
2025 was an incredibly scatterbrained year. I played shows, and ended up writing new songs for them. Brought back old material the archives to work on. Recorded several iterations of things. Spliced versions of songs together to create horrific collages. Re-arranged ideas for the acoustic guitar.
2025 was also the year of false starts; the shows in Europe did not materialize, and other things fell through. It was also a year of detours; I ended up working on many non-musical projects.
I took a longish winter break to focus on Work, but I’m back to working on Reckoner stuff again. This update is a way of catching myself up to things as much as it is writing to you about what’s happened/happening.
“First World Collapsing” came from the need to fill time in a 30min set back in August, but turned into this cool groovy 5/4 synth track that everyone seems to be into. I also brought back “Monkey On Your Back” for that show, a song that I wrote in 2021 that had lost its sheen for the longest time.
I also contributed a version of Plasma to the Compassion through algorithms volume III compilation (please go buy the compilation album!), and later performed it at a show at the MIT Media Lab in Boston in December.
The Hyderabad version is great, but the Boston version of “Plasma” was something else entirely. I came back buzzing and laid down a quick skeletal recording of that song during the holidays. It's wild how these things come together in no time.
The Boston performance also sounded crisp thanks to improved compression and envelope control on Supercollider. I also got analog tape emulation working, which deeply enriches my live sound.
“One or Several Wolves”, another song from nearly a decade ago is slowly coming together. It sounds like a cross between a Hungarian choral and something off of Slowdive’s Pygmalion. My friend Lavinia was gracious enough to record a three-voice choir part for this one. I taught myself to use MuseScore for this.
”Second Chances” is in a pretty good place too. I'm trying to layer feedback from a few different sources (supercollider, Ableton synths and my guitar) and side-chain them in all weird ways to create a weaving/pulsing rhythm.
I listened to a lot of Talk Talk in the fall and winter —especially their final two albums. Just like Low, they are masters of capturing stillness in their music. That has had an effect.
There’s another track kicking around, built out of a relentless Fela Kuti-style groove. The working title is “Fear makes you do things”. I’m still working the lyrics out for this one, and it is starting to veer into violent imagery. This song also poses an editorial challenge: How do you preserve the groovy and relentless nature of a jam while packaging it into a shiny 4-minute pop song?
Async, Doomscroll and Uncanny Valley are all closer to completion. Need to iron out vocals and then bash my head against the wall for a few days editing/mixing them.
Other tracks that I have made tiny but incremental progress on: Post-Panamax Heart, Cephalopods, Side Quests, Heaven’s Falling, Apropos of Nothing, and Winter Solstice.
tl;dr - things are moving along. Everything is in flux and full of potential. I can now feel what these songs can become, which in a way starts to add pressure. It’s important to stay open-minded and remember that the stakes are relatively low in spite of being existential.
Matthew and I will play two Archaic Reckoner shows in Brooklyn.
4/20 - Wonderville
5/5 - Young Ethels
Keep an eye out for flyers and obnoxious promotion on my Instagram closer to these dates.
I hope to play at more established venues this year. I’m trying to be more intentional about participating in the new-media art/tech and creative coding circles, which is where my work fits best. If you or a friend has such a place in mind, please reach out!
JIN by Martin Kohlstedt
New Grass by Talk Talk
Returning by Minhwi Lee
Them, Their by Jan Jelinek
la paradoja by Juana Molina
Isn’t It A Pity by George Harrison
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