King of two worlds (cassette transfer)

King of two worlds was made in about two weeks. It was originally supposed to be part of a larger release together with the material that later became Collapse All Branches, but those later tracks were not finished yet. I decided to release these three pieces first as their own EP.

The release is built around synthetic rhythm, texture, and fast detail. KING DE-AMPHETAMINE is mostly driven by drum synthesis, but not in the sense of normal kick/snare drum writing. It is more about pushing drum modules until their clear drum role starts to disappear. The track is built around speed, groove, noise, and texture as much as rhythm. Split between these worlds leans more specifically toward drill n bass, while Rebound paradox is a slower and more melancholic closer. The three tracks are connected, but they each point in a slightly different direction.

No external samples were used. The sounds came from custom synth and sequencing patches, but the music is not generative. Everything was sequenced manually, mostly inside the patches rather than arranged from normal MIDI parts. A few reverse and time-stretch-like sections were bounced and edited as audio, but the main language of the release is still synthetic and internally sequenced. Even though the process came from modular-style patching, I do not think the music has much of the typical modular or generative sound.

This version was released as a cassette transfer. The final track sounded good on an old Type I tape, and using the tape version for all three tracks made the EP feel more unified. At the same time, the tape does soften some of the fast detail, especially in the more rhythmically dense parts. That became less of an issue later, because digital versions of two tracks found another place: Split between these worlds became Nucleation Points, and Rebound paradox became Lea Is Lost, both on Death Of The Heliograph.

Because of that, King of two worlds now sits in a slightly strange position. It is not just an early or alternate version of later material, but it also is not completely separate from it. The cassette transfer gives these tracks their own form, while the later versions show where some of the same material eventually went.

Text written in May 2026.