New Authorities (2022, formerly "E.W.S.")

New Authorities is an interesting release because it is the first real music project I ever made. It was recorded in 2022, when I was 16. I was already a tapehead back then, but I was not really making music yet. I mostly just played a bit of guitar. This album was basically my way into making music.

I have always preferred learning by trying things myself instead of looking up how things are “supposed” to be done, and you can hear that here. A lot of my titles work the same way too. New Authorities was chosen purely because of how it sounds and how it looks on the page. I often pick titles based on sound and typography rather than meaning.

The record is raw and cold. It is ambient experimentation built from noise and texture, recorded straight to tape. At the time I used a separate cassette for each track, and later compiled everything onto one cassette. Because of that, there are no original digital masters, only the tape rip.

For the digital release in 2025, I only changed two things: track order and volume. On the original tapes the levels varied a lot from track to track, so I leveled everything afterwards to make the album feel consistent. That also means some tracks can seem to have a louder noise floor, but that is mostly because those recordings were originally much quieter, and raising the volume naturally lifts the tape noise along with it. Apart from that, I deliberately did not “clean” anything up. There is no noise reduction, no EQ, no limiting. The imperfections are part of the album, and I wanted it to stay exactly like it was recorded.

The gear was just as chaotic as the process. I honestly do not remember which sampler or samplers I used. I only know it was not anything expensive. The same goes for the tape decks. I have always gone through cheap second-hand decks quickly because I use them hard, and back then I was constantly rotating through whatever I could get my hands on. I am pretty sure this project was recorded across multiple decks, maybe three, and I do not own any of them anymore. The tapes were also random second-hand finds, all kinds of types and brands. Some tracks are one-take, but most have overdubs, made by bouncing between cassette decks and adding layers each pass.

Most of the source material comes from short guitar recordings and bits of my very early music. Those small samples get pushed through samplers until they lose their original identity. Often there is no clear rhythm. The focus is not really on tonality, but on noise and texture unfolding over time.

There are a few exceptions. E.W.S. Part 1 is a very short, simple guitar piece that works as an intro. It did not function that way on the original cassette, but I changed the order for the digital version. Track 2, New Authorities Part 1, is a softer landing where the analog warmth and noise really come forward, with warm tones, strange synth design, and heavy sample abuse. Track 9, E.W.S. Part 2, is the outro. It is a fairly straightforward piece in 31-EDO, a microtonal scale. Microtonal playing was already a big part of how I used synths back then, from the start.

When I originally finished the project, I titled it E.W.S., and I have genuinely forgotten what that stood for. The music was never made with an audience in mind. In 2025 I decided to digitize it and release it anyway, with a new title and a new cover.

The cover is a photo of my own face.

This project used to have more tracks. In 2022, before everything was compiled onto one cassette, I lost a tape that had two tracks on it. That is why there is no New Authorities Part 6. For the digital release I chose to keep that gap on purpose. It is partly a small tribute to the chaotic way I worked back then, and partly a joke. I renamed the parts myself anyway, so skipping straight from Part 5 to Part 7 is a deliberate nod to those lost pieces.

The next project I made after this was 2-FDCK Angel. It is similar mainly because it comes from the same period and has a related feel, even if the sound and technique are not necessarily the same.

Below you can find alternative artwork for the cover, alternative covers, the original covers from when the project was still called E.W.S., and the raw cassette rip.