The Analog Session 2007 –
The Analog Session is a music project conceived in February 2009 by Lapo Lombardi (aka Ludus Pinsky) and Maurizio Dami aka Alexander Robotnick
Initially conceived as a video project (currently with over 350,000 hits on Youtube), The Analog Session then became an album and finally a live performance. For Alexander Robotnick and Ludus Pinsky it’s not about being nostalgic for an era they represented but is more a progression and improvisation in the present music scene currently dominated by computers.
Hot Elephant Music HEM1511
When machines get funky
4 track 12″ single 2016
Medical Records MT-001
1 – N5 From Outer Space (Original Soundtrack)
2 – N5 From Outer Space (Summer RMX)
3 – Funfare (Original Soundtrack)
4 – Funfare (Summer RMX)
Hot Elephant Music HEM1511
BLACK GROUND
11/05/2015
Remixes 2
1) N5 From Outer Space (summer rmx)
2) Funfare (summer rmx)
09/02/2013
Remixes 1
1) Effai (Late night RMX)
2) Ascension (Late night RMX)
08/22/2013
April
1) Ascension (127 bpm)
2) Effai (128 bpm)
3) Strange Fruits (127 bpm)
4) April (120 bpm)
5) Amigos (126 bpm)
6) New Mandarins (132 bpm)
7) Little Grunge (140 bpm)
8) Distant Voices (124 bpm)
Produced and composed by Alexander Robotnick & Ludus Pinsky
mastered by Tommaso Bianchi (White Studio)
Alexander Robotnick and Ludus Pinsky deliver their album ‘April’ as The Analog Session. A journey into electronic music, from the early 70s to modern techno, performed only with vintage analogue synths.
For many club based electronic music concerts (with the exception of academic or experimental concerts) essentially consist of a couple of artists, usually DJs, fiddling on their laptops, rhythmically nodding their heads along for the duration of the “concert”.
“We don’t know whether such a situation may be called ’live’ but to us a concert is something different. As we are talking about electronic music, obviously most of the music played is ‘sequenced’. This however does not prevent the artist from interacting with it by physically playing different parts and improvising.”
The Analog Session’s natural vocation is the live performance and it was indeed conceived as a live improvisation of electronic music. What The Analog Session bring you is a real ‘vintage synth’ experience with a unique sound that cannot be imitated by any other instruments. Every time they perform live they create a different sound environment all based on interaction with sequences of written notes, modifying their timbre and dynamics whilst playing ad-libed flourishes on keyboard synthesizers as a jazz player would.
“We decided to use vintage synths, mainly dating back to the 70s. Their sound is still unique and cannot be imitated by hybrid synths or by digital synths and even less so by software synths. Such ‘vintage synths’ are still used at many professional studios by electronic music producers; but it is quite rare to see them on stage because of the many technical problems they present: they are very fragile, unstable in tuning and most of all it is impossible to record the timbre and recall it at each track.”
This was the spirit of early synth pop music back in the 70s of which both Alexander Robotnick and Ludus Pinsky have vivid memories from their first entry into the world of electronic music. However, the project does not intend to imitate such bands as Tangerine Dream. Forty years have passed, techno music evolved considerably and both protagonists have been developing long artistic careers gaining vast know-how and skills. It is not so much the 70s music they wish to retrieve but rather its “progressive” spirit as well as the ability to improvise, which has become more and more marginalised in the present music scene dominated by computers.
The new album tracks range from electro-disco to techno, opening up to melody and chord arrangements throughout. From the opening, rolling funk of ‘Ascension’ to the electro shimmer of ‘Effai’ and the tougher edged groove of ‘New Mandarins’ The Analog Session show us there’s still new life left in those old machines.
The Analog Session in action.
The concert lasts from 1 to 2 hours. The Analog Session can be performed in clubs but needs some time and space to set up its equipment which consists of 2 modular synths – which are the core of the system – 5 more synths with keyboards and some vintage effects including a tape echo.
Tracks range from electro-disco to techno. It is therefore dance music but never repetitive and opening up to melody.
The Analog Session can only be performed at venues that can be reached by road from Florence because its equipment cannot travel by air.
This is Music LTD THISM023 2009
The Analog Session
Concrete Seq 1 (Club Mix) – 5′ 24″
Fun-Fare (Club Mix) – 5′ 09″
N5 From Outer Space – 7′ 36″
Promenade Am3 – 10′ 37″
Sunday Morning – 6′ 14″
In My House – 5′ 58″
It.122 – 5′ 46″
Concrete Seq 1 (video version) – 8′ 11″
Fun-Fare (video version)” – 6′ 42
HISTORY
In February 2009, Alexander Robotnick and Ludus Pinsky put together their personal analog synths to organise and perform an Analog Session.
The idea was to recreate the purely analog sound of the 70s and early 80s, which the two artists consider being the true “electronic sound”.
The Session lasted 5 days , 3 of which to set up and connect pieces of equipment and to fix sync problems and VAM malfunctioning.
TRACKS
7 tracks were recorded, mainly developed on improvisation.
There were 2 and sometimes 3 sequencer lines written in Midi driving 3 Midi/Cugate convertors.
Improvisation consisted in controlling the sound of the synths and playing Logan , Wasp, and JX3P.
VIDEO
The entire session was recorded in real-time by two cam-coders so that every sound event is documented by the video.
RECORDING
The session was recorded on 10 audio channels
EDITING
Being all tracks mainly based on improvisation, the artists didn’t pay much attention to the their individual duration .
In the end the sessions selected for every track were more than 15 minutes long each. The less significant parts were therefore cut out both from the audio session and its video recording so that the video was still in real-time.
The video was shot by 2 static cameras ; a few shots of individual pieces of equipemnt were added in the editing but it’s essentially the real-time recording of the Analog Session.
MIXING
Tracks were mainly processed by analog outboards , such as tape-echo and vintage effect boxes.
No further track was added to the originals recorded.