Cat's Cradle

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2019-09-27

Label: Bibliotapes

"I purchased Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut a while back but didn’t read it until last year. It turned out to be one of those books you start reading and devour in one sitting, blind to the rest of the world and consumed by the narrative. Despite having finished it so fast, I still find myself thinking about it many months later, perhaps due to the subject nature the work deals with and its relevance to our modern life. The book tackles how society deals with technological advance and how carelessness, indifference and stupidity can ultimately lead to extreme destruction, but it does so with humour through Vonnegut’s use of irony and parody. Written at the height of the Cold War era the book remains relevant today as we deal with the increasing impact of social media on our lives and politics.
Having written soundtracks to films in the past I was intrigued to apply the same process to the written word, however I found my working methods ended up being very different. I would read a few chapters, reflect on how I felt and start patching my modular synthesizer to translate these emotions into sound. I had just started taking piano lessons at the time, and was experimenting with different chord structures and patterns. I found that the innocence of these simple melodies was reflected in some of the characters described in the book. There is an underlying melancholy to the book that resonates despite its humorous tone and I have tried to convey this in my choice of melody and instrumentation throughout the album."

50 copies