Ellejelle by Christopher Bailey

Picking up where the previous album, Waltz, left off, these 3 longform tracks find darker, more foreboding corridors to explore. "Fallen", the first track's title, alludes to the general mood, and to the falling scales melody that kicks in a couple of minutes into the song. These falling scales are echoed by by multiple layers of falling sequences towars the beginnning (~3:15) of Track 3, "Away". In the 1st track, the falling scale theme gives way to characteristic pulsing textures that dominate the rest of the song. The 2nd track, "Act", is the contrasting middle of the sandwich-like ternary structure of the album; it's a bit of an homage to some 70s prog (for example: Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Close to the Edge) featuring (especially in the 2nd half of the tune) a dizzying collage-like sequence of irregular meters and rhythms that interrupt and derail one another.

For the tech nerds, these songs are composed from a number of ad hoc samples (especially track 2), as well as programming on my (now vintage) Roland XV-3080 synth, and (for tracks 1 and 3), the Surge software synth.

All of this music is microtonal or at least, non-12-edo in tuning, for specific tuning notes please see the notes for each track. Parts of this album were originally presented at Microtonal Adventures Festivals in 2018 and 2022.

Born outside of Philadelphia, PA, Christopher Bailey is currently based in Boston, but frequently participates in musical events in New York City. His music explores a variety of threads, including microtonality, acousmatic and concrète sounds, serialist junk sculpture, ornate musical details laid out in flat forms, and constrained improvisation.

christopherbaileymusic.com