Growth by Mick Chillage

"Growth" was born from the inspiration of both nature and my synths.

On a recent walk around my local park and across its rather impressive yet brutal looking suspension footbridge which spans across the river below I noticed the growth of lichen on its fabricated structure, the bridge is only a few years old and I was taken by the bright yellow fungi contrasting against the wine coloured painted metal supports and the black slip resistant walk way, I felt this would make a nice photograph so I took a picture with my phone.

The image kinda lingered in my brain longer than I expected and I was fascinated how the lichen was taking over the bridge, almost as if it was trying to blend in the alien structure to its natural surroundings.

I began to see a connection between nature's ability to grow in the most unexpected environments and how growth can happen to us in unexpected situations, particularly poignant in the current pandemic we all find ourselves in, for many this has been a challenging time for sure but also its been a time of growth as we find new ways to cope and perhaps discover that maybe we should be doing things different in our lives.

The track itself, came about purely through experimenting with the Moog Grandmother initially, a random generative patch I created was the catalyst, by dialling various control knobs it created very varied and unexpected results, I also captured some drones that evolved from this patch and then built more synth parts from the Prophet Rev2, & the Supernova II, eventually the Moog elements became more like background effects and as the track comes to its final quarter I played some improvised keys using the Native Instruments Maverick Piano which I felt complimented some of haunting synth sounds.

The title "Growth" seemed to fit as the track grew from an unusual sonic foundation just like the lichen had grown on the metal of the very industrial and brutal looking footbridge at my park.

Tracklist

1.	Growth	40:00

Credits

released November 5, 2020

Written, produced mixed & mastered by Michael Gainford
at the Igloo Dublin October 2020.

Photo & design: Michael Gainford

License