PLL by NYZ

After much preparation and discussion, the first volume of a new and ongoing series from David Burraston has arrived at Psoma: PLL, a catalog of recordings made using Phase Locked Loops.

For this first excursion Dave is using the Doepfer A-196 Phase Locked Loop module. The PLL is, even by Doepfer's own admission, an unusual and unpredictable device, which is remarkable considering the wild frontier of ideas that populate the modular music world. It continues to either astound or confound music makers who are new to its specific strengths and unorthodox charms. In layman's terms, the PLL uses a voltage controlled oscillator, a phase comparator and a low-pass filter in a combinatorial way, alongside two external input signals to track various aspects and adjust them internally according to a set methodology. The result is often an untamed and colorful source of processed audio and/or angular modulation, although, like many Doepfer modules, the PLL can act as an external sound processor or a sound generator itself.

This is where Burraston arrives to both discern what is happening inside the PLL, and to shape and guide it according to his own conceptual bent. We here at Psoma cannot say we fully understand what Burraston is doing on these recordings, even though we ourselves use the PLL in our own modular system, but that liminal space between recognition and unfamiliarity is often where NYZ recordings reside - threading a cosmically large tapestry with electricity, while most listeners experiencing this process from the outside will not be able to distinguish the advanced experimentalism from pure, mind-melting magic.

NOTE: After some confusion from listeners, we'd like to make clear the fact that all NYZ/Noyzelab catalog releases at Psoma are available ONLY as abridged digital versions for name-your-price/free download, and in their full unabridged editions as physical CD-Rs. There is not an unabridged digital version of anything from NYZ at Psoma, and the physical editions do not ship with unabridged digital versions either (that is, if you do not count the digital music present on the compact discs). For listeners only interested in unabridged digital versions, we encourage you to visit https://noyzelab.bandcamp.com to purchase those directly from NYZ, or even better, subscribe to his Bandcamp output and just get everything.

Sleep fictions, lucid maps and gnostic states. Asemic systems designed by night smokers, bedroom alchemists and oligolaliacs, for intimate applications. Est. MMXVII.

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