released October 31, 2020

This project was conceived in early October 2019 and was very much unplanned. Members of Scrat and GodFire found themselves sharing music in the Facebook group “Ambient and Experimental Music Community”, and one asked another “ever do a split?”. This release is the result of the conversations that followed.

For most of the duration of this project, none of the four people involved have been face-to-face with any of the others. Based in the US, Scrat is a musique concrete influenced duo whose members live far apart from one another and are used to collaborating remotely. GodFire, on the other hand, are fundamentally a free-improvisation duo who have been forced to adapt their process significantly under heavy COVID-19 lockdown in the Australian state of Victoria.

To work around the distance, GodFire and Scrat compiled a small sample library for one another and began making tracks. There were no guidelines or limitations around how the samples could be used, and the initial intent was to each create two tracks: One that uses the samples, another with no constraints, for a four track release. One glance at the tracklisting shows that this is not how things turned out. The sample mining quickly became more fluid and expansive. The results are two radically different approaches to a set of sound sources across eight tracks. Scrat stayed true to their musique concrete influences and used their sounds unadulterated by effects or editing, as identifiable, ‘clean’ sonic events in the eye of the storms raging around them. GodFire took very much the opposite approach, aggressively editing the material supplied, twisting it to serve their own ends. In the end, only one track - Geen Mens is Illegaal - didn’t draw from the sample library.

Both Scrat and GodFire are duos born of close friendships. There is warmth in the process and affection in the making of this music. It brings us all immense pleasure to be able to create in this way with these people. Whilst you - the listener - are ultimately secondary to this process, we place great value on your support and interest in what we do. Enjoy, if you can.

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SCRAT: RELENTLESS APATHY

"Scrat is an eclectic project seeking to embody in one way or another, the complete scope of so called musique concrete and perhaps beyond. Truly a noise project yet melodic in its dissonance. Scrat incorporates field recordings, sampling, frequency manipulation, noise guitar and metal to name but a few directions the project moves in. Often riddled with dark themes and angry explosions of expressive shadow, there is still much light in this darkness, at the end of the tunnel… shining in this void."

“I’m not really sure what to say. I enjoy making music and noise with my friend, Rorac. I’m a fairly minimal person with people I hang out with. Rorac and I live hours away from each other, so we send tracks back and forth and are pretty much in constant dialogue. We have been in several bands together and been experimenting and doing our own things, together and separately for many years. That doesn’t mean it’s good. It is to me, but on a much grander level than may hit some folks. Scrat is about my relationship with Rorac as a friend."

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GODFIRE: RIGHTEOUS FURY

Godfire is:

Prolific. Godfire performances and releases occur at a 1:1 ratio. Everything played is recorded, and everything recorded is shared. Godfire is not interested in quality control.

Haphazard. The only parameter around the music is that it contains improvisation. Each recording is captured differently and sound quality varies wildly. Godfire makes no apology for this.

Opportunistic. Whilst Godfire is at its core a drummer and a bass player, it is not beholden to a specific mode of sound production. Godfire expresses itself sonically via whichever objects are close at hand and exists foremost as a naïve exploration of sound. Godfire writes and rewrites its own rules to suit itself. Godfire does not strive toward traditional notions of musical virtuosity.

DIY. All performance, recording, artwork and promotion is undertaken by Oliver Maiolo and James Wingard unless otherwise stated. Other contributors appear from time to time, but Godfire exists fundamentally as a duo.

A labour of love. Godfire is the result of a longstanding closeness between its members. It is riddled with in-jokes, opaque humour, spelling errors and ad-hoc rituals. Godfire has its own internal folklore and with varying degrees of directness tells the stories of the lives of its members. Whilst it would bring Oliver and James great joy to know that someone out there is listening and attaching significance to the sounds that they make, Godfire exists ultimately for them. It is sufficient for their purposes that Godfire's music is merely discoverable, even if nobody apart from the two of them ever hears it.

Oliver Maiolo: Bass, Vocals, Objects.

James Wingard: Drums, Sample Manipulation.

GodFire would like to thank:

Ambient and Experimental Music Community (AEMC), discoverable on Facebook.

Silvio from Nailed Nazarene Industries for nudging this project to completion by giving us a release date.

Antifaschistische Actie Nederland for their contributions to track 7.

Recorded and constructed sporadically from October 2019 to October 2020.