Carl Sagan once said that “you have to know the past to understand the present,” but it seems like according to Belgian duo Soulwax, it’s more like you have to know the past to create the present.
With this in mind, the group recently announced their next album, produced with the help of of the EMS Synthi 100, a 1971 analog synth that’s so rare, there were only 31 units ever in existence. The album is called EMS Synth 100 – DEEWEE Sessions Vol.01.
This isn’t the first time that Soulwax has taken creative leeway with their release, as for their 2017 Essential Mix the group “chose to do what every sane human being would do, we decided to lock ourselves into our studio for two weeks and make an hour of new music based around the word ‘Essential’, instead of preparing a mix of already existing music.”
The upcoming album’s six tracks were made in cooperation with the University of Ghent’s Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, who assisted in procuring the rare piece of analog hardware history.
About the release, the group’s David and Stephen Dewaele said, “A few of the compositions were written beforehand, with the Synthi 100 in mind, then translated onto it. A couple were created by just messing around for hours, and some of it is the machine randomly playing by itself, inspiring us to build onto its unique chaos.”
EMS Synthi 100 – DEEWEE Sessions Vol.01 is out on vinyl May 29, and will also be accompanied by a 48-page book highlighting the history of of the synth.
See a teaser below.
