Alpha Wave Movement is the nome
de plume of composer and instrumentalist Gregory Kyryluk. He was kind enough to
grant me an interview where we discussed his creative process, career
accomplishments, and inspirations.
MW: Alpha Wave Movement, thanks
so much for taking the time to talk about your music.
AWM: Thank you for your interest
in my music.
MW: With only a first listen to
your tracks it’s easy to hear a very symphonic element to your compositions. Is
this something you went to school for, or did it emerge over time?
AWM: Actually no and my latest
release although has symphonic elements is not atypical of most of my music. I
mainly compose more sublime music that retains the improvisation aesthetics but
with a sense of inward tranquility as with Eolian Reflections,Yasumu and my
side project as Within Reason. The symphonic elements of Horizons is mainly my
interest in the melodic interplay and strong thematic motifs in music. I grew
up listening to John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith film composers which were
early influences before I discovered New Age, New Wave and later progressive
rock. I never went to school to study music seriously but was always drawn
magnetically to it like a river to an ocean.
MW: Many of the people who come
to this blog are interested in music production, could you tell us a little bit
about your studio set-up? Do you have any favorite pieces of kit?
AWM: Well I am not actually an
engineer by trade more via osmosis. I record using my best judgment levels, eq
etc and then all the results are recorded direct from the board into my Pro
Tools setup. Nothing really fancy or bank busting Abbey Road-esque. I over the
years simplified and down sized everything to bare essentials so that my
recording set up is easily portable. I like working quickly and in the moment.
You would be surprised what you can do with just a hand full of gear from
creativity to a finished product. The latest and greatest gear addictions are
not really of interest to me. It’s all about using what I have at hand and
stretching the imagination. I still use some really old synths form the 80s
that are a part of my sound the Ensoniq ESQ-1 and Novation Nova are always
working within the realms of my creative muse.
MW: I hope you will forgive me if
I make comparisons, but there does seem to be a strong connection between your
sound and the synth composers of the 1970’s such as Jarre and Vangelis. How
would you feel about people drawing those parallels?
AWM: I take that as a compliment!
Although Vangelis is very well known in the states for his music in Chariots of
Fire etc Jean Michel Jarre I think never really caught on but the two of them
have a knack for drawing these beautiful melodies out of the ether and
incorporating that sense of composition into modern technology. They do not
limit themselves to traditional instrumentation i.e. acoustic instruments and
the atypical form and function of what music "is" supposed to be
according to societal indoctrinations. I can relate to these composers as much
as those jazz musicians of the 1960s who took a deep dip in the sea of
improvisation.
MW: Are there any current artists
or genres you’ve been enjoying?
AWM: My musical listening taste
is all over the map. I will listen to older ECM (a classic German jazz label
that never followed tradition) jazz artists like Ralph Towner, Eberhard Weber,
Pat Metheny Group albums then onto dub techno like the Segue, BVdub and classic
Jamaican Dub like King Tubby. I have also taken interest in the minimalist
genre of music like Peter Michael Hamel's work with the German ensemble.
Between and Terry Rileys Rainbow in Curved Air. I basically get drawn to music
with atmosphere, melodic content and the use of modern/older technology in a
very aesthetically pleasing way. I am also very keen on 1970s progressive rock
not for its pomposity but for the use of technology that did not further
"hipness" of the times. I view music like food subjective to each
persons audio palate!
MW: In any one of your pieces
there are a number of themes and transitions, not typical at all for today’s
electronic music. Could you describe your process for composing works and
putting them together?
AWM: I don't usually follow any
sort of popular formula or structure when composing especially since the 3-4
minute pop song is not my cup of tea. Sound and rhythmic elements are key to
inspiring me such as a certain percussion sample of synthesizer sound. I also
enjoy incorporating the natural world into my music and try and use various
elements of field recordings to enhance and articulate my point. Much of my
music comes thru I guess my consciousness trying to tap the atmosphere of being
someplace maybe in a metaphysical sense and then transferring the feel/emotion
into a sort of ambiguous sound sculpture. The music really comes about and
forms itself during a sort of automatic state of creativity. I do not have much
formal music training but I understand how to structure music and compose a
melody which I guess is really an autodidactic sort of way I do things.
MW: Do you ever use studio
musicians or are you entirely self-contained?
AWM: I have collaborated in the
past in various projects such as Thought Guild which was a vintage synthesizer
improv collaboration as well as working with a few other musicians in the field
of electronic music. However, I prefer the freedoms of working solo and not
adhering to any one sort of style of music or others interpretation of what the
music has needs to be. What many listeners out there don't realize is that
contemporary instrumental and electronic music varies quite a lot and within
this genre there is a lot of creative space from which one can co-exist. The
genre is really a microcosm of creativity.
MW: I’m curious how you feel
about the need for technological expertise on the part of today’s composers?
AWM: I think technology is
wonderful and I thank the engineers and musicians who made it happen. The
synthesizer and digital recording devices make creativity from start to finish
much more accessible to those of us on a small budget. I believe because of
technology many DIY musicians began to walk their own paths bypassing in a
sense the "traditional" methods of music composition.
MW: Do you ever feel like you
have to be more of an engineer than a musician?
AWM: Both. As mentioned in the
last question I am still an independent musician after 20 years I am not really
working for a label except my own and at times reeling music on a friend’s
label. I compose, record/engineer, create the graphics and promote my music. I
have been running my small label Harmonic Resonance Recordings since the mid-1990s
to allow me total freedom over my music releases. I believe many of the DIY
musicians work this way and I think that’s what I enjoy is the purity of the
music and product that is the end result. There’s less money or ego to drive
the music!
MW: You just released your album
“Horizons,” (on Sept 1 2014) which seems like it was an incredible task to
compose – I’m guessing from listening to it – could you talk a little about the
album coming together?
AWM: Most of the music I release
comes in phases. I sometimes will compose and record very uptempo moving music
and at other moments the music is very subtle and meditative. The tracks on
Horizons where recorded over a period of years and then assembled into a much
more fluid track order. Back about ten years ago I had started work on a one
off sort of electronica meets progressive rock cd called "The Mystic &
the Machine" not long after that release I would compose not consciously
just by sheer momentary inspiration more of that sort of more structured space
themed music with rock style energetic drumming. I have been a fan of Ozric
Tentacles since the 1990s as well as growing up listening to early Tangerine
Dream and Steve Roach. Horizons sort of merges those aesthetic principles
together into the music.
MW: To me, track number 2
“Traveller” is a real stand-out piece in a very ambitious and quality array of
songs, could you talk about your inspiration for that one?
AWM: Traveller is also one of my favorite
compositions on the release as well. Inspiration I think again probably my love
of space themes in some of the music I admire and grew up with and merging that
sort of floating cosmic sound (if there is such a thing!) along with the
tribalistic sound of drums pushing the music forward on a course for somewhere
out there wherever the listener wants it to take him/her.
MW: Shifting gears for a moment,
I wanted to talk to you about your contributions to the gaming and film world.
Especially when it comes to the inclusion of the track “Artifacts and Prophecies”
in the Grand Theft Auto franchise – no small achievement by the way - how did
that great opportunity materialize? Do you have any plans to seek more of these
kinds of outlets?
AWM: Thanks for the question. About 6 years ago I
received an email solicitation for my music and like many I wrote it off as
spam but I did not delete it. Curiosity got the best of me and I open the email
to my surprise it was not spam but Rockstar seeking my approval to use a track
from my 1995 release Transcendence for their video game. I am honestly not a
gamer, well not since the Atari, and had no idea who Rockstar was but I reached
out and contacted them. They were receptive and offered a great opportunity to
expose my music to listeners who might never have heard of Alpha Wave Movement.
To this day I don't really know how Rockstar found my music but my hunch is My
Space which back in 2007-2008 pro to Facebook was "the" place to have
your music promoted.
MW: Another notable feather in
your cap was inclusion on the True Blood soundtrack – this was from your “Open
Canvas” days. What I find most interesting about this track was the North
Indian Classical elements. Do you still use world instruments in your music?
AWM: Open Canvas was a sort of
outlet for my interest in taking traditional instrumentation, rhythms etc from
the east and incorporating a hybrid electronic/ethnic music. I was always
interested in the music on India, Middle East and ambient aesthetics. Although
I have never visited India or the Middle East it’s the cultural history/legacy
of such ancient instruments and the language they speak that continues to lure
me into their realms of sound. Open Canvas was the fruit of that labor of which
the US label Waveform was kind enough to release which consisted of my debut Nomadic
Impressions (1998) and Indumani (2000) the follow-up. Well Waveform somehow
made a Hollywood connection and was offered to license the track Ojopati for
the final season episode 3. It was fascinating to see something I had composed
used in another medium like cable television. That alone was very gratifying.
The Open Canvas project was a
trilogy of three releases but although that chapter is closed I do still
incorporate "world" or ethnic sounds into my music. In fact Yasumu
(Japanese for letting go) has elements of koto, table and assorted gongs I
utilized to convey that zen like eastern meditative spirit in the music. Great
question.
MW: Do you ever play live shows?
How do you manage so many parts in a live environment?
AWM: I have performed a few live
shows over the last decade but to be honest there are performers and there are
composers. I can honestly convey to you I am feel comfortable wearing the
composers shoes than out there performing in front of an audience. It’s never
been a form of artistic release for me to perform live.
MW: So, what’s next for Alpha
Wave Movement?
AWM: I have another release in
the works which is much more restrained on the percussion side and a dense
darker space music album. I have been working on that over the last year
incorporating an old ARP Omni analog string synthesizer into the mix for that “vintage"
sound. I also have a side project Within Reason which is my ambient/dub minimal
tech electronica. Music for a fifth release will begin soon for a 2015 release.
