‘Unfurling’ is Ffion’s debut full length record. A pseudonym of Yorkshire based composer/producer Thomas Ragsdale, Ffion’s music draws the link between euphoric and evocative electronica.
Handing over the mic to artists/musicians who break down their new albums track by track/share the thought process behind the creation. Today we’ll hear from Ffion aka Thomas Ragsdale, British musician and head of Soundtracking the Void label whose album Unfurling is out now on Third Kind Records.
More TBTs in our archives.
Recording Date : 26/09/2020
Mood : Pensive, urgent and ready to head into new territory.
Hidden Secret : There are only two sounds used in this track and it was all recorded in a single live take (5th attempt).
Special Notes : I’m channeling my inner Tangerine Dream influences quite obviously on this, yet I feel no guilt (who would?!?!).
Recording Date : 26/09/2020
Mood: Sleepy. Wanting to start an album writing slow synth music with no drums.
Hidden Secret : The opening fluttering synth line was the first sound I made when I started to produce the album. Also listen at 5:43 for when my synth goes completely out of pitch and also at 6:54. I thought it’d be nice to leave in rather than go for another take.
Special Notes : The sounds in this track were made on a free software synth called ‘Blue Odyssey’, which you can find on the Reaktor User Library forum. It’s brilliant.
Recording Date : 11/11/2020
Mood : Hyperactive. I want to make something with piano, but not a piano piece. I think that I also want it to sound like drums.
Hidden Secret : The whole track is made from a single synth line and a single piano note put through distortion fx.
Special Notes : Originally a much longer track and this shorter version was included on the bonus Third Kind Club subscriber edition of the album. But then I swapped them around, so now the longer and more in depth version is a little more special.
Recording Date : 27/10/2020
Mood : Uncertainty.
Hidden Secret : The arpeggio that runs for most of this track was generated by randomly layering my fingers on the keyboard and seeing what came out. Then I hit record.
Special Notes : This used to be two tracks and the final section was the last piece of the album to be completed.
Recording Date : 01/11/2020
Mood : Trance. Wanting to make something with huge epic transcending synths…
Hidden Secret : This track contains a sample from ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers sliced up and looped many many times. It’s the bit were he sings “I just can’t look, it’s killing meeeeeee”.
Special Notes : The main synth line in this track is constantly falling out of time and it was a nightmare to record. The pitches were generated by a rough piece of kit and it never worked 100%.
Recording Date : 15/11/2020
Mood : Euphoric early morning.
Hidden Secret : Barely any of the elements in this track are in time, but sometimes you have to let them fly away…
Special Notes : None.
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