SOFT FOCUS
Track by track with Jimi Tenor

A1. EEG
This was the first track we recorded to this album. I had forgotten my exotic flutes to Finland so we walked to the nearest hardware store and bought some plumbing pipes and made new flutes from them. We had to make several flutes to fit to the scales of the songs. We had had our first session of harp recordings at Mia´s house a couple of days earlier. She laid down the harp parts according to my demos that I had prepared in Helsinki.

A2. Polysomnographic
In this one I use a regular metal flute to play the theme because I couldn´t get all the notes from our self-made ones. We had constructed the flutes following instructions from a website. But those flutes are all diatonic, so there are limitations. This track is a bit more free form than most. There are actually different sections. Most of the songs are quite monotonic

A3. Emergence Delirium
- In this one we used a lot of historical synthesizers. At least a Hammond solovox and ondioline. The solovox was way out of tune. Something like an augmented 4th. That gives the song the nightmare feel. Also we used two different sets of glockenspiels, one was tuned to 440hz and the other one to 435Hz. That gives the glockenspiel melody that horror sound!

A4. Regenerative Apnea
- We got inspiration for this record from hearing recordings of an instrument called “kitar” . A six-stringed instrument that apparently Nero was playing when he watched Rome burning. I think this song has a lot of that original spirit of ancient music, that we had in mind. Very simple.

A5. Cauchemard
- Little nightmare song to and this side of the album. One can hear the famous “Photophone” in the high register.

B1. Brief Arousal
A version of Cauchemard. A bit leass scary, this one is.

B2. Hypersomia
Another very ancient sounding song. I find it quite romantic, really.

B3. Synitillating
Photophone is playing the ” bassline”. This was originally called “Unseen Worlds”. There´s a sring orchestra version of this that I performed in Hamburg with Resonantz-string orchestra. One of my favorites on this album.

B4. Panique Orinique
I guess this one has nightmares and daydreams alternating. LAry has this wonderful Philips organ that has a glowing light for every note. It´s some kind of a light oscillator, I don´t know. But it looks beautiful if you play it in the dark.

B5. Quietus
Lary went for it in this track. I don´t know how it was done. Nice ghost harp. We did recordings with an electronic tabla-machine. I don´t think I hear it on this one…

B6. Réveil
Lary´s studio is full of percussion. And I mean full! There´s a narrow passage where one can walk to the tape recorder. There are percussion stacked on the walls and shelves everywhere. Tubular bells, vibraphones, swiss hand-bells …. I guess these are some kind of wind chimes. There are also a lot of cameras. A specialty is an east-german camera that has a lens that´s radioactive. I guess that explains some of the music on this album!

Sähkö Recordings