CL14
Rolan Vega
Documentary
CD, mp3

Release Date: August 13, 2007

A beguiling, classic new release comes to Community Library this spring: Documentary , the debut album by solo artist Rolan Vega . Synthesizer expert, art-film aficionado, and enthusiastic upstart of Chicago 's vibrant electro/synth scene, he has compiled years' worth of his favorite synthesizer vignettes into a comprehensive debut album. We first heard his stuff as a handful of mp3s from friends in Chicago a couple years back; track-swapping and culling ensued, resulting in this final collection.

Is Documentary a collection of works for actual short films and media, or an attempt to pay tribute to the synth epics of media music's past? The answer is, ultimately: both. Most of the music in Documentary was written as live scores for short films, including Vega's own Super 8s. But at the core of this effort one finds his love for ‘library music' (the anonymous, public-domain music composed for UK media in the 60s and after), as well as the synthetic, futuristic theme music of 1980ies American Public Broadcasting programming.

But like all ComLib artists, Vega is too individualistic to simply be re-enacting musics of the past: all kinds of extra elements leak into Documentary , making it a work that straddles the line between classic and alien. Vega's ambiguous, dream-like presentation and tendency to shift between shorter, passing pieces- as we think of them, vignettes - gives a sense of constant motion and change. These vignettes are not TV-studio enabled audiophilia; rather, these are home-recorded, four-track-tape inflected morsels of sound. Vega has collided the melancholic, low fi aesthetic of early 90ies Bristol artists like Flying Saucer Attack with the epic, arpeggiating ambience of synth maestros such as Michael Stearns, Richard Pinhas, Biosphere, and TONTO. A few of his tracks even resemble the sand-blasted melodic noise of composers like Tim Hecker or Chris Herbert

Rolan Vega's mixed-up revisions of anonymous media music, and his recombination of lo-fi experimentalism with synthesizer majesty hits a perfect spot for us, and we hope it does for you as well. Vega is perpetually working on new material in this vein, as well as yet-to-be-released pop electro. Stay tuned for more great music from this new artist, ComLib associate, and Chicago scene-motivator.

Tracklist:
1. Painted By Children
2. Motion Crisiis
3. Surface Cleanse
4. Viva Myria
5. Skypoint Fall
6. Playlite
7. Bells of York
8. Lense Flare On
9. 4 Autiim
10. Nether
11. Surface Cleanser
12. Morning Call
13. Something Wrong with Today
14. Guiitav
15. Documentary

Artist Info

PDF Version of Promo Sheet

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