Alan Elettronico: Electric Mind (Deluxe Edition) (Digital)

Product Description Electric Mind 1. What Am I? 2. VideoGirl 3. Love Like A Chain 4. Space Beyond 5. This Ain’t Love 6. Electric Dream 7. Diva 8. Make It One 9. Short Circuit 10. What Am I? (VEiiLA Remix) 11. VideoGirl (Ekranoplan Remix) 12. Love Like A Chain (Alan Elettronico Remix) 13. Space Beyond (TheAdelaidean Remix) 14. This Ain’t Love (Carlos Fillol Remix) 15. This Ain’t Love (Lovespirals Remix) 16. Electric Dream (Erik Wøllo Remix) 17. Diva (Forrest Fang Remix) 18. Make It One (Deepspace Remix) For fans of: Daft Punk, Kraftwerk, Vangelis, Lipps Inc Genres: Italo Space Disco, Synthwave, Retrowave Remixes by: Erik Wøllo, Forrest Fang, Deepspace, VEiiLA, TheAdelaidean, Lovespirals and others 2021’s Electric Mind took Italian synthesist Alan Elettronico on a space odyssey through the golden years of space disco (1977-1980). Now in 2023 he expands and concludes the story with this deluxe expanded edition featuring a bonus track and nine reprocessed ambient remixes from Projekt artists including Erik Wøllo, Forrest Fang, Deepspace, VEiiLA, Lovespirals and others. The uptempo catchy melodies of the album’s original rhythm-driven tracks found the >REPEAT> button regularly smashed in the Projekt office. Electric Mind‘s synthetic sound treatment and robotic voices juxtaposed with pop sensibilities made a memorable digital incursion into the analog era. Elettronico used the suggestions of artists like Moroder, Vangelis, or Lipps. Inc to build a pulsing soundtrack to an imaginary android protagonist’s life. Now the original 8-song story is concluded with the bonus track, “Short Circuit.” Disc two sees the humanoid character explore a digital afterlife, merging into a collective consciousness with the possibility of metaphysical connection. Do robots dream of electric heaven? Elettronico reflects, “I found it natural to bend the story to a spiritual/metaphysical scenario because the premise was the birth of conscience. Electronic dance and ambient work really well as embodiments of a mechanical body and a soul, respectively. The final result, when listening to both parts, is exactly as I imagined: the contrast between life and afterlife, matter and spirit. But it’s only an apparent contrast as both discs are made of the same core music. This is absolutely fantastic!” Elettronico adds: When Electric Mind was released in 2021, there was already the idea to explore a further evolution of both the music and the narrative. The story saw a humanoid main character embark on a journey to discover a sense of self and experience what can truly make them human regardless of their artificial origin. I’ve always thought of them as genderless, with features that are indistinguishable from real humans, but with mechanical aspects they hid under their clothes. The original eight songs were just the first chapter of their life story encompassing their “childhood” and “youth” — if the concepts are applicable to the life of an artificial being. After two years the story has continued silently: the character learnt to blend into human society, becoming one of us. But there was still something they had to learn: the grief of loss, the fear of death, the final step of becoming nothing, which is the ultimate human experience. So to the original eight tracks of the first edition, a new track is added, “Short Circuit.” As the title implies, it’s the final act of this being, not human, not machine, who deliberately ends their life and frees themselves of the unbearable sense of void that an endless life of solitude gives them. But what is there after life, all kinds of life? Is there a heaven for a digital soul? And if there is one, what would it look — or better — sound like? This is the answer that disc two attempts to give: the original songs — that’s to say the original story — gets remixed and transfigured. All is the same, but it is also totally different. Once again the protagonist has to recognize themselves, but this time through the eyes of others, getting in touch with the endless selves that one is in the eyes of the other. And maybe they are now truly happy, if happiness is a collective feeling? The contrast between life and afterlife The music on disc two is a total departure from the musical concept behind the original composition. As disc one ends with the death of the character, disc two is set in a sort of metaphysical scenario where all elements are sublimated and transfigured. Although the cores of the songs are still the original compositions, the artists involved poured their style and approach to music into the pre-existing material to give it a new life. The result is amazing! Although every artist worked solitarily to create their mixes, they built a consistent album just as if they had worked together. This is the most surprising part: a listener who didn’t know these are remixes would think this is an album from a single artist. That means a strong bond was born through the original music — and this is what really amazed me. The final result, when listening to both parts, is exactly as I imagined: the contrast between life and afterlife, matter and spirit, is embodied by the sheer opposition of rhythmic dance music and aerial ambient melodies. But it’s only an apparent contrast as both discs are made of the same core music. This is absolutely fantastic! Original 2021 Description of Electric Mind Electric Mind is a dualistic journey from Italian synthesist Alan Elettronico. It first brings the listener on a space odyssey through unknown galaxies, an interstellar voyage on retro-futuristic spaceships with odd shapes and almost-sentient robotic companions questioning the meaning of life. Second it’s a journey in the past, a philological reconstruction of the sound of the future as conceived in the golden years of space disco (1977-1980). Much like Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, Electric Mind is an uptempo digital incursion into the analog era, a sound that triggers body memories for those who danced to those cosmic beats and airy melodies. Elettronico uses the suggestions of artists like Moroder, Vangelis, La Bionda or Lipps. Inc to build the pulsing soundtrack of an imaginary space saga that would easily fit within the 70’s series Battlestar Galactica or film The Black Hole. Elettronico explains, “The thread beneath the surface of Electric Mind is autism. Those of us with Asperger’s sometimes have great emotional distress in understanding the world like others do. I started making electronic music because it pleased my sense of geometrical perfection. Thus my obsession with Kraftwerk, to whom I owe the use of synthetized voices. Each song I make is represented in my mind like a geometrical solid shape: What I am reminds me of a sphere, ‘Electric Dream’ a pyramid, and so on. The lyrics, even if minimal, do have connection with autism.” “Aspies are often said to act like ‘robots’ as we lack emotional interaction; in the opening song I say ‘I ain’t a robot, so what am I?’ ‘Electric Dream’ has a reference to ‘Together in electric dreams’ by Moroder and Oakley, but musically it is more inspired by Tangerine Dream. Its lyrics concern brain activity; dreams are electricity in neurons. ‘Love like a chain’ was born experimenting with vocals and was inspired by Kraftwerk’s ‘Musique non stop:’ a minimal danceable song relying on robotic vocals. ‘Make it One’ is inspired by some kind of lounge music; I sometimes listen to old stubs and find a way to finish them weeks or months later. After a vacation by the Adriatic Sea, I found this piece depicted well the sensation of a road trip by the seaside. ‘This ain’t love’ is directly inspired by Daft Punk mimicking late-70s disco: the lyrics don’t have a particular meaning this time, I only thought they sounded fine on the music. Being a huge fan of manga and anime, ‘VideoGirl’ is inspired by the anime ‘Videogirl Ai’ by Masakazu Katsura. It’s the story of a boy who falls in love with a magical girl who comes out of a videotape. This makes the song absolutely synthwave. ‘Space Beyond’ is both an homage to ‘Space’ by French band Space and ‘I wanna be your lover’ by Italian duo La Bionda — genuinely space disco. ‘Diva’ is again inspired to Daft Punk, but this time the harsh sounds of the album Human After All.” “As you can see, the sources of inspiration are very defined. This is why people in their 50s/60s tell me the music deeply threw them back on a crowded dance floor with glitter balls and strobe lights, weird hairdos and tight outfits. To achieve this total immersion in the past, I used sound libraries ports from instruments of the period: TR 606, 808 and 909, Linn Drums, Yamaha and Casio synths, very ‘classic’ sounds. The deep reference to space disco and Italo disco put the album in the niche of synthwave and retrowave, with ‘What Am I’ and ‘VideoGirl’ being the most suitable. ‘What am I’ in fact has been included in 21 synthwave playlists so far. The most successful song has been ‘Love Like a Chain’ which is getting included also in techno playlists.” ARTIST BIO Alan Elettronico is an Italian composer and writer. He began creating music in 1998 as a keyboardist in electronic duo Subway Sleep, with the albums Introruption and Guillaume, the latter being a drone/ambient/noise concept album about the radio and Guglielmo Marconi. In 2006 Elettronico took part in the experimental media platform FLUX created by MTV Europe. Forming the band Oem Quartet with dubstep musician Kurosan, he released the album Unus for independent label Inv3rno. Later that year, their song “Organic Matter” won a contest to gain entry in the international electronic festival “Interferenze,” where they performed the whole album and new songs from the project Plant. In 2007 Elettronico started his career as a poet while working as a literature teacher. In 2018 he won the special prize of the jury for poetry at BIL with his book Aleph. In 2021 he is back to music with the debut solo album Electric Mind for Projekt Records. Projekt release: June 22, 2021 deluxe release date: November 17, 2023 love it, share itfacebook twitter pinterest google