Solo project by Swiss musician/producer Carlo Onda based in St. Gallen, with a long-standing soft spot for synths and drum machines, and frankly influenced by the Post-Punk, Minimal-Wave and Dark Wave of the 80’s. In 2019 he released the random instrumental track «RAW» - all sounds made with a vintage ms-20 and no quantization.
"Around the age of 14, I picked up my first guitar and began playing with my friends. Shortly after, I bought my first drum computer and synthesizer. That is when I started meditating on sound. Years went by before I started recording music seriously. By accident, I ran into an entire collection of trashy italo disco and new wave LP’s in a second hand store. That is what really got me into late 70’s, early 80’s wave music. Releases of the «minimal wave» label additionally helped widen my horizons.
When I finally started recording the music, I mainly used the two components I liked the most: subtractive synthesizers and drum computers. Though I like and have plenty of hardware synths, I record my tracks mostly with digital emulations of these classic synthesizers. I’m not into complicating my workflow by using authentic gear for the sake of it. Instead, I try to use whatever is convenient and gives inspiration. My songs are my diary. Therefore I like when there is a distinct identity in the arrangement and sound. I try to not go back and change too much afterwards."
Souleater is some kind of a revisit of a very dense period of time. The Lyrics go back to December 2017 and have not been changed at all. The sounds on the other hand are completely new and have all been composed in July 2020. With the help of a clone of an Ensoniq ESQ-1 plugin. The Ensoniq how I see it, is a bridge between old fashioned values and the rapidly evolving modern life. There's a ghost in that machine and finding it floating in the digital non-world is unsettling and wonderful at once.
For me, Souleater, as presented here, contains multiple timelines. My own and others. It's about change, about expression and about our shock, that things will never stay the same. - Carlo Onda, 2019/2020
Released Mid January 2021 by Cold Transmission.
Track Listing:
01 Hold on My Heart
02 Photographs
03 Killer on the Road
04 Struck by Lightning
05 Your Heart so tender
06 Celebration
07 This Youth got no Future
08 Trapped in a Clockwork
09 Short Scale Temper
10 Souleater
11 Short Scale Temper (BBE Remix)
12 Photographs (Scannoir Remix)
English