June 2024

I've finished recording all of the instruments for the next album except for a few guitar lines on the last track. I was meant to have finished those a couple weeks ago, but unfortunately I came down with a sinus and ear infection, resulting in my first ever experience with diplacusis (double hearing) where perceived sound in my problematic left ear has a slight echo and raised pitch compared to the right. I have another day of antibiotics to go, so hopefully it all clears up soon since everything I hear is dissonant and muffled.

This summer I'll be working on writing the rest of the lyrics and vocal melodies, which will then get recorded in the fall. The album should be done around November, with an early December release date being the goal. I'll do a write-up here on the website before that time, including the track list and artwork.

January 2024

Over the next few weeks, I'll be uploading the remaining four Sequester albums to Bandcamp, starting today with 2018's Hermit. I believe this will be the first time that all of my tracks are available to download in a lossless quality, since the former CD Baby shop (and other stores like iTunes and Amazon) only sold MP3 or similar files.*

https://sequester.bandcamp.com/music

As for the next (eighth) album, I'd like to have it finished before the end of this year, but we'll have to see how things go; I'll be sure to provide an update here once the timeframe becomes more apparent to me.

*Edit: I looked into this further. Turns out there was a period sometime between 2013 and 2017 (judging by forum posts) where CD Baby did offer FLAC. It was then discontinued, with MP3-320 being the highest option for a while, before they eventually shut down their digital store altogether in 2020. So if that's all correct, then this will indeed be the first time that my entire discography is available in a lossless format.

September 2023

After roughly eight years of chipping away at it whenever I could -- the last two or three being particularly arduous -- my game, Sclera, will finally be releasing on October 13th, 2023. A good looking date if I've ever seen one (Friday the 13th, no less) and just in time for the Halloween season.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2598560/Sclera/

Instead of a whole new website, I've just set up a Games tab here on sequester.ca -- plural if only for the surreal case that I should be insane enough to make more in the future; I'd rather keep my entire body of work all in one place, though, regardless of the media type or genre. 

While I know exactly what I would do for a sequel, time is the great barrier here. With the number of hours and stress that went into Sclera's creation, I could probably have put out another four or five Sequester albums; yes, music will always be my main creative priority. But having said that, Sclera is the ultimate passion project, combining my love of music, horror/dark fantasy fiction, and turn-based games. Even if I do only get to release one, niche as it may be, I can still be happy with this personal goal being accomplished.

So I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that the most enjoyable aspect of this endeavour was composing the music. You can listen to the main theme here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lo8Spxrow8

Work on the next Sequester album will resume in the new year. For now, "We're not going no further 'till we've had a breather."

December 2022

Not a whole lot of news to report, but I wanted to give you all an update since it has been over a year now.

I was hoping I'd get my game finished in 2022. Unfortunately, that won't be happening for various reasons. I'm still working on it nearly every day, though; it is just a lot of work, and life's obstacles can often get in the way. Right now, it is writing out the random encounters (essentially CYOA short stories) that is taking up my time. While I also have a smaller-scale, procedurally generated story system -- where paragraphs are broken down into their core sensory elements, and then random (but environmentally appropriate) selections are made to create the story -- the encounters currently being worked on are all the custom written, hand crafted ones. As the game is largely text based and horror themed, this is an area I'm being fairly meticulous with in order to capture the correct mood while also giving each skill check a chance to shine. But once I finish these encounters, it should be smooth sailing from there: finalizing assets, testing, general polish, etc. I'm aiming for a release next year, but the timeline for completion is harder to predict than it is with music production.

Speaking of music, some progress has been made there, but I'm very much focused on finishing this game. The songs for the next Sequester album are all loosely arranged, at least, and a bunch of the lyrics have been written, and most of the guitar tones and synth patches have been finalized... So with those types of decisions already out of the way, I should be able to just slip into the recording process without too much hassle. And damnit, am I looking forward to it. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," indeed.

October 2021

Hello everyone. It has certainly been some time. I've received a few messages asking if I was dead, so given the state of the world, I suppose an update is in order. Nope, not dead. I've avoided the Rona so far; a natural proclivity for extreme introversion I'm sure has helped. The record shattering heatwave here in BC this past summer wasn't fun. And in New Westminster, we've had a number of random fires from barges, old piers and buildings that keep filling the city with highly toxic fumes. I'm still alive for now though.

I've arranged a number of new songs, and finished recording the instrumentation for one of them, but it will be a while yet until the next album is released (probably 2023-2024). At the moment, most of my creativity has been dedicated to another project I've alluded to before, which I guess I'll finally elaborate on. I've been slowly working away on a small video game for a number of years, and the end point has actually started to appear. I've nearly finished all the programming at least, and my attention is currently on prose, visual art, and audio. The game is a turn-based strategy Lovecraftian roguelite with CYOA elements. It's definitely niche, but something I've wanted to make for ages. Due to how time consuming solo game development is, I'm not sure how many of these projects I have in me -- as Sequester is where my main passion lies -- but I do consider this a bucket-list item of sorts, and one I'm quite proud of. And the music will be more synthwave and ambient, channeling the likes of John Carpenter, which will be a fun change from my album material.

So that's all for now. In case any are interested, I'll post more info and appropriate links when the game is complete. Until then, thank you as always for the support.

June 2020 - Civilization

I've released a new album to Bandcamp consisting of a single 21:30 instrumental track, Civilization, an homage to one of my favourite game series.
The idea behind this one was to have a number of acts that would relate to different civ eras, where progressing through them would change the instrumentation and increase the phrasing being used. For example, while the first act consists mostly of percussion and 1-2 bar phrasing, the final act uses synthesizers and 6-8 bar phrasing. Everything is then tied together with guitars, drums, and a few subtly changing melodies that signal the start or end of an era.

Link: https://sequester.bandcamp.com/album/civilization

December 2019

I wanted to take a brief break from my other projects and do a Grinch cover for the holiday season: https://youtu.be/aMR0wzN2xcE

Merry Christmas and happy LOTR binge.