Behind the Music: 'Pathways' by Pallette

Inspiration and thoughts behind the making of 'Pathways' by Pallette

MEMORIES AND THE PAST
Almost all of the ambient music that I make is influenced in some shape or form by my own memories, or the past. Sometimes the music is influenced by someone else’s memory, or an event in history.

When the music is influenced by my own memories, the memories are of moments in my life, specific events, certain days that stand out to me, specific people or old friends, memories of strangers or people who I don’t know too well. I like to attach an ambient track, or album, to a certain memory, or era, and when I listen to that track or album, that memory, or a collection of memories, are brought back to me.

I also use field recordings quite a lot. These field recordings are like capturing a memory in a bottle. For a whole year from 2019 – 2020 I made short recordings each day, or whenever I felt I should be recording something. I would record parties, the ambience of airports, people talking in the distance, traffic, the sound of the wind moving through the trees, animals, a lighter being ignited, a door shutting, even the sound of a microwave beeping when the food had been zapped.  It sounds a bit weird but the idea of being able to record a moment in life and then listen back to it later is so pure to me. Some of these recordings appear throughout the music I make, some of them do not. The recordings that do appear in the music are just as important as the music itself, even if the recording lasts only a few seconds; I added them in for a reason.

IMAGES
I like to take pictures of everyday things and the people that are in my life. I use film but also my phone’s camera. Sometimes a certain photo will stand out to me and I’d get an urge to make music based around that photo. Images are really important to the music I make,  whether they’re my images or someone else’s. I adore the work of Gordon Parks, Mikiko Hara, Francesca Woodman, Eve Arnold, Carrie Mae, Shin Noguchi, Enrique Metinides, Rinko Kawauchi, Justine Kurland, the list would go on and on, but their work inspirers me greatly. I think images and their relation to music in general is a universal thing; writing and music also have a deep connection, but that’s a story for another time.

EMOTIONS AND COLOUR
I tie many emotions that I feel to sounds. I also tie sounds to colours. In ambient music, I try to connect a certain emotion that I feel to a specific melody, or atmosphere. Occasionally, I do this with a certain colour. I try to make the music sound red, or blue, or black, depending on what tone I’m going for. Most of the ambient music I make consists of looped melodies made by myself. I want these atmospheric loops to illustrate an emotion, a colour, a certain feeling. Sometimes these emotions I aim to describe are happy ones, sometimes they’re sad, or hopeful, or loving, or somewhere on the vast emotional spectrum. I try to do a good job of it. I’m not the best at certain aspects of music making, but I try to make the sound as good as I can. If I’m unable to capture these emotions and memories, images and colours, then I need to keep trying. All of these things are essential to the music.

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Pathways
by Pallette
LP / Digital
11/27/2020

'Pathways' is a collection of four stunning loops created by the artist during an introspective period of his life. These majestic, consonant arrangements breathe slowly as fleetingly beautiful melodies; a gorgeous account of ebb and flow repetition. Pathways is cautiously sanguine and equally melancholic of which many today can personally and intimately relate to. A universal desperation and yearning for hope in a dispirited civilization.

Written, recorded and produced by Pallette
Additional production by Damien Duque
Design, layout and assemblage by zakè
Mastered at Schwebung Mastering (Germany) by Stephan Mathieu
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