Imagine the scene. Layers of dark cable follow mysterious routes along the floor, interconnecting mysterious amps, mics, instruments, and effects pedals. From this undergrowth of black spaghetti sprout swivel stools and chrome mic stands. Add a few switched-on musos and we have all we need for a recording session. At least we would if the session wasn’t being run by digital musician Ens (Ben Fairweather).
Ens is represented by the very supportive Sydney label Groovescooter. During the making of his debut album Warp and Weft, it was Groovescooter that helped add the finishing touches by bringing on board some very talented artists: in-demand vocalist Inga Liljestrom, master horn players Sloth and Nightswimmer, and the label’s own vocalist Georgie Zuzak.
There was one catch. Ens is based in Brisbane, but three of his four collaborators are based in Sydney and the other in Melbourne. By his own admission, Ens is not part of a musical scene in Brisbane, preferring to work in his own studio. Yet, thanks to Groovescooter, he has become a virtual member of Sydney’s scene. However, getting these switched-on musos together the old-fashioned way would have posed a few challenges.
The legendary record producer Phil Ramone had a similar challenge in the early 1990s. His task was to create an album of Frank Sinatra duets, featuring a glittering array of the world’s most famous singers. The two usual options were equally unpalatable: flying the ageing Sinatra to duet partners scattered all over the globe, or co-ordinating schedules to bring a who’s-who of music to Sinatra. Ramone solved his problem by creating live digital telephone links between Sinatra’s studio and each of his partners. So Ol’ Blue Eyes crooned with everyone from Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli to Bono and (ahem) Kenny G without actually meeting them.
At 24, Ens has a few years before him till travel becomes a real problem. Nonetheless, his method involved sending an unfinished version of a track as the backing music to the vocalist or horn player, who would then return a recording of their lead (as an isolated track).
At this point Ens does not so much duet with his collaborators as play God. In a process more like sampling, he takes the recorded leads and layers them on tracks as necessary, which sometimes is not the track to which the lead was originally played. The results are nothing sort of amazing; Ens’s electro-craftsmanship makes it hard to believe that the musicians were separated by both time and space.
It’s not so surprising when you learn that Ben Fairweather has been experimenting with electronic and dance music since about the age of 16. Skinny Puppy, the Canadian members of the industrial music avant garde, rate among his early influences. His subsequent forays into production were in the dance music arena. He soon after decided that dance was not his strength, with his own work sounding unnatural to his ears.
His exposure to Skinny Puppy appears to have made an impression. Since abandoning dance, it has been his intention to explore contrasts: “I love dark and chaotic sounds, yet I also love warm sounds. I love simplicity and space, and I love complexity.” In Groovescooter he has found a label where he can make electronic music without an obligation to produce dancefloor-friendly tracks.
In the virtual world of Ens only music, not cables, intertwine.
Ens’ album, ‘Warp and Weft’, is out now on Groovescooter through Creative Vibes. Check out the music reviews section of ITM to read our review.
