brettworks

Benge, Twenty Systems, “1981 Yamaha CS70M.” Benge (Ben Edwards) is an English musician with a longtime interest in analog synthesis. His 2008 recording Twenty Systems is an archeology of iconic synthesizers that traces a history of selected models from the late 1960s to the late 80s. Each track features a single instrument recorded without effects, and the album hits like a direct line into the souls of vintage machines. “1981 Yamaha CS70M” is compelling both compositionally and sonically. The music evokes the melodic rhythms of mbira music and the recording captures the clarity of the synthesizer’s timbres. Listen to how the Yamaha CS70M doesn’t sound like an acoustic instrument, yet creates the feeling of one. Benge for the win!

In an interview in The Quietus we learn how the musician conceived of the project and went about his composing:

“The synths do have a sound of their time but I didn’t set out to compose in a way that was of their time. In a way I wanted to take a snapshot of the sound of each synthesizer and just see how it would sound if I applied the same principal to each track, which was to set up a loop of sequences and let the track evolve naturally rather than impose a kind of idea on the actual composition. They are all quite similar in a way because that is the simple idea I had for each track. Some make it seem more complex than others but in principal they’re all pretty much the same.”