"Hey Everyone,
A massive thanks for being a part of this odd and fun project! When Alain first sent out these stems, I figured I'd just do some electronic-based remix and move along to my next project. Little did I know that this whole project was all going to come out of it! Big thanks to Alain for being open to all of this, and patient while we put it all together. Anyone here that hasn't perused Alain's Off Records catalog can do so here. While browsing the Off catalog, Alain's personal output can be found under the artist name Alinovsky - lots of solo and collaborative works from him within the catalog.
Somewhere in the process, someone amongst us mentioned it'd be cool to hear the album without the original stems just to see what existed there outside of Alain's source material, which was a different concept (I mean, who builds a body, then removes the spine to see if it still stands, right?), and in the end, we tried it for shits and giggles, and found this whole other ambient album hiding underneath! Very KLF-like if everyone is familiar with their well-known ambient masterpiece. In the end, a great idea, whoever amongst us mentioned that in our conversations (I'm getting old and memory doesn't serve me as well today as it used to unless I write a note, lol). That version is unabridged, and positioned as the final track for the main version of the album (Bandcamp downloads will get a bonus of the full main album unabridged, too).
A massive amount of thanks for the concept of this album goes to Tate here, for if I'd not read his book "Sound Observations" under his Alex McNeil pen name, I'd have approached this entire project differently. In fact, my album "Autumn's Dawn" coming out later this year would have been quite a bit sonically different too. Of note, Tate has graciously mastered both of these projects - Live at...The Furtive Shibboleth, and Autumn's Dawn. If you haven't read his book, obviously I'd recommend it, it's changed how I use field recordings in compositions, and the subjects by which I record in a field. Tate's field recordings herein mark the more peaceful moments while retaining fringes of human activity (whereby my field stems were mostly absent of any humanity - few airplanes snuck into the recordings...pesky planes! - and focused on nature environments). I implore you all to subscribe to his Lastboss Bandcamp page as he's now halfway through his SECOND year of weekly releases - a massive undertaking, and highly rewarding to listen to every week going on almost 2 years now.
Big thanks to Arne for coming through with a whole host of field recordings in and around Hong Kong on relatively short notice. There's a certain life his stems brought to this project, quite literally, that it'd be admittedly 'missing something' were it not for the sounds of life he provided. He's offered a very human element to the fields. If anyone is up for great 90s-inspired techno, check out this album and this album of his on Acidchicken Records. This is his exceptional album on their sister label, Cutt Records. Arne is a master with his machines, and a wonderful collaborator.
Of note: My intention after reading Tate's book was to make an exclusively field recording-based album, created entirely from combinations of unnatural fields together, e.g. A Hong Kong outdoor market with American bird calls in the background, and sea birds from the coast of France coming in and out - fields that would never naturally occur together, worked into this new, elevated space - think Blade Runner ASMR if anyone has studied how they created the sounds of Los Angeles, 2019. All in all, I believe the Ambient Mix of this album accomplishes all of that, and more! It's quite a sonic journey through some weird alternate Blade Runner-like universe.
Shout out to Joshua for joining us for the first time, and big thanks for being open to creating with all of us. My very good friend Gabe got us in contact after I was divulging to Gabe about this project, how it came together, and how big and cool it had grown to be. Joshua's guitar input speaks legions on this record, not only to his talent, but also to the album's abstract and free narrative where his contributions drive another sonic level that it'd feel like it lacked something without. For those amongst us who like free, improvisational ambient oddities, here's his band Gneiss' "Augen Gneiss" album preview on Bandcamp, and here's his Spoitfy link or Apple Music for further listening (highly recommend the Solano Canyon album).
Last, but not least, big thanks to Wade and Danielle. Wade and Danielle have created a world, an ethos, and put meat on the bones of a futuristic society where even the environment is owned by a large corporation and clearly things like breathing come at a cost. In this future, this album is very punk, and very anti-conformist. We've "illegally" recorded these fields, and are distributing them in resistance to the corporate overlords, including infecting their forced advertising on the program. Without Wade and Danielle's ideas, recordings, and inputs, this would just be another ambient-adjacent EBV-like album of sounds and textures - today, it's a living breathing world to be built upon. Thanks for getting a bit of "1984" into this project! If you all haven't heard Wade's radio work, here's his Mixcloud archive of The Ambient Hour, Think Tank Dubs, and more!
Sorry for the Grammy speech for the album that will probably win no awards, lol, but I wanted everyone to have each other's links and whatnot, and understand each person's contributions because this beautiful body of work would not exist without any one of you being open to work in my weird Akira Film Script world of electronic everything, and it would definitely not work if you all weren't so great at what you all do in your respective disciplines. With all this said (sorry it's long winded), here's the link to the finished version of the album as WAVs, album cover art, and a sub-folder of HQ MP3s. I believe Alain said we're looking at a late-2025 release on Off Records with this, so I'll keep everyone posted when we suss the final date out.
Oh, and why "Live at...?" for the album title at the end of the day? Because none of our contributions to Alain's original stems were done via sequencing (all live recorded stems), and it's also a play on the fact that there is literally so much life across this album in the field recordings, that on more levels than a studio album, this is a live album (like, 80/20 split). After everyone's album title suggestions, I ultimately leaned into Tate's title direction as Tate is a master titlesmith and had this wonderful concept for it being live at a secretive speakeasy, and as anyone following his weekly releases will see, he's next level with titles and abstract word and concept associations and portmanteaus. Like, who even knows the words Furtive or Shibboleth even existed before today? I didn't, lol! I'm still learning!"
If you want to Follow each other on Instagram (in case you aren't already), you can do so now:
Alain - Alinovsky: @offrecordlabel
Wade: @wyllys and @_sweepingviews
Arne: @hyperobot and @crazyfromkong
Tate - Lastboss: @thelastbossproject
Joshua: @joshuagerowitz
Me: @akirafilmscript
Credits:
Wade Wilby
Danielle Radcliffe
Alinovsky
Akira Film Script
Project Soda
Lastboss
Joshua Gerowitz
Alternative cover for the Bandcamp long uncut version
Digital release on the 31st of October 2025.
Track listing:
1: Standbye 2062
2: Ferry to Gifu
3: Modern Lifeforms
4: Vibe Coding the Net
5: Noodles
6: Data Mining
7: New City Scapes
8: Love Dream
9: Turning Off
10: Live at...The Furtive Shibboleth - Ambient Mix
11: Live at...The Furtive Shibboleth - Bandcamp only uncut bonus version
Itunes, Apple Music, Deezer, Qobuz, etc.:
And on Bandcamp:
