Solar Experiments
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Genres
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Initiated
Released
Singles
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Preceded
Succeeded
Runtime
Progressive House, Progressive Trance, Breakbeat, IDM
July 4th, 2016
November 27th, 2016
Skylights, Merck (Pt. I), Midnight Waves, Night Time Sky
1:37:01
Overview
Solar Experiments is Exero's sophomore album. The album is his second "secular" album and his first album without a conceptual theme. The songs were inspired by Exero's memories of family trips to the Jersey Shore, studies of space, areas in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and other sources during the summers of 2011, 2015, and 2016.
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Additional inspiration was derived from the Soundtrack Loops sample pack Modern German Synths and the Genesis folk rock album Trespass.
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Background
The summer of 2011 was when Exero began his tradition of listening to the demos of loop pack Modern German Synths. Around this time, he would play video games and visit the New Jersey shore. During this time, Exero wrote three different demo albums. Later on in the fall of 2014, Exero began listening to this material along with other demo albums during the year.
Fast forward to the middle of K2L, Exero started to create a wealth of demos inspired by summer activities. Much of what he wrote was new material, some of which being inspired by the video game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Some of these demos also were fleshed out versions of the summer 2011 demos. In July 2016, before K2L even released, Exero took a quick break from the mental exhaustion of the album and wrote the first parts of the album. After K2L had released via email in the middle of the month, Exero wrote the rest of the album.
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Over the course of the album's production,, the list of ideas and inspirational sources grew. Demos from summer 2011, the soundtrack of MP2, house demos from Modern German Synths, and finally the album Trespass aided Exero in composing the album. Most of what Exero was hearing were electronic compositions that had more emphasis on sound design rather than melodic sophistication. Genesis' second album served as a compositional counterweight to this. Trespass helped Exero think of the melodic, rhythmic, structural, and harmonic side of writing.
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Sound Design & Structure
Solar Experiments featured a heavy focus on 4-on-the-floor based music like House and Trance. Like previous albums, minimal influence from the artists prominent in these genres was sought out. Instead, these genres were used as general vehicles to house ideas. "Merck (Pt. I & II)" are an example of such, where typical extended song structure were favored over traditional EDM song structures.
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A focus on drum synths debuts on this album. Prior albums featured heavily edited percussion timbres, but did not go as far as synthesizing them. Image Line's Drumpad and Native Instruments' Maschine 2 drum synths were used extensively to give the album's percussion an airy and unique sound. On top of this percussive focus, this was also Exero's debut album to feature performed/recorded drum Maschine parts. The drum machine Maschine MKII was used in various areas of the album, such as the drum synth parts on "Sons of Cain".
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Specific synth decisions were made on the album, such as using Image Line synths Poizone (used for the fast arpeggiated synth in "Knight's Terror" and the main bass in "Night Time Sky"), Toxic Biohazard (used in "Merck, Pt. I"'s lead theme and the main lazer-like synth on "Terrestrial Explosion), and Harmless (used for the errie soundscapes in the middle of "Knight's Terror). Synths such as Massive, FM8, and Absynth 5 also return on the album as Exero's default weapons of choice. The ladder list of soft synths were primarily used to create new or re-use returning custom made presets in order for Exero to showcase full control on what sound worlds he wanted to paint. To add to this already expansive list, Novation's V-Station synthesizer
was also used extensively in order to create gentle but distinct synth sounds.
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Similar to previous albums, conscious decisions to use recurring synths was implemented. The lead synth on "Skylights", "The Inner Works", "Knight's Terror" and elsewhere is called the Chasm Lead. The synth was created by layering pre-exisiting synth presets from the softsynths Impulse and Messiah. This preset was created in Spring 2011 and debuted in Exero's official discography in "Off to Work". The synth was heavily used in the demos of summer 2011 and summer 2015, and naturally became the leading instrument of the album.
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One final noteworthy synth use was Skanner XT. This softsynth was used sparsely on previous albums, but had more of a frequent appearance on Solar Experiments. Custom synth presets were used in the songs "Sons of Cain" and "Lost". The preset morph feature was used in real time on the "Sons of Cain" slower supersection. This feature can be heard briefly at the end of the first lead synth's exit and into the second lead synth's melody.
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Recording
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Solar Experiments contains the least amount of clarinet recordings on all of his albums. He recorded a soprano clarinet part on "Shores of Seaside" and an electric bass clarinet solo on "Knight's Terror".
The System 1 synthesizer was used again for the production of the album and was used throughout its tracklist. One example of it was used on "Sons of Cain" for a harsh square lead, and another example is of a perculating saw synth in "Ocean Waves".
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Keyboard parts are also sparse on the album, although were used in choice areas. The first few melodies in "Universe Errors" and the hard rock-eqsue supersection of "Knight's Terror" were areas in which Exero played MIDI keyboard.
As mentioned before, Exero used the Maschine MKII as an instrument equal in importance as the clarinet and keyboard. In addition to performing it like a traditional instrument, Exero used it as a live step sequencer in "Midnight Waves", "Merck, Pt. I" and "Merck, Pt. II".
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Release
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Exero started officially producing the album at the beginning of July 2016. The album was completed around November 27th, 2016. Like K2L, the album was released and distributed via emails and zip folders. The album was revised in late summer 2018 and received the full Reconstruction Period treatment in late summer 2023. The album is now available on all major platforms and hard copy.
Credits
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Exero creates the music you here via digital samplers, synthesizers, digital audio workstations, and playing various instruments.
Bb Soprano Clarinet - track 5
Electric Bass Clarinet - track 14
MIDI Keyboard - dispersed throughout album
Roland System 1 Synthesizer - dispersed throughout album
Maschine MKII - dispersed throughout album
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