Modular - Sonic Explorations

The Modular Project is a musical collaboration between guitarist and producer, Dan Phelps, acclaimed bassist Viktor Krauss, and drummer Matt Chamberlain that captures a series of completely improvised live sessions. Released as a deluxe edition, the package consisted of a double LP album in a triple gatefold sleeve, and a 28 page 12”x12” booklet of field notes, photography, and illustrations for audiophiles and collectors.

Each of the six tracks on the album are inspired by different elements of the natural world. Our concept for the artwork was to present the album as the audio recordings and field notes of a pseudo-scientific aural experiment, as if conducted by some sort of mad scientist who was somehow recording and manipulating the sounds of the earth itself. We set up the Modular machine in locations representative of each of those elements and photographed it connected to and interacting with those environments “Creeper Vine” was set in a rain forest, “Hollow Earth” in the petrified forest of a highland desert, “Everest” in the crags of the Cascade mountains, and so on. The images were art directed to bring the conceptual environments to life and activate the imagination of the listener to inspire them to ask, “Did they really do this?” and, “What would that sound like?”

The finished piece gives the album a mysterious gravity that walks the line between fantastical and monumental and its stoic presentation never lets on as to which it actually is.

Component Fabrication

The design and fabrication of the Modular Machine was in itself an exercise in imagination. We asked ourselves, “What would an instrument built to record the sounds and rhythms of the world look like? What kind of contraptions would be needed to listen to trees? To mountains? Clouds and the sea? How would those things work?” The result was a collection of objects and recording devices all fabricated to interact with the world in different ways. The primary machine needed to be iconic and fanciful while also having a physical presence and real-world tactile quality to make it believable as something could actually work. It was conceived as a hybrid of vintage modular synthesizers, surveying gear, and scientific equipment that was equal parts Willy Wonka, NOAA, and Kraftwerk.

Custom casework was built around a hodgepodge of salvaged recording equipment, movie projectors, WW2 era radio surplus, gauges, knobs, indicator lights and switches. The completed build was engineered to pack into itself for transportation and all of the components were built to be field ready. The machine took on a natural patina as things rusted or were were damaged and repaired throughout the project giving it a well-worn, broken in look that added to the realism of the effect.