Some artists bend genres; Daedelus seems to bend sound itself. For more than two decades, Alfred Darlington has navigated electronic music like a trickster figure – slipping between hip-hop, jazz, classical, and club forms, only to return with something unclassifiable played on all the hard and software in the world, delivered with thumb to button latency via the the almighty monome. We had a conversation about philosophies, inspiration. creativity and of course the aspect of sound design.
Can you tell us about the birth of the Daedelus artist name?
Daedelus: All a bit murky now that it’s been roughly 30 years of my misspelling. Certainly I was a young impressionable under 10 watching Robotech and somewhere amidst the surprising amount of main character death and Japanese pop songs was the SDF-1’s right arm name Daedalus. Later as impassioned teen read “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce with its Dedalus. However, I’m tracing it more to the Greek myth with its sturm und drang, maker of labyrinth and wings alike. I wanted that one to be mine; aspirations of inventor became sampling more than song.
You once appeared in a video demonstrating the TR-808 and the TR-8. Considering the TR-808 is a pillar in hip hop and electronic music, could you shed some light on how you feel about this particular drum machine and how you approach programming drums via hardware in the studio as opposed to when you use samples on the Monome when performing.
Throughout all my albums there’s been some form of drum machine knocking around.
Daedelus: Throughout all my albums there’s been some form of drum machine knocking around. My earliest you can hear a circuit bent TR-606 prominently fritzing along. Musical heroes (Bomb Squad, Prince Paul, Ryuichi Sakamoto) used 808 sounds; either directly or lifted from albums. By the time of Love To Make Music To I too had access to a much storied 808. Wholly different to be subject to stepwise sequencing, and informs linear dance production. Instances of sample so different from occurrences of drums. Monome grid is non-linear, a whole different kind of question underneath fingers even if it also broken into 16 (or less) steps. You need to start to account for induced latency in selection of samples.
Drum Machines famously manicured drum instances of audio onomatope (a kick is kicking, snare rattling, hat snappy, etc.) while sample-based performance has the possibility of drifting telephonic properties; audio different than expectation. Not just in their naming conventions but also the procession of the audio in regards to the inciting event. A button pressed can have vastly differing attack characteristics – the exuberance of the performance ≠ the velocity of the audio. Common sense as this may be, no acoustic instruments do this; Drum Machines made to resemble drum systems no different.
Your legendary live set Live at Ground Kontrol – Far From Home #9, recorded in a gaming arcade by ITWTV almost 13 years ago to date, still has a raw creative energy showing what your particular performance technique with the Monome can materialize. You look like you’re having fun, but also sometimes get an expression of surprise or “that worked out well”. Would you say you have your sets planned for precise execution, or how much do you leave to chance when playing live?
Daedelus: Cloud like shapes! So grateful that nothing is preplanned on that grid of buttons, just a mess of reliable material which might play nice together. Everything comes down to performing the presses, in the interior of samples, so never the same route travelled. You are correct in the reading! My sense of delight, or struggle, is the show likely louder than the music itself. I try to impress this same notion on my students; the things (and emotions) they spend time with on stage is where the performance resides.
Your Monome is almost always seen facing the audience. When thinking of electronic musicians performing live, this gesture of transparency and audience participation is not always something you see, rather the opposite, with artists hunched over their station. Is what you do on stage part of what you want people to experience when seeing (and hearing) you live?
Daedelus: If I may say this choice to face the controller forward has been my biggest contribution to controllerism. I’d reckon others must have done so, but not to my knowledge with non-resonant instruments. When I started to put monome up at an angle it was a time when the vast majority of electronic performers huddled behind laptops (even desktops?? it was after all the 2000s). I get it that the music is the focus, but why not turn those tables and get an audience excited about the choices made? I know the monome remains inscrutable, but hopefully by the end of a set those who care to watch have some understanding of how I use it.
[…] why not turn those tables and get an audience
excited about the choices made?
You’re probably the one artist I know that uses the widest range of samples and soundscapes, sometimes also the most unlikely mix of sounds in creating your music. How do you approach the sound selection process, if there even is one in your case when creating a piece of music?
Daedelus: Early on my few dj friends would be quick to claim crates. If you’ve ever car-pooled to a record or thrift store you probably know the etiquette of standing in front of a section and flitting through. They’d be soquick into those rare groovers – soul, jazz, rap, and psych. I’d be pushed off into oddities and novelties, and can recognize now some of my sound comes from this displacement. Doesn’t hurt either that my parents held a wide ranging vinyl collection; electro-acoustic Nonesuch rubbing sleeves alongside Laurie Anderson. Such Parliament Funkadelic albums to boot! Not to inflate that effect too much, there is also a fair bit of timing. The “music industry” was quite peaking when my initial album Invention was being put together. All their right and correct answers to plunderphonic productions were viewed with deep suspicion.
We’ve seen you play with a range of instruments and electronic hardware over the years, are there any music machines or instruments you feel you could always go to and get some music going with?
Daedelus: That aforementioned TR-606 (especially run through ProCo RAT distortion) is a potent sound source. Very persistently I’ve also used an open-tuning for 4-string guitar from my earliest efforts (Bb, D, F, A); big fan of narrowing options in a world awash in sonic enormity. That same sense of “slim inputs for wide outputs” I’ve delighted in modular synths as well. But overarchingly – my longest relationship – with the 256 Grid from Monome. Although an empty vessel, that mess of buttons spitting OSC messages is an infinite source of creative energies. Has had such a profound affect on my philosophy towards sound making. Everything is better under finger than left to overwrought and overthought.
[…] the 256 Grid from Monome. Although an empty vessel, that mess of buttons spitting OSC messages is an infinite source of creative energies.
The music world is tagging everything, there’s keywords, buzz words, defining genres, boxes to sit in. You obviously have none of these attached, but are there any genres you like in particular, as inspiration or musical discussions to be part of? The more experimental side of instrumental hip hop and bass music comes to mind, but are definitely not the only ones.
Daedelus: I’m actually a huge fan of genre. Although not a direct role in my output I’m in awe of what the audience can make sense of through the framework of a place, time, or scene. I cannot help but have crested with the wave of Beat Scene that besieged Los Angeles. Now witnessing its ripples propel all kinds of new pushy bass is quite satisfying. As for buzzword worthy Botanica has been notable of late, and essentially plunderphonic pastoral electronic that uses washes of found sound along with extended harmony, that was certainly a goal of mine from my earliest works! It feels amazing to know I had no hand in it and yet all these years later the power of that recipe can still be innovating its way onto audience and production aesthetics alike.
It can be hard to grasp what is going on at all when you perform your music using the Monome. Can you briefly explain what you can do on it – and what does it connect to on your laptop? I think a lot of people don’t really get that different buttons/assignments can do different things.
Daedelus: That Grid (especially the massive 256 button-y version) connects via usb and spits OSC messages to the DAW. OSC is especially suitable for performance as it’s a few times more detailed than predecessor MIDI. The program on the computer side I’m most often using is MLR (more recently a max4live implementation in Ableton). All this to manipulate rows of samples where each press along the continuum correlates to that position in the audio. Lights move at the tempo of the looping sample; long instances inch along while short almost granular whirl past. This is already a refreshing way to perform existing music but add to that the ability to make shorter loops via combo pressing of buttons, and other similar interactions. I know it must look arcane to an unsuspecting audience, but hopefully by about midset it hopefully becomes evident in my interactions with. There’s a bit more to it, but this is the important stuff.
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What does your current studio consist of in terms of hardware, instruments and the like? Any new acquisitions you’re particularly stoked about getting deeper under the skin of?
Daedelus: I’ve taken a position at the Berklee College of Music for some years now and through which it has propelled me to be connected to the state of the art. Along with that professorship I’ve also had a child and my personal studio dismantled in favor of different kinds of playspaces. Slowly getting out of just headphones, I’ve been finding new instruments to try and surmise. Most excited about the Chromaplane, an electromagnetic analog instrument. I’m due for Playtronica’s latest hypebeast Orbita. Back on the modular side 4ms’ MetaModule is indeed a rabbit hole and a half!
Can you tell us a bit about how you approach the idea of remixing someone else’s song, and give one or two examples of how the opportunity arises? And the same goes for when people go and remix your tracks. And how does it make you feel that someone would want to remix your music?
Daedelus: Attempting to validate all ways people find sound, includes the very practical act of mangling / participating in the song. I’m mostly drawn to attempt a remix when something kind of breaks my brain. Similar to how some music just unmoors audiences into dance, it almost feels autonomous. That being said there are degrees to remix. Some are subtle with say a little extra kick drum draped over the production, but others lurid, dousing the entire thing for instance in far flung bpm. I really enjoy the latter – both giving and receiving.
You were classically trained playing both the bass clarinet and the double bass, practically preparing you for a life as a traditional instrumental musician – but in the documentary ‘Creating Wonder’ at Brainfeeder, where you tell us this, you also said you felt restricted by all the rules of real world instrumental music and leapt into electronic music as a result. Do you think that having a background in music with “real” instruments has served as a stepping stone to the music you make now, though? What can you draw on from your early musical studies?
Daedelus: Music Theory is just that. A framework attempting neat and tidy. The world so rarely such simple. It does bestow a common language to navigate tricky terrain, the often chasm between collaborators much more easily assailed by way of chord changes and motif. Another bonus is having repertoire that can be referenced, although just as easily narrows your listening. I can’t know for certain, but having this background (with all it’s years trying to get good and fit in) gave me yearning. I still feel dearly endebted that there are those brave on the fringe of sound that we can all marvel at, and aspire towards.
In terms of audio software, and apart from the set tools that make your Monome setup work, do you ever use any audio plugins to get the results you want? Do you have any examples of what those plugins are?
Daedelus: Increasingly making those tools! I’ve two with Rainbow Circuit; Failure is a physical modeling of blown out speakers and destroyed microphones trying for that ineffable shaking-the-camera-it’s-so-loud feeling. Tinge is the other – plays with the concept of arpeggiation in a very colorful performed ways. Both are kind of dreamt up out of frustrations with DAWs and the creativity they incite. There is a scene of indie plugin makers that push up against those limits in marvelous ways!
What’s the most recent technique or sound-design discovery you’ve made that made you feel like a beginner again, in the best way?
Daedelus: A spell ago the technique of using limiters – in-serial – set to subtle amount – to get a “softer” brickwall. This is well and good; however immediately my mind raced to what if running in serial but for the opposite of softly? Maximum end to end… and my album “What Wands Won’t Break” was born from the exploration of three instances of drum bus – with full transient inflation – booming across each – with 0 Lufs in sight – and strange artifacts induced. I’m not sure if it solved the music, but what a fun sandbox to play in!
How important is the visual feedback in your process when creating new music for release – are you someone who watches EQ curves, peaks, spectral displays and the like, or do you rely more on intuition and going by ear?
Daedelus: By any route all those rivers flow to the same sea. I prize any way to trick my ears to hear with enthusiasm rather than cynicism. I’ve been using James H Ball’s OSCI-Render and SOSCI as accurate virtual oscilloscopes for that very purpose of watching audio move (especially across phase). It has indeed ignited a whole new exploration!
You are known to have a rather large record collection, and your sound is often unique in the sense that the original sample is often not recognizable at all. What role does sampling and maybe even resampling yourself play in your creative process?
Daedelus: Is everything! Iteration is a powerful conceit when you remove the immediate legal concerns. My early work was an attempt to be in conversation with the sampled works. Empowered by proximity to greatest players (alive or …), recording rooms, and all those resulting songs. Something my standing (and finances) would never afford. Over time I’ve tried to put down sample as primary source, but still focus on what paying homage to the source can invoke in the audio. All this to say I’m still discovering new things to source! Still get moved to tears by a good break.
[…] I’m still discovering new things to source! Still get moved to tears by a good break.
You’ve said that you want to create a feeling of wonder thru your music. It’s probably one of the most generous and positive directions I’ve ever seen someone working from, and I think it shows in your musical output as well. Do you sometimes draw on other energies than these, though? Like create a track in pure anger or despair?
Daedelus: Wish I had more to offer; both as a generous upturned smile or well-played frown. I think all my music is attempting big dynamics, either loud or softly, but an exact mood gets away from me. Or at least thats how I’ve perceived it. I’m not the best judge, and if you think otherwise I’d happily differ to your experience. The music is more yours than mine once released! That all being said I do believe in that wondrous property of music to know better than we do, in most things, and I create from that awe always.
Do you think that being on the West Coast of The States automatically sets the scene for what you do? Have you created different music when you were somewhere far from California’s sun?
Daedelus: I’m currently in Providence, Rhode Island so so far from California’s gentle weather and musical wanders. I moved in 2019 for a gig at Berklee College of Music teaching electronic performance (and a few sampling, production, and practitioner classes). That’s been the incubator of late; New England and motivated students. I’ll get back to Los Angeles soon, all those records out there asking to be plunderphonic mulch!
Which current artists do you think are doing extraordinary things in terms of sound design?
Daedelus: We are in a gilded age of sound agitators! Fellsius, Alexander Panos, RUBY, Little Snake, Syzy, aNTOJE, Nazar, Shonci, 1011, Slikback, Loraine James, IIVA, agetha, Tank Jr. – I could effuse on for days!
I saw a comment once, I forget where, but that your music was ‘out of sync’ (perhaps at a certain point in time of a given performance). I thought that was kind of funny, since your performances are so analog and hands on. But is there some truth to it? Sometimes it seems you like to play around right on the line between reason and absolute chaos. Can chaos be your way to achieving the wonder you seek to reveal?
Daedelus: Sync is a funny one! It is a group feeling around time and tempo, and no matter how free one can run afoul of. Entrainment is a cruel thing this way. I do like running this risk as my performances often use cacophony as a bridge between disparate genres. I like noise as a salve against easily affirmed expectation. I’d encourage us all to take advantage of an audiences want/willingness to be surprised more often!
I’d encourage us all to take advantage of an audiences want/willingness to be surprised more often!
What are you currently working on? Any releases or experiments in the near future we can look forward to?
Daedelus: Em Dash is up next! A full length full of collaborations and frequency focusing. Due October 24th everything on the LP is purpose filled! Nothing was left unconsidered. Wished so hard on solstices and full moons might have used all my good fortune up on this one.
What is on the horizon within the next 5-10 years of Daedelus?
Daedelus: Finishing my time at Berklee is the most immediate. I’ll sorely miss the direct interaction with impassioned musicians really putting it all on the line to pursue their dreams. I hope to carry the work forward, perhaps at another institution? But it needs to be a space with less concern for commerce and more elevation of these students’ loftiest aspirations. Also more sound adventures!
Links for Daedelus:
facebook.com/daedelusmusic
soundcloud.com/daedelus
daedelusmusic.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/daedelus
youtube.com/@DaedelusMusic
