An Interview With Off Land
Tim Dwyer's Off Land project has come a long way in the last ten years. Starting out as the understated ambient side-project of Dwyer's then main concern, the electronic-pop project Full-Source, Off Land has become a widely respected name in the world of independent ambient music, with his latest two full-lengths appearing on Psychonavigation Records. The self-penned mini-bio that accompanies most of Off Land's web presence makes references to Javanese gamelan music, minimal drone, electro-acoustic music, Pete Namlook, phonography and contemporary classical; this list gives an idea of the range of sounds and styles found on Dwyer's five albums and countless EPs and mini-albums.
From the sinister lo-fi ambient techno of debut album Encounter Point and its accompanying EPs, Off Land has moved through the electro-acoustic, field recording-based drone of Blue Narration, a trilogy of pulsating electronica based around the album Eventide Passage, and last year's Tidewater Pulse on Psychonavigation, with its rich, classical-like melodies. Between these albums, a number of short releases have filled the gaps, blending styles and acting like a behind-the-scenes look at the Dwyer's artistic progression.
Later this year, Dwyer releases his fifth Off Land LP, Quinarian. His second release on Psychonavigation, the album sees the artist going from strength to strength, providing five vast synthscapes that eclipse anything he has released previously. It's a world away from 2006's Rest EP, yet the journey from there to here has been seamless. Tim Dwyer talks to Absent With Concept about that journey, about Quinarian, and about where Off Land is headed next...
In as few or as many words as you like, explain the history of Off Land - when did you make the decision to start the project, and how did it stem from your earlier projects like Full-Source and The X:F System? I remember the point at which Off Land formed. At the start of 2004 I had just finished up everything I was doing with Full-Source and The X:F System at the time. It felt like a fresh start as I didn't have any musical vision that year. Off Land honestly came about because I didn't have a plan. My favorite ambient label Em:t reformed in 2003. I sent them a copy of my X:F System album, hoping they'd like it. Turned out they were putting together a second compilation release. They liked the X:F System album enough to inquire about new material. Em:t wanted me to submit a track for consideration on their upcoming compilation "0004". I agreed to send them something because now I had a plan and that was to make as much ambient music as a could in a week. The results were an eclectic collection of 10 ambient tracks. The track I sent Em:t was called "Dust", by Off Land. I took the moniker from the title of this track.
Ultimately, Em:t didn't like the track. I didn't mind so much because now I had the foundation for an album. That album would become Encounter Point, released four years later in 2008.
So Off Land effectively took over from where The X:F System left off? Yes, Off Land is essentially a continuation into the realm of ambient music that began with the X:F System. That's not surprising, considering that I used The X:F System album as source material for my 2011 album Microcosm. The name change was important to me though. I really wanted a moniker that encapsulated what ambient music meant to me at the time. Floating, traveling, exploration, eerie stillness, a soundtrack to an unknown place. I think the words "Off Land" still continue to fit the music I make.
Yeah, it's a very fitting name. In the four years between those sessions and Encounter Point coming out, you managed to establish yourself on the netlabel scene with a few EPs. How did you discover this scene and become involved in it? I was searching the internet for ambient music labels and stumbled across the Netlabel scene. Archive.org was basically a Netlabel aggregator back then. I think Kikapu was one of the first netlabels I came across. Releasing my first EP with them really helped me dive into the scene and work with additional Netlabels.
It was actually through your early releases that I discovered netlabels. Quite an exciting prospect back then! There's been a definite shift in your sound over the past ten years of recording - those early EPs seem to be loosely rooted in rhythms and a darker sound. These days Off Land seems to be moving towards a more electro-acoustic sound, even hinting at modern classical. Was this a conscious move, or has it been because of changes of gear/circumstances? I'm glad that I was able to help you discover netlabels!
Yes, I definitely have evolved my sound in the last ten years. My setup hasn't changed much though. I've updated and added bits to it, use better software for mixing but it's very similar to the setup I had for Encounter Point. The change in sound has more to do with the continuing struggle to record music the way I intended it to sound. I'm a lot closer to achieving this now than I was ten years ago. Ten years of practice sure helps! Rhythmic ambience, cinematic sounds, electro-acoustics, modern classical are all big influences. I've been trying to bring in more of these influences as I get more comfortable composing, mixing and matching them in different ways. I keep trying to push my boundaries. Lately I've been experimenting with intro and outro ambience and synth flourishes similar to what The Future Sound of London perfected in the mid 90's. This addition is in both my 2014 releases, Quinarian & Osculation.
Something else that has changed alongside your sound is the manner in which your records have been released. You describe Off Land as being born from 'net' culture, back when the netlabel scene was a thriving entity. In the past few years you seem to have moved towards digital labels and physical releases instead. What gave rise to this change? I fully embraced the netlabel scene for five years. It was an excellent platform for promoting music and getting it into the ears of people who want to listen. A lot of the power that netlabels had has shifted to the artists. It's much easier to self-promote and self-release now than it was five years ago. The way I look at it, digital labels are the successor to net labels. There's still a place for free music. There should always be a place for free music. Net labels aren't sustainable though. In the end the label fronts the website costs and the artist is scraping for funds to make more music. A successful digital label should be able to sustain itself and give back to the artist. I'm not much of a financial person and money is the last reason I make music but I do believe in artistic sustainability. Any money I get from my music goes back into equipment purchases and mastering costs. Moving from net labels to digital labels like Enpeg Digital and Stasis Recordings has allowed me to improve the technical quality of my music. Releasing physically is a recent addition, thanks to Psychonavigation Records. There's definitely still an audience out there for physical goods. I still buy CDs. As a fan of music, I like to have that option.
Yeah, in some ways I think Bandcamp has begun to replace the need for netlabels. Some of your own releases have been Bandcamp exclusives - what's the appeal in this to you? Everything is in the same place and I have complete control over each release. It's simpler and more robust for the listener. It's nice to be able to set a release date, allow people to download FLAC files, and even add to an album after the release date. This is the key to digital output. It can be amorphous. There was no way I'd be able to have that kind of control and statistical read-outs from net labels that I have from Bandcamp. As a listener, I find purchasing from Bandcamp to be a pretty stress-free experience. Everything I put out that isn't on a label or a compilation will be on my Bandcamp site. My move to Bandcamp was partly inspired by one of my favorite artists, Paul Frankland (aka Woob). He's exclusively doing the self-releasing thing and is getting it right.
Location - both physical and temporal - seems to be a key feature in a lot of your music, with journeys and memories fuelling the concepts of most of your recent releases. How important is this to you? Is it something that fuels the creative process, or does the music come first and the place fit around it during or after the record is completed? Location is at the core of what I try to encapsulate with Off Land. Changing your physical location can have a huge effect on your mind, your thoughts, your memories. The way I go about the creative process tends to be a mix of music and concept. Usually I'll start with a vague idea or skeletal concept. After that it's music and only music. I form the final concept around the completed music. A lot of the times the initial idea and the final concept have little to nothing in common. To give you a couple of examples, my initial idea for Tidewater Pulse was about being inside, looking at the world changing around you. The final concept was about the water cycle, oceanic voyage, the memories of travel, and how they all feel connected. The initial idea for Quinarian was ambient music from the past. The final concept is about a dead mid-nineteenth century theory of animal classification that was popular with British naturalists. The final concept usually helps form the album, but does not form the music.
You're hoping to do some Off Land live shows in the near future: what do you have in store for these? Yes, I'm going to start practicing for live shows this year with the hope of playing live before the year's end but more likely in 2015. I will be mixing analogue electronics with electro-acoustics. The plan is you use the Korg Volca Series as an analogue platform. Acoustic percussion instruments, kalimba, and melodica will be improvised on top. I've been throwing around the possibility of having guest musicians on stage for acoustic improvisation and considering the idea of doing free concerts over the internet. The feasibility of this remains to be seen. There's definitely going to be a shift in sound for these live performances. I'm hoping it is a more rhythmic experience. Expect it to have an effect on some of my albums going forward. Overlook & Osculation are releases that definitely start to push in this direction. I hope to explore this further in the live space going forward.
A rhythmic approach certainly sounds different - rhythms are something you've generally used as an accompanying sound in your music to date, rather than a focus. Do you see yourself moving towards a more acoustic percussive sound, or will this expand on the techno/IDM elements that have occasionally graced your music? Or is it just a case of finding your way as you go along...? It's a mix of IDM elements and World music rhythms. Eventide Passage & Overlook definitely went in a more techno/IDM direction with percussion. While some of my previous tracks do include subtle acoustic rhythms, Osculation is the first release where the drums really come to the front. The first single, 'Goshawk' is almost entirely electronic, beats and all. It's probably the most IDM thing I've ever done. Many of the other tracks on the EP have completely acoustic drum tracks with some IDM undertones in the rhythmic structure and processing. This isn't where all of Off Land is heading though, just my beat-centric music. There's plenty of room for more drone!
Your forthcoming album, Quinarian, is due on Psychonavigation in October. With tracks running up to 20 minutes, it's a considerably less 'song'-based album, more epic in scope. Was this an intentional move; and what else is new on this album that we can expect? The goal from the outset was to create some expansive, melodic synthscapes. Expect textural transitions and room to breath. It's sixty minutes of space-music, an organic / synthetic mesh. I recorded many of the synth parts with baked in radio chatter and static to make the album sound more like a distant transmission. There are segues between each track comprised of vocal samples, noises, and processed field recordings. 'Veery' weaves between drone and melody. 'Soar' is essentially music for planetariums. 'Turnstone' builds with sparse percussion. 'Shearwater' journeys from drone, to field recordings, and back. The last track, 'Kestrel' has slightly desynced Gamelan like bells, acting as a death rattle of sorts for the album.
The animal classification concept sounds fascinating, can you elaborate a little more on that? The entire concept fell into place both naturally and accidentally. I had been working on Quinarian and Osculation in tandem. The sound was coming together. The idea of connection and the number five were there but I was still lacking an overarching concept. I'm using bird song field recordings in parts of Quinarian. This gave me the idea of naming the tracks after birds and paring birds in corresponding subspecies between the Quinarian and Osculation sessions. I stumbled upon the Quinarian system while I was looking for a term or idea that dealt with classification, and paring. The Quinarian system is an old naturalist theory that all creatures can be divided into five subgroups. These subgroups or circles may overlap in a process called osculation. This is a fascinating theory that was vogue in the United Kingdom during the mid nineteenth century. I'm a fan of science and animals so everything clicked into place.
The album is is your second release on Psychonavigation - what is it that's kept you working with the label for the last couple of years? Keith at Psychonavigation and I are on the same page. He gets my music right away. It's great to work with someone that is behind your music 100%. Being on the label has been extremely helpful in growing my fan base with physical discs, and global distribution. There's a lot of creative freedom with Psychonavigation. I get complete control over the album art but I have the label to fall back on if I need a help making a decision. For example, Keith helped out picking the tracks and order for Tidewater Pulse.
As has become the norm for ambient artists, you seem comfortable releasing more than one record a year. What else is in the pipeline for Off Land in the near or far future? And do you have any other projects on the go at the moment? This year is a busy one. Voyage/Home came out in January. I'm releasing Quinarian in October and Osculation in December. Interspersed are a couple remixes and compilation tracks. I've also got a collaborative EP with Loose Link called Hyperbird coming out. Next year I'm releasing a couple remix EPs on Stasis Recordings based around singles from Osculation. There's plenty more that I'm working on for the future. I've got a couple of album ideas in the works. Nothing too solid to talk about. I will say that I'm hoping to take Off Land in some new directions in the next couple years.
Quinarian is out on 27th October on Psychonavigation Records. Check out the Off Land website for more information and news, including more insight into the project's history and future. Thanks to Tim for taking part in this interview!