Recording for 'The Brink' completed

We finally wrapped up the bulk of the recording for The Brink yesterday. There may be minor alterations prior to the mix but we have an album here all ready to level out and make sound even better. The last few weeks have been really productive down here in Melbourne, we've hardly left the studio (only really to eat and sleep). Mark really pushed himself vocally and worked his arse off on the engineering side of things, while I have been overlooking everything and getting the right combination of instruments and sounds playing the right parts in the right places. We're now going to take a well deserved break from it until I return to the studio in August to mix it with a clear head. As soon as we know a release date it'll be posted everywhere, along with preview clips building up to the release.

I've really enjoyed the process with this record, pure creation without any sense of competition or fear that its a bit 'outside the box' in parts from anyone involved. We've also been helped out by some decent people who are eager to see us have a bit of luck with this one. Lending us equipment and that, and an awful lot of folk who have simply showed goodwill, much appreciated like. Good vibes all round (for such a dark album). Looking forward to having the finished product ready for everyone interested.

All the best,

Duncan Patterson

Studio 3, Melbourne Australia

Take 2

Studio Report: Mark Kelson

Work continued this month on The Brink. This recording session has been in Melbourne, Australia in the studio with vocalist/guitarist Mark Kelson. Most of the guitars and vocals are finished now ahead of schedule so we can take advantage of the extra days and experiment a bit more. We even managed to get out and play some songs live on stage last weekend.

Mark Kelson & Duncan Patterson, Melbourne

"Working on this album 'The Brink' has been something I've been looking forward to for a long time. My friendship and my respect for Duncan as a musician and songwriter has spanned for many years, so to finally have a chance to add my own touch to his music has been fantastic.
 

Duncan arrived in Melbourne last week and immediately we began the process of setting up Pro-Tools sessions and sorting out what work was ahead of us. Fairly early on I felt we were aiming to achieve the same things musically & it all began to move at a great natural pace.
 

Adding the heavy guitars was great fun, coming from a heavy rock background it was something I felt very comfortable with and sonically I felt it was where I could leave my mark. Although it has also been great to explore new musical ideas together. I feel this album is entering some new territory for all of us as we are not setting limits on ourselves stylistically.
 

The task of vocals has been far more challenging and I feel Duncan has helped me push myself in some directions I've always wanted to dabble in but never had the chance to in my previous & current musical ventures. I really like the raw energy we have captured.
 

Each day we work on this record I find myself getting a deeper understanding of the album conceptually and the actual weight that the lyrical content has. This is not an album for the light hearted. So be prepared to be challenged if you open yourself to it. 

 

 

All I can say about 'The Brink' is it is some of the darkest and deepest material Duncan has produced and I'm proud to be part of it. I look forward to sharing this with you all and I hope you can get as much from it as I am" - Mark Kelson

Studio Report: Mauro Frison

As the album recordings continue today in Melbourne, Australia, drummer Mauro Frison reflects on his experience of the initial sessions at Transmission Rooms, Republic of Ireland.

"It was a very important experience for me. I was very lucky to participate on it, supported by patience and experience of a musician/composer like Duncan, and music engineer like Mick. The friendly relations between us, the pure air from the real Irish countryside made a good atmosphere during the recording. Another very important point was possibility to play using different types of drum kits - it was amazing to choose the exact sound we were looking for. The studio's equipement helped to record it so quickly too. And in the end of the day you really want to live there! Haha. To be honest I´ve never felt so comfortable and relaxed while recording. Also recording this music style was such a interesting experience for me. So far I have had a bit different one (like metal, stoner and folk music too), so I´ve never recorded such slow-tempo stuff on drums. So before that I was very focused listening to a slower-tempo bands like Nick Cave and Roger Waters, and many old school doom bands.


I can´t exactly define Alternative 4´s style. It's a mixture of different styles, sounds and cultural infuences, but at the same time it keeps its doom roots. From my point of view, these tunes they express real lonely feelings but lots of energy and melodies too. I think many old school doom/old Anathema fans will be nicely surprised. But as well, as I mentioned, it has different influences from other styles, so it´s gonna be more interesting than just a doom album." - Mauro Frison

The guitar and vocal parts will be recorded during the next two weeks with Mr Mark Kelson and myself working away here in Melbourne. We'll keep the blog updated and get some new pics and videoclips uploaded for you to see where we are at. Bye for now and thanks for the interest!

Duncan Patterson

Evidence

Machines

Sr. Mauro Frison

Engineer Mick Cronin

Lights

Grand so

Studio Report: part 1

Drummer Mauro Frison, and myself entered Transmission Room Studios on Monday morning to start laying down the tracks for The Brink. The studio itself is a 300 year old converted building in the middle of the countryside in County Longford, Republic of Ireland. With little or no distraction besides the grand piano and various vintage instruments around the place. We spent a bit of time getting the drum kit tuned and miked up with the assistance of our hardworking, sausage roll fueled engineer Mick Cronin. The idea was to go for a real natural sounding kit, which is what we got. Its a great sounding room too, which makes life easier. Once we were all set up the tracks went down quickly, with Mauro nailing most of the songs with his first take. Its always a pleasure to work with musicians who actually bother to learn and practice the songs to that degree. And a rare thing these days. So by the end of day one the drum tracks were already recorded. Hard work, country air, proper sleep.

Onto Tuesday morning and we began with percussion parts, with all three of us contributing to fill out the percussion sections. I had a choice of bass guitar/amp combinations there and ended up going with a vintage Ampeg which I'm told was used by the mighty Boyzone for a while on the road. I figured that was the ideal amp due to what Im aiming for with this album, and what Im about. The bass parts went down fairly quickly as I knew the songs quite well already. Then I finally got my hands on the grand piano and hammond organ that I'd been coveting since Monday morning. This is the first time in my long career that I've had access to this kind of gear when recording an album. Partly because of inexperience, sabotage, the wrong combinations of people, and good old fashioned 'not having my sh*t together'. All in all this session is surpassing my expections so far and its already sounding fairly innovative along with the pre-production stuff that I brought along with me. The perfect location and just the right people to springboard this album process into fruition. I'm lucky to have people like Mauro and Mick onboard.

We'll have some more pics and footage up over the next few days for those who are following this project. Thanks for the interest and support.

Duncan Patterson

Studio booked & tracklist

We will enter Transmission Rooms Recording Studio, Republic of Ireland in May to start laying down tracks for The Brink. Argentinian drummer Mauro Frison will handle the drum and percussive parts. The strings and orchestral parts to be recorded in Mexico.


Tracklisting is as follows :-

Alternative 4 - The Brink

The Brink

False Light

Alternate

Underlooked

The Dumbing Down

i. The Travesty Waltz  

ii. Steakknife's Theme  

iii. Ophidian March

Still Waters

Automata

The Brink (reprise)

Duncan Patterson's 'Alternative 4' project signs with Avantgarde Music

Duncan Patterson has been an integral part of the independent music scene since 1991, still today known and recognized as the original mastermind behind Anathema's early success and in particular as the driving composer behind the "Eternity" and "Alternative 4" albums. With his song writing he contributed in defining the doom metal sound first, and then piloted the band towards a deeper and rather advanced style which they followed and developed furtherly after Duncan's departure.

Unquiet and always daring to experiment, he then formed (and released four albums with) Antimatter together with Michael Moss, exploring several genres from deep electronica to folk acoustic, as recently documented by Antimatter's comprehensive compilation "Alternative matter".

But a creative spirit can't be kept in a cage.. thus Duncan abandoned again a project at its top peak and started another full time project called Íon, putting aside for a while the electronic trips and embracing the purity of acoustic, traditional and indigenous music but still marked with his well defined songwriting style.

In between recording and touring his own projects, he has also enjoyed taking parts to projects that were less spoken about in the indie/metal scene, like Irish alternative rock band The Aftermath or having his own music featured as movies soundtracks (the award-winning film "The sons of Eilaboun" and "Just Another Day").

Now to the most interesting part of this announcement: with his current project 'Alternative 4' Duncan has created what we can describe as a 'cinematic rock' monument, titled "The Brink", which recalls echoes of his previous work merged with classic sounding instrumentation.

Unsettling yet beautiful, The Brink is already and completely written and actually being recorded in different locations in this world and outer worlds.... The album will feature orchestral and chorals recorded in Monterrey, Mexico, as a diamond on top of a more solid and dark-rock core structure recorded in Ireland with the help of a few long-time collaborators and respected friends, like Mark Kelson (The Eternal) who will play an integral role on this release
"The Brink" will be tentatively released in Summer 2011 and will be adorned with a beautiful packaging and visuals.