From assembling a one-night-only band of approximately 80 members for a Coast Weekly awards-winning live show at St. Matthew's United Church to celebrate the release of his debut album We're All Dying To Live in 2008 to recording an album – 2020's United States – from voice memo's inspired by the landscapes of The Land Of The Free that he physically cycled across while completing a journey from Los Angeles to New York City on his trusty bike to raise funds for organisations like The Canadian Mental Health Association and Mental Health America, Nova Scotia-based indie electronic musician Rich Aucoin has always been an inspirational and endlessly stimulated creative artist exploring the perpetual state of mind by challenging the music industry and pushing the boundaries in how music can be experimentally recorded to sharpen his knife of social commentary.
Beginning under the original goal of exploring the many socio-economic impacts of synthesizers by releasing four instrumental albums staggered over a period of six months across two years to delve into the everlasting influence of electronic music technology and probe the emotions they evoke, Synthetic has become one of the most celebratory and rewarding projects yet for the Polaris Music Prize-shortlisted composer from Halifax.
Synthetic: Season 1 paved the way for Aucoin to explore the most esoteric instruments at his disposal in The National Music Centre Of Calgary's 200-rich collection of consequential synthesizers to create a varied album with glistening textures and analog warmth released in October 2022. It was followed by Synthetic: Season 2 in May 2023, a transcendent sequel adding rare and enviable instruments situated at LA's Vintage Synthesizer Museum to his repertoire which resulted in a more melodic LP release filled with fluctuating tempos and genre-defying exercises. After an excruciatingly long wait, Aucoin has just announced the details for his third release in the series, Synthetic: Season 3, which promises to be his most daring departure from his primal origins in laid-back, organic alternative folk yet when it finally hits the racks of your favourite record shop on November 20th.
Returning to the historical museums that housed the ubiquitous technology for him to produce the existing duology of releases in the 'Synthetic' series, the Dalhousie University graduate has promised that "From the mass-produced to the bespoke, each synthesizer on Synthetic: Season 3 sends a transmission from its makers' own historical vision of the future" as he continually explores "the variegated genealogy of dance music, charting a joyful course through the many flavours of rave euphoria" with the extensive four-part project. Among the significant instruments used to create the crisp, uncompromising sounds on the project are the Minimoog used by Kraftwerk and Gary Numan in the 1970s, the Optigan released by Transformers toy makers Mattel in 1971, and the EMS Synthi 100 – a digital/analog hybrid synthesizer housed in a giant wooden cabinet that was limited to a very small quantity of builds pushing just a few dozen, all of which are employed to create harsh yet barrelling dance-inspired tracks.
The first taste of the enthralling endeavour is available to stream in the guise of hot-off-the-press single "ElectroComp", a propulsive deep house anthem named after the 1969 EML ElectroComp 200 that blends ethereal, divulgent rave motifs with its murmuring analog filters to create an aggressive yet luminescent assortment of Techno-oriented sounds that brings the ancient instrument into the futuristic times of a post-modern society. Make sure that you check it out below and, as always, add the upcoming album release to your wishlist on your preferred physical or digital retailer to celebrate the groundbreaking technology responsible for shaping the record alongside the Canadian Polaris Music Prize-nominated songwriter responsible for sampling public domain projects like It's A Wonderful Life and Night Of The Living Dead for the benefit of the imaginative minds of music lovers.
