Album Notes

Imagine, if you will, the experience of hearing music from the other side of existence; songs being reflected back through the ether to your ears as whispers of their prior incarnations. This may sound like an outlandish idea, but put here to practice it is every bit as other-worldly a listening experience as it sounds. On his album My Ghosts and Yours, Rob Byrd takes this leap and explores the vast potential of his concept by masterfully applying various signal processing gear to his electric guitar, with resultant landscapes of sound which remind you of places you have never been, whisper to you of lives long past on, and echo of our lasting impressions upon this world- and those worlds beyond the grave. Entirely improvised. Byrd says of the process "Memories of imaginary places surfaced while recording the songs..." and it is an apt way of describing the effect of the album on the listener. If you relax and listen openly, the washes of sound and the shroud of ambiance may lift just enough to conjure your own forgotten imaginings. I recommend "Song of the Ocean Wraith", "Lyceum", and "Memorial Figures".
-Jessika
copyright 2011 Gothic Beauty Magazine


"Shimmers like the Northern Lights, maybe composed of stars... a muted spectrum of melting shadows, the louder you play it the more affecting it becomes, as though some invisible sonic force is pushing the music at you."
-Mick Mercer review

There were several deep impulses and inspirations that lead to the creation of the music on my new album “My Ghosts and Yours”. I’m fascinated by how music might sound if it came to us from the place we go to after we pass on, and how the sounds would be transformed, expanded, made magic, and infused with strange knowledge by this epic trip across the void. The songs were created using electric guitar and an array of signal processing gear, and are entirely improvised. The effects used lend themselves so well to reflecting this idea of music transformed by space and time, as they have the capacity to generate the feeling of huge expanses, and to shift the speed at which different components of the sound are perceived.
Focused improvisation allows for the exploration and interrogation of thoughts held in my head and heart within the context of the sound designs created on the signal processors. Memories of imaginary places surfaced while recording the songs: an immense, decaying room with strange shadows in an abandoned warehouse, a small family graveyard soaking with mud and mist at the far end of a New England farm property, an old schoolhouse discovered at dusk at the end of a country road whose long-gone students linger in some incorporeal form and can be glimpsed in peripheral movements… any one of these places could be portals through which the astute listener might hear the sounds from across the void, and the pieces selected to appear on the album each represent this kind of enigmatic environment.
I always think of each release as having a complete, holistic aesthetic- the textures of the design must mesh with the sounds, and I am so pleased with the overall feel of the finished package. I’m thrilled to share these otherworldly, yet somehow familiar atmospheres that will appeal to fans of many genres of dark and mysterious music.