New Bohemia – a very stark beginning with layered field recordings from sounds heard around and in the Water Tower Place building in 2004. The railroad crossing sample was recorded on 3rd St in the alley behind the Osada and Water Tower Place buildings in downtown Cedar Rapids. The echo-y sounds were all recorded from inside Water Tower Place before it was turned into condos. An ominous droned synth loop occasionally appears before building up slightly towards the end of the track. Advisory – originally part of the “What Does an Iowa Winter Sound Like?” podcast, which was profiled in a front page story about my music in the Cedar Rapids Gazette by reporter Dave DeWitte. The music was a reaction to the bleak winter weather conditions in late 2005 and early 2006. Jon and I worked on the main atmospheric loops in his home studio, which I later took into my studio, edited further, and arranged into this recording. River Bend – was also part of the “What Does An Iowa Winter Sound Like?” podcast. The field recordings were done at The Ark, a private residence north of Cedar Rapids off Feather Ridge Rd, near Toddville. Jon and I worked up the eerie sounding loops. Jon’s bass guitar was recorded in a session at the Matyk Building. The track was put together in my studio in Cedar Rapids along with other sounds and loops. The visual inspiration for this was me driving back and forth to work between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City down Highway 1 during a very cold winter. The musical inspiration for the arrangement of this track is “Plight (The Spiralling of Winter Ghosts)” by David Sylvian & Holger Czukay, which I invite you to seek out. Winter Wind Chimes – also part of the podcast. This track features a lot of Jon’s sounds: the clinking electronica, the bass guitar, and the “wheezing” sound near the end was Jon’s bass played through his effects box, if you can believe it. The live instrumentation was recorded at the Matyk Building. Like all the others, I arranged this in my home studio. Drift Higher – the final track in the podcast, meant to signify the beginning of spring. Field recordings are from the Ark, synth loops from Jon, and the classical loop is from an orchestral loop library collection I have. The clicking sounds at the end of the track were from a messed-with sample of the turn signal in my old Audi. Brine – This is more noise-oriented and industrial, although I think noisy sounds can be quite beautiful if the right kind of thought is put into them. It drifts around with various sounds, but there is actually an arrangement going on. I was likely listening to a lot of Christian Fennesz at the time. Jon and I played this live at Emerald City in Cedar Rapids at a very very loud volume and scared practically all the kids out of the building with our brutal noise assault. Listened to at a more reasonable volume, this track fits very nicely on the album. Money Agent – I have a portable and crank-powered shortwave receiver that I received for Christmas a few years ago, and quite a bit of the audio from various recordings from that little radio. These recordings were processed in my studio and arranged along with some atmospheric loops by Jon in the background. Spaces – A very “space music” type of track with sweeping sounds and voices coming and going. I envision driving around and staring at the night sky going by. Slew – A combination of orchestral and industrial loops arranged like rolling black fog that descend into a various stark breaks before bass kicks through towards the end. Nightshade – A bass-heavy track, although Jon doesn’t play bass on it, he just does the atmospheric synth loops that come and go. I did the white noise. The main bass loop came from a loop library CD of heavy metal bass lines, but this was chopped up, heavily processed, and looped. When the music finished, the album ends basically the same way that it starts. Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish is not rock and roll. There are no drums. There’s very little bass. No guitar. The keyboards are not melodic. Is it ambient? Avant-garde? It’s certainly not New Age. Is it industrial? It’s kind of a quiet industrial, but it doesn’t ignore nature with the field recordings of birds, train crossings, warehouse building interiors, and car sounds. Is it a soundtrack to a neo-urban lifestyle in a northern town? Maybe. I don’t know the answers and it’s difficult for me to categorize, but I’ve heard all the tracks hundreds of times over the past couple of years and they still sound relevant to me. Perhaps you will find them interesting and worthwhile as a kind of tactile music to soundtrack your life.