MOMENTS
BEFORE
IMPACT

During the winter months of December 2025 and January 2026, I stepped back from live performance to reset. The holidays gave me space to reconfigure equipment I'd been neglecting through months of constant touring, and to explore new gear I'd collected. Among those additions were a Hexinverter Mindphaser complex oscillator, a new quad LFO module, and a new Ladik cv+gate sequencer that fundamentally changed how I approach the system.

I wasn't setting out to make an album — I was simply discovering what these tools could do, working through sound exploration most evenings after work, influenced by artists like Mutlu Karaköse and Richie Hawtin, as well as the hypnotic modular techno community on SoundCloud. But in those moments of experimentation, sequences and ideas would emerge that felt like songs. I'd hit record and let everything flow from there — no rehearsal, no predetermined path, just discovery in real time.

This is my first album created entirely on Eurorack modular synthesis. Every track is a single live performance, captured in one take with no overdubs. There's intentionality in every patch decision, but there's also room for happy accidents. The imperfections are part of it — those little quirks give each song its own character and rawness that a polished computer production wouldn't have.

I wrote about fifteen tracks total, then listened back repeatedly, rearranging to feel out which ones belonged together. Some felt immediately wrong for this collection. Others took more listening before I could tell they didn't fit the sonic motif taking shape. I narrowed it down to ten tracks, then sequenced them like a live set — starting with something atmospheric and textural to pull listeners into this space, building toward moments of dance floor energy in the middle, then intensifying before easing back down toward the end. It's the same approach I use when I perform live: create tension, release it, guide people through an arc.

As February approached and I prepared to start performing again, I did the mixing and mastering myself, listening repeatedly to ensure everything felt cohesive as a whole unit. A walk with my girlfriend and her dog on a cold winter evening gave us the album cover — snow clinging to a construction fence with a street light's glow piercing through it caught my eye, she captured it with her eye for composition, and later I realized it matched the feeling of these songs perfectly. The photo was edited, my name and the album title added, and it all clicked.

The title, Moments Before Impact, represents something significant for me. I've found real fluency with the modular system, and I'm getting strong responses to my live work. This album feels like a threshold — a moment before everything shifts. These ten songs are what that moment sounds like.