Aperus - Archaic Signal

"Today I was able to listen through the complete [album] with all my three ears, and wow... Dig the Esperanto antenna intro into a half an hour of deepest cosmos exploration of uniquely black-holed drones only ever dreamt before, but not heard - with billions of shimmering white dwarfs about... trippy, wonderful, exosceletonic. An intermission of a 16 minute bird-talk and drone is followed by three short beautiful space warbles, colorful and far-reaching. Space music concrete' with a great dose of bliss. Unique Stuff with a lot of thought and craft!" ~ Eckart Buhler

We're living on the edge of town near a green belt of trees in the high desert of New Mexico. I wake up, get ready for the day, and hear a bird singing outside the window. The window's open slightly so it filters out the background noise while letting the high end pass through unobstructed. I'm struck by the beauty of the sound and begin recording. It occurs to me that the bird isn't just singing, it's trying to signal another bird as it's evolved to do over countless millennia.

We're hiking the La Cienaguilla Petroglyphs exploring a mile long section of ancient symbols. I'm surprised at how many images cover the rocks and canyon and how directly they speak to me. We move slowly from one panel to the next. You point out the highlights while I photograph them with my camera. Some look ancient while others look like the future seen through the lens of the past. The thought goes through my head " these petroglyphs are a signal from then until now .

I've tuned into a favorite website to work with a high powered radio antenna at a university in the Netherlands. I spend hours moving through the frequencies recording cosmic noise, news reports, and obscure number stations. A few more adjustments and the shortwave transmits a call to prayer as the audio recorder runs in the background. The needle's not quite on the frequency so the singer sounds squelchy and out of focus while a voice from another station occasionally bleeds through.

After three iterations, the title of the album becomes clear and I feel compelled to explore the ideas I've gathered.

Brian McWilliams: shortwave radio, software sampler, ob6, wavestation, juno 106, un-o-lx, prophet 5/vs, droneo, synplant, sunrizer, processed guitar, rattles, field recordings, tape manipulation

Ivan Block: guitar on Archaic Signal and Afterglow

Karla K Mcwilliams: drum loop and samples on Canopy of Stars

Recorded and mixed by Brian McWilliams at the Sound Observatory. Mastered by Robert Rich at Soundscape, Mountain View (1,3,4,5,6,8), Jason Goodyear at Ice Cream Truck Studio (2,5), Brian McWilliams at the Sound Observatory (1-9). Photography and artwork by Brian McWilliams.

Thank you to the Cochiti and Santo Domingo pueblos for inspiration and visual dna drawn from the La Cienaguilla Petroglyph site; Karla K Mcwilliams, Jim Hackler, Jason Goodyear, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Ron Sunsinger, Robin Storey, David Jackson, Michelle Mcwilliams, Jaled Bahakeem and Jenna Ritter for feedback during the recording of this project. Special thanks to Ivan Block for creative dialog, photo location scouting and assistance.