• Bobbing Baubles (256kbps AAC)

• I have recently finished up recording and mixing a friend’s Christian worship album. I cannot share any details until it is released, but the great news for Binary Sea is that due to the money made from that project I can fund future CDs. So I will begin moving forward on producing a physical CD version of Compass, releasing my second solo CD Gem Stars, and other projects we’re beginning to put together.
• I have moved out of my parents’ house and am now living on my own with a roommate (who is also a fantastic musician). In addition, I have a new, non-music-related day job at Wal-Mart. As a result, I now have set hours to work and can work on music-related projects and marketing on my off-hours. This is great, because job-hunting was very stressful and was sapping up all my creative energy.
• Jared has taken temporary leave of Binary Sea for a short time due to romance, engagement, and an upcoming wedding!! His lovely bride is Rosemary Neiswender, and they will tie the knot next month. (I am the Best Man, by the way.) Here is a picture of them at their engagement party:

(Left to Right: Myself, Jared, Rosemary, and Christelle, the Maid of Honor)

• Due to these family changes, our music studio has moved from the upstairs bedroom to the garage. We’re now up and running again, and the new setup is MUCH better than before!! Ample space for creativity. I am beginning to work on music again which feels wonderful.
• Once Jared is back on the scene, we will undergo both a band name change and a label name change. “Binary Sea” and “Melodious Synth” do not have long to live. Stay tuned for more.
• And so, to top off the good news, here are some recent tracks (2007-2009) I have made, with more shortly coming that aren’t quite ready yet. Some of these new tracks feature sounds from a recent prized acquisition of mine: a Roland Juno-106 polyphonic analog synth from 1986. It sounds PHATT. I just can’t stop playing it! I put up photos on Facebook:

  

  

  

  As is typical with my music, the styles range from soft new age to hard trance, but still retains the beautiful and emotional elements that I have always sought after. Enjoy!

• On the Blazing Edge (256kbps AAC)
• Getting It All Together (256kbps AAC)
• Fathers of Flame (256kbps AAC)
• Soothe Your Soul (256kbps AAC)

All the King’s Seahorses

The Cathedral Rocks

Meanwhile, we’re starting to put together final artwork for a CD production of Compass. I took lots of artsy pictures of our studio equipment, including juicy pictures of our analog modular system complete with plenty of Moog-style knobs. It looks like something out of a sci-fi film. As great as online downloads are, there is still something about holding a real physical package in one’s hand. Humans need touch and feel as well as hearing and listening. Of course, no lossy compression, either! Too bad DVD-Audio and SACD never took off, but it doesn’t matter because the original production was done at 44.1KHz. (And it still sounds awesome.)

We’re also working on a new EP which will probably be around 25 minutes. We have three tracks composed with the fourth in the works, but even when that’s done we’ll still need to mix and master. When it’s close to completion we’ll post sound clips and artwork, but that probably won’t be until summer or fall.

I’m also pretty much done with my second solo CD! An hour of great electronic music with plenty of emotion and punch. Mixing and mastering is complete, with only a couple of possible tweaks remaining; but I don’t have any artwork ready yet and won’t until the artwork for Compass is done. But in the meantime, I’ll post some sound clips on this site soon, to give you an idea of what’s in store.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’d also like to mention that some tracks from Compass were played at a recent wedding—it makes great reception music. If you have a special occasion centered around Valentine’s Day, Compass is a good choice to play!

BTW, we finally got around to updating our Soundclick page which has some cool interactive and networking features. In addition, Binary Sea will be the featured artist on the Soundclick home page on August 7th, so please head over there and click on the ad to drive us up in the charts!

Until next time, over and out!

We are extremely excited about the release of Compass, and we hope to get the word out in as many ways as we can. Don’t forget — we have a MySpace page and Facebook page as well, so head on over there and become a friend if you aren’t already!

There are a few ideas brewing in our tired little brains about what projects to work on next, and with any luck they will be out sooner rather than latter. At the very least, we hope to put up a few extra goodies (music downloads) in the coming months. In the meantime, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our blog feed for updates!

The official release date for the album is July 11th. We won’t be actually selling CDs at first (estimated time TBA)—it’ll be available for online purchase at places like iTunes, Audio Lunchbox, etc., and of course on our own site. Unlike the other shops, we’re going to offer multiple formats including AAC and Apple Lossless for full CD quality. We may even do Ogg, FLAC, and old, awful MP3, but that remains to be seen.

So, until then, check out http://www.myspace.com/binarysea and get a taste of things to come!