“I STILL HAVE a lot of faith in human beings. It’s just the system we’ve built around ourselves, the miserable machine, causing all the problems.”
Paul Wolinski laughs as he says this, almost surprised by his own view of the state of things. Though it’s a stark way of summarising the world outside our window, it’s also a base point for where Paul, as a musician, finds himself right now.
Renowned for his work over the last 20 years in 65daysofstatic, Sheffield’s own multifaceted post-rock monster, his recent focus has been on Polinski, a private escape of experimentation that he’s dabbled in on and off for the last decade. As 65days are pivoting more to explorative soundscapes rather than fully fledged songs, he’s found a bit more time and space to give his solo project the attention it deserves.
And that’s how he found himself focusing on the world’s ills while piecing together his art.
“I would much rather make sure that my anger at the way things are isn’t directed at the wrong places,” he says. “Hating and blaming people isn’t the right way of doing it; it’s designed by the people in power. We didn’t build this infrastructure, we were born into it. That’s when I started thinking of the idea of utopia.”
That became the focus of Telex From MIDI City, a soundtrack to a world that functions as it should, created using instruments and techniques that were already there rather than searching for new ones. Using MIDI sounds, IDM beats pulled from the 90s and synths synonymous with the 80s and melding them with his lessons learned while playing around with non-linear programming, as well the skills earned from his PhD in algorithmic music, the outcome transports the listener forwards and paints a picture of a future that we deserve. Both gloriously modern and stunningly calming, it’s also a piece of art that finds Wolinski at his most comfortable as an...
Paul Wolinski laughs as he says this, almost surprised by his own view of the state of things. Though it’s a stark way of summarising the world outside our window, it’s also a base point for where Paul, as a musician, finds himself right now.
Renowned for his work over the last 20 years in 65daysofstatic, Sheffield’s own multifaceted post-rock monster, his recent focus has been on Polinski, a private escape of experimentation that he’s dabbled in on and off for the last decade. As 65days are pivoting more to explorative soundscapes rather than fully fledged songs, he’s found a bit more time and space to give his solo project the attention it deserves.
And that’s how he found himself focusing on the world’s ills while piecing together his art.
“I would much rather make sure that my anger at the way things are isn’t directed at the wrong places,” he says. “Hating and blaming people isn’t the right way of doing it; it’s designed by the people in power. We didn’t build this infrastructure, we were born into it. That’s when I started thinking of the idea of utopia.”
That became the focus of Telex From MIDI City, a soundtrack to a world that functions as it should, created using instruments and techniques that were already there rather than searching for new ones. Using MIDI sounds, IDM beats pulled from the 90s and synths synonymous with the 80s and melding them with his lessons learned while playing around with non-linear programming, as well the skills earned from his PhD in algorithmic music, the outcome transports the listener forwards and paints a picture of a future that we deserve. Both gloriously modern and stunningly calming, it’s also a piece of art that finds Wolinski at his most comfortable as an...
You're reading a preview of
Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 140