This is why not everyone is well-suited to the artist life. Unlike most hapless civilians, when presented with a Hawaiian holiday interrupted by atypically cold and windy weather, synth maestro M. Geddes Gengras didn’t get all bummed-out and kick a pineapple. Nope. Being the resourceful electronic music obsessive that he is, Gengras decided to turn the downtime into art-time.
Transforming his hotel room into a miniature studio, Gengras had stowed a tiny synth and handheld recorder in his luggage (like you do when you’re a resourceful electronic music obsessive) and used the limitations of climate and equipment to produce a suite of minimalist, improvised sequences…and viola: the Hawaiki Tapes were born.
Harking back to the early ambient masters (think Eno Budd et. al.), Hawaiki Tapes is like a sonic postcard of chilled-out Hawaiian soundscapes on a frosty evening. And lucky you: you can picture yourself in those chilled-out soundscapes on June 15 when Umor Rex unfurl Gengras’ hotel based synth excursions on cassette and via digital sorcery.
Practice your sonic assisted mental projection with the track “Kīlauea” (whose namesake is actually erupting right now in a genius bit of viral marketing planned out by the Umor Rex crew).
Hawaiki Tapes tracklisting:
01. Hilina Slump
02. Ha’akulamanu
03. Kapoho
04. Kīlauea
05. Mauna Kea
06. Lō’ihi
07. Kalapana
08. Mauna Loa
09. Pu’u Loa
10. Nāhuku
More about: M. Geddes Gengras
