I wrote and recorded this album between the fall of 1998 and the summer of 1999...it was originally intended to be released at the end of 1999. My goal was to create a concept album…an artistic milestone that I could entirely lose myself in and one that would challenge me. Though I could hear the varying instrumentation in my head—actually tracking the album was an undertaking because authentic sounding samples weren't readily available in those days. If one wanted timpani; one needed to find and record an actual timpani...if you wanted cello, you had to find a cello player to sit in on the recording. A friend of mine at the conservatory asked me why I even wanted to go through the trouble of recording some of the unusual instruments I was asking around campus to record…why not just use instruments I had easy access to?
The simple answer; because the compositions called for timpani or carillon bells, or concertina or mandolin, castanets, cello or harpsichord or whatever. I had little choice in the matter and I started referring to the compositions themselves as my co-writers...for the songs seemed to make demands of me, no matter how impractical or inconvenient...demands which I'd feel compelled to meet.
After it was tracked in 1999, I tried to have this album produced three times…the first two producers weren't a fit…the third producer went the furthest and brought the album to a test mix; however, a flood destroyed the hard drive tower we were using as well as the progress we’d made. I wondered if perhaps the album wasn’t meant to be. I had the original dry sessions backed up on CD...however, we'd lost months of intense mixing and after going through three back to back attempts to produce the album; I had to move on to other projects.
A few years later, I realized that I'd lost the original sessions altogether in one move or another...purely neglect. It was disconcerting. Though I had the compositions and instrumentation saved in my head; there was no possible way I would ever recapture the magical energy from those original performances we’d recorded in the 90’s if I attempted re-tracking and so I never bothered trying to re-track the album. I assumed it was gone forever.
Earlier this year I was sifting through a storage space and by sheer chance found a box at the bottom of a pile of other boxes. The box was dated June 2004 and I was sort of anxious to see what was in it. Inside were some artifacts from that era...then, at the bottom, I saw something thoroughly wrapped in tape and bubble wrap; it was a spindle of CD's...it was the lost sessions—Unconquered Sun.
Those original dry sessions had been sitting in that box for 15 years…dormant. After finding the sessions I was wired--because I knew that now I could produce them myself, something I couldn't do in 1999. I put all other projects on hold and got straight into production and spent a number of months doing some hard mixing—which was a massive undertaking in itself, but well worth it. What was supposed to be released in 1999 is now being released in 2019…in many regards it's a time capsule, bringing with it the authenticity, creativity and romanticism of the 90's. For those of you who are die hard music fans and love concept albums—this is for you.
