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About Dome
Rob Gould's 5th and latest solo recording, Dome, is a part live, part studio working recorded in the incredible Devonshire Dome in Buxton, England.
Now part of the Derby University campus, Rob was given access into the building, prior to the change-over from empty, former hospital to the house of learning it is today.
The live part, recorded in the dome itself, evokes the awesome setting and unusual acoustics of the structure, but at 20 minutes it was decided to expand it in the studio to an album-length piece of work.
The album cover image reflects the changing colours of a brain cell network evolving over time in response to stimuli. (Credit: Buonomano Lab)
Let Me Explain...
Back in the summer of 2005 I was invited to test the acoustics in the incredible University of Derby 'Dome' in Buxton, England. Accompanied by vocalist and flautist Natalia Brightmore I entered into a 20 minute 'Robfest' of ambient noodlings and soundscapes - a most gratifying experience to hear the sound bouncing from the enormous Dome structure.
I had planned to release the recording as a live cd, but picking through the tapes I found the 13 minutes (featured as "the soft centre" on this cd) obviously not long enough for an album length track. So I went about expanding the track at my home studio later that year.
Now to be honest, at the time I was suffering.. Not so much from a broken heart, but a broken head! Tiny fractures, sometimes more lengthy, emerged from my keyboards. Sometimes I was struggling to even play a note.. In the mean time I managed the "appointed hour" Rama experiment, so the writing cupboard wasn't bare, but i needed a way to find myself again. Away from car crashes and relationship meltdowns, there where some wonderful things happening in my life. Many great friends emerged from my troubled times, here in the UK, in Brazil and Germany. Such love, kinship and support I could hardly have imagined a few years previously.
By October 2006 I had a 'bag of bits and pieces', some emotional, some crazy, some sweet, some anger too. I shook the bag and tracks were pulled out of the hat and carefully pieced together on my pc as a jigsaw.
Disaster...200 hours of labouring were undone due to an over-tired deleting session, where i only just managed to save the bare bones of the music. However, all was not lost, I had saved an earlier rough mix, although around the same time guitar tracks from Fula's Nigel Moss and Ashtar's Eduardo Capella mysteriously vanished!
Thankfully, Mr. Jurgen Kaletta of German rock band Arilyn, was on hand to record some amazing Space Guitar" during his bands UK tour of May 2007.
Finally, in the summer of 2007, Dome was completed. Looking back on the last two years I now understand what Dome was to me, it was a way of self-help, self-healing even, where, in a kind of surreal manner, my inner-self (mini-me) wandered inside my head fixing the cracks and the holes, a journey into the mouth of madness? or just an ordinary guy sorting himself out? maybe both.
Despite all the terrors, it was a whole lot of fun and certainly a journey of self discovery....
Rob Gould (October 2007)