Lazerous Syndrome
English composer Des O'Connor and American poet Ashley Alquine team up to create aural landscapes from surreal vocals and experimental beats. Living on different continents hasn't hindered their ability to create music, thanks to the alchemy of the Internet. Des labels them the First Transplanetary Band(tm), and they collaborate with file transfers and arcane digital voodoo. The band has currently just completed contributing to the musical score of a UK channel 4 documentary film called 3's a Crowd, due out this fall, and the band is also working on its soon to be released CD, Resurrection.
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
While Des has been composing for many years and has a lot of his previous work showcased on the internet, the duo of Lazerous Syndrome was formed in August of 2001 through a chat conversation. Des found Ash in the "Books and Literature" chatroom on Yahoo and discovered that she was a poet. He asked her to write lyrics for Requiem of an Ancient Sun, and then discovered that she could sing as well. Hence, she has sung on many of the musical projects produced. They bring their sound together by file transfers. Des sends her audio files and she composes lyrics and then records her singing and sends the raw vocals back to Des so that he can mix them into the music. It's been a very successful venture resulting in their being hired to score a documentary, and many other exciting opportunities will soon come about.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
As of yet we do not play live as our situation prohibits it (Des is in England, Ash is in America). We hope to play live at some point.
Your musical influences
Dead can Dance
The The
L Cohen
Chicane
Faithless
King Crimson
MOzart
The Art of Noise
We've been told we sound a bit like Chicane.
What equipment do you use?
Recording Hardware and Sordtware
Roland digital multitrack
1.0 GH Athlon with 0.5 gig memory running Cubase, Orion ( SOnic SYndicate) and various DSP processors and Soft Synths/Samplers
Steinberg Mastering and wav edit software
Sounddblaster Live ! with outboard I/O box
Spirt 16:2 mixer Alesis 16 : 4 : 2 mixer
Antares Auto tune
Steinberg Recycle
Giga sampler
Mellotron
Lexicon digital reverb
Roland compressors
Philips Cdr
TAscam Dat
Sony minidisk
Mics
Rode NT1
Shure SM57
Vintage PZM
HArdware Intruments
Proteus 200
Korg M1
Novation Super NOva
Rmx1
SU 200 Sampler
Akai 2000 SAmpler
Ancient flaky Cheetah sampler
TR 707 Drum Machine
Fender Telecaster
Ovation Aucostic
