Rob Ogden and I have been hard at work over the summer and fall, currently under the name Make-Believe Machines. Our new album, which we’ve decided to call Moral Calculus (click for cover art) is close to completion and currently clocks in at nearly 50 minutes. The album is a collection of 13 orchestral tracks, featuring a mixture of synthesized, electric and acoustic instruments, as well as vocals performed by Rob and myself. We want to put up a track for people to listen to, but we’re still in the midst of doing the last bits of mixing. Aside from that, we’ve also got three tracks to finish writing and recording on, but the good news is that it’s moving forward at a steady pace, and we’re very excited for it to come to completion. While at work on this, the Grimfeather recording has been on hold, although I’m planning to dedicate a good amount of December to plowing ahead on that album, for which we have about 50 minutes of music written, though unfinished. Unfinished is a word you’ve likely heard around here a lot. But oh! We’re so close!

Cover art from Moral Calculus.

There’s a new three-part piece of writing called Volatile up on the second page of the Writings section of Tracing the Seams. It’s got some great images! This week I’m off to Michigan to work on the score for one of the last Make-Believe Machines tracks. More on that later.