Although I work by day as a graphic
designer, art and music have always been a passion. I started
experimenting in the GarageBand software on my Mac in February
2006. I had previously dabbled in music making back in 1997,
when I made the original Light
Dreams album. It was pretty
raw and basic, using stolen samples, nothing I could really
call my own – but that's when I found out I enjoyed the
musical creative process.
Fast forward to 2001, the year John Foxx released a
fantastic album called The
Pleasures of Electricity. Something
about that album was so incredibly inspiring, and I thought to
myself "I have to make my own music like this!!" So,
a visit to Sound Control in Sheffield was in order (which
coincidentally, is just feet away from the Human League's
private studio, and conveniently across the road from my
office). But back then, the cost of the software and hardware
exceeded my budget, and for a project that had potential to be
a failure, it wasn't worth the financial risk. Now, I know it
perhaps would have been, but at the same time, in the few years
that elapsed, technology improved, and GarageBand allowed me to
do exactly what I wanted.
So for me, making music is a bit like
doing graphic design, but with sounds rather than images. I'm a
very visual person. Always lots of images and moods in my head,
which I try to project into the music.
I have been asked why my music is
instrumental. There are two possible answers here... firstly
I'm not a lyricist (and I'm not sure I would like to sing
anywhere but my within own company!), but foremost, I like
interesting, instrumental music – and good, electronic
instrumental music often gets overlooked. My earliest musical
memories are of instrumental albums, such as Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, and
most significantly, Oxygéne by Jean Michel Jarre – my all-time favourite album, and
an innovative masterpiece that still has a profound effect on
me to this day.
These two albums provided vast soundscapes
that transported the listener into another world. In this
dreamscape, the music shapes your surroundings, and the only
boundries of this journey are the confines of your imagination.
Music for daydreaming. That feeling is what I aim to create
through The Light Dreams.
What are “light dreams”? I
remember as a young child – usually when I had a bad cold
or something – having recurring dreams of blinding white
light, accompanied by a high pitched sound. I guess the only
way to describe those dreams, was “light dreams”. I
don’t have them any more, but over the last decade or so,
I have had so many fascinating and vivid dreams, and it
is a subject that has always fascinated me, hence being a
recurring theme and inspiration behind my music.
Alex Storer, January 2008
Photograph by Alexa Dubreuil-Storer