illinoiseonline.com

Suess and Addie over at The Unharshed Mellow have been playing songs from “The Way of Silence” with some regularity. I Can’t thank them enough for the exposure, and the positive opinions, and the stimulating music. Radio is good, but podcasts are a great source for listening to new music; especially because when you find a host who has a vein you share an appreciation for, you can latch on and find a plethora of artists to check out. I urge you to look around and find some.

• One Day, One Year | Show #61: Juicy Toe
• Sketch | Show #57: Brand Name Babies
• Sick Day | Show #55: Kilroy does the pig pose

Reviews

The Way of Silence may seem contradictory as a title by a band called Illinoise, but here it’s apropos. The album’s “music” glides along in almost subliminal fashion. It’s the perfect album to listen to at 4 am, gazing at stars or city lights, coming down from whatever one needs to come down from.The tracks, at times, have a new-age soundscape quality about them. And taken as a whole also suggest thematic tones, like those customary to film soundtracks. Those interested in alternative and experimental music that tinkers with their serotonin levels are apt to enjoy Illinoise.Favorite Track: Track 9, “Invocation” - by Roland Goity, (OnlineRock.com)

…It has a soundtrack-ish quality. The first track made me think of Robin Guthrie’s album ‘imperial’… there’s even a slight John Zorn ‘filmworks’ feel too. -Gregory Paul, Rochester NY

The album sounds great! I like “Sick Day” and “Dark Winter Trees”. I can tell you put a lot of work into this album. The intervals used in many of the tracks create a subtle uneasiness. The tones are very clean and tasteful. I can certainly relate to the feel of the tracks. I love what you’ve created… I really think it’s a quality recording. Please send me a CD when you get a chance. -Chuck Levy, Charlotte NC

The Story

Hailing from small town western New York and currently residing in Rochester, Kevin Trout has been writing and recording music since the early ninties. “I view this record as a mile-marker of this time in my life. Life requires personal evolutions, and sometimes you don’t realize how far you’ve come unless you have a way to look back and remember.” Always writing songs, always forming bands or casually writing with friends, when Kevin was bored he would pick up the guitar. He says part of listening to music is discussing it, looking at its musical and social context, and treating it as an important part of our biology. “Music is a denominator of cultures, and we will never escape our need of it.”"This record is full of music that took shape very organically over lengthy periods of time. That’s why I believe in it’s ability to represent my frame of mind at the time. Part of my writing process is consideration of whether on not the music feels right to me. Does it make sense to my intuition? The sub-conscious answer tells me if I am done or not. In my music, as in my life, I am often guided by feeling rather than logic.”In architecture school he was always arguing with himself about his music, “I was learning to make design decisions in class using logic and ethics. After class, I would use the same process in making music. I totally crashed and burned that way…it didn’t work for me (nor does it work for design). When I let that go and followed intuition, I was much happier.” So far this process has worked well and resulted in The Way Of Silence.”Using a pseudonym on the record was motivated by a desire not to lock my name in with the language of the recording. I believe that in life, our identities are always subtly in flux, and over time what my name means now won’t be what it means later. When I look back on my life, my name will represent the accumulation of everything I am, but through this record, Illinoise can always safely score this chapter of it.”

The Record

The album was recorded and mixed on a G4 imac, using cubasis on OS 9.2, with some early stuff being done on an old fostex 8 track. The two final songs on the cd were recorded live with a Line6 DL4 loop sampler. Softsynths used include Crystal, FreeAlpha, and Sampletank, and were controlled with a Midiman Oxygen 8 keystation. TC Spark le was used for the mastering, and M-Audio’s Audiosport Quattro was used as an I/O. Kevin primary played his Ibazez artstar and Fender jazz bass. with Digitech GS30 and RP2000 for effects. A Behringer mixer was used for pre-disk mixing, mic preamps, and field recordings. Production of the cd’s was done by Disk Faktory, and the artwork was created with Photoshop from pictures taken by Kevin.