Chrysalid: Musicians for Katrina Relief CD is a project organized by coalition of international musicians using their art to raise funds in support of the victims of hurricane Katrina.
Frederick, Maryland, USA
Emdot has been producing electronic music since the late 1970's, performing, composing and recording in a variety of styles from synth pop, ambient and electronica to abstract soundworld compositions, New Age and electronic dance music. The artists he most admires are those who specialize in electronic instruments or innovative compositional techniques, such as Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Jean Michel Jarre, Morton Subotnick, Brian Eno, The Residents, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, David Borden and Autechre, to name but a few.
Emdot rarely begins a song with any preconceived musical or contextual concept; rather, he lets the sound elements themselves dictate the musical structure. His process, then is one of free association, the flow of ideas and motifs coming as intuitive reactions to, and inward reflections upon, the sounds, musical themes and emotional content developing in the work.
"Epsilon In New Orleans Pale" began as an attempt to recreate the instrumentation and sound processing found in Edgar Froese's 1975 song "Epsilon In Malaysian Pale." The song itself is completely original, it was the sound world of the older piece that Emdot was striving to emulate. The song was nearly finished when hurricane Katrina passed through the Gulf States and Emdot felt the mood of this piece – its bitter sweetness, its sense of longing for what is lost and the hope for what is yet to come--made it a perfect match for the Chrysalid CD.