Amon Tobin’s Spectral Morphing Continuum

Amon Tobin began his Ninja Tune voyage very much driven by a sampling engine; his first few albums were a delight of sound swangling and audio repurposing. However, in recent times he turned his hand to sound design from scratch – particularly with his previous album Foley Room, and now the recently released ISAM…

I Think Therefore ISAM

There are as many ways to make music as there are musicians, but it’s always interesting to gain an insight into how particularly talented soundmongers produce their material. Amon Tobin has just released ISAM, an ample serving of ambient soundscapes and wailing glitches, which he coaxes to life using the Haken Continuum Fingerboard – an instrument that is sort of a cross between a keyboard and a ribbon controller.

ISAM And The Web

Making good use of the Internet to promote his work, you can listen to the entire album on Soundcloud – complete with annotations by the artist himself. If you are so moved, you can then purchase the album in a variety of formats to suit any budget – from luxury twin vinyl with Artbook CD, digital download and T-Shirt, to the basic mp3 download.

‘ISAM’ – Full album with track-by-track commentary from Amon Tobin by Amon Tobin

One of the primary sound design tricks used on ISAM is spectral morphing, and you can observe its effects as he manipulates his recordings using the Continuum here: