Ryan Ehresman is a synth obsessed writer and producer, who’s based in San Francisco. Late last year he released an EP title ‘4:44 Play’. His EP was created using a couple of modular setups he built himself, alongside a Korg MS-20.
My intention at the time of making them was to enable the songs to go wherever they wanted to go, rather than trying to control everything. This means I guided the improvisations in a somewhat subconscious way, which I believe is the reason they resonate so strongly. You could call it an indirect method of improvisation, letting things work rather than forcing them to be a certain way you want them to be. But I disagree, and find letting go after years of practice to be the most direct line to a stream-of-consciousness. Good improvisation is based on rules and control, but great improvisation is just focused intuition. Everything sounds really good despite me releasing control because I was a huge zero-compromises control freak in the preliminary stages of building the instruments, selecting modules and components and patching based on years of obsession. And the MS-20 is a godly instrument.
If you like synthesisers (and why would you be here if you didn’t!) I’d highly recommend you visit Ryans YouTube channel, which has lot’s of music, features and tutorials based around classic, new and modular synthesisers. In the meantime, checkout 4:44 Play…
