ENTER THE THUNDERGATE

The compulsion to create is the core of Steve's and Fletcher's working relationship. It’s this shared drive that brought two people with very different backgrounds together. Fletcher’s background is being a professional musician and music gear journalist, while Steve's is in visual art, craft, physical and digital design. In addition to the masks, we always have a range of projects on the go, from creating stories and fictional characters to making music with machines. The Thundergate project is a bridge to connect and merge boundaries between our worlds and creative disciplines. This portal is where real world artefacts intermingle with digitally created media and music made with machines. The gate is open for those curious about what may be beyond…

PATTERNS OF MASS

Patterns of Mass began as an audio project through which we attempted to describe landscapes and atmospheres using synthesised sounds and assembled noises, creating momentary view ports into an imagined world. The music is an audio guide for travellers, it illuminates the shadows of unfamiliar terrain. It is an expression of a scene or idea with sound generated through synthesis describing environments and atmosphere.

We released the Patterns of Mass EP on Bandcamp, which we feel is the best platform for musicians and listeners going. Unlike streaming giants that pay out virtually nothing to artists and only reward pop idols manufactured for mass-consumption, Bandcamp is an artist and fan focused platform. Higher quality audio files upon purchase and daily features of artists big and small make for a much better experience all around. You can stream or purchase and support the project here. To go further in-depth and find out what kind of machines we employed during the making of the EP, go here.

AUDIOVISUAL EXPLORATION

The accompanying art is a visual manifestation of the audio source signal in which sound sculpts form and light. Geometry responds to the soundwaves and transients of the music in a trick of code and computing as a crude imitation of a nervous system and life. Thousands of particles dance to the commands of code dictated by the music. For the full audiovisual experience, strap on some quality headphones, visit our YouTube channel and become immersed in all four videos that we created to show abstract apparitional visualisations of the atmospheres invoked by the music.

KENTON ROBOTICS AND THE PRIMARY SHELL

Inspired by our collaboration with Writer/Director extraordinaire Drew Pearce on the sci-fi-neo-noir thriller Hotel Artemis, we created a faux-robot company to market Steve’s limited-edition 3D-printed, sound-reactive mask. Kenton Robotics was in part a homage to our favourite 80s’ films, particularly Paul Verhoeven’s brilliant dystopian adverts that appear throughout his classic films Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. As Dr. Boden Huxley, Fletch had the opportunity to tap into his dodgy high school film class acting skills in a series of adverts for the Primary Shell. This was a rather funny way to present a serious bit of kit. The Primary Shell was built for performance, featuring an internal, level-adaptive mic that triggered LEDs embedded in the 3D-printed form. For the full story on Kenton Robotics and the Primary Shell, go here.

THE MACHINES BEHIND THE MUSIC

Before Fletch joined Steve on his masked adventures, he was a contributing writer for Tone Report Weekly, the world’s premier pedal publication and continues to be a professional musician today. Effects pedals and synthesizers are an exploding cottage industry and a global community thrives around these machines in much the same way as papercraft masks do – unique innovators provide the tools that creative folks all over the word make amazing art with. As users of these tools, Steve and I are going to be featuring some of our favourite gear on the @TheThundergate Facebook and Instagram pages as our sonic adventures unfold. Be sure to "like" and "follow" our socials to keep up with the latest sounds and developments. The Drums of Indel beckon...