Jay Tholen - New Active Object (2024) - Full Album // Digital Fusion // Prog // Jazz Fusion

The full album is on streaming and a digital download or CD version with a 12-page booklet is available on Bandcamp at https://jtholen.bandcamp.com/album/ne...

00:00 - New Active Object
02:31 - The Games Factory
06:13 - Aquatic Body Exchange
10:55 - Fifty-Odd Secrets of the Fastloop
14:33 - Onus Home Edition
17:20 - MONKS
19:07 - Alterable Value, Parts A-E
36:03 - Eluriel Prepared a Place...

New Active Object is a jazz-infused concept album crafted using unwieldy, low fidelity, often silly samples from the sound effect libraries of 1990s game-making software Klik & Play and The Games Factory. BOUNCE01.WAV, POP.WAV, CRASH1.WAV, THUNDER2.WAV, AIRBUGGY.WAV and ANAPHASE.WAV to name a handful.

Particularly charming sounds were used sans-manipulation (some posh guy sarcastically quipping "oh excellent"), while most others were prodded and cut-up and messed-with until they became something compositionally useful. Sometimes even pleasant. Nearly every sound contributes its own low bitrate hiss, lining New Active Object's music bed with an airy effervescence.

Guitar (Talha Kaya, David Brimer), Saxophone (Jake Xie, Juanig), Clarinet (Josh Plotner), and Flute (also Plotner) sections add to the vaporous atmosphere. John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud) lends bouncing backing vocals, trombone, and glockenspiel to two tracks. Christine Tholen (hi sis!) rounds out the features with her own beautiful vocal harmonies.

New Active Object is broadly about creativity, the limitations of software, and the limitations of the Earthly realm. The lyrics are from the perspective of a game object and its young aspiring maker. Occasionally said maker's Maker chimes in.

Art by Jay Tholen except song/album titles which were by Jack Grimes.
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Just mentioning Hypnospace Outlaw down here because people who enjoyed my work on that will likely enjoy this.