Really-From: Francisco Salgado Cerredelo 


( taken from E&MM, Jan, 1982)

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EDGAR:It's the last record of a decade for TD. Whatever we release will 
not be that sort of TD anymore. It will be a total change, and it has 
nothing to do with our not using sequencers in the way we do. We simply 
want to risk a bit more in life. Most successful bands these days buy 
big houses and so on- rather than risk experimenting further afield with 
their music, but I think once in your life it's worth taking that 
chance.

(jurnalist: we discussed the six pieces of Exit in turn and Edgar and 
Chris diversified around the music make-up)

KIEV MISSION

EDGAR: The basis of this piece came from improvising for some 1 1/2 
hours and out of this we took about five minutes of music. The opening 
collage of sounds with the gong was added later. The "frequency 
modulated" gong is actually made on our synclavier (which we keep in the 
studios at present), and the pink noise output is controlled by one of 
the digital sequencers. Our instruments in performance for any of the 
pieces are not necesarily the ones we used for the LP. On stage we now 
use the PPG2 and the minimoog pink noise.

(Journalist)The drum rythm is the same for every bar of the piece- often 
the case on the othertracks as well- but without consciously analysing 
the drums alone it's certainly not evident in the music and has none of 
the monotonous feel that home organ rythm units can produce.

CHRIS: Our drum part does not play the same role as in the rock band - 
it merely supports the music at the appropriate places. We have a number 
of 'clock' oscillators that give the drums ' pre-programmed' tempo. We 
also set up tempos for the triggers that control the sequencers with 
pre-programmed oscillators linked to digital counters.
Oce the sequencers are running, the melodic parts and the sound effects 
for the pieces are interchanged amongst the three of us. Since all 
instruments can become the bass or monophonic melody and most can be 
polyphonic, there is plenty of scope for experiment. On stage, each 
person would know the part he had to play in the piece, and this is 
where the pre-difined structuring is important to create the required 
balance, but within that framework there is freedom to imnprovise and 
experiment.

EDGAR: The words in this piece are russian- we have many friends in 
Russia and it's a sort of message for the peace movement, against 
Nuclear Power. The words are spoken by an actress from Berlin.

(Journalist)The sonorous synthesizer bell effects come from a PPG2 and 
the make-up of the piece highlights another extemely important aspect of 
TD music: The sequence ends before you become tired of it (consider the 
number of experimental electronic music recordings you've heard that 
seem to say it all in a few moments, yet plough on for the whole side)
EDGAR: Don't forget one thing, working it out on record is totally 
different to doing the live concert. All the adjustements we have to do 
in the live concert make it much more complicated and even if you want 
to press a particular knob it's so easy to miss it in a certain bar or 
press another , so that the piece then develops in a slightly different 
way.

CHRIS: When we record a piece it is some time before we are able to put 
it on stage. Some parts can be very difficult to set up in real time.
EDGAR: In the studio, I have an editing facility that shows me the notes 
I play as I'm improvising. Afterwards, if we find something interesting, 
all the notes are there for us to play. We don't follow the old 
fashioned way of writing down everything exactly. We momorise our parts 
for the keyboards and my guitar in performance and that, of course, 
implies knowing the control settings required as well as the notes. If 
any writing is done it's in the alphanumerical code.

(Journalist) Comming back to our first piece, the interesting string 
unison that arrives in the middle comes from Prophet. But once again, 
actual instruments are not too important- it's the character of the 
sound that is interesting. The track is dominated by the sound of 
digital PPG waveform shaping, which was a new sound for the goup at the 
time. The 64-waveform scan can make a tremendously rich harmonic sound 
with no lack of high frequencies that is iften noticeable in analogue 
LPF systems . (...)
The piece ends with a reference to the opening theme and fades aeay to 
end.
EDGAR: We had to do this on the record because of the time factor and we 
preferred to fade out rather than add a poor ending point. it was a 
compromise, and we don't like to do it.

PILOTS OF PURPLE 	TWILIGHT

 (Journalist) This uses just one sequence running trhough the piece. The 
way the music begins half way trhrough the bar gives a fascinating start 
to the rythms and it takes a while to orientale yourself to what is 
happening. The OB-X is the sound maker except for the 'bleep' melody 
line later, produced on the wave 2. 

EDGAR: A lot of the melodic lines we compose are more easily played 
directly on the keyboard. Other complex sounds lend themselves to 
sequencer treatment, but if you want to add accents it is better done 
manually in performance. The best thing  about the sequencer is that 
frees you from the notes to concentrate on tonal adjustments.

CHOROZON

(Journalist) The noise effect comes from the mini-moog. Edgar pointed 
out that a lot of the effects TD do are much simpler than you imagine !. 
Chris could not recall the notes of the sequence as this was programmed 
some time ago and so I have made an aproximation that fits in suitably 
on the printed music. The elctronic drum start is unusual for TD and 
reminded me of a recent Ultravox concert where nearly all pieces started 
this way.
The polyphonic glide is done on the Oberheim and main theme is played on 
the mini.moog using two oscillators. We agreed that syntesyzer sounds 
never need be static- they can always be changin and this makes 
electronic music much more acceptable in the long term.

EXIT

(Journalist) This is a smoothly performed piece with floating quality 
that is pushed gently along by the repeated two bar two-note sequence 
and 'spiked' bass sound. There is a tap reversal effect at the start 
which is a cymbal backwards and Edgar calls the filter sweep 'splashes'. 
Once again a very strong theme is played on the PPG which appears four 
times . The syncopation is very precise and gives the subtle move away 
from the beat that is a feature of TD music. It is derived from Chris's 
and Edgar's liking for modern jazz. The fast-running notes up and down 
in the next stage of the piece are made on the PPG Sequencer with a 
random reset point selected by Edgar during recording to give free 
feeling. As the music moves on, rear thunder sounds are treated with 
flanging and phasing.
EDGAR: We love to use natural element against our electronic sounds and 
as a result we don't actually perform this piece on stage. Some effects 
such as this do restrict us from playing several pieces live, although , 
for example, we now do the reversed cymbal effect on the mini-moog.
CHRIS:  In our performances we don't play too many pieces- our program 
is in two parts, lasting around 45 minutes each (plus the planned 
encores !)

(Journalist)The piece ends with treated rein washing away the music.

NETWORK 23

(Journalist) Treated sampled sounds reveal a steady tempo with ringing 
filtered notes and passing 'seagull' effect. Once again the filtered 
single sequence dominates, until a split channel (left and right) three 
note motive overtakes, with interesting interjections from flute-like 
and other echoing sounds. Panned 'seagull' flies past, with chord 
anticipating the beat and 'voice' PPG sound crying out. Finally, the 
Bass Drum is noticeable as the music fades away.

REMOTE VIEWING 

(Journalist) Here's a different sound altogether with athereal blends of 
strings, voice images and ad lib beats. A more  ominous mix of sound 
brings metallic PPG notes and continuous fades of other layers that 
eventually become a single flute. Behind the flute hangs three repeated 
sequences and an octave bass quaver group. As the flute wistles a 
meandering melody with vibrato, maraca shake semiquavers gently. The 
volume gradually increases as other PPG sound improvise over the rithmic 
sequences and the bass changes imperceptibly. Back comes the flute to 
close.
 
(journalist: Mike Beecher)