Excavations of the Mind (10th Anniversary Edition)

2020 year marks the 10th anniversary of the debut album Sky Architect, ’Excavations of the Mind’, as well as the release of a re-mixed and re-mastered edition.

This album was recorded in the studio of the conservatory of Rotterdam (which does not exist anymore – the space now holds a theatre).
As students of Music Production, Wabe, Rik and I had virtually unlimited access (which was quite a luxury in hindsight).

The recording room of the studio was really big, and while its floor was carpeted, one wall consisted for 90% of glass windows. This resulted in a peculiar mix of dead-ish acoustics and weird early reflections.
The good thing, though, was that there were these really big panels, which you could use to build smaller rooms the in the recording room.
It was a great place to experiment with microphone placement and acoustics.
Needless to say we spent a LOT of time there – it was also our rehearsal room, the place where we wrote most of our music.

We mostly composed on our own terms: we certainly did not think about genre specific conventions, who would release or buy our music, or anything like that.

While working on an album, it can be quite difficult to estimate the quality of it: you’re often too involved in the details to step back and see the big picture of what it is you’re doing.
This was even more the case with this album, since it was our debut and we didn’t have an idea of a particular ‘Sky Architect sound’. Plus, even though we had some shared music that we all liked, we were (and still are) very divergent in our musical references.

All this resulted in an curious blend of all kinds of influences and ideas – a rather eccentric album – which was received way (!) better than any of us had expected.
The overwhelmingly positive response immediately made us feel very welcome in the progressive music scene.

All in all, because of the fond memories of the creation of this album, it was a joy to go back and re-work it ten years later.
In my opinion the 2020 version gives a completely new and different perspective on this album, even more so because of the three extra bonus tracks we’ve added.