Craig Padilla Releases DISCOVERY OF MEANING

Craig Padilla is an internationally celebrated and award-winning electronic music artist. After more than two decades of performing live and recording his own music using many vintage analog and newer digital synthesizers, his style reflects the classic electronic musicians of the past, while finding new sound and music styles that are unique to the true ambient electronic music genre (often found in categories from New Age to Trance to Electronica). His music and creative environment is inspired and influenced by the lands surrounding Coeur d'Alene, Idaho where he once resided, and by his earliest influences of being raised in far-northern California where he resides again, where he first explored the works of Wendy Carlos, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Steve Roach, and many other pioneers of the electronic form.

In his own words, speaking of his newest album on Spotted Peccary Music, "Discovery of Meaning is about the concept of experiencing life in the present moment and beyond: The birth, the now, the future, and everything in the Universe is affected by the meaning of its own existence. It's a continuous discovery that we humans learn by living life through our own space/time continuum. Throughout our childhood and our adulthood, we are constantly learning the meaning of new things, the meaning of relationships, the discovery of health, the meaning of intuition, and realizing the pros and cons of surrounding ourselves with positive (and negative) energy. To be a child, to be a parent, and to be a child again. Time and space, stars, planets, cells, atoms, souls, everything has a meaning of its reason for being here. We are connected beyond ourselves. We are one with Time and Space. And that's a concept we learn once we experience the Discovery of Meaning."

Never letting technology overcome the humanity in his compositions, he creates electronic music that is rooted in tradition while still sounding new, interesting, and fresh. Craig has always endeavored to paint musical landscapes with a rich palette of infinite timbral complexity, guaranteeing to take the audience to a different place on each listen, making every disc a recording that is a highly sculpted, crafted musical experience to be treasured and played indefinitely. He has composed soundtracks for various television, theatrical, and film productions. His music is heard on XM Satellite Radio and radio stations throughout the US, and on celebrated radio programs "Echoes" and "Hearts of Space" repeatedly.

Padilla first began Discovery of Meaning in Oregon while working at a modular synthesizer shop and learning more about modular techniques-but completed it at his home in California in the middle of the 2020 lockdown. A personal and contemplative record, Discovery of Meaning paints in sounds from across Padilla's career. He draws from modular synth explorations in Oregon, serene naturescapes at his Cottonwood, California home and the hovering anxieties of 2020. This study in Oregon informed his compositions: the MST/Division 6 Modular Synth and Mattson Mini Modular Synth are featured on almost every track, sometimes as a rhythmic anchor and sometimes as a hypnotic melody. On opener "Perception Stream," a modular bassline swings like a stellar orbit around a trance-like beat. Their interplay is subtle but cyclical, rapturous. Penultimate track "Cottonwood" features natural samples from Padilla's backyard; sounds of wind and wind chimes, forests and frogs simmer under cosmic pulses and gentle modular striations.
In mid 2020, Star's End Radio Host and fellow electronic artist Chuck Van Zyl commissioned Padilla for a song about what artists were doing to stay sane and healthy during quarantine. This song, "Continuum," features spoken word elements about time (in German: zeit) featuring a German foreign exchange student Paula, who was studying music with Padilla's daughters, Harmonee and Melodee, recorded just prior to Paula's return flight to Germany. The track also features wordless vocals from Harmonee and Melodee, which entwine over a cinematic swell, adding organic warmth to a cold, electronic landscape punctuated by a propulsive modular loop that gallops through oscillations of texture and voice. These elements rise and recede around each other like crashing waves-at once intimate and unfathomably vast. Van Zyl called "Continuum": "something rare... a new sound, a new atmosphere," adding, "I almost do not know how to absorb this new music, as it reaches to such a personal space."

The track "Cottonwood" was inspired by sounds recorded on a handheld digital recorder, "You can hear a breeze moving some wooden windchimes, and some birds in the trees," says Padilla. "In the evening, I went into the front yard to record the sounds of frogs and crickets. I loved the way the recordings sounded, and I got inspired to make a piece of music with them. I added some organic electronic textures and sequences..." and the overall vibe of the music was also inspired by the meditation sessions that he was experiencing while visiting in Portland with Howard Givens.

Intimacy is the essence of Discovery of Meaning: the intimacy of solitude, the intimacy of family and the intimacy of a single moment. In this work Padilla faces isolation and finds connection in spite of it: connection to the sylvan wonder of his home environ, connection to the artists who inspired him and connection to his daughters, his family, his friends. Discovery of Meaning is an exploration of the immediate moment-and a celebration of the connections no distance can break.

Mastered by Howard Givens, Discovery of Meaning is available for physical purchase in CD format and in 24-BIT AUDIOPHILE, CD QUALITY LOSSLESS, MP3 and streaming formats. The CD version of Discovery of Meaning arrives in a factory sealed 6-panel gatefold package that includes vibrant artwork, liner notes, a 4-page booklet, and artful package design by Daniel Pipitone.

Tracklist:
01 Perception Stream
02 Discovery of Meaning
03 Continuum, Part 1
04 Continuum, Part 2
05 Adrift in Memory
06 Cottonwood
07 Festive Awakening

Links:
Spotted Peccary Album Page: https://spottedpeccary.com/shop/discovery-of-meaning/
CD unboxing video: https://youtu.be/_YQDbhpjpAw
Bandcamp: https://ambientelectronic.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spottedpeccary/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/spottedpeccary

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