BASTIAN VOID - POLYSHADES
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‘Polyshades’ is the 12th album from Joe Bastardo’s Bastian Void moniker and his first on vinyl; culminating many years of deep interest in MS-DOS soundtracks, vintage electronica, and new age ‘Environmental Music’ of the 80s and 90s.
With a sound palette comprised of period-specific multitimbral polysynths combined with an assortment of vintage software, ‘Polyshades’ flows from delicate washes of generative ambience to tracker-made breakbeats, making it Bastian Void’s most detailed and complex music but also his most approachable and lush.
Informed by his day job as designer, the compositions express a visual theme, as each track title corresponds to a shade (illustrated on the rear cover track listing with details from the cover image). The music focuses on texture and mood to create inward reflecting experiences that leverage the limitless reality created by digital media tools. In part a nostalgic love letter, “Polyshades” holds onto the optimism of that early digital era, inviting the listener into a synesthetic plane and rewarding them with detail in every sound.
Bastian Void interview with Foxy Digitalis
Written & Produced by Joseph Bastardo
At Winter Hill Digital. Worcester, MA. 2022-2025
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY
Art & Design by Joseph Bastardo
B2 Created using Music Mouse by Laurie Spiegel
INSTRUMENTS Used: Polyend Tracker, Korg Mono/poly, Roland: JV-880, JV-1080, JV-2080, JUNO-60, MKS-20, Mt-32, SH-101, Apple Macintosh SE, Eurorack Modular System, Expressive E Osmose, Hologram Microcosm, Alesis Quadraverb, Yamaha SPX1000
released August 14, 2025
