Exclusive album premiere of ‘Procession’ by Mark Harris / JOHN 3:16, out March 3rd, 2023 via Alrealon Musique.

Mark Harris is an artist / musician / programer working in the west midlands. His work has a strong interest in systems and generative processes in art and music – “I have developed a number of software applications which allow me to work with these processes in a live performance environment. I usually work from heavily processed samples of live instruments and field recordings. Although there is a strong systems based element in his work, he tends to work through a process of improvisation with the samples in real time to generate the work. “I aim to create immersive work which gradually develops over time and creates a sense of space and place,and generates a strong emotional response in the listener.”

JOHN 3:16 is Philippe Gerber, whose Heat From A DeadStar existed between 2004–09 and worked with Rick Harte/Ace Of Hearts Records in Boston. As JOHN 3:16, Gerber has released numerous works via Alrealon Musique, Flood Records, 75orLess, White Label Music, Venus Aeon, Classwar Karaoke, and more. He has collaborated with artists such as Pas Musique, TheUse, Rasplyn, Anthony Donovan, and Mark Harris.

“When Philippe Gerber and I started work on the material that would become the album ‘Procession’ was in the fall of 2017 after the release of ‘Victory over the Sun’ the year before. The only ground rule we set was we both felt ‘Victory’ felt like a collaboration between two very different artists (which of course is exactly what it was!) we wanted the next album to feel more like a single unit or band / as on ‘Victory’ we felt you could still hear my contribution and Philippe’s as individual elements… Me and Philippe both work on either side of the Atlantic Ocean so all materials were shared online between us – we would send each other samples / live improvisations / multitrack “final” pieces which we would then individually proceed to rip apart, for example a bass part from one piece would be removed time stretched and used as the basis for a live improvisation, which Philippe would do a series of live improvised reactions to – which I would re EQ and processes using granular synthesis software – and use on another unrelated track – the resulting track would be mixed and sent back to the other and the process would be repeated…

Often Philippe would record live improvised guitar parts to tracks which were so on the money I would dump everything I had done and start building a track around Philippe’s guitar part… And gradually with each track having 20 – 30 versions a finished piece would emerge – on each track I spent a considerable amount of time re-EQ’ing elements and combined with Philippe superb mastering has kept a crunchy live feel to the album.

I made extensive use of field recordings of sacred spaces (such as churches, mosques, forests in the middle of the night, caves etc) which were mixed into the pieces to open up the stereo image – which enhanced the epic feel of the recordings… We both felt the album brings to mind strange occult rituals by unnamed dark Lovecraft-like religious cults hence the title ‘Procession’.” Mark Harris