Pandemic reflections, metaphysical meanderings, and hope for a better tomorrow. This album was recorded during times of total lockdown and became a mediation/reflection on isolation, creativity, fear, and societal upheaval. Come with us for a spiritual and psychedelic journey into our unconscious and into the heart of the Coronaverse!

New affects, new potentialities, and new beginnings. This album is the fruit of our labor for the past 4 months, it was not put together in haste but rather recorded, mixed, and mastered with the utmost attention to detail taking all the time necessary to make it reach its sonic and aesthetic potential. The New Normal is our contribution to the sonic landscape of the post-pandemic world.

Please continue reading below for a detailed description/context of each track.

1. Coronaverse Symphony.

This track was created in “prime time” as a synthesis of the many vibes and information that were being transmitted through the media(s). The recent Covid-19 “event” has brought about new possibilities into the picture, there is an increase in the demand and supply of information created and distributed through the network. Are we becoming one?

Oh, we are hearing around that there is no more toilet paper in the supermarket. We are in lockdown, a new species has arrived. Soon we will become lighter like wind

Welcome to the New Normal! Feel the warmth and subtle despair that envelops you. Things are joyful as ever and also tragic and effervescent. Go outside, walk, disinfect, don’t come close to me, disinfect, come inside, don’t breathe, disinfect, repeat. The Coronaverse, the dark age of techno-capital, welcome please take your shoes off before coming in and wash your hands with soap!

Welcome to the New Normal. For you, for me, and for the entire globe. A new democracy? A new collectivity? Recession. Cleaning obsession. The New Normal is not that new. Byzantine, The Plague, Camus.

"What's natural is the microbe. All the rest — health, integrity, purity (if you like) — is a product of the human will, of a... more
lyrics
Turn off tap using paper towel

2. Virtual Futures:

Emerges from what we view as the resurgence of virtual reality spaces during the pandemic. With work shifting to Zoom and other video conference mediums virtuality has taken up a new role in our daily lives. Companies are now shifting in this direction but that also means that new forms of control will actualize themselves in the virtual space. Surveillance, performance ratings, and monitoring from employers will grow in this space as employees continue to inhabit them.

The vibe of this song could be described as dark punk techno-hip hop or somewhere in between. The punch of the drums and rhythm section are both hypnotizing and aggressive which give this track its very dark and enticing sound. A randomized synthesizer arpeggio and instances of robotic voice dictations give the song its thematic color and summons those thoughts about the dangers and possibilities of a predominantly virtual future.

3. Empty Cities:

The air is cleaner and the dizzying smog seems to have dissipated slightly. Reports of bears, wild boars, deer. Dolphins have returned to the channels of Venice. The air is cleaner than it has been for the last twenty years. The revenge of nature is upon us. There’s a mist enveloping the cities as people follow lockdown protocols and stay inside avoiding social interactions.

Wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds including your palms, rinse thoroughly, dry your hands using paper towel. Practice social distancing, wear a mask, don’t go outside. Bars, night clubs, restaurants, and retail stores all closed. Can they survive the new normal? Less cars, no traffic. Nature’s brief respite and a moment of regeneration. Fear and isolation are, however, the currency of this new world.

4. Midnight Zoom Bar:

A new normal midnight in NYC, or not, walking around face town looking at the instas... We enter a bar and are greeted by a neon silver lettered sign reading: “Midnight Zoom Bar” propped in front of the purple background of the stage. The musicians are wearing suits and helmets while the spectators sit on their screens, connected from somewhere else.
The house beverage “72 Terawatts” is enabled by a magnetic circuit that in its movement “pumps’ more of that fun juice into the spectator-screens. All of the sudden the suited musicians become rockstars and Dj’s. The stage’s background starts spinning, the weather is strange, and it feels like we had that experience in a future moment which we don’t quite remember visiting before. Memories of the past, the jazz clubs… Excited about the future!

This is in many ways one of our favorite songs we have ever made together. The song’s genesis comes after listening to Coltrane’s “Interstellar Space” for probably the 1,000th time. Being a synth and sax player I pitched to Paul a song that behaves in a similarly chaotic and atonal manner to Coltrane’s compositions but in an electric and experimental context. The idea was not one of imitation but rather of “resonance” with what we identified as a way of seeing the world that Coltrane is tapping into during the late 60’s. In many ways the work of Morton Subotnick resonated with the synthetic aesthetic while dashes of alto saxophone and techno-futuristic drumming with a flavor of Elvin Jones give the track it’s free form jazz vibe.

5. Wash your hands (Freek Jazz):

This track is a classic Commander Goznales composition and from all the songs in the record it represents the vibe of our live shows the best. ‘Wash your Hands’ is chaotic and frenetic and at times our musical style in not for everyone and you will be disappointed if you come into it expecting anything. Chaotic and polyrhythmic patterns fly around the aether in both dissonance and harmony; they share a communal center but each sound has a life of its own. Things come together, fall apart, turn to chaos, and then come together again. This is the way we perform on our live improvisations but it was also how we recorded this song by jamming every sound simultaneously. Some minimal additions and arrangements were added in post production but the song retains its improvised live essence. Here you will find elements of jazz, techno, rock, noise,free improvisation, and general psychedelia. All of these are genres that fascinate us but don’t define us.

Kathryn Last joins us on the keys and adds her beautiful piano sensibilities to the synthetic oscillations of the Moogs. Mark brings the vibes with his synth and sax playing. Paul gives us jazz and rock inspired drumming keeping things groovy, fresh, and frenetic. He is the one who keeps things in perspective but pay closer attention to his drumming and you will be hypnotized and robbed of your preconceived judgements of what a rhythm section is supposed to achieve. No, drums are not just there to accompany your melodies; in Commander Goznales every instrument and every player is a melody machine:

"There are no desiring-machines that exist outside the social machines that they form on a large scale; and no social machines without the desiring machines that inhabit them on a small scale." (Deleuze)

6. Out of the Haze:

We are leaving the haze of empty abandoned cities and chaotic hand washing protocols. This is a sort of in-between phase, call it summer 2020. As we start to become more comfortable in this new normal, we go for a relaxed stroll outside. People wearing masks, new signs on the sidewalks, folks dining outside in patios, and servers wearing masks while bringing you your food. Checkpoints at stores and different locations, thermometer guns, soft screenings, plexiglass, hand sanitizer, bleach. We got this! Zoom exhaustion, unemployment rates, fear, anti-maskers, CERB. New public park tenants, living on tents, tent life, people in the streets. Things are moving…. Time is passing... At this point change is probably necessary and inevitable. Let’s do this!

7. Crown Lotus:

The crown chakra, the 7th primary chakra. Close your eyes and experience the infinity of the lotus. In and out of the desert, the field, the quantum. This song is about the 5th dimension. Portals opening and closing, time traveling, shapeshifting. The precession of the equinoxes is indeed starting to have an effect on our embodied experience of the world.

This ‘shift’ from earth into wind is definitely getting things moving at a different pace. Time is no longer the same. The term postmodernity finds its truest expression at this moment where our notions of time and space as the guiding principles of our perception come to a halt. If this new information is coming through the crown chakra, then now is the time for developing a more intuitive approach to this new dimension - to open your third eye and explore.

For starters, it seems that we should let go of the previous tools we occupied to navigate in this UNIVERSE. Hence the word universe or even multiverse could now be more accurate when we relate to our existence as physical beings of this planet. Embodied light existing in simultaneous planes and dimensions; in here and out there!

8. Iztaccihuatl:

Our unique mantra from our heart to yours. Named after the volcano in Puebla, Mexico, we say goodbye through this sleeping woman. Will she ever wake up? Is this a new beginning? The end of patriarchy? Racism? Poverty? Inequality? Isn’t Iztaccihuatl tired of remaining silent about the turbulence that we all have to go through during these days?

This is a song for reflection, from and towards the future, it invites the listener to meditate through warm, nurturing and empowering sonic vibrations. Guided by some of our loved cosmic connections, we created this ritual with much love, hope and compassion, open for the listener to be enchanted by this type of unique sonic experience.

Hypnotic synthwork to enter the final phase of the album momentarily takes a hold of us to reflect and integrate the eventfully dense experience of the previous tracks. This song is an odyssey and will cleanse and refresh your mind and palate in relation to the new reality. Listen to Iztaccihuatl when you are feeling tired and exhausted from having to avoid social interactions, reading the news, and from all the social and racial injustice taking place during a pandemic.

These social changes are both awkward for some but necessary for all, we can no longer live in a world where the color of your skin and the way you look determine what your life will be. The volcano has finally erupted and there will be change and rebirth even if it means that lava will burn down and destroy the foundations of what we once knew as reality. Thank you for taking part in The New Normal don’t forget to wash your hands.