* 2021 Stock * Recorded and completed at the end of 2008 and on into the first months of 2009, ´The Simple Plan´ offers a change in focus from previous collaborations between these two artists. Comprising five tracks, ´The Simple Plan´ is purely instrumental, recorded in real-time and subjected to only minimal digital processing. Before recording began, the decision was made to create a simpler, more organic piece of work, using computers only sparingly to record the tracks and help with arrangements. There was to be no extended manipulation of sounds, so what you hear, is basically what was played together with no overdubbing and captured live in the studio as both artists alternated between playing vintage synthesizers (the active use of synthesizers being a first for Paul Bradley) and guitars whilst being aided by a selection of new and classic effects pedals. Although not completely analogue in realisation, it was analogue in its intent. All at once harmonious and dissonant, melodic and atonal, calming and animated, these juxtapositions marked the beginning of significant new chapters in the personal lives of both artists and this influenced the work to an almost undeniable degree and is something that subsequently underpins the fundamental nature and feel of ´The Simple Plan´. There is somehow an abstract sense of desire and resolve that although never initially intended as a concept, naturally informed the final recordings.
