Yukon musician and producer Matthew Lien has released ‘Full Circle’, his 25th album and most ambitious project to date. Curated from forty years of songwriting, the album features Lien’s signature blend of acoustic styles from folk to pop wrapped in lush environmental soundscapes.
The hallmark of this release is a breakthrough immersive format Lien developed specifically for earphone listening, which earned the 2021 Yukon University Innovation Prize. This production technique moves beyond traditional stereo fields to a binaural format that serves as a periscope for the ears.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3FkPXJEvImF78SgATfnUyY?si=TOAfOTuiS9K-Jt3rOBor9Q&nd=1&dlsi=97cbeb1c2a6a4127
A central piece of this immersive journey is the new single and music video for “I’m Gonna Pray”, a track composed by longtime friends Paul Gatien and Leah DeForrest. The song serves as a profound tribute to Lien’s close friend and bassist, Paul Scott Stephens, who participated in the recording after receiving a terminal diagnosis. This international undertaking involved eighteen of Stephens’ closest musical friends recording in six different studios across the Yukon, British Columbia, and California, providing a final opportunity for them to join him in music. The project filled the bassist’s final months with friendship and music, and the day after the final mixing session, Stephens returned home to Canada where he passed away shortly after.
The production of ‘Full Circle’ relies on the Neumann KU-100 binaural microphone, a specialized mannequin head used to capture a digital fingerprint of physical spaces. To solve the challenge of preserving immersion in a studio setting, Lien utilized convolution reverb by capturing binaural directional impulse responses in twenty-two historically significant locations across North America, Europe, and Asia. These digital acoustic fingerprints, taken in spaces like the Marble Hall of the St. Florian Basilica and St. Martin’s Church, allow the recordings to impart the specific spatial and cultural qualities of those environments onto the instruments. This process of acoustic archaeology ensures that every instrument occupies a unique sense of space without the immersive quality collapsing.
The album was mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Michael Romanowski, who elevated the immersive qualities of the recordings captured by Lien and his team. In total, the project involved fifty-two musicians, eight engineers, and four foley artists recording in eighteen locations across six countries. Lien notes that with the proliferation of smartphones and earphones, the timing is perfect for a format that offers this level of depth and realism. ‘Full Circle’ is now streaming on all major platforms, and listeners are encouraged to use earphones to experience the full immersive effect of the 22 acoustic spaces woven into the music.
https://www.instagram.com/matthew_lien_music
https://www.facebook.com/MatthewLienMusic