Origin ST: Dark Nights… Bright Days?
On the eve of COP27, the climate summit held this year at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, Moths and Giraffes are proud to premiere the new music video from Origin ST on the Ambientologist record label. ‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ is a piece inspired by climate change and our progress combatting it, demonstrated by its footage taken from the COP25 marches.
The multi-instrumentalist Origin ST is a producer whose home studio surrounds them in modular synthesizers, pedals and a multitude of blinking lights. Their previous work includes the ten-track album ‘Apollo’, released in early 2020, with the double A-side ‘Memories / Everlasting’ donating all proceeds to LIBRA in October that same year. Origin ST began 2021 with the single ‘Surfacing’, and later released a collection of one-minute tracks adding up to ‘19 Minutes’ that summer.
‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ is the latest album from Origin ST, released back in June on the Ambientologist label. The recording of the album’s ten tracks were largely created in real time, as seen in Origin ST’s video of ‘New Beginnings’, showing how they layered the piece’s ambient textures. As for the album’s theme and inspiration, Ambientologist explains more:
“'Dark Nights are Setting In' is an album inspired by our current place in time within the legacy of climate change. A sense of social futility married with hope in new technologies - our setbacks and our successes. As we approach the 27th UN Climate Change conference, the most important question is 'are we doing enough?'”
‘Destroy capitalism, not the planet.’ – Dark Nights are Setting In (7 seconds)
The thread of this record and its title track stem from Origin ST’s professional line of work in the renewable energy sector, and their despair at the lack of progress made in the industry since the 1960’s.
Amongst rack effects and processors, Origin ST builds up their ambient textures using a Novation Summit synthesizer beneath a Roland RP800 Rhodes. This pool of sounds in ‘Dark Nights’ is split between the early unnerving static, like a troubling transmission being received, and the lighter, more optimistic tone of the Rhodes. The title track encompasses the mood of the album well, showing how Origin ST is at odds with our current progress, but hints at their cautious optimism at the hands of the people.
A selection of Origin ST’s studio equipment.
‘The seas are rising up, and so are we.’ – Dark Nights are Setting In (4 minutes and 3 seconds)
The video, edited by Ambientologist uses footage supplied by Videvo of the COP25 protests in London and Glasgow. The content speaks for itself, conveying the thoughts of the masses through the signs and banners they display. With the images beginning in black and white, it’s Ambientologist’s sparing use of colour that really puts Origin ST’s thoughts into visual representation.
A placard reading ‘HOPE NEEDS ACTION’ (1m 44s) in mundane grey swims into brilliant colour, before being muted once more in an instant. Similar images of a megaphone (2m 51s) and a flag drawn by a primary school reading ‘Love Our Planet’ are snuffed out (3m 47s).
This video is a glaring reminder that hope rests with the masses, the people who are most affected and worried by climate change, who can all but urge our nation’s leaders to unite in the face of humanity’s greatest challenge yet. Protest can take many forms, and ‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ is a form of protest. It speaks not only for the people pictured within it, but the many millions of people whose futures are at stake, who could become climate refugees, and the ones who have simply had enough of false promises and indecision.
On the subject of hope, Origin ST leaves us with a final thought about the album and their personal hopes for the future:
“‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ follows my emotional journey considering climate change and the challenges ahead to fix the environmental damage done to date. While the album ends with a sense of hope, the world events of the last nine months have definitely challenged that hope, but it has also demonstrated the need for transitioning to renewable energy and green technologies as soon as possible.”
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Purchase Origin ST’s album ‘Dark Nights are Setting In’ on cassette and download via the Ambientologist Bandcamp page.
Explore the previous works of Origin ST on their own Bandcamp page here.
To read more about COP27, visit their official website.
Follow Ambientologist on Facebook @AmbientologistYT, on Instagram @ambientologist_yt and on Twitter @Ambientologist_.
Follow Origin ST on Instagram @origin_st and on Facebook and Twitter @OriginSTmusic.
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