Hainbach - Landfill Totems

Made in collaboration with Berlin-based composer, producer, and pioneer in experimental electronics, Hainbach, these one-of-a-kind, complex sounds have been expertly created from vintage test equipment collected from nuclear research labs and scrap heaps — given a new lease of life and transformed into instruments by the artist.

Developed further and presented in our award-winning plug-in, discover eerie morse code bleeps, comms signals and flickering bass pulses; deep drones, ominous pads and grainy textural rhythms; industrial drum hits and loops; electromagnetic noise and heavenly humanoid 'voices'. Create high-contrast atmospheres of suspense, tension and beauty, whether you're writing techno, ambient music, or a cutting-edge film score. It's a library you can really get lost in, and it's a ton of fun.

The Landfill Totems project started life as a performance installation at PNDT Gallery, expanding exponentially into a full album and an accompanying sound library recorded at Patch Point Studios, Berlin. When observing these anthropomorphic figures, a deep appreciation and affection for the engineering technology of the past is apparent; totally unique vintage machines, assembled for one final swan song (one of the presets captures the sound of a machine dying). Stacked into three monolithic towers resembling totem poles, each piece of equipment was chosen for its distinctive tone generation and modulation abilities — wired together much like a modular synthesiser.

Upcycled and redesigned, these totems act as a commentary on the environmental cost of progress; what was once the pinnacle of technology quickly becomes unviable and destined for the scrapheap, if not for the intervention of Hainbach — creating beauty from that which is thought to be obsolete. Among his collection are once high-end medical, telecommunication and scientific research equipment, vintage sound-testing devices, a Nuclear Instrumentation Modular, an outmoded medical signal generator, a mixer previously used by the Stasi, the state security service in former East Germany, and a Brüel & Kjaer 1613 Bandpass filter creating hi-hat, bass drum and watery sounds.

Features

Meticulously recorded by Hainbach and processed further by Spitfire Audio, these dystopian sounds are impossible to recreate. The sample library offers a world of sonic possibilities far beyond its original analog state, with many of the sounds morphing and evolving as you play, as well as a wide range of in-built controls and effects to drastically manipulate each of the presets.

The plug-in provides 40 presets, split into four sections:

• Kling — each preset contains elements from all other sections, with a huge range of textures available to explore using the modwheel.
• Klang — tonal sounds, from evolving pads to pulsating drones.
• Knarz — atonal, textural and FX style sounds, from watery to alien-like.
• Krach — percussion and drum hits, as well as time-machine loops and patterns.

Other features:

• In-built effects and controls providing a wealth of complex sonic possibilities to drastically control and manipulate each of the presets — including Attack, Release, Reverb, Delay, Stretch and Distort.
• Dynamics fader controls the processed signal, offering a spectrum of sounds within each preset.
• Each sound is velocity sensitive for varying tones.
• Available in Spitfire's award-winning, dedicated plug-in.
• One-of-a-kind sounds that are impossible to recreate — made from rare, obsolete test equipment which has been expertly curated and manipulated.
• A library of stark sonic contrasts — from harsh, futuristic and dystopian to beautiful and emotive sounds from another world.
• Designed for creating tension, suspense, beauty, for any setting — from electronic tracks to hybrid film scoring or abstract sound design.

Landfill Totems

The Landfill Totems sample library has been made in conjunction with Hainbach's album of the same name. This concept is an invitation for musicians and producers to reimagine, recreate or completely pull apart the sound world of an artist to facilitate their own vision.

The music Hainbach coaxes out of these 'landfill totems' is stark, minimalistic and full of impending doom — it is about a world in crisis, driven by indecision, division and losing its function; a reflection of the global circumstances in which it was created.

{See video at top of page}

YouTube.com/watch?v=i9uJNZwTBgY

YouTube.com/watch?v=r8nXxMH79E0