6am

6am

History

6am was my first album released under the name of Cold Sun, and the first time I'd made a decent ambient album.  I'd made two ambient albums prior to this, Sunset Cove and Soundpaintings, back in the days before I started using VSTi synthesizers but they were incredibly weak and showed a total lack of understanding as to what Ambient music is. 

6am was originally going to be a 3 track album using a 22min edit of this piece, however, one of the pieces written was more suitable for my next project, Antarctica, and after playing all 43 minutes of the piece, I decided to release it as is.

Up until that point, my music was based on CD sales which, at this point, was becoming counter-productive.  Selling CDs required promotion, which required time and money I didn't have to invest.  My best selling CD, Cold Sun (hence the original credit), had sold only 50 copies and all subsequent albums didn't sell even half that amount.  My decision with 6am was to offer it to people as a free download, thus removing any apprehension towards buying a CD from an unsigned artist.  After all, I'd rather my music be heard and enjoyed rather than make any money off it - it provides a greater satisfaction.  My target was for the album to be downloaded just 50 times, to beat my previous record... a target it beat within a week!  As of March 2006, I estimate it's been downloaded at least 750 times.

The album was originally released in April 2003.

The Music

The music depicts the outside world at 6am.  Around that time of day, there's not much activity and people are slowly waking up and getting ready for work.   Looking out of your window at this time shows the world bathed in the morning sunrise with a somewhat peaceful serenity shattered by the onslaught of rush hour. 

CREDITS

Written, Produced and Performed by Simon Slator

Recorded at home, January 2003.

Instruments/VSTis used:  (if my memory serves me well) Absynth, Pro-53, CrazyDiamond, Waldorf PPG, DX7