Duplicate My Soul - Album Cover
Another two years have past since Illusion was released and I was pleased, and somewhat surprised, as I unexpectedly decided to release "Duplicate My Soul". I should probably follow traditional marketing strategies and build up a hype well ahead of an album being released but when I have my creative periods I spontaneously do these things. At the same time I'm quite happy not to follow all the rules and I'd rather take the opportunity and take advantage when the spontaneous outbursts pay me a visit.

On the 19th of March 2010 I started working on a new track under the project name "Logic Surface" (I always have random names of my tracks until they are finished and I can name them appropriately depending on their character). I nearly completed the track on the 19th but on saturday 20th March I also managed to complete it fairly early in the day. As I named the track "False Awakening" I started to add tracks released after Illusion into my winamp playlist and as the total duration grew to 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 51 seconds (including 4 bonus tracks) it hit me - it's time for my next album to be released! By the evening on the 20th "Duplicate My Soul" was released and available for anyone to get as an mp3-album or as a physical album with artwork and the complete works.

So, in addition to creating "False Awakening" what did I do for this release during the 20th March?

  • Compiled the final track listing

  • Created the cover artwork for the jewel case and disc label (using a photoshop tutorial on the internet)

  • Changed ID-tags for all tracks included on album and re-encoded them in MP3, OGG, ACC, and FLAC

  • Uploaded all the re-encoded and ID-tagged tracks to imphenzia.com

  • Added album (artwork, zip-archive for mp3-purchases, and individual tracks) to imphenzia.com

  • Updated the web site to include the latest album

  • Created promo video for album demonstrating how I created the artwork (+ upload to youtube)

  • Sent out an e-mail to my mailing list regarding the new album release

  • Updated common social networking sites with album release (twitter, facebook, youtube, etc.)


    • Over all I'm very pleased with achieving all of this in one single day from spawning the idea of releasing an album to actually releasing it.

    What to expect from Duplicate My Soul
    Most of the tracks are of true Imphenzia character with a melodic and uplifting sound. The main 9 tracks are all trance styled with what most probably would refer to as a classic (or retro) styled Trance which was more popular in the late 90s. I haven't been on for following trends or releasing what is currently hot or not, I'd rather create the type of music I love as there are still quite a few out there who appreciate this style. The one exception is probably track number 9 named "Vapour Trail" which was a very experimental track incidentally enough also casually released in silence on imphenzia.com in retrospect 2 years after it was created =) Following the 9 tracks of trance is the first bonus track "Theme of Decimation X" which was originally created for the intense retro shooter game "Decimation X" by Xona games. It fits the over all mood and is very much in line with my normal music that it qualifies as a bonus track on the album. The last three bonus tracks are chilled out downtempo edits of some of the tracks featured on the album.

    The name of the album comes from the first track on the album with the same name. The name was selected for two reasons. First of all it is a tribute to my first child (a son) so it is in a sense duplicating my soul, and secondly because the track and all the music of Imphenzia really does reflect my soul and the music I create.

    For those of you who are curious of what type of equipment I used to create the music on this album I use the following:
    Computer:
    Quad Core Intel 2.4 CPU with 4GB Ram running Windows 7 x64
    Master keyboard:
    Roland FP-7 (88 keys hammer action) and an Evolution MK-226C
    Sound card:
    Motherboard's own soundcard believe it or not (with ASIO4ALL drivers)
    Sequencer:
    Steinberg Cubase 5
    VST instruments:
    Mainly native Cubase instruments, reFX Nexus2 (plus expansion packs) and reFX VanGuard (plus expansion packs)

    Finishing off this post, here is the promo video for the track featuring clips from the first four tracks and a quick preview of how the artwork was created:



    I hope you enjoy this release!