on 24th march 2004, american synthesiser player michael garrison passed away, aged 47. i learnt about mike's passing just after i had returned from a concert of einstürzende neubauten, and i was shell-shocked, to say the least.

mike garrison's early music in particular was very raw, very energetic, very bold -- and very inspirational to me. there was this young dude from the usa whose keyboard chops weren't any better than mine, and he was not only releasing albums but also using a heap of great synthesisers! how can you be any more inspiring? i knew that this was exactly what i wanted to do as well.

“impact” was named after mike's 1983 “point of impact” album which had been a holy grail for me between 1989 and 1992 (when i finally got a tatty copy, thanks to elana mell beach).

it was recorded during the first or second recording session that yielded the material for "polarity", my second "proper" cassette, released in early 1992. other than a minor appearance on the tribute album that was released after mike's death, it had remained in my vaults since its release before i started working on it in january 2024.

the 2024 new impact was finished off in january and february 2024, after it had been shelved for four or five years because i just wasn't able to work on it due to other activities (among others saving, restoring, and digitizing the entire tape archive mike had left behind). it wasn't before january 2024 that i seriously started pondering reworking not only "impact" but also the entire "polarity" tape.

now, if this is not hinting at what is to come...

eventually, i happened to get an eminent solina string ensemble, and it immediately clicked: within a couple of hours, i had replaced the original guide tracks with plenty of solina strings -- and there it was, the sound i had desperately been striving for when i was recording "polarity" in late 1991.

while restoring the original garrison tapes as well as working on my own recordings, i realised how important mike had been to my own musical evolution, not only in terms of sound and music: he was the first notable synthesiser player whose work i admired and who i managed to get in touch with back in the summer of 1990 (bedankt, frits). he turned out to be an extremely approachable kind of person, witty and smart, and not at all arrogant towards his fans and supporters.. even more tragic the fact that someone whose music was so uplifiting and upbeat had to struggle with the demons that haunted him for all of his life -- and ultimately succumbed to them.

it's been twenty years since mike passed on to another world -- i hope these little pieces of music will keep his memory alive.

thanks, man.