M.U. PODCAST #145 ALAN HARMAN (JANUARY 2023)

Cover Art by Bruno Lopes (Mundo Urbano), January 2023. Alvar Aalto Paimio Chair, 1931-1932.

Alan Harman is the solo minimal synth project of Ethan Harman from the small town of Port Hope, Ontario, The project came to our attention via an interview in Legowelt’s Shadow Wolf zine. The interview was conducted by Legowelt himself, who wrote: “Buried deep in the snow of the Canadian internet one will occasionally find a great authentic undiscovered artist who lives in obscurity devoted to their art. An artist like ALAN HARMAN.”

Alan Harman cites the influence of early-Martial Canterel (aka the solo project of Xeno & Oaklander’s Sean McBride), Belgian minimal synth project Snowy Red, and Canadian cult synth duo (and Ice Machine label alumnus) Ceramic Hello, who Harman described in his Shadow Wolf interview as, “a perfect embodiment of Canadian sound because it gives you this cold, distant feeling which is exactly how it feels living here; isolated and far away from the rest of the world.”

The project came to be when Harman found himself disillusioned with the lack of band-mate prospects in Port Hope, realizing that synthesizers and drum machines could afford him the opportunity to become his own one-man band. With a small set-up including a Korg MS-20 synth, a TR-808 drum machine clone, and a homemade spring reverb unit, Harman writes and records his songs alone, always beginning from scratch, and usually, the tracks are written, recorded, and mixed within half-an-hour. The spontaneous nature of the recordings, and the raw tone of the electronics and vocal delivery, give the music an authentic, early-‘80s synth DIY feel, at times reminiscent of minimal synth genre classics by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, Absolute Body Control, and John Bender. 

“Human Research Program,” a full-length cassette compiling selections from a series of self-released digital EPs and singles, released July 15, 2022, on Ice Machine. Check also his latest drop Recorded live using an ARP 2600, Korg MS20, and AVP Ritmobox. "Purveyor" is available on Bandcamp.

About the mix: Favorites that have inspired me in the past year, showing off the wonderful effects of vocals as a vehicle to create moving minimal synth. - Alan Harman.

M.U. PODCAST #145 ALAN HARMAN (JANUARY 2022)

01.Alan Harman - Circuits Beneath
02.Kline Coma Xero - Lost Again
03.Mark Lane - 3rd Party
04.Unovidual - Cry of the Nymphs
05.Asmodaeus - Radiation Dance
06.VK 88 - Im Nu Fertig
07.Gerry and the Holograms - Gerry and the Holograms
08.Das Ding - Standing in the Hall
09.Snowy Red - Blood Blood Blood
10.Ceramic Hello - Gestures
11.OB Minimax - This Charming War
12.Martial Canterel - Haunted By…
13.Final Program - Protect and Survive
14.Snowy Red - Maud is Dead
15.Alan Harman - Purveyor