Insomniacs of Athens will come out to hear The Ridges play old classics, such as “The Insomniac’s Song,” but they will get the privilege of listening to a slew of new songs fresh off the recording process. The group will perform at Casa Nueva, 4 W. State St., this Friday.
The band’s previous five-song EP was recorded in the deep acoustic halls of The Ridges, working during a string of five extensive weekends. However, their newest album was recorded in 10 days and members worked around the clock in various locations.
“We really threw ourselves into the process and just lived inside the album for a little bit, where it was just the only thing you were thinking about or doing,” said Victor Rasgaitis, lead singer and guitarist for the band.
The new album, which is currently untitled and without a final release date, was recorded mostly in a Cincinnati church with great acoustics, Rasgaitis said.
He added that the album would include a total of 13 original songs, four of which will be instrumental tunes all arranged by cellist Talor Smith.
“They were all written in a classical music style, which is the first time we have ever done something like that,” Smith said. “(On the vocal tracks) our instrumentalists write their own parts because they are all into creative freedom and bringing creativity to our group. It makes us more diversified.”
In addition to stringed instruments, the album will also feature more horns and layering in the sound than the group has been able to do in the past.
There is so much layering, in fact, that even one of the simplest songs of the album has at least 40 separate parts of layering and at most 80 separate tracks.
Some of the horn parts will be rotated into the live performances eventually; The Ridges have always had a rotating group of musicians that will join various performances, which range from percussionists to string players.
“We work with a lot of different musicians that play with us as much as possible,” Rasgaitis said. “But getting everyone to play at every show isn’t really an option.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
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