Inspired by early instrumental synthesizer music, Brock Geiger and Ian Jarvis are the collaborative duo, Étamine, creating immersive tracks that envelop listeners in a cinematic dream world. With their debut collection of music, lines blur between human and machine, between grounded and celestial, and between introspective-wandering and body clutching grooves. 

Their new song’s title, “Helicopter Takeoff at Night,” was directly inspired by Andreas Feninger’s long exposure photo of a helicopter in the dark. The centrifugal motion of the lights on the blades feels like a perfect representation of the propelled dizziness that this track induces. 

This track, along with the rest of the record was all written and produced by Brock and Ian remotely during the peak of travel restrictions. Étamine had archives of improvised jams with basic setups (a couple synched drum machines and synthesizers) from messing around on the tail end of recording sessions they’d been doing with other bands. With so much time to explore, they dove into some of the sessions and started to realize these improvs might actually have something going on. 

“When Ian sent the first bones of this track to me, it immediately elicited feelings and visuals analogous to a fast paced, high-action film sequence,” says Brock. “The way the main harmony sits against the odd time signature creates a strong forward momentum. When I was writing additional melodies I kept picturing it accompanying a chase scene with neon lights blurring or a Mortal Kombat fight.”