The Alchemist (TCE)
You’re fascinated by what happens when tradition is transformed.
Old songs, forms, and textures become raw material for something denser, darker, or more experimental.
You’re drawn to folk that uses production, drones, or electronics as part of its meaning — reshaping the past to create something new.
Elements of 'The Alchemist'
Tradition: You're drawn to songs and tunes from traditions from around the world. They could be ballads, dance tunes, music for ritual or protest. Music that has been passed down through the oral tradition with deep roots.
Constructed: You like to hear well-honed craftsmanship expressed through a range of instrumental techniques, intriguing structures and musicians experimenting with their complete palette. You love thinking about the how the music is put together.
Electronic: Before electronics, every sound you heard on a record was produced by an instrument of strings, wind, wood, brass or from the human body itself. But with the advent of digital music and computers, suddenly sound could be manipulated and abstracted into new forms and soundworlds.
When you close your eyes while listening to music, you love being carried into these new soundworlds where your imagination has free reign and the artist has a full gamut of expression unthered to what is physically possible on an instrument.
(Read more about how we built the Typology here)
Your listening wings are
- TCA — The Revivalist - for those who like exploring the traditional songs and tunes with the sounds of acoustic instruments as well electronic.
- NCE — The Trickster - for those who like material that is contemporary with the constructed electronic textures you enjoy
- TAE - The Lorekeeper - for those who also appreciate a more direct sound straight from the feeling to the mic, amplified by electronics
'The Alchemist' Listening List
Sam Lee believes that the old songs are important because they can reconnect us with the land. He collected hundreds of songs from Traveller communities across the UK and is also a passionate conservationist who sings with nightingales.
The first time I encountered the word electrotrad was on a festival dancefloor with Melisande singing traditional Quebecois songs about milking cows with electronic beats, a jaw harp, flute and fiddle.
'The Alchemist' Listening Challenges
- Listen to the Archive
- Trace the Lineage of a Song
- Listen to a tradition of music that is new to you