CAP Selects Season 4: listen to our student albums of the week

We're back with Season 4 of CAP Selects: our weekly series that puts the outstanding work of our second-year Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering students centre-stage. Students are tasked with writing a five-track album from scratch that realises a creative vision. They can explore any idea they choose – the only limitations to this brief is that one of the tracks must be collaborative and another must be covers or reinterpretations of original work. Envisioning and creating a full album is a huge step forwards for our students exploring their own creative potential.

Take a listen to and read about our week-by-week selections below.

"Permanence is an ambient concept album that gravitates around the concept of death. I wanted to reimagine and rewrite the narrative of death’s finality. I proposed instead that death isn’t final, but rather the medium used to transform life's tangibility. Permanence attempts to imagine the answer to the question 'what comes next?' by diving into five different soundscapes. Each contemplates different imagery or my own personal philosophies."

"‘Heimweh’ is the German word for homesick. This album is the emotional journey between being familiar to being estranged. Home can be anything ranging from a place to a person to an emotion. These concepts are thin lines and can very often be antonyms. The contrast between the elements of each chapter in this sonic book are carefully chosen and sculpted. This album staves away from the use of drums and is more texturally oriented. Produced completely in the wonderful Funkhaus, this album has a visceral emotional concept that is open to interpretation as the boundaries of understanding set to this album are intentionally quite broad."

"It took me a while to hone the conceptualization in a way that made sense for me and that could fit into a single word: Dehumanization. Even though dehumanization is the main theme of the album, it is backed up by several sub-themes: loneliness, isolation, resentment, anger, exhaustion, despair, and numbness.

To get to the main theme of my conceptual album I took my time to think about what constitutes a good concept, and for me, it had to start with limitations. By setting a framework to work with, I began to have a clearer and more cohesive plan. I was heavily influenced by images to compose the songs, so I gathered images that would be a visual representation of the world I had in mind, and that inspired me to compose."

"Crycheek set out to on a trip down the memory lane to revisit old ideas from his musical beginnings stored on his hard drive, which he then repurposed. With the help of granular synthesis, re amping through his old Roland CUBE amp in his childhood bedroom or time stretching samples of his friends talking and laughing together, and playing the hand pan in his best friend’s garden, he tries to evoke those memories and cherish them.

The cover art features a rather oddly looking doorbell. It is from the apartment he spent his teenage years in, showing us the view to the street, with cars passing by. It encloses the idea of traveling back, ringing the doorbell with the hope that someone will open."

"With my work, I aim to explore sound design through unconventional and innovative synthesis techniques while sharing my passion for underground music. Influenced by the techno scene, electronics, funk, and jazz, I aim to push the boundaries of electronic music. My goal is to be able to translate my techniques and sonic interests in different genres, creating unique sonic experiences while keeping a recognizable identity.

Through my compositions, I seek to capture the unexpected and provide total immersion, whether on a dance floor or in a contemplative moment. My work reflects my love for experimentation while inviting the audience to discover new musical horizons."

"This album represents 2 worlds coming into contact to collide: acoustics and electronics, east and west, atrocities happening around us, and our daily habitual patterns. Breaking Patterns is never easy nor unpainful. However, it is fundamental for healing and development."

"As a producer skilled in crafting compelling instrumentals, I sought to challenge and expand my artistic position with an ambitious album project. Historically, my musical endeavours predominantly involved solo work, emphasising instrumental compositions, and occasionally incorporating vocal samples. However, driven by a desire to evolve as an artist and contribute to every facet of the music-creation process, I identified key skills – lyric writing, singing, vocal production, collaboration, and vocal mixing – to serve as the pillars of my artistic exploration."

"I wanted to create tracks which made listeners think about themselves and become aware of the thoughts that they are having. The approach of this album also represents my introspection and process of dealing with thoughts and watching them as they come and go. The album cover is made by Madison Branch; it depicts an abstract form of eyes, which are supposed to represent looking at yourself or in other words, watching your thoughts and actions."

"I believe any process can be abstracted to musical form. Making and listening to music helps me get a felt understanding of the relationship between harmonious and disharmonious patterns in the world. I use recorded, improvised material as a starting point in reality. From the recorded sound I try to extract my personal perception by altering it through acoustic or electronic processing. The finished track is a documentation of that journey. Usually the trombone is cast as the main character, accompanied by broken, modified or self made instruments and set against field recordings. More than telling a story I try to create a space that the listener can set their own story into."