An adventure through sonic space. This album is an exploration of ambient chill music with a hint of atonality. I was influenced by one of my favorite Pandora stations called "Chill & Downtempo". Those artists brought a clear vision of composition with rich textures. With this, I looked for a way to possibly incorporate atonality into a simple foundation of drum and bass. The result is this album, APCP. The album takes you on a sonic journey though our solar system. We start at a micro level with electron and proton particles and end with galactic spiritual journey post exploration. Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) is the solid rocket propellent currently used in space exploration. Electrons. This song started as an exploration of Ableton Live. Upon laying a foundation of drums, bass and synths, I started exploring adding some other elements such as improvisations using the iPad (c) and an app sampler called SampleWiz (c). Protons. Writing this song was a bit of an interesting process. I wanted to have a very rhythmic driving center to hold onto while listening. This then breaks down and splits the upper synthesizer bells/piano sound ends up dragging a bit behind the initial beat and chord changes. However, the dichotomy between the constant rhythmic foundation and the bells/piano synth end up providing its own sense of belonging to the overall foundation of the song. Waves. This is one of my favorite songs off the album as it includes some piano improv and some classical guitar riffs. As these were my two primary instruments growing up, I still have an affection for the holistic acoustical sounds they produce. This song also includes a Fender Rhodes (c) piano as the primary delivery of harmonic function. Solar Bells. This song has a few different unique acoustic instruments such as wind chimes, asian handbells and a few different singing bowls. This composition was inspired by one of my mentors Dr. William Moylan as he doing research into singing bowls and their recordings. The synthesizers were created on a Korg Kronos X (c). Cruising on Impulse Power. An ode to one of my favorite composers, Frank Zappa (c). This song takes you on a journey through the solar system using a few unique synthesis items. The first is every noise piece was created by an application named Photosounder (c). The app approximates the sound signature of a digital picture and "plays" the picture according to the algorithm. For this composition, each noise piece is a planet in our solar system. The composition starts at Venus and ends past Pluto. There is also interstellar audio samples throughout the piece provided by NASA (c). Escape Pods. An erie experience as if you were floating through space in a "tin can". Out of control, the only thing that gives you a center of stability is the constant bass drum. Improvisation on a Chapchas rattle and a gourd shaker give an uneasy shake back to reality. Picking Stars. This composition is the final part if the journey. It makes use of a very central rhythmic theme and a solid harmonic structure.The end has a solo on iPad (c) using two Wizdom Music apps called Morph Wiz (c) and Geo (c). Many thanks... First off, I would like to thank Abby Campbell for being one of the most supporting and life giving people I have every come across on this crazy epic journey. Without her love and patience, I would have never been able to finish this album. I love you beyond words, space and time. Next, I would like to thank my parents, Sharon Testa, Millie "nana" Testa and Cathy Testa for pushing me to keep with this music thing. Look where it got me! Finally, I would like to thank all my family and friends for supporting me on my wacky musical journey, especially: The Testa's, Theresa, Robert, Joe, Bob and Christy as well as their families. Also; my musical mentor and friend John Shirley, Gena Greher, Dan Tang, Michelle Tang, Riley Tang, Mike Tang, Ramon Castillo, Josh Millard, William Moylan, Bill Carman, Alan Williams, Alex Case, Brandon Vaccaro, Dan Walzer, Dan Berube, Ben Thibodeau, Mary-Jo Grenfell, Jason Notermann, Mike Grant, Jeff LaChance. From my Wired.to.the.Edge family Nick Giarratani and Abe Finch. From my Crossfit Lowell family, Gina, Sean, Tomaaaaas, Amanda, Mike & Kathy, Clint, Throttle, Sean, Sylvia, Dan, Dan, Corey, Seth, Dave, Rotana, Patrik, Marcus and everybody else I forgot to mention. Musically yours, Mike Testa