SORA Scape "Ame" (Uncut)

I think it was sometime around 2000. KORG had released the ELECTRIBE series, and I bought an ES-1 sampler.

It was the first sampler I had ever owned, and I still remember approaching it rather cautiously. I tried sampling some guitar feedback noise, only to discover that it took up so much memory that there was barely any room left for anything else.

I also remember spotting an ES-1 in a music video by The Cooper Temple Clause. For some reason, seeing it there made me strangely happy.

The truth is, I never really made full use of the machine at the time. I only used it for small parts of songs, and after moving house several times, it eventually disappeared somewhere along the way.

What I loved most was the master delay. You could apply it to the entire track at once, transforming something ordinary into something completely unpredictable. I do not think I have encountered such a reckless, wonderfully chaotic feature before or since.

There was one thing I always regretted not doing.

I wanted to make an entire piece of music using nothing but that sampler.

And now, at last, I have.