88888888: Embracing Technical Chaos and Experimental Sound Design

This song began as a pure experiment in letting go of control. I decided to bypass intentional planning and simply layer random instruments and effects. During the process, a hardware glitch caused my keyboard to act as if the “8” key was stuck. Rather than fighting it, I leaned into the chaos – every parameter I touched immediately spiked to its maximum level, resulting in intentionally extreme, distorted sounds.

The track’s name, “88888888,” was automatically generated by that same glitch when I went to save the file. At the time, I was also recovering from an illness that left my voice hoarse; I took the opportunity to record the vocals in that raw state, further enhancing the raspiness using the Ableton Erosion effect.

The result is a piece that exists on the edge of technical collapse – a snapshot of a moment where the gear and the artist were in a strange, distorted dialogue. Listen to the result below.

Technical Roles: Music Production, Experimental Synthesis, Sound Design, Digital Signal Processing (Erosion).

88888888 – Original Track