This material was originally released on CD in 2010 and limited to 100 copies.

Quare

The deliberately tongue-in-cheek, nonsense title of this compilation reflects what Seasonal Code was in the grand scheme of things....it was a solitary process of development through blissful ignorance. The demos were never really released to the public. They were produced in extremely low numbers and sent to the odd label or fanzine out of curiosity rather than for any other purpose.

Now that <code> has gained a little more attention, the more intrigued have started to ask what came before, so I decided that now is the time to re-visit these old songs, breathe some life into them and let the interested few have a fresh listen. Rather than include all the old material verbatim, I concentrated on selected tracks from each of the three demos and beyond. I believe that there is still some genuine merit in these tracks after all these years so instead of just compiling the old recordings, I have re-recorded them from scratch to remove the obvious production value boundaries that blighted the originals. I also couldn't resist but to add some more details where appropriate and generally try to place the tracks in the here and now.

This is closure to something which although never made a ripple, was very important to me and still is to this day. Perhaps for a final time these songs may get a chance to whisper in just a few more ears.

Your humble and indebted guide….


Dipping toes in vast expanses

'Volume 1 - Instrumental Passages'
1998 - 1999


Featured tracks:
‘Deep Blue Aura’
‘An Evening By The Reflecting Pool’

A selection of riffs from a selection of styles. Songcraft was not on the agenda, just get the ideas down and get working! It was tempting to radically change things to help these tracks make more sense but I decided to leave their naivety untouched….blemishes and all.

Experimentation

‘Winter’s Clarity’
1999

Featured tracks:
‘Winter’s Clarity’
‘Lunate Firmament’

The melting pot approach was starting to be abandoned in favour of forays into writing music that flowed. As ever, it was all about the atmosphere and trying different ways to achieve the accepted goals. I felt the title track was quite a bold musical statement, perhaps, in retrospect, a misguided one that doesn’t quite find the target but something that I was particularly proud of at the time.


Resolution

‘The Law of Transition’
2001


Featured tracks:
‘These Chains That Bind’
‘Through Fear Alone’
‘No Vision Beyond The Veil’

The most (relatively) widely spread release, and the only demo to feature vocals. These were spat forth by Cthonian who also appeared on the <code> Neurotransmissions promo CD. The vocal tracks here are from the original studio recordings from 2001. We got some good press for this demo and an album deal was a distinct possibility. In retrospect, I am very glad it wasn’t to be and that this was the end of Seasonal Code, as a change was needed. I had reached an inspirational dead-end and chance meetings with new people would broaden my musical world.

The blurring of lines

Unreleased Tracks - 2006

These tracks were written along with many others that weren’t used for the Resplendent Grotesque album. They were far too ponderous and bloated to fit with where the <code> album was heading…a place where the focus was on the song writing being as taut as possible and making every second count. When putting this compilation together it struck me that these two tracks sat neatly beside the old Seasonal Code material in terms of feel and scope, so here they are.

Featured tracks:
‘Tryptych’
‘(A New) Sentiment’