This album wouldn't exist without clarinetist Gareth Davis, with whom I've collaborated several times. When I asked him to participate on my + album, he was working with Monika Bugajny. She got wind of my project and asked if she could join. I agreed and reworked her beautiful clarinet recording into a ghostly one-minute piece.

Apparently my concoction was convincing enough for Monika to propose another, more elaborate collaboration. Her suggestion was to use the same working method again, but this time with classical pieces as a starting point. Again I couldn't say no, and off we went!

Debussy, Messiaen, Brahms, Stravinsky... who would ever thought to see these on a Machinefabriek album! Well, they're not exactly recognizable as such, but still... Monika reinterpreted eight classical pieces, beautifully played and recorded. I then stacked, cut, and manipulated the material into the tracks you'll find on Recytle (see what I did there?): 30 minutes of moody and woozy clarinet/electronics vignettes.

If you're looking for a faithful rendition of Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie, this is obviously not your go-to release. But in their own right I hope the tracks on Recytle might offer an intriguing counterpoint to their originals."-Rutger Zuydervelt, May 2023

"With my limited knowledge of classical music terminology, 'after' means 'in the style of'. So if a piece is 'After Bach', it is in the style of Bach. Monika Buhajny is a clarinet player who participated in the '+' project by Machinefabriek (see Vital Weekly 1369). She delivered a one-minute music piece but also proposed a more extensive project where she would play classical pieces, and Machinefabriek/Rutger Zuydervelt would unleash his magic. The result is eight relatively short pieces and, thus, a thirty-minute album. The composers are Poulenc, Brahms, Copland, Horovitz, Messiaen, Stravinsky, Debussy and Arnold (not sure who the last one is, Arnold Schšnberg or Malcolm Arnold, composer, among many other things, the music for 'Bridge Over The River Kwai'). The clarinet is an instrument to play a quiet and introspective piece of music, and of the wind instruments, one of my favourites, especially when its sound is close to sine waves. This is not happening here, but Bugajny plays the reflective element well. I couldn't name any piece from a classical composer that involves a clarinet, except for Gershwin's 'Rhapsody In Blue' (more than one clarinet!), which sometimes sounds like some of the playings here. There is a modern classical feel throughout. Zuydervelt may process some clarinet playings but also use it how it is played and recorded, maybe chopping it up or superimposing them. Also, he adds some sounds of his backing; carefully placed crackles, deep rumbling bass sounds, drones, and a handful of glitches. It is quiet music, surely, mostly, but there is some great tension in this music as well; it is not all about very subdued stuff. With some of that deep bass rumbling, the music gets pulled into the deep end, a bit scary and beyond the realm of the standard modern classical music (as far as I am aware). Quite a surprise and quite a lovely CD!"-Fran de Waard, Vital Weekly