During my work as a producer, I frequently experimented with the arrangements by muting the central parts of the song (vocals, guitars, bass and so on), to reveal the extra instrumentation that had been added during the studio process.

Originally, these brief blips of obscure texture and ambience were designed to illustrate certain production techniques I was employing, without compromising the artist by revealing their work wholesale before it was finished.

I found these pieces of work beautiful, and loved how a new piece of music in its own right emerged from an existing arrangement. I called these 'extractions', and set about applying the technique to as many of the recordings I had worked on as producer.

In 2013, I approached a Newcastle-based digital radio station about a programme documenting my extraction work. Although only three episodes were broadcast, the concept remained with me as a powerful way of viewing a piece of work from a fresh angle.

Often I ended up enjoying the extracted piece more than the original - it seemed to chime with my own developing tastes in music. As well as exposing the many layers of my production, it also gave an opportunity to hear the virtuoso performances by the many musicians I had been lucky to work with and record. Suddenly violins, backing vocals, rinky dink percussion and massive delayed feedback could be brought to the fore, creating a new and exciting take on the original piece.

Audiophiles will also be interested to note that small details not normally heard in the finished mix can now be identified: the headphone bleed from overdub takes, fast noise gates closing on rattling snare hits, automation programming at work.

In some pieces the extraction takes a more left-field approach and, rather than merely exposing what already exists, goes one step further and distorts, delays or tampers with the extraction itself, bringing the lister as close to a "remix" as they're ever going to get.

I'm appreciated the sounds we captured on our records as much as the songwriting - so I'm very proud to release this and shine a light on some of the cool stuff we were up to under the bonnet of our recordings.

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Extracted and Produced by Andrew Gardiner ≈ unimbued.com

Cover image by Shyrooken ≈ instagram.com/shyrooken

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Extractions are presented in the chronological order in which they were recorded.

Tracked between 2007 - 2013.

Recorded at Colerabbey Studios in Portrush, Northern Ireland & Newcastle, England.

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For more information on the radio programme mentioned in the blurb, please click below:

unimbued.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/making-radio-programme.html

unimbued.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-dream-circuit-broadcasting-on-basic.html

The radio station in question doesn't appear to do anything anymore, but some of their old shows are archived at:

mixcloud.com/discover/basicfm

To hear the programmes themselves - entitled 'The Dream Circuit' - then please head over to my radio and mixtape archive:

mixcloud.com/discover/unimbued