Almost An Island (Kenneth James Gibson, James & Cynthia Bernard) - Album of the Month
An exclusive interview with ambient alchemists Almost An Island
“Almost An Island is an ambient journey tinted with Americana, rooted in themes of impermanence and connection. The instrumentation is as eclectic as it is purposeful — guitars, piano, voices, six-string bass, Chapman stick, pedal steel, Taishōgoto harp, and synths — each adding depth to the sonic landscape.”
Every month I share with you an album that I’ve been listening to that I think of very, very highly and pair it with an exclusive interview —
This month, I have the pleasure of welcoming musician and producer Kenneth Gibson James and husband-and-wife duo James and Cynthia Bernard — who some of you may already know well as cloud collecting author and curator marine eyes.
Almost An Island marks the trio’s first musical collaboration together. Released on Past Inside The Present — a kindred, collaborative artistic community in pursuit and promotion of the world’s most inventive and engaging quiet music.
Muted tape hiss, gently swaying guitars, and ghostlike tones drift in and out of focus, creating a space that feels both intimate and cinematic.
I caught up with James, Cynthia & Kenneth to discuss their influences, pathways and creative practices…
Hi Cynthia, James & Kenneth! Thanks for taking time to join us here on Sonic Tapestries. Let’s start with how Almost An Island came into being — when did your paths cross and when did the project first take shape?
James: Kenneth and I initially met through my former job with Propellerhead software (makers of Reason) back in the early 2000s. Kenneth sent me some of his Eight Frozen Modules and [a]pendics.shuffle cd’s and I really dug them.
In 2023, Kenneth reached out to me on Instagram and we pieced together that we knew each other from all those years ago. He mentioned that he was working on a collection of remixes of his works (Further Translations) and I offered for Cynthia and I to do an awakened souls remix.
After finishing the remix of The Art of Forgetting Yourself, we realized that our creativity combined was something really special. It was at that point that we thought about working together further. By fall 2024, we began sharing ideas regularly, and Almost An Island started to take shape. The album came together over about four months — energy was high, and we all knew we were building something meaningful. The first track we worked on was “An Ode To Nothing” and from there, everything flowed.
Your label — Past Inside The Present — has been a constant source of inspiration for myself, and I'm sure many others, over the years —introducing me to corners of the ambient spectrum that seem to reveal an endless source of pearls with each new listen. What makes this project and community so strong, and what guided you towards releasing this album on the label?
Cynthia: We’re so grateful to be part of the Past Inside the Present community. We’re a collective — all artists and close friends. Zach (zakè) oversees nearly every aspect of operations from his quiet home base just west of Indianapolis. If you’ve ever ordered anything from PITP or our Bandcamp, there’s a 99% chance it was carefully packaged by Zach himself! James and I are in California and love helping when and where we can, continuing to release on the label and James has turned into the main mastering engineer and I love contributing album cover art whenever it works with the vision of the artist. It felt natural to release with PITP as we are fully DIY and we couldn’t be happier this was the route we decided to go.
Kenneth: I’m new to the label but love working with Zach! Good folks and good music.
“…I’m big on finding loops within my own vocals, synth, and guitar takes, but there was something deeply spiritual about shaping and playing with pedal steel in this way”
The album has some wonderfully soft, country-esque details — embers of Ry Cooder and solo Jerry Garcia that sit atop such lush ambiences. Was there an objective in mind to creating a certain sound with this album or did things just come together naturally between you in the studio sessions?
James: There was definitely an objective. We set out to make an ambient-americana record. We knew based off of the remix that we had synergy with that sound. We started talking about a lot of our inspirations and all three of us come from many different musical backgrounds and decided that combining those would create something unique and special.
Cynthia: When I started this album, I wanted to capture some of the magic we found on our remix, The Art of Forgetting Yourself. Brian McBride (Stars of the Lid, Bell Gardens) was part of that remix album — he was a close friend of Kenneth’s and his bandmate in Bell Gardens. We were fortunate to meet him before he passed, and he told us how much he loved our remix, saying it reminded him of the feeling he got from the music in Twin Peaks. It was a huge honor to meet one of my favorite musicians and receive his feedback on our work. Several songs on the album — like Lonesome Sound and In Light Of — are nods to Brian, so his influence was very important to me throughout the project.
Kenneth: I love that you mention Ry Cooder! Ry’s score for Paris Texas is one of my all time favorite records / scores — Paris Texas being one of my all time favorite movies which has been a big influence. When I heard the Awakened Souls remix of The Art of Forgetting Yourself, I knew we were gonna make some magic together at some point. That remix blew me away! So damn good. We discussed it briefly then the next thing you know we had a finished album. It was like - what just happened? It just flowed effortlessly. We definitely discussed an Americana influenced album - so I’m glad you can hear the country-esque details. I don’t feel like that element is super out front but it is certainly in the details and the intention.
What were some of the key instruments, software or hardware used on this album?
James: We each brought our own textures and timbres to the project. I focused primarily on stringed instruments, playing six-string bass, Bass VI (a guitar tuned an octave lower), Taishōgoto harp, Chapman Stick, and piano — often processed through a variety of pedals.
Cynthia: I used my resonator guitar and vocals with pedals quite a bit, and really enjoyed building worlds with David’s pedal steel tracks. I also played a few parts on my old ’90s Stratocaster — a guitar that always feels like home. Each song called for fun new palettes.
Kenneth: I used my 1974 Fender Mustang through a Fender Silverface Champ, with a few pedals — nothing too exotic. I used my Moog Prodigy, a Roland RE-101 Space Echo, and ran some sounds through my Tascam 4-track for extra grit. A ton of various plug-ins helped shape the final textures.
Could you share some of the creative techniques you used to create your sound?
Cynthia: Kenneth’s longtime friend David Cuetter plays pedal steel on the record. What made the process really special for me was falling in love with working on the raw files that David recorded at Kenneth’s studio — chopping, layering, and building a world of ethereal effects around them. I’m big on finding loops within my own vocals, synth, and guitar takes, but there was something deeply spiritual about shaping and playing with pedal steel in this way. I also used a lot of my resonator guitar on the record to bring a sense of Americana, and I loved blending the raw, open-road guitar style on Palo Verde with heavily processed vocals.
James: I’m deeply inspired by Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics style of looping, and I leaned heavily into that approach here. On both Quadrivium and Lonesome Sound, I used my six-string bass to create the opening loop motifs with this technique. For mixing and mastering, I aimed for a wide, open sound that feels atmospheric and expansive. During this project, I also developed a love for chopping jazz brushed drum loops and layering them into polyrhythms.
Kenneth: For this record, I used my Moog Prodigy a bunch - running through a Space Echo, then did a lot of additional processing in the computer. I also worked with a lot of heavily treated guitar textures. One of my favorite parts of the process was taking elements Cynthia and James sent me - like vocals and guitar parts - chopping them up, reprocessing them, and transforming them into entirely new sounds. I love that kind of sound design work.
Where did the recording sessions take place?
Between Kenneth’s studio Meadows Heavy Recorders in Idyllwild and our home studio Ambient Mountain House just north of LA.
A question for Cynthia — your Substack cloud collecting is a personal favourite of mine. Amongst the noise of the seemingly growing Substack world — what drives you to explore this medium and how do you see this developing in the future?
Cynthia: Thank you so much for supporting cloud collecting! For the past 4.5 years, I’ve curated a monthly mix series highlighting women in the ambient space. Eventually, I felt the pull to go deeper — beyond social media posts, playlists and mixes — and connect more intentionally with the community. I decided to start doing short interviews each month with women and gender-expansive musicians and visual artists to share work I love and help shine a light on voices that deserve more attention.
I’ve always been curious about people’s creative practices, so getting to ask questions to artists I love has been such a joy. I have a lot of ideas for what’s next: exclusive marine eyes material for paid subscribers, releasing my own music through cloud collecting as a label, and a new collaboration with another label that will expand the project into something even more focused on community.
“…I love asking James to add something while I run an errand, then coming home to hear the beautiful surprise he’s created.”
James and Cynthia - you have been releasing music together under various monikers over the years. Is it fair to assume you have established a concrete method for writing that works well for you both or does this evolve and fluctuate with time and technology?
Cynthia: We both love making music and are always finding new things that inspire us. Neither of us is ever bored, which makes the creative process flow easily. We often take turns — one of us at the computer, while the other dreams up what part to add next. James tends to work with the speakers on, while I usually build sound worlds through my headphones before sharing what I’ve done. Still, whenever we play together in real time, that same kind of magic is always there. I love asking James to add something while I run an errand, then coming home to hear the beautiful surprise he’s created.
I sense a strong presence of field recording in your collective works —what are your approaches to this practice?
Cynthia: I’m always listening for sounds. If I don’t have my field recorder with me, I’ll often use voice memos on my phone to capture something on the spot. I also make a point to go on intentional “field recording dates” to quietly take in the sounds of nature. On Quadrivium, we used recordings from a beach just north of Ventura, where a wall of bamboo stalks created the most beautiful tones in the breeze — you can even hear children playing in the distance if you listen closely. For Promise To Fade, we used the crackling of a daytime campfire James and I had in the nearby mountains.
Almost An Island doesn’t feel like a conclusion — it feels like the opening chapter of a much longer story. A space has been carved out, and already, new ideas are beginning to take root. So will we be hearing a second album in the near future?
James: We’re excited to see where this next album takes us. There are so many sides of us musically that we haven’t explored yet. I’m looking forward to using more synths and singing more harmonies with Kenneth and Cynthia.
Kenneth: Yes, I believe this is just the beginning!
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Mat
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thanks for the support, loved getting a chance to talk with you!