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IRSOL

IRSOL

Performance Details

Date: Friday, July 17

Time: 17:00 - 18:00

Stage: Inside Stage

About

IRSOL was a minimal synth group from Coventry, England, active in the early 1980s. The band released two cassettes — First Contact (1982) and Half Life (1983) — on Adventures In Reality Recordings, Alan Rider’s Coventry-based industrial and experimental label that also released material by SPK and Test Department. Their recordings were made at Black Prince Studios between 1981 and 1983.

IRSOL’s sound sits within the minimal synth and post-industrial electronic scene that emerged from the UK’s DIY cassette culture.

In Their Own Words

16 Questions · Interview by Maks Giordano · Answered by Ashley Niblock

Q1

The name IRSOL gives almost nothing away. Was the opacity deliberate, a way of refusing to be marketed, or does it mean something you have never explained?

We took our name from an obscure science fiction game we used to play.

Q2

Your two main releases are titled First Contact and Half Life. Was there a shared sci-fi or Cold War anxiety that influenced these conceptual titles?

Science fiction was definitely a big influence on us then and now. And radioactivity, not just war but power too, was much talked about. For Half Life, the second album, the title is a play on radioactive decay and the second side being a live recording.

Q3

You recorded at Black Prince Studios between 1981 and 1983. What was that studio space like, and how did it differ from recording in a bedroom?

Black Prince Studios was our studio. It was pretty small. With headphones on you can be transported anywhere. Ashley also slept there.

Q4

In the early 1980s, cheap analog gear was notoriously unstable and difficult to keep in tune. What were the specific technical challenges you faced when recording your tracks?

The gear did have lots of quirks and we were happy to exploit those musically. Back then we had to capture everything in the moment. We'd never be able to re-create a sound the next day as there was no 'Save Preset' button. And 4-Track recording meant endless bounce downs, so the mix was created on-the-go with no going back.

We'd never be able to re-create a sound the next day as there was no 'Save Preset' button.
Q5

Are you utilizing your original, unstable analog instruments for your live performance at VOD Fest, or have you had to adopt modern digital emulations for stability on stage?

Analog. We wish! We wouldn't put the audience or the band through that tightrope walk. Much as we loved them then, and continue to love them now, we're lucky to have very good modern versions for live use. They still very much have their place in the creative process, and long may that continue.

Q6

How do you view the modern minimal synth scene, where young musicians attempt to replicate the exact bedroom aesthetic you pioneered out of necessity?

Is there one? That's great! But that's how music grows and evolves. We don't see ourselves as pioneers, nobody is musically, success just makes it look that way. Everything is the product of what came before it.

Q7

Coventry was undergoing severe economic and industrial decline in the early 1980s. How did the urban reality of the Midlands affect your choice to make electronic music rather than traditional punk rock?

It was a time of decline. We found the music to be a means of escape then, and we still do today.

We found the music to be a means of escape then, and we still do today.
Q8

Coventry is famous worldwide for two-tone, a warm and danceable sound. You made cold, minimal electronics in the same city at the same time. Were you reacting against that scene or just ignoring it?

We're glad there was a Coventry music scene. The music we made came out of us and the equipment. We never set out to be like anybody or unlike anybody else. It's just us.

We never set out to be like anybody or unlike anybody else. It's just us.
Q9

Adventures in Reality was a cassette label, a whole economy built on the post and the photocopier. What did that network give you that the record industry never could?

Looking back, it seems amazing. It was pure enthusiast-led, (largely) marketing and hype-free fan-driven direct connection. It certainly helped us back then, and among the underground that still exists. It's harder to find, but it's still around.

Q10

You had 808s and 606s next to homemade computer code. When the drum machine and the microcomputer disagreed, which one did you trust?

Neither. Ourselves.

Q11

Minimal synth was minimal partly by necessity and partly by choice. Looking back, how much of your restraint was aesthetics and how much was simply the limits of what three people could afford?

Back then, our music was definitely limited by what we could buy or borrow. The discipline of working within constraints to make music remains important. Too many choices are worse than too few.

Too many choices are worse than too few.
Q12

You are now on a festival bill next to genuine legends of the genre. Does recognition arriving four decades late feel like vindication, like a strange joke, or like it happened to someone else?

It's an honor to be invited to play. We're happy that people found our music and like it enough to invite us to play alongside such an amazing collection of bands. The first two albums were well received; we kept all the handwritten letters we received. It's been great to open that box file and read them over again. It's been a long slow burn.

Q13

Live in a drama studio in 1983, in front of a small local audience, versus a festival stage in 2026. What survives the gap, and what is impossible to recreate?

We think we have managed to preserve a lot of the minimal simplicity of the original tracks and resisted the urge to turn them into elaborate songs.

Q14

When you listen back to First Contact now, can you still hear the room and the year in it, or has it become an abstract object detached from where it came from?

We remember the feeling more than the date. First Contact remains a piece of work very much of its time, and we hope to capture that spirit in our live set. That's what matters to us.

Q15

Most of your peers who stayed obscure never got asked these questions. What is the thing about IRSOL that you have always wanted someone to notice and no one ever has?

Imagination with limitations can take you a long way. Creation is an end in itself.

Q16

Your performance opens the Inside Stage on Friday at 17:00. How do you plan to set the tone for the entire festival with your cold, historical minimal synth tracks?

We couldn't be more excited, it's an honour. Our music already covers quite a range from minimal ambient to noisy experimentation, so we hope there's something in our set to get everyone's ears warmed up for all the amazing bands to follow.

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