”Waiting Space’ is an audio & visual project – and the alias of Irish musician and creator, Chris Falconer. ‘Cocoon’, their first single in almost three years, is out now.
Through a D.I.Y. process that is enabled by contemporary technology, as ‘Waiting Space’, he creates self-recorded/self-produced songs – characterised by dynamic vocals and cinematic instrumentals – typically blending programmed-electronics & live-instrumentation. Each piece of musical-output is then ‘complemented’ by visuals which Falconer independently creates in response – including artwork, animations, and short films.
‘Waiting Space’ began in 2013, as a side project for Falconer – who is also the vocalist of the Irish indietronica band, Ghetto Amaretto . The project was initially a platform for musical ideas that ‘did not fit’ Ghetto’s catalogue – but when that project subsequently went on an extended hiatus, Waiting Space became an equal-focus for Falconer. The project also fit a mid-20s change-in-circumstances, as he found himself increasingly confined to recording in domestic settings, and with a reduced, irregular schedule in which to create music (as his artistic-output was forced to compete with his full-time architecture-industry occupation).
The project became a catalyst for Falconer to learn more about the technical aspects of music-making, recording & producing (elements he had been relatively sheltered from in previous projects as a solely a vocalist) as well as learning news skills in video-production, to create the ‘appropriate’ visuals to match these sounds & words.’
Due to a heightened-risk arising from immunosuppressing medication which Falconer takes for an autoimmune disease – like many others, he has been undertaking the practice of ‘cocooning’, during COVID-19. ‘Cocoon’ takes its name from this – and it is the first solely-instrumental release I’ve put out as Waiting Space – having decided to leave the song lyric-less, as it’s likely the most ‘hopeful’ sounding piece of music Falconer has written under the ‘Waiting Space’ moniker – and believed it was timely to leave the song as is.
The song began life as a demo entitled ‘Piano Vs. Synth’ – and this previous title sets the scene for how the track unfolds: starting with a gentle piano progression, before a swelling-evolution develops from a hybrid of electronics and acoustic instruments – always rising towards a crescendo, until eventually breaking (musically attempting to reflect the breaking of a new dawn), before a returning-coda eases us into the new (normal) present.
The single is accompanyied by a self-produced drone video, assembled from footage of an almost-empty Waterford City, taken in April 2020 during COVID-19 (all shot in recent days, within 2 k.m. of Falconer’s home).
