Darren Morris - Union II (2025)

Following on from Darren Morris’s debut LP, ‘Union I’, Ramrock Noir are proud to present ‘Union II’ - an album written and produced entirely by Darren Morris. Darren takes up the narrative….

‘Union II’ offers more of a cinematic feel and with a greater use of synthesiser scoring around previously recorded organ improvisation material performed on the iconic Henry Watts organ at London’s Union Chapel. Solina string machines gently underpin the more sustained sections of the album, recorded separately as cellos, violas and violins. Arpeggiated performances on the Nord Lead II add a bit of sci-fi movement, plus pings and pops from a random rhythm generator synth made lovingly inside the Nord Modular Mk1 - both keyboards I’ve owned since 1998 by Swedish company Clavia. You can hear a xylophone introduced in the track, ‘Little Legs’, along with that Nord Modular. In ‘Monosynth Mountain Hop’, a new character takes the lead, a Nord Lead in fact, giving a nod perhaps to Tangerine Dream, Herbie Hancock and other 1970’s electronic music composers. The voice appears again on ‘Unwinding Vision’ and the last track, ‘Finally The Help I Need’. For me, the second album feels like it is a supporting soundtrack score to a film that hasn’t been found yet….stranger things have happened.

Organ improvisation performed by Darren Morris and recorded at the Union Chapel, London.
Studio instrumentation added later at North Street West studio.

Instruments include the original Nord Modular, Nord Lead II, Moog Minitaur, Solina String machines and tape echo.

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