A Blindfolded Look Into The Future With Optrex

Optrex has ventured into the brave new world of technology and wellbeing by releasing an album of ambient sounds to accompany the release of their new eye mask.

Collaborating with Ash Sargant, a sound engineer and former DJ, and playing on the idea that their new eye mask and five ambient tracks are the perfect way to relax, the eye care specialist has successfully repurposed the everyday sounds of London, into an album called Cloud 9 Recordings.

From the monotonous hum of an escalator in the London Underground, to a roaring plane landing at London City Airport, Sargant used field recordings to turn the capital’s notoriously hectic sounds into a beautifully nuanced playlist.

“The tracks are a blend of environmental sounds and ambient synthesis,” Sargant said. “To underpin the task of helping people to relax, my aim was to try and place the field recordings in a more pleasant setting, so listeners may form more positive associations with them when heard in daily life.”

“I needed to strike a good balance between them and the synthesised music so they complimented one another. The biggest challenge, other than the final mixing stage was to keep the tracks relaxing, whilst retaining the true nature of environmental sound; which meant including the peace and the chaos.”

In addition to Sargant’s palpable musical intuition, he also wedded a host of different technologies to bring the relaxing sounds together.

“I was focussed on creating random, evolving polyrhythmic loops using a Boss RC505 looping device,” He explains. “The synthesised sounds were generated by a Modor NF1, a Novation KS Rack and an Access Virus TI Polar, plus an Akai MPC and Elektron Octatrack for various sequencing and effects tasks. I then tracked these into my Mac for further layering and editing.”

As well as the aforementioned sound alchemist’s armoury of cutting-edge technology, the Optrex Warming Eye Mask is also a blindfolded look into the future of eye care. Using MicrosteamTM technology to gently moisten and soothe tired eyes in 10 minutes, the duration of each of Ash’s perfectly harmonious tracks, Optrex have endeavoured to bring a whole new experience to their eye care range.