ABOUT
You are on the precipice of the ultimate unknown. You are the pulse of doubt in a scientist’s brain. You are standing in the ashes of a world you once cherished. You are unsure if you are human anymore. The Man That Time Forgot blooms these ideas into interstellar color, crafted with equal parts ambition and heart by Radiolarian, moniker for solo artist Gordon Ashby. Ashby, fascinated by the advancements of modern science, as well as the sprawling world of science fiction, crafts an experience that takes its cues from some of the most engrossing sci-fi stories of all time. By blending our current societal unrest with unbridled imagination, Radiolarian cultivates an experience that feels at once like an escape and a twisted mirror held up to our own reality.
“There are moments where you feel good and you can escape and feel normal and then there’s an underlying anxiety under everything. That’s kind of how life has felt these last couple of years.” Ashby says, describing the threads of unease that run through the record, which remains unpredictable from beginning to end. The Man That Time Forgot is lush and melodic, glimmering with textures and driving beats that make up Ashby’s diverse palette. His creative intuition guides the listener through the twists and turns of a faraway (or not so far away) world, while his voice shines with emotive charisma, making it difficult to believe this is Ashby’s first earnest venture as the primary songwriter, producer, and engineer for a project.
A life-long Portlander, Ashby cut his teeth in the local music scene by cycling the house show circuit in a variety of projects, though never as a front-person. Around 2017, circumstance led Ashby to embark on the path towards becoming a solo musician, and he soon became determined to write and record The Man That Time Forgot. For Ashby, who would go on to single-handedly play, record, and mix every piece of the record, it was an unprecedented task that partners, in spirit, with humanity’s maiden voyage into space. Indeed, as the album opens with the buoyant “Embarkation Day,” it is easy to recall a blue-skied inaugural launch, brimming with an optimism that promises to be challenged.
The Man That Time Forgot, the debut EP of Radiolarian, delivers us into and out of danger like a good novel, opening doors to unanswerable questions and conversations that feel fresh to the world of indie rock. It was written, engineered, and mixed by Gordon Ashby in Portland, OR, and mastered at Atomic Mastering in Salem, OR