British producer, Ben Frascina, has been tuning in ears with the beautiful atmospheric music he brings to life under the moniker Skylab 3. Influenced by a myriad of dynamic music pioneers from DJ Shadow to Massive Attack to Wu Tan Clan, he cultivates an eclectic and entrancing catalog that allows fans to transcend reality. Skylab’3’s debut album, A View From Above, was released via Babygrande Records on June 10 , 2016.
Skylab 3 comes from a musical family and was exposed to a great many kinds of music and instruments. Skylab 3, aka Ben Frascina, learned to play keyboards at the age of 9 and guitar at the age of 11. “I’ve always been compelled to create music and share it with others,” he states. His love for hip-hop beats played a huge part in the creation of the featured tracks on the A View From Above album.”
Whether the album name refers to the feeling you get when looking at a landscape from a tall building, mountain, airplane, from outer space, whether it refers to being happy or even being in an altered state of mind as a result of drugs or other spiritual methods practiced by different cultures is up to the listener entirely. Frascina’s intent is to take the listener on a journey – a sonically dynamic escape from reality by getting lost in the spacey, atmospheric soundscapes that make up the album.
A View From Above was recorded in Sheffield, England and at Frascina’s home in Cardiff, Wales. He produced and engineered the album using his MacBook and a pair of KRK Rokit 5 monitors. The main DAW used was Logic 9, and many VST instruments, Plugins (for compression, effects, re-amping etc) and audio samples containing drum hits, vocals, various sound effects and speech, which he used in tracks on the album. In addition, the album was mastered by Daddy Kev at Cosmic Zoo.