Opportunism was recorded off and on approximately between 2019-2021. The album consists of primarily of sounds captured while working in a lab. Bryan is a behavioral neuroscience graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studies the neurobiology of fear, anxiety and decision-making. The name of the album is intended to reflect the means in which it was recorded; opportunistically while working or during brief periods of respite in between work.

Bryan confiscated a variety of cassette players (all of them broken in one way or another) from the Psychology department storage and began recording sounds while working. Here are some of the found sounds:

Track 1: Keyence bz-x800 fluorescence microscope
Track 2: Nuts and bolts across wood, synth playback through Grass lab audio amplifier
Track 3. Destroying “closed economy” behavioral apparatus in the department loading dock (Haters style)
Track 4: Metal junk play in loading dock, recordings of my parent’s garden fountain/conversations we had while I was visiting home.
Track 5: Air leak from bike tire on way home from school and office keyboard (followed by synth noise and contact mic)
Track 6. Coffee mug against stairwell rail (cassette loop), broken office thermometer and office refrigerator.
Track 7: Preparing room for behavioral experiment, 3d printer operating.
Track 8: Cassette player feedback and ultrasonic frequencies being picked up from office electronics by cassette player with poor electrical shielding. Manipulated fire alarm from a building fire drill.

Minimal synthesizer was later added to the tracks. Manipulation of the source material was purposefully minimal; mainly just panning and EQ work. Some custom Max/MSP was used too.

“Conceptually, I view this album as artistic expression of the struggles to obtain work/life balance in graduate school, as well as the intrinsic coupling of science and art—research in general takes a lot of creativity and is not simply rote procedural stuff from what I’ve come to realize over the years. Ultimately, however, it was simply a way for me to blend my two passions in a way that I could afford and to create sounds I like to hear.” - Bryan Schuessler

Available as 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC

Tracklisting:

1. Op. 1 - 01:50
2. Op. 2 - 02:16
3. Op. 3 - 02:03
4. Op. 4 - 02:49
5. Op. 5 - 06:29
6. Op. 6 - 02:23
7. Op. 7 - 05:39
8. Op. 8 - 07:53