SING!
Some time ago I challenged myself to record an album with vocals.
It's taken a while to get comfortable with the idea of sharing it, but that distance has let me observe there's a wide variety of styles among the tracks.
I'm grateful to US music educator and blogger Ethan Hein for remixing 'Prime' which was recorded for a Disquiet Junto project, as well as producer Laura "DJ Pnutz" Bolokoski for her amazing remix of the track 'Alright'.
I also found inspiration in the writing of Alicia Boyd and Ash Bond, and appreciated getting the perspectives of David Graham, Ian Joyce and Dan "Long Distance" Larkin.
Other tracks were responses to Naviar Records' haiku prompts, including 'Ghostly Melody' which was composed from my senryu poems.
The video for that song was recorded at Leeton's swimming pool and will be part of an online art exhibition organised by Dubbo-based artist Kim Goldsmith next month.
The album SING ends with an electro-metal hybrid which was written after reading a front page article in Griffith's The Area News (but then exaggerated).
As someone who loves music and writing, I had to give songwriting a go.
Disquiet Junto 0434 Beat Kit
The Disquiet Junto follows up on the kits of samples developed by the community last week, with the instruction to create music with beats crafted by fellow participants.
I've taken samples by Ausgesuchtestenohren and mode.analogue to remix my track 'Alright' with their sounds.
Immersion
It's been a few years since I last visited and I leave with so many great photographs and recordings, they appear in Junto and Naviar projects for years afterwards.
For now I'll have to make do with music.
naviarhaiku328 – flowering fields
Then I remembered I've been meaning to try composing using Elektroplanton, the Nintendo DS game from 2005 designed by Toshio Iwai.
I liked the idea of using the colourful leaves to evoke autumn and to expand the boundaries of my music-making.
The soundtrack you hear is a result of taking that performance and using it as MIDI information through a couple of VST synths.
I chose sounds that reminded me of insects circling.
Disquiet Junto 0433 Kit Bits
I've exported a dozen sounds from my recording of Spinks Park for the Junto to use.
You can download audio (7mb aif file) and video (21mb mov file), both single files containing the 12 tones.
naviarhaiku327 – meandering through the city
My 110th video for Naviar's haiku prompts.
Disquiet Junto 0432 Ensembles (Remix)
Listening back over last week's Junto tracks, there were so many wonderful collaborations.
However, I had it in mind that I was going to take a traditional approach to remixing and add drums.
After all, most of what I've done for these trios has been drums.
This week I've revisited my 707 recordings from last week and used them with another of Krakenkraft's tracks.
'Threat' started as bass drones from Matt Davis Music, then Krakenkraft extended those and gave it that title, before Ausgesuchtestenohren added a "pulsating, noisy synth layer as the third one."
My contribution has been to sidechain the bass to the kick and create a dirty techno track.
The bass required a lot of attention and I've EQ'd it back a bit to squeeze in the kick.
Disquiet Junto 0431 Solitary Ensembles x 3
For the Disquiet Junto this week I've joined Krakenkraft and DeDe for the 'Virtual Berlin School Trio,' adding a 707 drum part.
I'd considered joining this track last week, but the flac file was an extra step in the recording process which discouraged me.
Ambient relay
Recently I joined an "ambient relay," where each participant contributed to two tracks.
This asynchronous collaboration crossed the finish line today and is now on Bandcamp.
I've been involved with various relays and appreciate they all have different approaches.
At first I thought we'd only be listening to the contribution of the person ahead of us, then realised that was an assumption from other processes.
You can see in this graphic how the process was designed for each participant to build on the previous collaborator.
I find myself a bit irritated that some of the more textural sounds sit in the foreground of the mix, but enjoyed the prompt to develop new work and explore a different practice.
This asynchronous collaboration crossed the finish line today and is now on Bandcamp.
I've been involved with various relays and appreciate they all have different approaches.
At first I thought we'd only be listening to the contribution of the person ahead of us, then realised that was an assumption from other processes.
I find myself a bit irritated that some of the more textural sounds sit in the foreground of the mix, but enjoyed the prompt to develop new work and explore a different practice.
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