That moment

Disquiet Junto 0308 Giving Thanks

The Disquiet Junto this week has a Thanksgiving theme, asking for a piece that expresses gratitude.

I've a lot to be thankful for and spent Friday wondering who or what to focus on. Then on Friday night I visited my friend Alicia Boyd's Tumblr and liked her prose 'Liberation Please'.

While the theme isn't exactly gratitude, it does pick up on a few themes for me. I met Ms Boyd at Burning Seed, an event which has changed my life, and she recently appropriated a line from one of my haiku. So I thought I'd show my gratitude for her interest in my writing by appropriating some of her's.

This morning I experimented with making the words sit on a chord progression and then quickly recorded this take.

Oblique Strategy

Naviarhaiku202 – wind blows its way to sea

Here's my last minute response to the haiku shared by Naviar Records last week.

I was going to a meeting when I heard a chiming sound and identified the source as the flagpoles outside the bowling club.

That evening I returned and made a record, which has been effected in Ableton Live.

I liked the idea that the wind in Leeton continues onto to the sea that is at least 500km away.

Sound guy

Naviarhaiku201 – In the calm stillness

The haiku shared by Naviar Records this week was an opportunity to create a frantic track inspired by flies.

I can't help it

Disquiet Junto 0306 Music in Motion

The Junto this week asks participants to compose and record a piece while traveling.

As far as constraints go, I didn't have plans to go anywhere this week and asked my partner to drive to the op shop while I attempted to make up something musical.

I'm not sure it's successful. My mate Paul pointed out there's a discordant note.

Susan Rogers on painting with sound

“push sound around the way a painter would push paint around on canvas. Picasso can draw a woman and put both eyes on the side of her face and we get it. Likewise, with sound, it doesn’t have to sound exactly like a piano – it needs to be the idea of a piano.”

Disquiet Junto 0305 Three Princes

The Junto this week asks for three loops of different lengths drawn from an archive of Sri Lankan music, then made into a song.

My loops came from "Aadarayai_Karunawai" and "Sri_Maha_Bodhimulehi" and "Umba_Kiya_Kiya" but they ended up being relatively in sync.

When I settled on these samples I was using a different percussion part from the last of those songs, which had a 6/8 riff.

Then I got tired of the musical part over the top of that rhythm and found there was a 5/4 break in the track, so I settled on using it.

After doing this I looked at the other two loops, a horn I think and three bell chimes, tweaked their lengths only a little and found they were 20 beats, 10 beats and the drums were 5 beats.

Then I started a drum part to accompany them and realised it was 4/4, which was a shock as the bass part I'd been jamming on was 3/4 and a bit similar to 'Money' by Pink Floyd.

So I played the bass a bit more and found a kinda disco part that seemed good for a chorus.

Press for changeover

Sonification versus musical metaphors?

This video explains some of the frustration I've had with arbitrary sound choices.

For me the question first arose when numerous friends shared this video with me:



I understand the tree rings are triggering the piano but it seemed like sleight of hand when they suggested I was hearing the tree.

Then there are the contact mic apps that use the sound source to trigger a sample. Again it's a somewhat arbitrary process to suggest the object being struck is creating the musical result.

I think sonification is an interesting process but one that would be better described as a musical metaphor.

Where...is my Slayer?

Naviarhaiku200 – We’ve explored miles

Couldn't let the 200th haiku shared by Naviar Records pass without a response.

Yesterday I took four chords on the ukulele, looped them with a Jamman pedal and fed them into my gated rig.

It was the first time I'd used the effects chain in a while but it seemed appropriate as it's a technique used to interpret previous haikus.

Then I added a bassline and made a couple of edits, before waiting overnight for the video to render.