Well, I was making on some things for work, trying to figure out some demonstration patches to explain some synths, and I ended recording the rain outside my window, which was coming down in sheets, echoing along the aluminum roof on the garage next to my window, and resonating all over the place inside. I mixed in into what I was doing. It has been raining amazingly here off and on all weekend.
I am not sure what happened but I also recorded some dogs or animals or ghosts or murder or something by accident. They must have been sounds coming in through the garage and bouncing around...then later some organ parts, and I guess at some point some resonant filters got involved...suddenly I realized it sounded like a cover of Angelo Baldalamenti and David Lynch doing their thing. Well, that's fine, because I really like those guys! (but really, the imitation unconscious:) Well, then I watched Mulholland Drive again, which I hadn't seen in a very long time, and it totally freaked me out. If it is raining out your window like it was mine, maybe there is some harmony to be had with these dark forces. and here we are, far from perfect but it is what it is:
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48603277" iframe="true" /]
Two or three weeks ago I recorded an entire record at home really fast. I had to get some things off my. The whole thing was a real experience, and the record is a total mess. It has versions of some new songs on it, ones I have been playing a bit here and there, like I played at LePlacard and at Daniel Vlcek's opening. Also some instrumental tracks. I did the whole thing really fast, leaving the parts unfinished around the edges, only cleaning up what really bothered me, and leaving the rest. I just tried to finish what seemed most important. I let the tunings be themselves ("out of tune" except when it didn't work). There is no sync, nothing to sync to. I let some edits be audible, I like that too. I'll never understand why it is ok for edits to be visible in cinema but in sound it is "unprofessional" for editing not to be "transparent". Anyhow, I wish I had more time to mix it is all, because there are issues, but maybe there is an honesty in it because of that. Maybe I would like to do it with some better microphones, in a better room, and with a lot more time to mix someday. I don't know, maybe no one will ever hear it. Maybe I will redo it later in the summer! One thing I can say, is that I did what I wanted (except I would love to mix it better). I had to do it fast too, because it had to be finished in time for something...anyway everything has been super intense, too intense. Now that all that is done, I have to do something else. Its all interconnected somehow. Here is a picture of the, uh, "tracking area". If you think this is funny, you should see the "editing suite"
the sound might actually be a bit better quality than the picture. There is a construction company on the other side of the wall. Sleeping and recording there are interesting, but I like sleeping there.
anyway -
Since then, the last two weeks I have been working on making sound about nothing. Noise clears the air.
Here is a picture of a swimming pool. Swimming pools clear the air too, even small ones.
I like this quote by Gerard Grisey:
"We are musicians and our model is sound - not literature, sound - not mathematics, sound - not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, astrology, or acupuncture."
(interview with Grisey here, by the way)
I also don't want it to be about anything other than it is itself. This track isn't so special, but I made it with this with a new synth I made in Pure Data, and some feedback, viola, vocals, etc, the usual. Its just a test, but I think it is itself, so I would am posting it. Its nothing like Grisey, unfortunately, but whatever it is, here it is:
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/48621981" iframe="true" /]
I am looking forward to when it is clear again and I can watch the sunset with a cowboy hat on
