1. PROMNESIA
2. SMALLER QUIETLY
3. FLEXIBLE LUXURY OF LIGHT
4. GLIMMER WORLD
5. WEAK CORPSE(AND VOICES)
6. ENOH TWEAK
7. THE DREAM ENCOUNTERED (AND GHOSTS)
8. THE FOG OF SURRENDER
9. DELICATELY QUIET PILLOW
10. E.U – R.I.P – U.K
NOTES SUR PROMNESIA
The title Promnesia seemed apt to use as 2019 represents my 10th anniversary of doing the RPM challenge. I certainly feel like I have been here before. I had never heard the word before until I read a review of Julian Lynch’s RATS SPIT in the February 2019 UNCUT music magazine. I also copied various phrases from that article and ran them through a verbasizer on 2/10/19 to generate titles for most of the other pieces
TIMELINE
Towards the end of January 2019, Spencer sent me 10 different logic audio projects/files which contained a number of variations on different ambient guitar noises and atmospheres. Some of Spencer’s recordings contained fairly traditional melodic and rhythmic information and some contained only guitar noises. When I started working with the files on February 1st 2019.
I initially began by dissecting the audio and reconstructing parts in order to make it fit a midi time clock. I did a couple of tracks utilizing this approach, but quickly shifted towards working with the audio in Spencer’s original files, considering the sounds as a distinct entity, forcing myself to abandon midi time code altogether and allow Spencer’s improvisations to determine the shape and feel of the music.
Having worked on numerous RPM challenges in the past. I am well aware of the necessity to work quickly and to commit yourself to decisions in the creative process that you would not necessarily allow yourself to do.
As I was working through the pieces I gradually realized I was improvising my own synth parts on top of Spencer’s guitar parts pretty much in real time, committing immediately to what I had done and then adding more elements in the same way before moving on to the next piece.
This was a slightly different way of approaching things for me. As always, there are things that you feel could be different – cut some harsh frequencies with EQ, balance the sound differently in this place or that, add melodies or harmonies here or there. I also considered adding 12 string guitar to E.U-R.I.P-U.K and vocals to one or two other tracks.
I always think I will come back to the material I do in the RPM challenge when I have more time in order to address these issues. I never do and probably won’t in this case either.
But you never know….
The RPM challenge always takes place over the month of February. In February 2019, the horrible specter of UK leaving the European Union is looming large. ‘Brexit’ will take place on March 29 2019.
Both Spencer and I are of the opinion that Brexit has been disastrous for the UK as a whole and that leaving the European Union will cause irreparable damage to the country.
With great sadness I am totally resigned to all of the worst case scenarios happening as a result of Brexit and at some point during my creative process with this project, it hit me that the next time I do the RPM challenge again, the UK will be out, alone and impoverished.
Although the music in this project was not initially designed with these thoughts in mind, the whole context of the UK’s self imposed exile from Europe began frame everything.
I did some further work on the piece. Reduced the overall time of the track to approx 4:30 and did some additional interesting things with the voices. I also added an instrumental piece I started to work on back in May 2019 called ‘Ghosts’
——————————————————————
I’m going to get you – sound installation at playground arts as part of ‘aural drifting’ event
Outline of the process:
1. Create a simple story
I’m going to get you
I’m going to put you in the box
Then I’m going to put the box in the car
Then I’m going to drive the car down the 51
Then I’m going to get off at Lincoln
Then I’m going to drive down Lincoln
Then I’m going to get to brackens
Then I’m going to stop the car
Then I’m going to open the car
Then I’m going to get the box out of the car
Then I’m going to take the box into brackens
Then I’m going to open the box
Then I’m going to get you out of the box
Then I’m going to leave you there
2. Record three or four versions into zoom recorder
3. Transfer wav files into logic audio – end up with 4 audio tracks. The whole sequence became a 330 bar loop
4. Convert these audio tracks in to EXS sampler files – the audio is chopped up and for every slice of the audio file, a midi note is automatically assigned to that slice and a new midi track is created in logic audio. Because the audio slices on the transient peaks in the audio, you can sometimes end up with 3 or 4 slices of audio per word
5. Apply midi scripter to these 4 new tracks – assigning random probability gate for each track. Set probability of midi notes playing somewhere between 1-5%. This means that only 1-5% of the notes/words will be randomly triggered – this will be different each time the 330 bar loop repeats – and theoretically result in endless variation
Additional considerations/enhancements to the whole:
• Keep original audio segments, which are unsliced and allow them to fade in and out at different points so that the original story can be discerned
• Apply different effects to each sliced audio track – for example, on one track which only is only playing 1% of the midi information, I added an ‘endless reverb’ from logic’s chromaverb
• On the unsliced audio, I added a tight room reverb – there were 4 tracks 2 tracks were panned hard left and 2 tracks panned hard right – a future version might have automated dynamic panning
• I had to apply compressors/limiters to the master bus to tame and smooth out peaks in the audio
• I did some additional processing on some of the tracks with a eventide harmonizer…one of which made my voice sound like a girl. These additionally treated tracks fade in and out during the performance
Hardware/software requirements for the performance:
• Equipment – Hewlett Packard hackintosh running logic audio
• JBL book shelf speakers x 2 placed on speaker stands and separated as far apart as possible to maximize stereo field
• Lepai 2020 amp – low power, clear sound, ideal for smallish installations
• Logic audio is set up with mixer screen prominent – different elements are faded in and out during the performance randomly and manually
• Latex life mask of particledots back lit with small LED and mounted on back of laptop screen
Thoughts on how it sounds and possible further refinements:
• In some ways it sounds like a midi version of Burroughs cut up technique https://youtu.be/m1InCrzGIPUhttps://youtu.be/6NU3dIdqIBw
• Adding the audio effect to change the gender of the voice is an interesting touch
• Norman Collier faulty mic effect https://youtu.be/Mzx3wNNuyB8
• Consider using hardware controller to alter midi parameters in real time
• The particledots glowing face on back of computer was cool – per simon suggestion, is there a way of synchronizing the back light of the mask to flicker on and off as the voices speak?
• Consider a quadrophonic version, with different voices crossing over the quadrophonic grid in different ways – would require x2 amount of hardware and possibly 2 x operators
• Do something with a different story and a more interesting voice than mine (or multiple voices)
• Are there other effects that could be utilized instead of or in addition to the endless reverb? Delays, lo/high pass filters? Distortion?
This was the first RPM challenge I did with my friend Kevin who lives in Brooklyn. I had made plenty of music via remote collaborations prior to this but nothing quite like the RPM challenge where you have to funnel all of your activities for album’s worth of material, all within 28 days.
It is interesting collaborating like this in such an intense / short burst kind of way – you are not quite sure who is supposed to do what. Ultimately my main role emerged as a kind of producer – pulling all the differing strands of material together and trying to make it sound coherent
2010: I didn’t do the RPM challenge this year as I was working on the Staring Down Andy installation throughout the whole month of February in order for it to be displayed at Practical Art for the month of March 2010
2011: Looking Outside by APOD
2011: In Limbo by Sonic Magpie
I certainly made up for not doing anything in 2010 by creating 2 CDs in 2011.
The first one was called Looking Outside. We called ourselves APOD – me Kevin and Michael. We had made quite a few pieces prior to this and we didn’t make many more after this. J I think there are some great tunes on ‘Looking Outside’, particularly the first 3 or 4 tracks. My role again for this was ‘producer’, although I did contribute many of the backing tracks.
As this CD was coming together, I was simultaneously working on another one with my friend Cat, sometimes feeding the same backing tracks to her as the ones I was sending to APOD. Neither of the virtual bands knew I was doing this and when Cat found out she got very upset about it. However the reason I did was purely to see how different people would react to the same process/input and how it would affect the final result. So if you listen to the APOD CD and the Sonic Magpie CD, you might be able to detect the similarities in the backing tracks but with totally different vocal melodies and production treatments applied.
Ultimately I was totally transparent with everyone about what I had done and why I had done it and all was OK. The whole thing was an intense, creative wild ride and produced some of the best music I have ever done – particularly Sonic Magpie’s ‘In Limbo’, probably the most consistent set of songs I have ever done for the RPM challenge and one of the ones I still listen to a lot even today.
2013 – Holy Qaug Dab Peg Haley
In 2012 I met Haley through various art scene events. I first met her when I was working with a band called the RPM Orchestra, making videos for them. Haley played violin and tap danced with them at one of the gigs they did that I filmed. After chatting with Haley a few times, she told me the interesting story of her epilepsy and her brain surgery.
As the 2013 RPM challenge month approached I asked her if she would be interested in collaborating on a project about her perceptions of epilepsy and she agreed to let me do a series of interviews with her, which I could then cut up and use as raw material for the CD. It was an interesting experience and ended up sounding like nothing I have ever done before.
Sometimes she would play scratchy and somewhat out of tune bursts of violin during the interview which I sampled and incorporated into the music. She also had a number of seizures while I was interviewing her over the period of a few days which also went into the recording. I found this one very hard to make, the process was very different but ultimately it was a great sense of accomplishment for us both when it was finished and I think we are both proud of what we did, even though it generally doesn’t make for easy listening
2014 – Enovoix
2014 – Anecdotes
In 2014 I made 2 CDs again.
Quite often at the initial brainstorming phase, you come up with many ideas about what you might try to do. In 2013, two of the predominant ideas were to sing along to a load of Brian Eno records – not the words, but the melodies of what the instruments on the records are playing – bass lines, keyboard lines, guitar lines etc – even drums. The process was for me to then take the a cappella vocals I had made and re-contextualize them somehow – slowing them down, reversing them, adding lots of effects, echo and reverb in order to make them something new. So this is what you hear on the enovoix CD.
At the same time, I was interested in the idea of doing something with spoken voices, so I got a lot of people to record various stories and anecdotes which I then made into an almost NPR-like audio book.
Take a listen to my story ‘the mucous plug’ – a variation on my infamous ‘tracheostomy story’ that I used to love telling when I was a nurse working on the floor (both here and in the UK)
In 2015 there may or may not have been a CD I made that was called ‘Imaginary CD’
In fact, I actually did make this CD, all along with the intention that I was only going let it be available to hear for a few days, after which time I would ‘delete’ it.
There are a couple of tracks still up that were included on it – such as ‘Armadillo’, ‘six foot seven’ and ‘Notes of Sorrow’
2016: Escape Achieve (with Sylvia Frost)
2016: Bowivoix
Another year where I managed to do two CDs.
The bulk of the work was done on ‘Escape Achieve’ with Sylvia which was based on our reflections of aging, death and melancholy’. It was quite a personal project for Sylvia because it allowed her to process some of the feelings about the death of her mother which she had never really resolved. Sylvia as got a great voice and a great way with words. It was great working with her on this unusual CD.
The Bowivoix CD came about as a result of Bowie dying a few weeks before and served as a great way of me being able to process that. Using a similar idea as I did for the enovoix CD, I simply recorded myself singing along with a bunch of Bowie records – this time, I just sang and hummed the backing vocals of these songs and then put new music in the background. I pulled all this together in the last couple of days of Feb 2016, so it was a bit rushed and is always something I have wanted to return to make it better in some way
2017: what will we leave behind?
2017’s effort didn’t come too easily. I went into it truly with a blank canvas, not having any idea at all where it was going to take me.
A group of 6 or 7 of us created a dropbox folder and we were all adding various files, musical snippets, midi files, field recordings, the idea that any of us could use any of this material in any way we wanted so at least something would be made.
I also got into the strange world of midi scripters (thanks to brian eno). A midi scripter is a program that lets you put musical information in to it and depending on what parameters you set, it plays it back in a totally random way, basically creating a new piece of music from the original piece of information each time it is played. Hours of fun with this.
Many years ago, I bought a copy of Brian Enos book called ‘A Year with Swollen Appendix’. This book is his diary for 1995. So I went through his entries for the whole month of Feb and picked odd words or phrases to use as the song titles
2018: Sun Sets
To bring it all up to date is this years ‘Sun Sets’ I found it much more difficult to become engaged with the whole RPM challenge this, even more so than I did in 2017. I wasn’t really getting into it and almost gave up the ghost on a few occasions. If I measure my level engagement with the 2018 effort based on the APOD/Sonic Magpie year being 100% I would have to say it was below 50%.
I went through a convoluted process of creating with a number of crazy barriers and parameters to try and make me do something different (including setting up a recording studio with 2 computers inside my garage – right next to my ….studio)
In the end, a friend of mine Bill Grundmann improvised some piano parts and sent me the midi file, which I then put through the midi scripters. I ended up with a few ambient sounding pieces which a have a certain quality about them, they remind me of the sun sets / magic hours I have seen numerous times on many of my walks.
So that is what I decided to call the 2018 CD. I still remain about 65% satisfied with this, even though some of the pieces are starting to grow on me (‘Still Blue’, ‘Blood’)
2019: Promnesia
1. PROMNESIA
2. SMALLER QUIETLY
3. FLEXIBLE LUXURY OF LIGHT
4. GLIMMER WORLD
5. WEAK CORPSE(AND VOICES)
6. ENOH TWEAK
7. THE DREAM ENCOUNTERED (AND GHOSTS)
8. THE FOG OF SURRENDER
9. DELICATELY QUIET PILLOW
10. E.U – R.I.P – U.K
NOTES SUR PROMNESIA
The title Promnesia seemed apt to use as 2019 represents my 10th anniversary of doing the RPM challenge.
I certainly feel like I have been here before. I had never heard the word before until I read a review of Julian Lynch’s RATS SPIT in the February 2019 UNCUT music magazine. I also copied various phrases from that article and ran them through a verbasizer on 2/10/19 to generate titles for most of the other pieces
TIMELINE
Towards the end of January 2019, Spencer sent me 10 different logic audio projects/files which contained a number of variations on different ambient guitar noises and atmospheres. Some of Spencer’s recordings contained fairly traditional melodic and rhythmic information and some contained only guitar noises. When I started working with the files on February 1st 2019
I initially began by dissecting the audio and reconstructing parts in order to make it fit a midi time clock. I did a couple of tracks utilizing this approach, but quickly shifted towards working with the audio in Spencer’s original files, considering the sounds as a distinct entity, forcing myself to abandon midi time code altogether and allow Spencer’s improvisations to determine the shape and feel of the music.
Having worked on numerous RPM challenges in the past. I am well aware of the necessity to work quickly and to commit yourself to decisions in the creative process that you would not necessarily allow yourself to do. As I was working through the pieces I gradually realized I was improvising my own synth parts on top of Spencer’s guitar parts pretty much in real time, committing immediately to what I had done and then adding more elements in the same way before moving on to the next piece. This was a slightly different way of approaching things for me. As always, there are things that you feel could be different – cut some harsh frequencies with EQ, balance the sound differently in this place or that, add melodies or harmonies here or there. I also considered adding 12 string guitar to E.U-R.I.P-U.K and vocals to one or two other tracks.
I always think I will come back to the material I do in the RPM challenge when I have more time in order to address these issues. I never do and probably won’t in this case either.
But you never know….
The RPM challenge always takes place over the month of February. In February 2019, the horrible specter of UK leaving the European Union is looming large. ‘Brexit’ will take place on March 29 2019. Both Spencer and I are of the opinion that Brexit has been disastrous for the UK as a whole and that leaving the European Union will cause irreparable damage to the country. With great sadness I am totally resigned to all of the worst case scenarios happening as a result of Brexit and at some point during my creative process with this project, it hit me that the next time I do the RPM challenge again, the UK will be out, alone and impoverished.
Although the music in this project was not initially designed with these thoughts in mind, the whole context of the UK’s self imposed exile from Europe began frame everything.
I am thinking of trying to do a version myself and am posting the attempts here of a few others who have already tried (for reference) it so I can avoid mistakes or emulate successes
She told me that we could go out looking for comets, but when we did, all we saw was a fuzzy green smudge
Steinway ‘Model D’ Grand piano recorded at the San Carlos hotel in Phoenix, Arizona – played by Sylvia Frost
Synthesizers and comet ambiance – particledots
Initial recording at the San Carlos Hotel, Phoenix AZ on February 1st.
Overdubs and further recording, final mix at particledots studio, February 19th-22nd
2. Katherine’s Kristmas Tree
She said she could put all of tuxedomoon on a 32 gb flash drive – so I got one shaped like a christmas tree
Elka synthex, Roland Jupiter 6, digital audio manipulation and a still empty 32gb USB flash drive – particledots
Recorded and Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 2nd
3. The Queen of Jupiter
She has no face, she can be who she wants to be. She inspires and impresses me – I gave her a voice
Star sounds and twinkle elements – particledots
Drummer parameters in Logic X – MUNGO
Recorded and on February 3rd at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ
Final mix February 19th-22nd
4. The Notes of Sorrow
The notes are written down and I can hear the sadness as I read them
Crumar Spirit – recorded in Bristol UK by LightspeedFutureLullaby
Moog Theremin – Katherine Layden
Korg mini pops drum machine and twang guitar – Brent Miles
prophet 5 synthesizer, EMS VCS1 (for guitar treatments) – particledots
Recorded and on February 9th at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd
5. Love
We need to see and hear more of it, it’s important
Mysterious piano and lost and found love message – O.T. (I still don’t know who s/he is.)
Recorded by particledots at Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin on February 14 2014
Final mix at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd
6. Ballet of the Planets
Sometimes all we need to do is look up to see the dance
Phoenix Subterranean Choir – Erica Weems, Dorian Michelle Vrenden, Winston Smith, particledots, Mona Nigholson and Shawna Franks – singing with our heads held high
Baldwin electric piano, Crumar Orchestrator, Mellotron – particledots
Choir recorded at the Ice House, Phoenix AZ – February 13th
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd
7. Environment 2
Its where we visit
Yamaha DX7, treatments, oblique strategies – Brian Eno
wind chimes – particledots
home made propane tank hang drum – Neil Gearns
Recorded by particledots at Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin on February 15 2014
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd
8. Environment 1
Is where we live
Yamaha DX7, natural soundscape modifiers and filters – Brian Eno
tape loops and yamaha CS 1 and wem copycat echo – Keith Rogers
Initial recording at Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin on February 15 2014
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd
9. Armadillo
Bob Dorsey was having some problems with his giant Armadillo. Trent Reznor got to hear about it and decided to donate an unused backing track for inspiration and motivation
Initial music idea – Bob Dorsey.
Trent Reznor – drums, bass, keyboards, loops
Bianca explaining what she does
Initial recording at Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin on february 15 2014
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZFebruary 19th-22nd
10. Six Foot Seven
They told me that they are both in the ‘6foottallplus club’. i told them that i would try not to tower over them at 6’7’’.
I lied….
Casio Keyboard – Julian Marquesen – recorded in Los Angeles, California – early February
Guest appearances from APOD (particledots, Michael 2, kevin ‘bud’ jones – and special APOD guests Eric Van Ausdal and Bob Dorsey and Marc Goemans) – creating that motorik vibe
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ – February 19th-22nd
10. Exactly the same
If its not exactly the same, its very similar …or maybe its just different
Casio Keyboard – Julian Marquesen – recorded in Los Angeles, California, Toy box wind up noises – Henry Dupuis
Mixed at particledots studio, Phoenix AZ February 19th-22nd Personnel:
Sylvia Frost – Piano
Erica Weems – Vocals
Dorian Michelle Vreeden – Vocals
Dave Griffiths – Synths
MUNGO – drum parameters
Katherine Laydon – theremin
Keith Rogers – Synths and tape loops
Bob Dorsey – synthesizers and armadillo
Brian Eno – Synthesizers
Trent Reznor – loops, keyboards and bass
Neil Gearns – propane hang drum
Henry Dupuis – toy box
Brent Miles – guitar
Kevin Bud Jones – Electronics
Michael Marquesen -various digital effects and manipulations
Eric Van Ausdal – keyboards
Marc Goemans – undefinable electronic strangeness
Overseeing all activities at all times, everywhere – the thin(k) blank human
Recorded at various locations in Berlin, West Germany, Phoenix Arizona, Bristol and Coseley UK
Songs compiled and arranged on Logic 9, and Logic X
I recently created a slowly evolving drone track that is 8 hrs long
I was inspired by a performance called ‘Otoacoustic Emissions‘ which was hosted by Jacob Adler at St Augustine’s Episcopal Parish on Halloween night. In preparation for the event, the following instructions were given “Memorize the harmonic series: C-G-E-Bb-D-F#-G#-B.”
The performance consisted of an continuous drone that was almost imperceptibly quiet to begin with but increased in volume as the performers layered more and more notes on top of each other until at one point it felt like the walls of the church were shaking.
Then it slowly faded out…except for the original drone.
The whole thing lasted for almost 90 minutes.
Rewinding to a couple of days prior to the Otoacoustic Emissions performance, I attempted to construct my own piece using the information about the harmonic sequence. However, I misinterpreted the instructions and actually created a piece which was just under 5 minutes long where the notes played in sequential order. After seeing the performance I revisited this piece and decided to time stretch it.
I ended up with a piece of music that was 8 hours long – an eerie sounding, continually evolving drone
I had the idea of taking the first 2.5 hours of the track, chopping it up into 20 minute segments and offering each piece to a musician to improvise over with the intention of recompiling the the whole thing back together along with the new additions
I outlined some basic parameters and instructions for potential participants
1) There are 8 x20 minute drone pieces – pick a number from 1 to 8 and I will send you a drone track to improvise over and record to
2) Each musician will work in isolation from each other…we will only know what the ‘whole’ sounds like when I recompile all of the pieces.
3) Work quickly – do whatever you like, vocals/spoken word, percussion, guitar, any combination of any instruments or sounds, create your own additional drones over the top of my drone – but don’t spend too long on it and get it back to me as quickly as you can
4) I will need 2 tracks back from you – a ‘mix’ with your playing along to the drone, and a stereo mix of your accompaniment without the drone
Eventually I had 8 volunteers who were willing to play with this idea
This is what they came up with
Drone 1: Victor Eijkhout:
I played Kueng bass and (briefly) tenor recorders. After listening to the drone I saw that it had shifting tonal centers, so I decided to just improvise against it, using the drone note as both something to consonate with and to dissonate against. The first 2/3 of my track are fairly melodic; in the end I went on a more microtonal bend, using slides and variations in breath pressure to explore the inside of intervals. The only effect is a little reverb.
Drone 2: Ed Hannifin
Note from me: Ed’s track is rather brilliant and deserves to be a piece in its own right but in the context of this piece I felt we needed a bit more space to let the drone breath.
So, I asked Ed to send me the Logicfile to allow me to tinker, and tinker I did. I extracted the DNA of Ed’s original piece and kept many of the elements but used them in a radically altered way, processing with logic audio’s flex time.
All of the playing is Ed Hannifin.
All of the ‘jiggery-pokery’ is me.
Drone 3: Michael Marquesen
I used samplesfrom the NASA sound cloud page that were chopped up and run through a bit crusherand Logics tape delay. Kontakt piano with Valhalla Shimmer reverb on a send Synth Magic 8 OBLIQUE S synth
Drone 4: Andy Wigze
I used a Cannonball Tenor Sax on this.
A few years ago Harold Luper had invited me to a friend’s ranch near Glen Rose, Texas. The next morning he was leaning against a fence near his truck plunking out a song on a really beat up parlor guitar. His is the voiceyou hear.
Harold never knew that I recorded him that day.
The eerie varying pitch sound is wind blowing through a glass atrium door. At work, I am around a lot of large crowds and open mics, so I record a bit of that whenever it sounds interesting. Also, there are grandson sounds and the singing at the end is a gentleman that has been playing music for 60 years, Pastor Groff.
Drone 5: Kevin Bud Jones
I played “The Rig” in a straight through one take recording after listening to the drone once.
It consists of an Arturia Microbrute synth that I run through a series of guitar pedals – Mooer pitch shifter, T.C. Electronics Flashback delay, Behringer Super Fuzz, Boss CE2 chorus, Moogerfooger ring mod and Electroharmonics Holy Grail Nano reverb.
Then I also used an Akai MPX8 Sample Trigger through an Alesis AirFX then a Boss D6 delay to a Ditto Looper. My iPad Mini was running iDensity granular app through a Boss DM2 delay into a Digitech Jam Man looper. The three “instruments” are run through a Mackie 4 channel mixer with the output into a Boomerang Phrase Sampler – then out to record.
Drone 6: Brent Miles
Fender Stratocaster with an E-Bow on the A string, which was capoedon the first fret because I wanted the drone in Bb. The guitar was hooked to a chain of pedals: Behringer Reverb Machine -> Boss OC-3 -> Boss RC-20 Loop Station -> Line 6 Echo Park -> Line 6 Pocket POD Express. Then it went into a Zoom H2N digital recorder, which I used to record the whole 20-minute drone live, in its entirety, to a stereo wav file.
Drone 7: Matthew Mosher
I used an Akai LPD8 for knobs and Max/MSP. It’s a double sine wave one octave apart run through a dual harmonic frequency modulation patch. I think I started in D and shifted to G 1/3 of the way in. It’s very low frequency. I’d just gotten back from otoacoustic emissions so I did a similar slow fade in to overwhelming roar with a quick fade out over the 20min.
Drone 8: Bill Grundmann
I used all Garage Band synths,
In the order they first appear…
Voice Generator: Classical Ensemble. long attack and release, no effects. pencil tooled. Radio Sounds. Spectral Blurring 88.8%. and compressor on one of them. pencil tooled. Tuned Percussion: African Kalimba. 3 tracks, tape echo. pencil tooled. Analog Mono. AUMatrixReverb.2 tracks with slightly different Glide rates. improvised on keyboard. Woodwind: Indian Shehnai Oboe. AUMatrixReverb. 2 copies, one slightly delayed. improvised on keyboard. manual pitch bend. Church Organ. AUMatrixReverb plus Master Reverb. very low gain. as a subliminal drone. pencil tooled.
This evening, I reassembled all the components
I realize that this is a piece of music that no one will ever listen to from start to finish, but here in all of its glory is the 3:15 version of our experiment with a long drone.
Feel free to tune in and tune out of the piece at any point but if you can at least make an attempt to listen to it all in one go when you have 3.5 hours to spare
I am considering trying to organize a one off ‘listening event’ somewhere locally, a small venue or the top of South Mountain or a remote desert location where the piece will begin to play in the daylight hours and finish just over 3hrs later when it is dark
My mind is rushing like 22 seconds to go until that plane hits the ground and you’ve died before I finish this sentence!
Every detail of my day flashes,,, only 21 seconds to go…
My abandoned New Years resolutions combine with every time I cried,,, 20 seconds to go
My many friends, people come and gone fill my sight,,, 19
every first kiss envelops my body, and I feel euphoric bliss… 18
and as my children cry for the very first time,,, I watch them grow,,, I’d die for you…
1
As the flash of life gives way to a flash of light, I scream
Grabbing air, I watch myself die…
I watch the emergency workers, as they clear the smoldering debris from the carnal wreckage… until they get to me….
When I awoke again, I see the masks of doctors, and finally I can sigh.. My breath into life.
Particledots 