second piece of furniture moved

This morning I thought it might be a good idea to make a new rendition of an old composition: Nautilus Pompilius. I construed this work a couple years ago as a contribution to a Bremsstrahlung Records compilation. Read all about this compilation [ here ]. At the time my approach was purely conceptual. Pitches and intervals were calculated using the golden mean. I stopped there and was quite happy with my daunt approach and an interesting result. But I wasn't quite happy with how it ended. The original ends with a bang.

For the new Moving Furniture release I decided to make a new rendition, this time with a different ending. The piece builds up exactly as before but after the big bang I have constructed a new part that is entirely intuitively constructed. The material I used is from the same period as Nautilus Pompilius. They are bits and pieces that fit nicely with the frequencies of NP.

As usual I let the material rest for a week or so and then return to it and make final arrangements. Below is a part of the original Nautilus Pompilius for [ download ].

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k146 - preparing for new project

Today a DVD arrived with basic material for a new project. Well, new to me anyway. Cedric Peyronnet who also creates music as Toy Bizarre has been working on the project for a couple years already. Cedric has been recording the river Taurion for years and mapped his recording using Google Maps. Now the idea is that, in order to complete the enterprise, other composers create a sound work using the basic recording material. You can read all about Cedric's project at [ this project site ].

I have a few ideas about what I wil do but it's all rather conceptual. One of the ideas is to filter each recording using the map coordinates. But that will certain not be all. Maybe it's a nice starting point. The real work still has to start.

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Entr'acte releases Helix

Finally, more than a year after its completion, the cooperative works with Sascha Neudeck (upper picture) and Christopher McFall (lower picture) have been released. This coop started when Christopher and I exchanged ideas about stuff that we worked on and had released. I set up a webserver which was used as an exchange platform. Each of us placed basic material on the server which the other guy then downloaded and included into a composition. This worked quite nice. Then after a while Sascha who also circled around in my EARLabs network proposed a cooperative project. We suggested that he joined our duo project which then became a trio.

We then decided to produce 6 pieces. Each duo producing 2. Each duo had one piece started by one with alterations and additions by the counterpart and another started by the other. Etcetera. This worked really fine as we all had approximately the same basic idea but also our own approaches to sound. That way we sort of meandered around each other. That was what lead to the idea of the title: Helix.

The production was finished by the end of summer 2007. Allon Kaye of [ Entr'acte ] decided to publish it but it did take a while. We were okay with it and moved on with our personal projects (like Gaussian Transient which was my immediate successive project). Then, early 2008 Allon requested a new master and so I remastered the original and sent that one off. That was, I believe May 2008. And now the result is seeing the light of day.

Marvellous!

[ Listen ] to a special mix I brew for Entr'acte!

Cheers, Allon!!!

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First piece finished, new sample

Finished the first composition for Moving Furniture. Here's another [ snapshot ]. Reverse the order and they are in the right one.

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Working for Sietse

I started work on two pieces that will be released by Sietse van Erve on his [ moving furniture ] label. Next to the driving force behind this label Sietse also regularly performs as Orphax AND has been the most important keeper of the house of EARLabs.

I haven't got a definite approach yet. Sietse is very keen on dronish music (which is really not my style) and I try to do something that fits his bill. I rummaged through my 'unpublished' section of works and found something that started as a study into harmony but has grown into something which could be labeled 'drone'. Unfortunately it was built up with Audition, so I have been transfering it (item by item) onto Reaper. I'm all set now and ready to finish it. Here's a [ sound sample ] of a very rough mix. It gives you an idea of what it is made of. Total length is 8.5 minutes. It starts with a recording of cars passing an overhead carriage way. This connects it to a piece I wrote for my friend Peter Knijnenburg as an 'in memoriam'. This work ends with the passing cars. Immediately after I finished that tribute composition (which I will publish during the summer, btw) I worked on this harmony study, August and September 2007.

I intend to combine this harmonic work with a second piece which will be all new. I have yet to figure out what that's gonna be. But you'll read about it here!

As yet there is no title and no release date set.

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THU20 at EARLabs studio

Today we had THU20 in the studio. We are preparing a piece for a compilation series, that is being released by GX Jupitter Larsen's Zelphabet.com. It was actually the first time Frans de Waard, who has been a member of THU20 for years and joined us during concerts, in the studio as a THUboy. The piece we're working on will be some 16 minutes long. Today we set up a score and played a couple of live improvs, recorded multichannel into the computer. Later these recordings we rearranged so that they fit better with the score. Next session is due on February 22.

I am not allowed to let you hear some provisional results but I can assure you it is first class THU20 stuff !!! The pictures here show Roel (left) and Sjak (DMDN) together during a break and Frans on the picture below. In front of Roel is his infamous Korg MS20 modification. It's a MS20 without the keyboards. It's got all the normal functions but this way it's much easier to take it on tour.

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Crackle box revisited

Ooh! I have done something bad! I opened up my crackle box sawing a part of the bottom off with a fine saw. I want to connect the output straight into my computer. That's whyh. It was actually forbidden by STEIM but what can you do with anarchist artists, right?

And after the sawing party, while I was looking for a shop to buy myself a plug thing (I actually don't know what they are called in English) I remembered good old THU20 and how we used to connect our analog gear with the boxes which are displayed here to the left. Guess what? A crackle box fits quite nicely inside such connector. So the next phase will be to solder the output of the cracklebox to connect it with the intestines of the THUbox and then (hopefully) rock on.

To make it all up I have ordered a second cracklebox which I will leave intact. Promise.

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More tape deck

More experiments with the tape deck. Mostly the technique I use is that I record base material (from the S.A.T.I.E. project and the poetry material) while pulling the tape along the eraser/recording/play back heads manually. While doing so I sometimes allow the tape to hit the eraser and/or the recording head. Then I rerun it and do another recording. The result is recorded into the computer again and will serve as new material for further development. I have already a few thoughts for a structure into which this will fit. It may also be good stuffing for the eventual S.A.T.I.E project.

Working outside the computer is very satisfying. I haven't been moving in my studio like this in years. But I have a new workshop now with a special desk for recording (new mic!) and the synth and tape manipulation. I also bought brand new pro cables because the old ones were a bit dodgy. There's another 200 bucks in my wallet waiting to be spent on something musical...... what shall it be?

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Tape experiments

I have been working with tape. Really interesting, getting back to the roots. That sort of feeling. I received a really old Akai (GX4400) reel to reel with a bunch of tapes a few months ago and decided that it would be fun to create new stuff out of the computer. There's a tendency: the crackle box, the mic, now this. ...

And it really is fun to work with your hands on a tape. Funny thing was that the tape that came with the deck was so old that the oxide layer just came off the substrate layer while recording. The picture illustrates this. You can see the stuff that came off in front of the deck. This process was enhanced by my manipulation of the tape. I recorded layer after layer by shutting off the eraser head. I did this with a small screw driver which I used to reroute the tape as I recorded. But because the screw driver was a bit sharp it tore off more material. With quite interesting results. To be and certainly will be continued.

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