Feedbacking pedal chain
I had been interested in feedback loops for a while and decided to record some experiments.
Using a guitar pedal chain routed back to itself via a mixer I was able to obtain surprisingly versatile results by tweaking settings, changing the placing of pedals in the chain or by varying the level of aux send from the mixer (the amount of feedback)
These sessions were edited and mixed (no treatment other than some fades and panning) to produce a 25-minute piece. Dim the lights and Enjoy!
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Symphonic Fantasie for Found Vinyl
Duration: 10 minutes (excerpt / remix)
Format: 4.1 channel (stereo, wide stereo, low frequency)
Programme Note (1 or 2 sentences about the piece which will be on the programme given to the audience):
A composition taken from old (found) vinyl. Classical music records were treated with both analog and digital signal processing, in sessions which were edited, sliced, grouped and placed across 4 channels. The sounds are both an exploration of the textural and physical nature of old records (crackle, hiss) and of the content; re-contextualized, remodelled, re-positioned in space – retaining the drama and emotion of large orchestral recordings, hinting at both the past and the future..
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I found the combination of the sample player and granular synthesis in ready-made patches for Max/MSP to be a very rich area for improvisation. You can hear some of the results of this in an edited 5-minute session taken from V-Drum recordings. I was impressed by the organic qualities, liquid and solid textures and the range of expression and dynamics possible with this instrument.
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Bavarian Concert Zither
I picked up this lovely Bavarian Concert Zither on ebay for about £40.
This is the instrument used on the soundtrack for the movie “The Third Man”. It features 5 fretted strings and 27 open strings which are usually tuned in a cycle of fifths. I used my own unison tuning.
One thing that is really interesting about these instruments is that almost every country and culture has some kind of version of the zither, and it’s basically an ancestor of the guitar.
Combined with a fairly crude homemade contact microphone and my standard effect chain (2 DL4’s, Boss PS-2, Blues Driver, Verbzilla, Alesis portable mixer) I was using this setup for the first Unknown Devices sessions with David Toop. The case acts as a resonant chamber/amplifier and picks up lots of great creaks and friction.
I later edited together this quite dark loop-based composition..
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ghOst produced a couple of 6-minute tracks for Otaku magazine’s ‘Kaidan’ issue. These are entitled ‘jitenshi-kaze’ (bicycle/wind) and ‘amatsu-kaidan’ (celestial ghost).
Otaku magazine is really beautifully presented and researched, and follows a different theme for each issue, in this case ‘kaidan’, japanese traditional ghost stories. Otaku manages a great balance between genre history, artist contributions and manga comic book content (not to mention the awesome cover cd). I recommend getting hold of a copy quick!
Listen to ghOst here
I was commissioned to score a 40-minute documentary for Parthenon Films to be aired on National Geographic Channel.
The documentary is titled ‘Living Edens: Yellowstone (America’s Sacred Wilderness) and focuses on a recent experiment to re-introduce wolves back into Yellowstone, restoring the natural equilibrium between the animals.
High in the American Rockies, Yellowstone Park is a place of extraordinary landscapes and geysers. Created by the largest volcanic explosions in the planet’s history, it became the world’s first national park. With the return of wolves, it has become a world-class wildlife sanctuary, the best place to see wolves and grizzly bears chasing elk.
The score uses a mixture of blues and slide guitar, appalachian orchestral arrangement and native american sounds.
View the documentary in full here
