Sunday 26 September 2010

suddenly there was music

was meant to be working yesterday - for the next 2 years that's going to be pretty much a default setting for me - but the new medication that i'm currently taking really knocked the stuffing out of me - fortunately it's very short term so only 9 more days and i'm off it.
I thought i'd relax for half an hour or so and get my equilibrium back by playing with some sounds before getting on with work. 6 hours later i took the headphones off with a new piece of music finished that mixes my synth drones with one of Banks Bailey's beautiful field recordings from the Rincon Mountains in Arizona. I'm waiting to hear his take on it but i'm pretty happy with it. it's pretty gentle stuff which is where my head is at currently. my one real concern with it is the artificial synth noise which i might try and soften into a more organic sound but i'll wait an see what B has to say on it first.

Beautiful sunny day here with my mother and her husband on their way to visit bringing me my old gramophones that they've been storing. I'm going to use them in a class on tuesday and thursday this week as most of my students don't even know about vinyl let alone the old shellac 78's. Bloody philistines.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Phantasms

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop has always been a big influence on the music I listen to and the music I make. The wonderful noises they made throughout the 1970s shaped my ears in ways nothing else ever did. Doctor Who alone would have been enough but it is merely the tip of a very large iceberg indeed.
Lately I've been re-immersing myself in the work of people such as Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and John Baker and got the idea to try and create a set of Radiophonics of my own, Phantasms is the result. It was created between 5th and 14th of September 2010 using a virtual FM7 synth (and a few other little twists and turns). It's as unrepentantly electronic as my music ever has gotten or is ever likely to get. I hope you dig it.

Buy it here or listen to it below.



Monday 13 September 2010

Teaching again & some new music

I teach my first class in about 7 years tomorrow. I've been doing more individual student work over the last few years and so have been away from the rigours of front of class teaching. For a long while i didn't miss it but over the last year or two i've got the jitters for it again.

I'm going to be teaching three courses this year which meant my summer went out the window as i was just sat here writing lessons. It was a lot of work and i haven't even got half of it done yet but i'm ahead and off and running as of tomorrow at 9.

last week i got the impulse to make some new tunes. I've been listening to a lot of Radiophonic Workshop stuff of late and had the idea to put together some electronic miniatures - sort of my own Doctor Who soundtrack album. It's all done on a virtual FM7 synth and i've kept it as live as possible. Each track was recorded with the minimal of layering and post-production work. I've avoided the endless tinkering and tweaking that usually happens with one of my compositions and instead i've let the originals stand.

It's unlikely i'll put this out as a cd but i think i'll make it available as a Bandcamp download (and as a mixcloud cloudcast for those of you who dont want to pay).

Here's to only track that's online so far - it's probably the most successfully soundtracky piece of them all.
2 by quietworld