John Cage on The Meaning of Sound

"I love sounds for what they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are."

Sound Design: "Sensory Overload"

I stumbled across this animated short from the "Interacting with Autism" project through Robert Krulwich's blog on the NPR website. In it, we follow a boy on his journey through a nondescript urban landscape made unexpectedly nightmarish by his (and thus our) inability to filter and prioritize the sounds around him.

Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project) from Miguel Jiron on Vimeo.

While I find the visual style compelling, the brilliance (and in fact the focus) of this work is the soundtrack. There is no music- just pure diegetic audio that's been mixed, mashed, and manipulated to overwhelm the listener in a way that might approximate the experience of a person living with autism. Sound designer Katie Gately did an amazing job sculpting a whirlwind of sonic energy from the sounds that we city dwellers are surrounded by, and the success of her effort really sets this apart from the pack.

Herbie Hancock & Quincy Jones on the Fairlight CMI

"These instruments were designed for people to use… for PEOPLE to use. It's just a tool, another tool, the way an axe can be a tool to cut wood to build a house, or it can be a tool to slaughter your neighbor."

Laurie Spiegel on Electronic Music

Though this previously unreleased (and sadly incomplete) footage from a 1985 interview with electronic music pioneer and secret crush Laurie Spiegel only lasts about twelve minutes, it took me at least three times that long to finish it. This wasn't due to any sense of boredom or confusion, but rather that her statements felt so perpetually "right on" that I kept pausing and rewinding the video in an effort to write them down. I'd hoped that a pithy quote from the interview would motivate a few readers enough to make it through the first couple of minutes of non-Laurie footage and into the really good stuff, but I suppose this meta-anecdote will have to do.

Most interesting to me is just how relevant her comments on the role of computers in the music making process are to my experiences more than twenty-five years later. While I feel that the "time saving" aspect of computer-based composition vs. traditional pen and staff paper has had perhaps less expected repercussions (e.g. for a computer, playing the same musical phrase one hundred times is as easy as playing it one time. Thus: house music), her thoughts on the value of creative discovery through interaction with an instrument (electronic or otherwise) vs. using that instrument to realize an already-formed idea perfectly describes a significant component of my compositional process. Not to mention her thoughts on how the new sonic possibilities made available by electronic instruments broaden the scope of what constitutes "music," or the performance possibilities that emerge when one is freed from strict interactions with limbs and notes, or... actually, just watch the interview.

Here's a clip of the performance she mentions in the interview:

Finally, it might interest you to note that the YouTube user that posted these interview videos is... Laurie Spiegel herself.

John Cleese on Creativity

UPDATE 6/29/12: CoCreate just posted a writeup on a more recent Cleese creativity lecture. It's a nice overview and update to the one presented above, but the video is still well worth watching. Thanks to Deepa for the link!

Collaboration: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Electronic music production can be -- and for me usually is -- a solitary endeavor. I've experimented with collaboration over the years, and while there have been successes (a couple ongoing, in fact) I still usually feel most comfortable writing music alone- at my own pace and on my own schedule.

I think it's important to recognize, however, that just because this is the way I'm used to working, it's not necessarily the most efficient, productive or even creative approach for me personally. I've long recognized that pushing boundaries and forcing myself to explore outside of my comfort zone is a valuable habit when it comes to generating creative energy; perhaps I simply have yet to stumble upon the right angle of attack when it comes to writing in synergy with others.

In considering the myriad "ways of being" in an collaboration with other artists, I consider Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' work on "The Social Network" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" soundtracks incredibly compelling case studies in effective musical partnership. Have a look:

Finger Drumming Heroes

The performance setup I've been developing for the past couple of years relies heavily on triggering a bunch of audio loops with an APC40, then manipulating them with effects and rearranging them (to an extent) with my 8x8 monome. This has worked well, but as time has passed this fairly abstract approach (relative to playing a traditional instrument, for example) has left me feeling more and more detached from the music that I'm making.

Figuring out how to manage an orchestra's worth of instruments by oneself is something I once dubbed the "Perpetual Performance Problem." It's an issue that pretty much every performing electronic musician has to address- one that underlies everything from DJ culture to traditional bands playing backing tracks, to more recent developments in what's come to be known as Controllerism. One of the oldest approaches -- and in my mind one of the most successful -- is finger drumming.

As I embark on a serious rethinking of the way I perform my music, you'd better believe I'll be carefully evaluating the work of these finger drumming masters.


Jeremy Ellis


Araab Muzik



Edison

Performing Live: Tim Exile

Tim Exile has been pushing the state-of-the-art in live electronic music performance for years now. His approach- developed and honed over as long a period- relies heavily on looping and manipulating his own voice, a technique that gives him a huge amount of control over tone, timbre, and rhythm in real time, and without any need to muck with synthesis settings. Here he is giving a brief overview of his setup:



If this feels like Beatboxing++, it is. Now just imagine the magic that could result from pairing these tools with the vocal skills of a professional-level mouthist (my brilliant term, btw):



This approach- creating a well-defined workflow and a fixed set of well-practiced tools, then relying almost entirely on improvisation to construct both the structure AND the content of a performance- feels like the holy grail of live electronic music to me. This is the true intersection of virtuosic musicianship and technical acumen. As usual, I can't wait to see what he does next.

Sound Design Hero: Diego Stocco

In an era when musicians (electronic and otherwise) have literally thousands of high-quality digital instruments at their disposal, each with tens-to-thousands of immediately accessible preset patches, it's become frighteningly easy to ignore the once crucial art of conceptualizing and executing a "sound idea" from scratch. I've been as guilty as anyone of relying on soft-synth presets as a kicking-off point for my instrument designs, which is why I find the work of artists like Diego Stocco so inspiring.

Here's a glimpse into Diego's process for fabricating the sound of a fairly abstract DTS logo spot:



Beyond his obvious technical proficiency, I'm most impressed by the way he's able to conceptualize the final aural result, then construct the sonic components of that result piece-by-piece. I'd love to know how solid his ideas were pre-recording: did he have a firm idea of what he wanted from the beginning and stick to it, or did his ideas evolve in the process?

Mr. Stocco also works on less-abstract (but no less compelling) sound pieces, including music for soundtracks. Here's a short piece showing the construction and recording of his "Experibass":



Sound design has become a larger and more important part of my compositional process as I've become a more experienced producer, and it's incredibly exciting for me to learn about how others are using non-traditional (or perhaps more-traditional-but-since-forgotten?) sound sources and recording techniques to create truly original music.

For a start on more about Diego Stocco, check out his YouTube channel and his Bandcamp page.

Interviews with Clint Mansell

One of my favorite film composers (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan) shares his thoughts on the process and the industry.

• 10 Quick Questions: Clint Mansell
• ScoreKeeper: Clint Mansell

A Visit With Ulrich Schnauss

A great glimpse into the mind and studio of Ulrich Schnauss. If you aren't familiar with his music, I hope this will convince you to change that ASAP!

Son Lux on the RPM Challenge

It turns out I wasn't alone in my effort to write an album in February- Son Lux, a musician for whom I have an enormous amount of respect, also stepped up to the plate, and NPR followed his progress through the twenty-eight day process.  It's a really interesting read, and his descriptions (and audio clips) of the writing process are really informative.

Son Lux on the RPM Challenge

Bonobo On "Kiara"

Bonobo walks Computer Music through the creation of a track. This is one of the better glimpses into the compositional process of a respected artist that I've seen, and I think cuts to the heart of composing electronic music (and to an extent all music): starting with an inspirational sound or idea, then experimenting and playing with peripheral ideas until things start to sound "right."


Bonobo Producer Masterclass Pt.1 from NJF on Vimeo.

Bonobo Producer Masterclass Pt.2 from NJF on Vimeo.

Brian Eno - Another Green World (documentary)

While the point could be argued that we too often elevate well-known artists to the status of demi-God geniuses, I think few would argue that Brian Eno's life and work have done the heavy lifting for him. Inspiring to say the least.

Untitled from Fjb on Vimeo.

Aspirations

Haven't posted in a while, but many things are in the works that I'll hopefully get to at some point soon. In the meantime, here's Edison showing us all a thing or two about rockin' da monome:

edison.... new set up....! from edison on Vimeo.

Deadlines, Bless Them

I find this hard to fathom, but it's been about ten months since I last posted a new song here. I've been working hard the entire time, but since last June or so my focus has been on figuring out the P^3 and getting Days Away out the door. I've developed a sizable backlog of unfinished work during that time, some of which is "almost there," but I've largely succumbed to the desire to generate new material instead of sweating out the details to finish any of what I've started. Enter The Deadline.

A few months ago I read about the Tra la la blip project on the Ableton discussion forums. In their own words:

tra la la blip is an artist collective based on the far north coast of new south wales. (...) our first release is titled "soundbeam sessions volume 1" We did 100 copies, each 1 individually stamped by the musicians/artists. (...) soundbeam sessions is a compilation CD, all artist[s] on the CD have some form of intellectual and or physical disability. all the songs were created live during jam sessions at Multi Task human resource foundation in Lismore nsw. It is loop based electronic music created using multiple midi controllers and instruments like the tenori-on, soundbeam, kaossilator, microkorg, a macbook running ableton live software and a microphone.

While the concept alone strongly appeals to me, the best thing about TLLB is that their music is fantastic: sometimes playful, sometimes moody, melodic, and dare I say "deep." Thus, when artistic director and organizer Randolf Reimann posted an open invitation for remixes, I decided to get involved. And getting involved meant actually finishing something for the first time in almost a year.

I'm proud to present my finished remix of Indigo Caroline by Tra la la blip. The original TLLB track is somewhat unique in that it consists of just three components: a vocal track (participant Gaye singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline") over Monolake's song "Indigo" layered with an original synth line. The result is haunting and atmospheric and right up my alley. My remix takes things in a very different direction, but (hopefully) without losing the spirit of the original. I hope you like it!

Indigo Caroline (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

P.S. I'm trying out Soundcloud streaming for the first time with this song. I'm going to hold off on making it downloadable until I get clearance from Randolf, as the track will be making its way onto the Tra la la blip remix CD to be released later this year.

The Faint Of Heart

Last night I got a bloody nose. Could be that I've been watching too much Dexter, but once I got to the bathroom I decided to let it bleed a little. There's something simultaneously fascinating and repulsive about this photo of the aftermath. The intimacy of the medium in particular has a really visceral impact on me.

My apologies to the squeamish!

Brain Dump

I mentioned Trentemoller a while back in a post on inspiration- well, in addition to the great album that prompted that little outpouring of admiration, the guy's got a new video for his remix of the track "Moan" - and it really needs to be seen. Or at the very least heard; the video itself is appropriately heart-wrenching given the subject matter, but it's really the song that keeps bringing me back- it's just such top-notch production. In particular, the first half (before it moves into Dutch intensity mode) is basically flawless as far as I'm concerned. The mix is totally uncluttered, nothing feels extraneous, and it's got a perfect ebb and flow as the intensity builds over the course of the track. Not to mention a perfect use of vocals and some subtle glitch effects. But don't just take my word for it:

Trentemoller - Moan remix

I was going to write a big, rambling diatribe about how this proves that tech house is the "good" house music, but really: who the hell am I to say something like that? What I will say is that Trentemoller has added himself to my very short list of thought-provoking musicians in the genre, along with Swayzak and... well, Swayzak. Wow, does that even qualify as a list? I knew those pint-sized PostIts had to be good for something!

Calling all more-knowledgable readers: can you recommend more good stuff in this vein? I'm looking at you Michael...

Four Tet on Music Making

Great interview which just goes to show that good music doesn't only come from million dollar studios with all the latest gear:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul03/articles/fourtet.asp

Inspiring to say the least!