Skulktown

Desolate, tense, unnerving.

Imagining a largely post-human landscape with a guitar, field recordings of bowed cymbals and rusty steel objects, chromatic steel percussion, and more. Heavily influence by a winter of reading post-apocalyptic fiction novels.

Live drums by Jules König, appropriately recorded in a gritty former sweatshop.

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Border Crossing

Dusty, lonely, expansive.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I have been getting back into making music this year. My creativity goes in cycles, and I’m simply cycling from sound design and field recording as its own reward into producing sounds for musical compositions. This is the first of several posts that showcase some of the tracks I’ve worked on this year.

This track was mostly an exploration of using a glass slide on a guitar, playing mostly above the bridge, an extension of the many months I’ve spent (re)learning extended playing techniques. Only three instruments were used in this track: Guitar, and Sonic Couture’s Kim and Bowed Piano instruments, and the only effect was a single Tremolo on one of the guitar tracks.

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Askance

Lonely, dark, maritime.

[Author’s Note: This fall, I’ll be sharing some music I’ve worked on in 2014. A little different, but still in keeping with the concept of this blog. Hope you enjoy the change of pace for a little bit!]

I decided to try to write something in 3/4 time, which I don’t do that often. It’s so easy to make 3/4 time sound like a waltz, all poncy and upper-crust. Or, at worst, a twee indie film about awkward romance, especially with instruments that are traditionally for that time signature, like accordions. So, I tried to create a track in 3/4 that had a mix of menace and whimsy. 

This composition features a strange arrangement of instruments: Harmonium through a distortion pedal, piano, tiny electronic percussion, timables, glockenspiel, double bass, and harp.

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