Day 466: Quiet Struggle

Today is a quiet meditation on dreams.  I wanted to do this project and had very specific goals in mind (not world domination, but close - that's a joke.)

I have grown immensely as an artist and producer (I feel) during this Opus.  I also feel it is very much something to be proud of.  I've created a lot of music that will hopefully get placement somewhere, someday.  I've learned SO MUCH about using Reason software, which will continue to reward everything I do musically for some time to come.  I wish I could keep it going.  Part of me wanted to go for about 3 years, but I truly would like to spend some quality time on a few projects and it's just not possible when I'm doing this every day.

Here's Day 467.  Thanks for listening.

Day 465: Haiku Junto

Today's piece is the first work I've done for the Junto in awhile.   It's also a collaboration with the Naviar Haiku Project.  It's based on this Haiku:

“They encounter

A cathedral of ice

At the end of the world”




My process is a little boring (to me).  I imagine a group of people searching for the end of the world, then fill in the scene of them discovering an ice cathedral with post-rock music.  It could have just as easily gone in a different direction (ambient, more experimental, etc), but this time it was post-rock.

More on this 117th Disquiet Junto project — “Compose an original piece of music in response to a haiku” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/03/27/disquiet0117-naviarjunto/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Join the Naviar Haiku Project at:

https://soundcloud.com/groups/naviar-laboratory

More on Naviar at:

http://naviarlab.tumblr.com/

Haiku by Nite Rote, more from whom at:

http://niterote.com/

Image associated with this Junto project is by William Warby, via a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/8HqHv9

Day 464: Throwback

No time for a new creation.  There are some things in the works, but they aren't ready yet.  Here's a piece that you probably haven't heard.

Day 463: More Peace, Less Understanding

Due to unruly children yesterday was a struggle just to get a piece up on the web before the day got

away from me.  Today everyone is being more cooperative, but I'm less sure about the piece.  Mixing issues and confusion about spectrums, but I suppose it gets the point across.

In another 36 days I guess I'll be done with this and I won't have to struggle like this for a little while.

Lyrics:
There is no tomorrow,
Only today.
You have to wish for what you want.
Why don't we play?

Day 462: Upward Mobility

Screaming crying kicking ambience.

Day 461: Don't Act Confused

A dark, lo-fi glitch piece on the day when I saw one of my best friends for the first time in six years.
 Too long to not see a friend.

Lyrics:
As you march to your death, 
we all turn and face the ground.
The paradox of your life leads to the truth that is your end.

The leaves shade your face,
the breeze is cool, 
it's almost perfect here.

Bones in the grave, 
dirt showers over you.  
A pine box, 
two coins, 
and a suit will take you home.

Day 460: Converge

A short instrumental intermission to nod your head to.

Day 459: On the Dark Side of Mars

Another "4x4" track with some dark elements.  I'm apparently on a tear with these things lately.

I've pretty much made up my mind now that 500 days will the end of this project.  500 Days is an Opus, no matter how you slice it.

Day 458: Like Plastik

An unintentionally influenced track that reminds me a lot of Plastikman.

Had a good day at the Nashville Zoo today.  The dinosaurs are back.  The kids loved it.  Only one meltdown, and that was when we were leaving (to be expected).

Just trying to to keep it together for another 41 days.

Cheers.

Day 457: Keep It Simple Stupid

A simple, minimal techno track today.  Maybe it's electro... I can never guess with genre's.  Whatever you call it, it's a track.

Day 456: Electro Experiment

Getting over illness, may be able to focus a little more intently on what I was doing before I got sick.  Have felt spread too thin lately.

Even without the illness I'm coming to the realization that I just need to call it on the One-a-day project for now.  It feels like I could put out some top-notch quality stuff now and need the time to focus on it.  The OAD project prevents that from happening.  As much fun as it is and has been, I've got to come to terms with ending it in another 43 days.

Day 455: 5 minutes

Was trying to create and record the creation of a 5 minute song for Propellerheads competition, but I could NOT get the audio portion to record.  I made the song though, so here it is.

Day 454: Had to take it easy

Am still sick and I just don't have the energy to focus on something as hard as I did with yesterday's project.  I did something fun, less musical, but still exciting for me.  I hope you like it also.  If not, tomorrow is a new day.

Day 453: Collaboration - Beyond the Sea

Today's music is a collaboration with a random person I met via Soundcloud.  She's in France, north of Paris.  The internet is a wonderful thing.

She felt like my instrumental track "Stuck in Three Boroughs" could use some vocals, so she recorded these and sent them my way.  I took those and worked them over quite a bit, played with the order and extended the track.  Below is the final version.

I know it's done, because I'm starting to get silly with the things that I'm tweaking every time I listen.  It's about to get to the point that I'll be doing more harm than good.

Here are her lyrics:

Drowning in this crowd wave
They're assaulting me
They're threatening me
How could I breathe?
There is no air
My lungs are squeezing
My ears are buzzing
Please someone please someone
Please someone
Help

I'm floating in this clouds of words
Bubble brain
The story gets louder
rolling of rails
Blinding lights of trains

And now these doors are open
And the river flows
There're all together
Like a gigantic snake
Eating me alive

(Noises around
Going back and forth
They're twisting and melting my brain
Like a bee sting
with Vicodin
Blurry eyes and cotton legs
All I can do is sit and wait
these bars like trees
Are overgrowing
these hands trying to reach them
But they're escaping their grab
Rooted to the ground
like the last tight rope to prevent their fall
And they fall they fall
like feathers in autumn)

Day 452: ER

Had to put other pieces on hold due to an emergency room visit today with one of my children.  It wasn't very serious, but it was the first one ever for us as parents, so it was a little scary.

Speaking of scary, here's some scary noise landscape stuff.

Day 451: Such Doge Much Power

So, I've decided the name of the band will be SUCH DOGE MUCH POWER, and yes, the music will be on iTunes.  I'm already paying for the ability to upload as much as I want to iTunes thru Distrokid so I figure I should take advantage of it.  Won't be any worse than that Paris Hilton album.

LYRICS:
We stand on a pedestal, 
10 feet above all, 
The children try to touch our feet, 
the children can't touch our feet.  
We allow the people to come and view our form, 
the people try to touch our feet.
The people can't touch our feet.  

WE ARE ALL GODS IN OUR OWN EYES, 
NOTHING HERE THAT SHOULD BE A SURPRISE, 
ONLY EXPECTATION AND INVOCATION.

We dream small, we dream big.  
It doesn't matter our dreams are reality.  
The slaves, they try to make it real.

THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER IN YOUR STORY IS YOUR OWN, 
EVEN THOUGH YOU STILL DIE ALONE.

We are generous gods, 
you may please us as you wish. 
yes, you please us as we wish.

Day 450: Lifted

Day 2 of my "fake band".  Here they get a little disco.  Don't know where it came from.

Lyrics:
the end isn't quite as close as you think,
the door is within reach,
the air is thick with doubt,
don't doubt at all.

We have the power,
we have the height,
we have the drive,
we have the might.
We can reach our dreams tonight.

You shared your thoughts,
you shared your gifts,
you wished upon star that we would be lifted.
and we were.

Now we can sing to the gods,
sing to the beats,
sing to the wants and desires we've lost.

You shared your thoughts,
you shared your gifts,
you wished upon star that we would be lifted and we were.

Day 449: One More Project

I'm going to take a stab at creating an album within an album.  For the next 12 - 20 days the tracks will feature (mostly) the same instrumentation and the songs will be a concept album, or something like that.  Today's track is the first track, hence the title: Introduction.

Day 448: Soaking in Ambience

This track kind of suffers from too much everything, but they aren't all gonna be grammy winners.  Hope you like ambience, reverb, and long decays.

Day 447: Sickly

So I'm looking after two sickly little boys today.  I believe they also may have infected me with
whatever virus they have.  Stomach is torn up, am not hungry, felt feverish earlier.  Being sick is shit.


In other news, I'm trying to continue and make patches for the New Atlantis Audio User Library.  This track features a glitchy drum kick from the Glas refill.

Day 446: Light, end, tunnel

I came to the realization today that 500 days may be the end of this particular Opus.  I'm feeling that there are other  things I need to put some time into and this is preventing me from getting to them.  I still have some ideas to explore for the last 50 days, but that may just be it for awhile.  I think I'd much rather end this at a point of my choosing, rather than a day when I just "couldn't make it".

Now here's new music.

Day 445: Hothouse

A nice, warm day today.  A good day for Indian Electro Weirdness.

Day 444: Cinematically

Something orchestral to add to the portfolio today.

Day 443: In the outback

Another Junto project.  Here are the details:

My initial feelings on production were that this was going to be a boring project, but after listening to the variations that other Junto members were able to coax out of the source material I got more excited.  Getting different tones could have been very easily done, but I wanted to finesse it a little more and try to create something more nuanced.  I opted for a foldback distortion that ended up sounding (to me) a bit like a didgeradoo.  Once I had a point of focus the piece sort of fell together on its own.  A moving filter/gate applied to one piece created an intermittent pulse, another couple of pieces ended up being pads (with subtle background additional harmonics added, just for flavor; but not another instrument - done solely with effects), a last piece was additional percussion with the slightest bit of pitch bend after applying a phaser to it.    All summed it -- we're in the dreamtime.

More on this 114th Disquiet Junto project — “Combine elements of Dave Seidel’s album ~60 Hz (Irritable Hedgehog)” — at:



http://disquiet.com/2014/03/06/disquiet0114-60hz/



More on the Disquiet Junto at:



http://disquiet.com/?p=16588



Join the Disquiet Junto at:



http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/



The source audio is from Dave Seidel’s ~60 Hz album, released on the Irritable Hedgehog record label. More on the album at:



http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz

Day 442: Sleep for none

Went back to working with NAA patches.  Created one more and sent another batch to the User Library site.  This piece also relies heavily on pieces from the Miroslav Strings and Nine Volt Audio patches.

I will continue to operate based on the faith that this project will lead to something.  Truthfully, it has.  I've had a few projects that wouldn't have happened if I had not been doing this, or at least, would have been less likely to have happened.  That itself is justification for me to keep going.  If I don't do it this way I'll still be creating something every day.  At least this way I have a rudder.

Day 441: Let's Start again

Lyrics:

Do you wanna go for a ride?
Come on now, hope inside.
Do you wanna make new friends?
Let's start again.
This is the end.
Let's start again.

Taking a break from my experiments with NAA to try something a little different.  OR back to my old tricks.  Take your pick.

Day 440: Glitch Electro Ambient Noise Recording

Still working with NAA stuff and creating patches.  Here I wanted to try and create a patch that had a lot of the same effects that are created using Buffre, by Peff, but without actually using any rack extensions.  With a little bit of thinking around the problem I managed to come up with a close approximation.  A fun little experiment.

Day 439: 440

New Atlantis Audio is now sharing user-created patches via the site.  I'm kind of making them like crazy.  This work and tomorrow's will feature almost solely these new patches.   I'm trying to be ultra-creative, but still keep it musical.  So far, so good, I think.

Day 438: Mixing it Up (with mixed Precipitation)

As snow and ice fall outside my window I contemplate the deepest questions in life...

Who am I?

What are we here for?

Where is my burrito?

42?

This piece is another go at working with Drift by New Atlantis Audio.  It's kind of awash in ambient-ness, but you know, you get the idea.

Day 437: Drifter

Just playing with Drift, a new Refill from New Atlantis Audio.

Day 436: For Commercials

Listened to some heavily downloaded tracks on Pond5 and quickly realized that I can easily do much of what I heard.  For pieces in the Pop Rock genre they're mostly instrumental imitations of popular bands/songs, or original compositions influenced by such.  In the area of film scoring that was a little more complicated, although I don't think that stuff gets sold as much, so I should probably focus on the areas where I can make some kind of money.

This piece isn't quite as "commercial" as it could be.  I had already started it before listening to the above mentioned works, but it could still be in something.