Day: June 24, 2011

"Noise Gospel" [mp3 removed]

Some of the quasi-vocal sounds used in "Quadruple Carbon" were made into samples and loaded in the Reaktor "Krypt" synth. The resulting track is the spine of this short song, with voltage-controlled kick and percussion sounds running underneath (and a piano riff).

Note to trolls (guess I should post this periodically): If something is a fragment or a work in process I usually mention that. I don't really have a genre peg for what I'm trying to do with music, or a group that I particularly want to throw in, or down, with. (I really dislike the wave files on Soundcloud, reducing expression to graphic peaks and valleys.) Generally I consider this electronic music or home computer music. I have had great conversations with and feedback from one or two artist/musicians about points of crossover between music, visual art, and "expression that is somehow inherently digital." I have co-produced a CD and have posted over 500 songs now; some are done quickly and some take several days (or more) of sustained focus, even though the average length is only a couple of minutes. I know when something's finished and if it's not, I generally won't post it unless there is some idea or texture I want to share.
These aren't really songs in a traditional sense, but then neither are they the formal or system-oriented experiments that are usually considered art. I am interested in combining styles and moods and investigating whether it is possible to tell musical untruths (I believe it was Auden who said you couldn't.) I'm interested in why something doesn't fit in the "art" genre--does "art" always have to mean unstructured-sounding or "noise" based?
Thanks to the bots sniffing the web for, um, publicly available music, my audio files are the most-trafficked content on my blog. Most downloads are just mistakes but the work is "getting out there" in fairly substantial volume. Certain songs are downloaded again and again. Occasionally I receive a a review, a "like," or a sale. Is this enough? Probably.