Variations A Released
My typical way of working in the studio for some time now has been to create a patch (the set of connections of a modular synthesizer), explore it until I’m satisfied, make one piece from it, then remove all the connections to start over from scratch for the next piece. For Variations A I decided make one patch with which I would then make multiple recordings. Even within one simple patch, there is a lot of potential for variety and I wanted to explore the continuum of similarity and difference.
Even More Less Exquisite Released
Our earlier album Less Exquisite continued the original pattern that we developed for Exquisite Coast where we created pairs of solo pieces asynchronously. The subsequent More Less Exquisite was our deep exploration of Less Exquisite in real time. While the goal of More Less Exquisite was to bring our process to a live context, during the preparation for each rehearsal we continued to record solo versions of each patch before coming together in performance. Our latest release, Even More Less Exquisite, is a selection of the tracks recorded ahead of these live sessions.
More Exquisite Released
The latest release in the Exquisite series, my collaboration with John O’Brien, is now available. More Exquisite continues and expands on the work done for Exquisite Coast, which used a tight set of technical constraints as an artistic challenge to encourage a deep exploration of an instrument. While Exquisite Coast focused on a single instrument (the Make Noise 0-Coast synthesizer), with More Exquisite (as we did with Less Exquisite), we have expanded the concept to allow for a second synthesizer, the Moog Werkstatt, as well as a small complement of external synthesizer modules. Though the sonic palette has grown, More Exquisite continues in the same spirit of sonic creation within a strictly defined set of constraints. As before, a prompt piece is created, then the connections and settings of the instruments—the patch—are shared and used to create a response piece.
Learn more and get it now on Bandcamp.
Slower now Finished
Though you may have seen the album develop over the past three months, I am now declaring the album Slower finished so you may now get my latest release in its entirety. Clocking in at just over an hour, it’s my longest solo release since 2004’s Adams & Bancroft! I enjoyed the process of releasing the album over time rather than all at once. That this is possible is a great benefit of a platform like Bandcamp, so much thanks to them for creating a platform that can host experiments like this.
April is going to find me working on other projects, but I will return to this idea soon. In the meantime, I’ve got another similar experiment going with John O’Brien in our Exquisite series that you can watch develop on our Bandcamp.
Both albums are free/pay-what-you-want, as all my releases have been for some time now.
Thanks for listening.
Less Exquisite Now Streaming
Less Exquisite is now available on select streaming services.
And of course it’s still available at Bandcamp for those who prefer a download to a stream.
Another New Release (in progress) – More Less Exquisite
John O’Brien and I have a new release in our Exquisite series – More Less Exquisite. While the original Less Exquisite (also available on our Bandcamp) continued the original pattern of creating pairs of solo pieces asynchronously that we developed in Exquisite Coast, More Less Exquisite is our deep exploration of Less Exquisite in real time. Twice a month, until we decide we’ve had enough, we will record a new version of the piece and add the track to this album.
Get it now on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned for more Exquisite releases coming in 2023!
New Release (in progress) – Slower
I’m ringing in the New Year with the first track of an album that will grow over the coming months. Slower is a continuation of the work that started with the Character Weekend and 1 Vox series. This time, however, each track proceeds at a more measured pace. Not quite drone, not quite ambient, Slower develops sounds with patience. A new track will be added every week or so until…well, I decide that it’s done.
Get it now on Bandcamp.
Less Exquisite Released
A new release in the Exquisite series is now available. Less Exquisite is an evolution of the game developed by John O’Brien and I for Exquisite Coast One and Two that uses a tight set of technical constraints as an artistic challenge. The instrument has been expanded – the Make Noise 0-Coast is now augmented by the Moog Werkstatt and a handful of Eurorack modules – and we’ve added a conceptual constraint. In the original Exquisite Coast we had defined only the instrument and a rough time limit. For Less Exquisite we came up with a textural/formal constraint that we came to simply call “slower.”
Get it now on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned for one more Exquisite release coming in 2023!
1 Vox, Vol. 2 Released
Better late than never, the follow up to 1 Vox, Vol. 1 finally makes it out into the world. 1 Vox, Vol. 2 is the second set of etudes that employ tight constraints to encourage focused exploration of the capabilities of my small modular synthesizer. Each piece uses only one voice (that is, one sound generator) plus the small set of modulation and utility modules in my rack. In order to center my attention on the capabilities of the system, I used no external controllers or sequencers. I’ve long focused on radical constraints in my work, so while this performance interface is more limited than many of the instruments I’ve built, a tightly controlled possibility space is a natural place for me to explore.
Available now on Bandcamp. Coming in June to select streaming services.
Exquisite Two Released
Sneaking in just before the end of the year, Exquisite Coast Two is the second in a series of albums of synthesiser improvisations created in collaboration with John O’Brien. In the spring of 2020, as the Covid-19 lockdown got under way, John and I started talking about ways to collaborate remotely after realizing that we both owned a Make Noise 0-Coast semi-modular synthesizer. By sharing patches—the state of the synthesizer, including the positions of the knobs and how the signals are routed from one part of the synthesizer to another—we created pairs of solo pieces that shared a common configuration. Each week, we made two recordings: one based on an original patch—the Prompt—and then a Response based on the other person’s patch.
You can get it now on Bandcamp.
Exquisite Coast One Released
I’m excited to announce the release of a new album in collaboration with John O’Brien. In the spring of 2020, as the Covid-19 lockdown got under way, John and I started talking about ways to collaborate remotely after realizing that we both owned a Make Noise 0-Coast semi-modular synthesizer. By sharing patches—the state of the synthesizer, including the positions of the knobs and how the signals are routed from one part of the synthesizer to another—we created pairs of solo pieces that shared a common configuration. Each week, we made two recordings: one based on an original patch—the Prompt—and then a Response based on the other person’s patch.
Exquisite Coast One is the first of many albums in a series that we will roll out over the next year or so. You can get it now on Bandcamp.
You can play Exquisite Coast too! If you and a friend have any of the small semi-modular synthesizers from Make Noise or Moog and would like to play the game yourselves, we have publicly released the web app we used to notate and share patches. Visit ec.rustle.works to learn more.
Alternator I Released
I’m excited to announce the release of Alternator I.
The last time I left the house before leaving the house got weird was March 12, 2020. If the timestamp on the audio file can be believed, Alternator I was recorded two days later, making this my first release created entirely during the stress and uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, the timestamp almost certainly can be believed. My doubt is entirely due to the changing perception of time here in Lockdown World. Before I glanced at the file’s date, I would have guessed I’d recorded this several months prior, not the mere month that had passed before I started the final mixing and mastering process.
Alternator I is, depending on how you look at it, either the second release in a series of mini-albums that started with 1 Vox, Vol. 1, or the fourth release going all the way back to the Character Weekend 01-03 trilogy from 2012-2013. The Character Weekend series was inspired by the concept of the 19th century character piece, a short musical composition, often for solo piano, that sought to express a single mood or impression. In addition to the time constraints typical to this type of work, these pieces employed fairly radical instrumental constraints in order to encourage focus and deep explorations into sound by limiting the means of sound production available.
1 Vox, Vol. 1 continued this practice. Like Character Weekend, it consists of a set of short pieces exploring a single musical idea. Unlike the Character Weekend series, most of which used instruments at least partly of my own creation, 1 Vox relied entirely on instruments built by others, specifically my small Eurorack modular synthesizer system. I further limited my options by requiring that all performance control would be that which is contained within the rack itself — no outside controllers of any sort. Since a modular synthesizer is typically put together piece by piece at the whim of the musician, I did get to practice a type of construction, but one that allowed me to focus on exploring the instrument’s timbral possibilities without the distraction of having to build it from scratch. The prohibition of outside controllers also served to further that focus.
I resisted the growing modular synthesizer trend for a long time. My practice of over 25 years is almost exclusively live improvisation. Since an improvisor needs to adapt quickly to changing situations, simplicity of interface has long been one of my primary objectives when choosing or creating instruments. The modular world won me over, however, when I acknowledged its power to provide a wide range of timbral manipulation and development tools. My work has long dealt with sound as raw material from which I create dense sonic fields where melody and harmony are not the focus, and in which even rhythm is tied more to timbre than to any sense of pulse or pattern. Even a small modular system like the one I use still has an enormous depth to it. It can be patched and re-patched over and over, each time revealing new discoveries in sound. These systems reward deep dives into even small subsections of the instrument. Though a modular synthesizer requires more pre-performance work, that work is a rich source of discovery of new sounds. This allows me to use a familiar set of tools, but reconfigure them at will, learning something new about the sound sculpting possibilities with each reconfiguration.
As the next step in a continuing series of explorations of my instrument, Alternator I is both a continuation of my previous work and a hint at new directions. As with 1 Vox, everything I used to create the music is contained within my modular synthesizer. Unlike both 1 Vox and the Character Weekend series, here I’ve exchanged short explorations of small ideas for longer pieces that take more time to develop. The most notable difference from those works, however, is the means by which the music is created. All of them relied on live improvised performance, during which I was in complete control of every sound at every moment. Alternator, in contrast, is a generative work. This means that, as when creating 1 Vox, I set up a patch to use for (generally just one) performance. This time, though, I was not actively involved in the actual performance as it unfolded. Once I was finished creating a complex set of interactions within the instrument, the compositional work was done, and the piece generated itself. All that was left for me to do was hit record.
In some ways, Alternator is a more patient work, one that allows sound to unfold over a longer period of time. It spends more time working through small ideas, even allowing motives to repeat or reappear, while remaining unafraid of making quick, radical changes from time to time. What is attractive to me about this way of working is that if the chain of influences is complex enough, the system balances surprise and predictability. Despite continual change, chaos is not allowed to rule. Toward the end of this process, my role becomes that of listener, patiently waiting to hear how things flow and change, making small tweaks until there is a satisfying balance.
This release, along with new 1 Vox and Character Weekend releases that will follow in summer 2020, marks a culmination of countless hours of work adapting to a new set of instruments and to new ways of working, after many years engaging primarily with software that I built myself. I now feel I’ve created a solid foundation for the next few years (at least) of explorations in sound and process. I’m excited to see how it will lead to many more iterations of these series, and new series to come, as I further develop these new practices and discover ways to reincorporate the old.
Character Weekend Now Streaming
The Character Weekend, the trilogy of small sets of improvised solo piece that was my dissertation piece, are now up on the major streaming and download services.
Character Weekend 01:
Apple Music
iTunes Store
Spotify
Google Play
YouTube
Amazon
BandcampCharacter Weekend 02:
Apple Music
iTunes Store
Spotify
Google Play
YouTube
Amazon
BandcampCharacter Weekend 03:
Apple Music
iTunes Store
Spotify
Google Play
YouTube
Amazon
Bandcamp
1 Vox, Vol. 1 Now Streaming at a Music Service Near You
1 Vox, Vol. 1, the EP I released on Bandcamp last December, is now up at all the major (and a bunch of minor) music streaming and download sites. Search your favorite service, or follow the links below.
Apple Music
iTunes Store
Spotify
Google Play
Amazon
Bandcamp
(Psst, if you want to buy and download it, it’s cheapest on Bandcamp…)
Character Weekend 02
Here’s the next installment in my series of character pieces. This time I’ve left the Monotrons and instead used an instrument I created using my work-in-progress iPad app for developing synths using RTmix.
Character Weekend 01
This is the first in a series of small sets of short pieces. This weekend features the Monotron triplets: Monotron, Monotron Delay, and Monotron Duo. These three small bundles of analog joy are much more fun and expressive than their diminutive stature would suggest. I have found them to be effective reminders to keep things simple, so it’s only fitting to let them kick off this series.