inri031 has been finalized without being updated.
something i noticed a few weeks ago (well, i noticed it before then...) was that some of the vstis i'm using are a little crackly. it's more like that i noticed that i missed a few crackles. so, one of the things i'm doing in relistening to the material made since i moved here and started using vstis is to listen very carefully for these little bumps in the final mixes, which can be removed either via digital wave editing or via the crackle remover in cool edit (and i've used both methods). if you open the files up in a wave editor, they're often sharp spikes that can be smoothed by just zooming in and taking the sample down in amplitude. i think it's related to the instrument switching samples, but i'm not totally clear on what's causing these "relics". they almost sound like downsampling errors. whatever they are, i'm going through and carefully ensuring i didn't miss any in bad places.
the mixes on this single have a few crackles. you have to listen carefully for them, but they're there. i actually feel that it adds to the overall sound, here, which is a little bit degraded by design. the choir mix kind of sounds like a handheld hiding in a secret masonic chant, or something, while the string mix sounds almost like an old vinyl.
i was also considering changing the reverb on the string mix to conform to the other string mixes, but the reverb i used in the first place fits the track better - the other reverb is too bright.
i'd also be in a weird spot with this, because the final is a combination of the choir, string and arranged mixes. that means i'd have to change everything, and i'm already happy with the final mix.
so, it's not changing....
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/existence
Sunday, May 31, 2015
i'm actually feeling very anxious and distracted right now and not sure why. head is racing. it's probably a culmination of things. the walk in the morning will probably be good for me.
i've been aware for a while that i'm letting something go in finally finishing period 2. these are songs/tracks/whatever that i've been turning over in my head since 2001-2003 - almost fifteen years. if you'd asked me a few years ago, i might have suggested that i'd never actually finish this. on one hand, it feels good to get past it, but on another there's a sort of sense of loss, as it's coming up against a shift in identity. within a few months, i won't be able to say i have all this work i need to get done - because it will be done. it will finally provide me with some closure about a few things. but, it's going to force me to look at the life i have left entirely differently. existential dread, i guess. but, i mean, it's not like i put myself in this situation on purpose, either, it just happened. time moves forward whether anybody likes it or not. i'll adjust, but i'm losing something here and am going to have to go through a process of flux to get to the other side of it and be able to look back on it wih a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment, and be able to really look forward to do something new.
my completed discography is nearing two full days and will pass that hump by the end of the month. that's a lot to permanently let go of, to move out of the "finish one day" and into the "finished" pile. mentally.
there's people involved. bad relationships. relationships gone bad. relationships that evaporated. i think we all think about the past from time to time, but an artist is inherently tied to it, by the nature of the creative process - and the results of it. leaving ideas open leaves wounds open. closing them closes wounds. closure. literally. it's positive, overall - i'm not arguing otherwise. it's just daunting.
and, i think the next batch of material is particularly daunting in that respect. a little drama to foreshadow it. expect a lot in the music. it's necessary...
i've been aware for a while that i'm letting something go in finally finishing period 2. these are songs/tracks/whatever that i've been turning over in my head since 2001-2003 - almost fifteen years. if you'd asked me a few years ago, i might have suggested that i'd never actually finish this. on one hand, it feels good to get past it, but on another there's a sort of sense of loss, as it's coming up against a shift in identity. within a few months, i won't be able to say i have all this work i need to get done - because it will be done. it will finally provide me with some closure about a few things. but, it's going to force me to look at the life i have left entirely differently. existential dread, i guess. but, i mean, it's not like i put myself in this situation on purpose, either, it just happened. time moves forward whether anybody likes it or not. i'll adjust, but i'm losing something here and am going to have to go through a process of flux to get to the other side of it and be able to look back on it wih a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment, and be able to really look forward to do something new.
my completed discography is nearing two full days and will pass that hump by the end of the month. that's a lot to permanently let go of, to move out of the "finish one day" and into the "finished" pile. mentally.
there's people involved. bad relationships. relationships gone bad. relationships that evaporated. i think we all think about the past from time to time, but an artist is inherently tied to it, by the nature of the creative process - and the results of it. leaving ideas open leaves wounds open. closing them closes wounds. closure. literally. it's positive, overall - i'm not arguing otherwise. it's just daunting.
and, i think the next batch of material is particularly daunting in that respect. a little drama to foreshadow it. expect a lot in the music. it's necessary...
inri031 is going to require some careful thought, specifically with the string orchestra version. if i update it, it will probably be to replace it.
the weather here was really nice all week, but went to shit last night. the drop in temperature gives me an opportunity to get some compost out tomorrow morning. but i've otherwise committed to zero packs of cigarettes over june - and am absolutely serious about enforcing it. i was almost cold turkey in february, but the weather helped. june is going to be a bit tougher, but i'm not cracking. this should hopefully overlap with the web site push, once i get through this clean-up and push through to completed material up to mid 2004, putting aside incomplete material over late 2003 and 2004 for a few weeks.
i have a final appointment on the 16th and will be mailing my odsp on the 16th or 17th, for analysis some time around the beginning of july. i will either be granted a few more years or have three months to get a reaction. i've already decided to appeal, which will probably give me a few more months. but if i have to do that, i will have to drop the website idea and get back to production, because i will be in a race against time at that point. i've already decided that i don't have a future post-odsp. i haven't decided on an exact path, which will probably depend on the nature of the denial, if it happens.
i'm thinking about hitting three shows this month for sure and a few more are maybes, but a lot of it is going to depend on how focused i am on what i'm doing. i could very well not want to go to any at all, depending on factors like the weather, my disposition and whether i think i can get through it without buying smokes. i've previously prioritized the show and said "i'll quit the next day". i'm reversing that priority. if i'm convinced i'm going to crack, i'm going to stay in.
so, this is an important few months for me coming up. by the end of june, i should get through a lot of loose ends and have an entire period of my music career behind me, and i should have a better understanding of how likely it is that i'm going to be able to plan around disability.
the weather here was really nice all week, but went to shit last night. the drop in temperature gives me an opportunity to get some compost out tomorrow morning. but i've otherwise committed to zero packs of cigarettes over june - and am absolutely serious about enforcing it. i was almost cold turkey in february, but the weather helped. june is going to be a bit tougher, but i'm not cracking. this should hopefully overlap with the web site push, once i get through this clean-up and push through to completed material up to mid 2004, putting aside incomplete material over late 2003 and 2004 for a few weeks.
i have a final appointment on the 16th and will be mailing my odsp on the 16th or 17th, for analysis some time around the beginning of july. i will either be granted a few more years or have three months to get a reaction. i've already decided to appeal, which will probably give me a few more months. but if i have to do that, i will have to drop the website idea and get back to production, because i will be in a race against time at that point. i've already decided that i don't have a future post-odsp. i haven't decided on an exact path, which will probably depend on the nature of the denial, if it happens.
i'm thinking about hitting three shows this month for sure and a few more are maybes, but a lot of it is going to depend on how focused i am on what i'm doing. i could very well not want to go to any at all, depending on factors like the weather, my disposition and whether i think i can get through it without buying smokes. i've previously prioritized the show and said "i'll quit the next day". i'm reversing that priority. if i'm convinced i'm going to crack, i'm going to stay in.
so, this is an important few months for me coming up. by the end of june, i should get through a lot of loose ends and have an entire period of my music career behind me, and i should have a better understanding of how likely it is that i'm going to be able to plan around disability.
finalizing to me, myself and the time i thought this was a good idea (inri049)
inri030 has been permanently finalized without being updated.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/me-myself-and-the-time-i-thought-this-was-a-good-idea
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/me-myself-and-the-time-i-thought-this-was-a-good-idea
thoughts on the new son lux single
this isn't the first son lux track where it's like "check the latency, dude". i've been wondering for a while if that's how he's actually getting that glitch effect. i'll wait for the record, i suspect the most compelling material will be buried in there...
finalizing to spin inside dull aberrations (inri048)
inri029 has been permanently finalized without being updated.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations
Saturday, May 30, 2015
republishing the intersection of two identical particles moving in completely opposite directions (inri047)
inri028 has been updated and permanently finalized.
===
ok...
so, to understand this piece, it's necessary to go back to 1998.
i was working out primitive sequencer parts for the first inri demo and it just sort of crossed my mind that there was really nothing stopping me from composing symphonies except for a lot of music theory. well, if i could write electronic music without training, why couldn't i write symphonies without training? i mean, the score writing program exists in front of me. it was just a question of experimenting with it. i could do it myself...
...but i actually already had a pretty hefty disdain for music theory by the age of 17. i'd managed to come across a music history textbook that traced the deconstruction of western theory from beethoven through to schoenberg and this, combined with my experiences as a guitarist, was enough to prevent me from taking it seriously. the perception i had was of modern composers viewing music theory sort of like how biologists viewed creationism. i use that analogy fairly frequently. it just didn't strike me as relevant.
now, i've softened a bit over time to a view that music theory is best understood in terms of the underlying physics. this renders the theory useless, but upholds the basic relationships between tones as physical, mathematical realities. the thing is the next step of abstraction is understanding that these mathematical objects can be arranged and analyzed in any arbitrary way, and the conventional theory really *is* a fallacy akin to creationism. so, i still hold to the general thesis. this is actually the first serious example of me putting that disdain for the idea that music should have a theory into real action. i remain adamantly of the view that art is not a realm where theories should exist or be viewed with anything other than scorn. theories are rigid, formal things; art is informal, chaotic.
so, it's 1998. i have a scorewriter and a very basic soundcard and i want to bullshit a symphony out of it. i did this by composing a single brief melody by randomly mashing notes into a scorewriter. i then took that melody and pasted it over top of itself at differing speeds (64th, 32nd, 16th, 8th, quarter, half, whole notes). i then took that, cut it off near the end of the half notes and pasted it over itself, backwards.
that might sound like it's going to sound awful, but it actually sounds quite lovely. one could analyze it quite easily, but it's creation is beyond the realm of any rules of construction.
which is where art belongs.
...excepting the algorithm i used, of course. i suppose it's more reich than schoenberg, but kind of more xenakis than either.
the initial version ended up subsumed underneath a messy noise collage that i created independently and have lost the source material for. that messy noise collage was eliminated from the track for the 1999 version, which was reconstructed by reproducing the algorithm. these are tracks 19 and 20 on this systematic exploration of the theme.
in 2001, i ran the midi file through my soundblaster live!, which as primitive as it is, has a much nicer wavetable in it than the primitive soundcard i used in 1998 and 1999 (i don't remember what it was). this is track 21. i also slowed it down by about 20 bpm and allowed the full file to "intersect", which let it breathe more. i've previously not done anything with this mix other than append it to some mix cds. the guitars on the soundblaster are notoriously bad, so there wasn't a lot to do with it....
why? well, i was writing a lot with scorewriters at the time and was just experimenting with the old file, really. but i was also finishing up what would be the only year i would spend in the math-physics department, and thought it sounded like i would imagine intersecting particles *should* sound like. i was generally interested in finding ways to combine science with music then - an interest that is present in older tracks as well and that has stuck with me. i may explore these themes further in time. one of the ideas i really wanted to accomplish was a physical modelling of the universe, to actually simulate the music of the spheres, as pythagoras imagined it. i think i underestimated the complexity of such a task....
of course, i never expected the music of the spheres to be tonal. and i wouldn't expect the sound of particles intersecting to be musical, either. but, we can take some artistic license. if intersecting particles are to make a sound, it OUGHT to be something like this!
now, the place to work out the actual intersection is rather arbitrary. i had initially cut off the entire section of pure whole notes, back in '98. what i wanted to do in '01 was create a sequence where it's cut off incrementally, creating shorter and shorter pieces. i didn't actually do that then, but i did do it in july of 2014.
as for the piece, i haven't changed it much. i've doubled the guitar with a pizzicato string section, and put it through a better guitar synthesizer (and amp simulator, and effects). the sound fonts are otherwise identical, just updated mildly to a better synthesizer.
a string orchestra mix was added at the end of may, 2015.
i've included the midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written june, 1998. reimagined june, 2001. slightly rearranged and re-rendered at the end of july, 2014. the renders here are from june 1998, june 1999, june 2001 and july 2014. intially released on july 25, 2014. re-released with a new string orchestra mix & finalized on may 30, 2015. as always, please headphones.
credits:
j - programming, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, composition.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include piano, electric guitar, orchestra hit, synth pads, pizzicato strings, violin, viola, cello and pc card.
released june 18, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-intersection-of-two-identical-particles-moving-in-completely-opposite-directions
===
ok...
so, to understand this piece, it's necessary to go back to 1998.
i was working out primitive sequencer parts for the first inri demo and it just sort of crossed my mind that there was really nothing stopping me from composing symphonies except for a lot of music theory. well, if i could write electronic music without training, why couldn't i write symphonies without training? i mean, the score writing program exists in front of me. it was just a question of experimenting with it. i could do it myself...
...but i actually already had a pretty hefty disdain for music theory by the age of 17. i'd managed to come across a music history textbook that traced the deconstruction of western theory from beethoven through to schoenberg and this, combined with my experiences as a guitarist, was enough to prevent me from taking it seriously. the perception i had was of modern composers viewing music theory sort of like how biologists viewed creationism. i use that analogy fairly frequently. it just didn't strike me as relevant.
now, i've softened a bit over time to a view that music theory is best understood in terms of the underlying physics. this renders the theory useless, but upholds the basic relationships between tones as physical, mathematical realities. the thing is the next step of abstraction is understanding that these mathematical objects can be arranged and analyzed in any arbitrary way, and the conventional theory really *is* a fallacy akin to creationism. so, i still hold to the general thesis. this is actually the first serious example of me putting that disdain for the idea that music should have a theory into real action. i remain adamantly of the view that art is not a realm where theories should exist or be viewed with anything other than scorn. theories are rigid, formal things; art is informal, chaotic.
so, it's 1998. i have a scorewriter and a very basic soundcard and i want to bullshit a symphony out of it. i did this by composing a single brief melody by randomly mashing notes into a scorewriter. i then took that melody and pasted it over top of itself at differing speeds (64th, 32nd, 16th, 8th, quarter, half, whole notes). i then took that, cut it off near the end of the half notes and pasted it over itself, backwards.
that might sound like it's going to sound awful, but it actually sounds quite lovely. one could analyze it quite easily, but it's creation is beyond the realm of any rules of construction.
which is where art belongs.
...excepting the algorithm i used, of course. i suppose it's more reich than schoenberg, but kind of more xenakis than either.
the initial version ended up subsumed underneath a messy noise collage that i created independently and have lost the source material for. that messy noise collage was eliminated from the track for the 1999 version, which was reconstructed by reproducing the algorithm. these are tracks 19 and 20 on this systematic exploration of the theme.
in 2001, i ran the midi file through my soundblaster live!, which as primitive as it is, has a much nicer wavetable in it than the primitive soundcard i used in 1998 and 1999 (i don't remember what it was). this is track 21. i also slowed it down by about 20 bpm and allowed the full file to "intersect", which let it breathe more. i've previously not done anything with this mix other than append it to some mix cds. the guitars on the soundblaster are notoriously bad, so there wasn't a lot to do with it....
why? well, i was writing a lot with scorewriters at the time and was just experimenting with the old file, really. but i was also finishing up what would be the only year i would spend in the math-physics department, and thought it sounded like i would imagine intersecting particles *should* sound like. i was generally interested in finding ways to combine science with music then - an interest that is present in older tracks as well and that has stuck with me. i may explore these themes further in time. one of the ideas i really wanted to accomplish was a physical modelling of the universe, to actually simulate the music of the spheres, as pythagoras imagined it. i think i underestimated the complexity of such a task....
of course, i never expected the music of the spheres to be tonal. and i wouldn't expect the sound of particles intersecting to be musical, either. but, we can take some artistic license. if intersecting particles are to make a sound, it OUGHT to be something like this!
now, the place to work out the actual intersection is rather arbitrary. i had initially cut off the entire section of pure whole notes, back in '98. what i wanted to do in '01 was create a sequence where it's cut off incrementally, creating shorter and shorter pieces. i didn't actually do that then, but i did do it in july of 2014.
as for the piece, i haven't changed it much. i've doubled the guitar with a pizzicato string section, and put it through a better guitar synthesizer (and amp simulator, and effects). the sound fonts are otherwise identical, just updated mildly to a better synthesizer.
a string orchestra mix was added at the end of may, 2015.
i've included the midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written june, 1998. reimagined june, 2001. slightly rearranged and re-rendered at the end of july, 2014. the renders here are from june 1998, june 1999, june 2001 and july 2014. intially released on july 25, 2014. re-released with a new string orchestra mix & finalized on may 30, 2015. as always, please headphones.
credits:
j - programming, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, composition.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include piano, electric guitar, orchestra hit, synth pads, pizzicato strings, violin, viola, cello and pc card.
released june 18, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-intersection-of-two-identical-particles-moving-in-completely-opposite-directions
the intersection of two identical particles moving in completely opposite directions (string orchestra mix)
written one day in june, 1998. re-created on another day in june, 1999. reimagined on yet another day in june, 2001. a failed remaster occurred at the end of 2013. slightly rearranged and re-rendered at the end of july, 2014. rearranged again at the end of may, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/string-orchestra-mix-2
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/string-orchestra-mix-2
it's starting to look like this chamber works thing is something i'm going to actually do. i'll take hits on pretension for it, but it's starting to shape up as something worthwhile.
i mean, the strings are 100% synthesized. but they sound good enough to compile a record out of them. i've heard plenty of synthesizer-based classical music, but never anything like this; in a sense, it's just taking it to the next level. it may actually be relatively normal in the upcoming years.
for some of it, yeah, i'd rather find an actual string orchestra (there's more than four parts for most of it). if you're aware of one willing to work for a thumbs up, let me know.
i bought a cheap starter electric violin years ago, but never taught myself to play it. it doesn't help for the low parts. and, as i said, it actually sounds pretty good...
i have a tendency to predict upcoming musical trends. it may, in the end, be just another example of my inadvertent tendency towards incredible foresight.
i mean, the strings are 100% synthesized. but they sound good enough to compile a record out of them. i've heard plenty of synthesizer-based classical music, but never anything like this; in a sense, it's just taking it to the next level. it may actually be relatively normal in the upcoming years.
for some of it, yeah, i'd rather find an actual string orchestra (there's more than four parts for most of it). if you're aware of one willing to work for a thumbs up, let me know.
i bought a cheap starter electric violin years ago, but never taught myself to play it. it doesn't help for the low parts. and, as i said, it actually sounds pretty good...
i have a tendency to predict upcoming musical trends. it may, in the end, be just another example of my inadvertent tendency towards incredible foresight.
Friday, May 29, 2015
republishing the symphony of psilocybin induced madness (inri046)
inri027 has been updated and permanently finalized.
==
the core of this was written in my parent's basement in the spring of 2001. planning on going to a rave that weekend, i had previously purchased a large amount of drugs; i was, however, forced to stay in due to having a calculus test that sunday (the rave was out of town). well, my parents were gone for the weekend, most of my friends were out of town and i had a massive stash of drugs...
it is quite literally a symphony of psilocybin induced madness and was written directly into an ancient, hacked score-writing program. while it has been labelled as a symphony of drunken confusion in certain contexts to get around certain social stigmas, this is inaccurate.
around 2006 or so, i took a course in electronic music design that had a recorded component and pulled the score off of my hard drive with the intent of finally recording it properly. the dx7 i had available to me greatly improved the synth patches, enough that i'm willing to let the track rest that way.
i've included midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written in the spring of 2001. lent out for a different project in jan, 2004. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. released as a one track single on april 1, 2006. expanded with alternate mixes and re-released on july 23, 2014. the vst mix was added on jan 10, 2015 and the two guitar mixes were added on may 29, 2015. re-released & finalized on may 29, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - electric guitars, programming, digital effects & treatments, sampling, composition, production.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include synthesizers, clavinet, kalimba, nylon guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, banjo, electronic drums, pc card, violin, cello, bamboo flute, flute, viola, soprano saxophone, tuba, trumpet, organ and music box.
released may 15, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-symphony-of-psilocybin-induced-madness
==
the core of this was written in my parent's basement in the spring of 2001. planning on going to a rave that weekend, i had previously purchased a large amount of drugs; i was, however, forced to stay in due to having a calculus test that sunday (the rave was out of town). well, my parents were gone for the weekend, most of my friends were out of town and i had a massive stash of drugs...
it is quite literally a symphony of psilocybin induced madness and was written directly into an ancient, hacked score-writing program. while it has been labelled as a symphony of drunken confusion in certain contexts to get around certain social stigmas, this is inaccurate.
around 2006 or so, i took a course in electronic music design that had a recorded component and pulled the score off of my hard drive with the intent of finally recording it properly. the dx7 i had available to me greatly improved the synth patches, enough that i'm willing to let the track rest that way.
i've included midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written in the spring of 2001. lent out for a different project in jan, 2004. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. released as a one track single on april 1, 2006. expanded with alternate mixes and re-released on july 23, 2014. the vst mix was added on jan 10, 2015 and the two guitar mixes were added on may 29, 2015. re-released & finalized on may 29, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - electric guitars, programming, digital effects & treatments, sampling, composition, production.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include synthesizers, clavinet, kalimba, nylon guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, banjo, electronic drums, pc card, violin, cello, bamboo flute, flute, viola, soprano saxophone, tuba, trumpet, organ and music box.
released may 15, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-symphony-of-psilocybin-induced-madness
the symphony of psilocybin induced madness (backwards guitar mix)
however, it's going to be a backwards guitar mix that will appear on the atmospheres disc. it's a good way to close the ep, with a wash of backwards effects.
==
this is the previous mix, backwards.
written early 2001. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. this version was rendered from the existing source files on may 29, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/backwards-guitar-mix
==
this is the previous mix, backwards.
written early 2001. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. this version was rendered from the existing source files on may 29, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/backwards-guitar-mix
the symphony of psilocybin induced madness (guitar mix) (cut)
i've been playing with ways to get this to work in a guitar-only context for the last several hours, and have concluded it needs to be cut. the atmospheric component of the track is based on overlapping loops that unfold in a process; this is supplemented with a romantic-style piano part and a rising orchestra, along with a number of other loops. separating out the guitars creates something with a "mad" aesthetic, which was the intent. but, it requires the melodic content to actually be compelling to listen to. i've cut this down for 18 to 13 and finally to 3 minutes - it's just enough to get the idea across, without beating you over the head with it.
==
this is a cut guitar-only version. it's cut to ensure that each of the guitar loops is heard, but not to drag the process on. the atmospheric portion of the track is in fact mostly guitars - as demonstrated by this edit - but it was intended to create an atmosphere of jumbled thoughts and general madness, not to be listened to on it's own. this edit gets that point across without dragging it on.
written early 2001. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. this version was rendered from the existing source files on may 29, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/guitar-mix-cut
==
this is a cut guitar-only version. it's cut to ensure that each of the guitar loops is heard, but not to drag the process on. the atmospheric portion of the track is in fact mostly guitars - as demonstrated by this edit - but it was intended to create an atmosphere of jumbled thoughts and general madness, not to be listened to on it's own. this edit gets that point across without dragging it on.
written early 2001. reconstructed in the first quarter of 2006, especially over march. this version was rendered from the existing source files on may 29, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/guitar-mix-cut
rap news 32
systemic racism is systemic. racial profiling. a culture of supremacism. the policies are by design, and the results are intended. it's not a few shitty cops that need further education.
there was a case a while ago when a cop was excluded from the force because his iq tests came back too high, and the court system upheld the rights of the force to exclude him on that basis. smart people are more likely to act independently in the face of clear injustice. cops are literally singled out for their ability to be dumb enforcers, and then instructed to interpret people through a racial filter. it's design.
and, if you understand that the role of the police is to protect property, it's an inescapable necessity from the elite's perspective. it's rational. if you want to maintain the status quo of racial based inequality, you need a system of extreme force to do so and you need it thinking in racist terms.
one of the core issues is the continued existence of prison labour. this is basically unheard of anywhere else in the developed world. a constitutional amendment to ban prison labour would be a huge step forward.
but the only way to really overturn this kind of system is to tear it down.
of course, looting the 7/11 is not a useful tactic. but, the videos i saw exposed an average age of around 17. on some level, these are the people that have the most at stake. on another, they're not old enough to vote.
there was a case a while ago when a cop was excluded from the force because his iq tests came back too high, and the court system upheld the rights of the force to exclude him on that basis. smart people are more likely to act independently in the face of clear injustice. cops are literally singled out for their ability to be dumb enforcers, and then instructed to interpret people through a racial filter. it's design.
and, if you understand that the role of the police is to protect property, it's an inescapable necessity from the elite's perspective. it's rational. if you want to maintain the status quo of racial based inequality, you need a system of extreme force to do so and you need it thinking in racist terms.
one of the core issues is the continued existence of prison labour. this is basically unheard of anywhere else in the developed world. a constitutional amendment to ban prison labour would be a huge step forward.
but the only way to really overturn this kind of system is to tear it down.
of course, looting the 7/11 is not a useful tactic. but, the videos i saw exposed an average age of around 17. on some level, these are the people that have the most at stake. on another, they're not old enough to vote.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
finalizing j’s adventures in guitarland (inri045)
inri026 has been finalized without being updated.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/js-adventures-in-guitarland
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/js-adventures-in-guitarland
republishing the time machine (inri044)
i've added six more mixes to inri025: two techno mixes, three for solo instruments and an arrangement for string orchestra. this was initially a classical guitar piece, but it is unplayable on a standard 19-fret classical and i do not currently have access to an extended board. there is a placeholder for a final performance on a suitably constructed instrument. but, for now, it is otherwise closed.
inri025 has been updated and semi-permanently finalized.
==
regarding this piece, my memory is blurry; yet, i have a vivid recollection of playing parts of it for my guitar teacher on a sunny day, where there was still snow on the ground. it's funny how we remember seemingly irrelevant details, but i guess the atmosphere of the performance is important because the performance is. that would date it to roughly march, 2001.
i switched the piece from classical guitar to piano halfway through writing it, and vaguely remember thinking that an impossible interval had something to do with it (a specific c# cannot be hit on a standard classical). yet, that doesn't change the fact that it's guitar music. the counterpoint is very guitar.
to further complicate things, i've long wanted to turn the piece into a jazzy idm romp. it has a kind of a jingly feel to it that belongs in the warp records sphere.
so, what is this? a classical guitar piece? a jazzy piano piece? a techno tune? all of the above! as with other pieces from this period, this is presented here in multiple formats: several rendered midi tracks, live guitar versions, a vst version and a "full band" version - as well as multiple remixes.
i have included the original midi file (and sheet music in pdf) as a bonus item in the download, if you want to play with it on your own.
conceptually, the time machine aspect referred simply to the slowed down guitar chords at the beginning of the song. if you play it a certain way, it sounds like time is collapsing in on itself. or, so i thought, anyways. the various versions i have created here have made an attempt to take that idea to it's logical conclusion. it's a mix of the vision i had at the time and a bit of hindsight.
six further mixes were added at the end of may, 2015. two of these are "techno" mixes of the song, three are interpretations of the piece on a solo instrument and one is a rearrangement for a full string orchestra. i've decided to present the material in a way that is really two eps combined together, with the first being arrangements for multiple instruments and the second being arrangements for solo instruments. note that there is a placeholder for the track as it was initially written for a 21-fret classical guitar.
written early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. rendered, arranged and performed over june and july, 2014. released on july 21, 2014. six new mixes were added in late may, 2015. re-released & put on indefinite hold as to status on may 28, 2015 as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - electric guitar, programming, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, loops, production, composition
the various rendered electronic orchestras include acoustic bass, synth bass, electric bass, upright bass, brass section, orchestra hit, drum machine, electronic drum kit, nylon guitar, electric guitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, french horn, trumpet, tuba, trombone, synthesizers, synthesizer effects, harp, music box, detuned piano, piano, bells, flute, hammered percussion, vibraphone, marimba and mellotron. it also includes choir.
released march 21, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-time-machine
inri025 has been updated and semi-permanently finalized.
==
regarding this piece, my memory is blurry; yet, i have a vivid recollection of playing parts of it for my guitar teacher on a sunny day, where there was still snow on the ground. it's funny how we remember seemingly irrelevant details, but i guess the atmosphere of the performance is important because the performance is. that would date it to roughly march, 2001.
i switched the piece from classical guitar to piano halfway through writing it, and vaguely remember thinking that an impossible interval had something to do with it (a specific c# cannot be hit on a standard classical). yet, that doesn't change the fact that it's guitar music. the counterpoint is very guitar.
to further complicate things, i've long wanted to turn the piece into a jazzy idm romp. it has a kind of a jingly feel to it that belongs in the warp records sphere.
so, what is this? a classical guitar piece? a jazzy piano piece? a techno tune? all of the above! as with other pieces from this period, this is presented here in multiple formats: several rendered midi tracks, live guitar versions, a vst version and a "full band" version - as well as multiple remixes.
i have included the original midi file (and sheet music in pdf) as a bonus item in the download, if you want to play with it on your own.
conceptually, the time machine aspect referred simply to the slowed down guitar chords at the beginning of the song. if you play it a certain way, it sounds like time is collapsing in on itself. or, so i thought, anyways. the various versions i have created here have made an attempt to take that idea to it's logical conclusion. it's a mix of the vision i had at the time and a bit of hindsight.
six further mixes were added at the end of may, 2015. two of these are "techno" mixes of the song, three are interpretations of the piece on a solo instrument and one is a rearrangement for a full string orchestra. i've decided to present the material in a way that is really two eps combined together, with the first being arrangements for multiple instruments and the second being arrangements for solo instruments. note that there is a placeholder for the track as it was initially written for a 21-fret classical guitar.
written early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. rendered, arranged and performed over june and july, 2014. released on july 21, 2014. six new mixes were added in late may, 2015. re-released & put on indefinite hold as to status on may 28, 2015 as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - electric guitar, programming, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, loops, production, composition
the various rendered electronic orchestras include acoustic bass, synth bass, electric bass, upright bass, brass section, orchestra hit, drum machine, electronic drum kit, nylon guitar, electric guitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, french horn, trumpet, tuba, trombone, synthesizers, synthesizer effects, harp, music box, detuned piano, piano, bells, flute, hammered percussion, vibraphone, marimba and mellotron. it also includes choir.
released march 21, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-time-machine
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
the time machine (dirty synth mix)
so, the update is now complete, i just have to finalize a tracklisting.
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and again in may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 27th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/dirty-synth-mix
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and again in may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 27th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/dirty-synth-mix
it's not. and i'm remembering that i went through this before many years ago. well, it is in theory, if i tuned the b up to an open c, but then i'd need jimi hendrix or michael jordan sized hands, and, as it is, i've met tween girls with bigger hands than mine. they're really freakishly small, it's sort of almost unbelievable, even. if lamarck was right, but alas...
so, i can't close this. but it could be years before i get that 21 fret guitar.
hey, listen - i can do sneaky, acrobatic things that hendrix' hands would get jumbled up in. it forces a specific style, but i can count as many times that it's been a benefit as i can that it's been a drawback. guitars aren't like pianos like that, there's too many angles going on.
the specific problem is that it's written in the third fret position, and there's consequently a lot of bass notes around there that need the hand to stay put - so they can ring. it's *already* kind of tricky, with pinkies stretching out to the 6th fret. if i tune the high e up to f#, i have to move essentially the whole melody up a string, because i need chords to ring through the high e and also to ring through hammer ons (meaning another solution would be to have six fingers). but, because the low g and f# are both prominent, that puts me in a situation where i need to fret from the 3rd (low e) to 10th (b) frets - which is not impossible in theory, it would just require hands much bigger than mine. it doesn't help to tune the a down to g or f#, because i have the same problem with the f# on the bottom string or the g on either of the two top strings - nor the e up, because it needs to ring quite a bit. a seventh string on either side would be another answer, but it's still not useful to me right now....
so, i can't close this. but it could be years before i get that 21 fret guitar.
hey, listen - i can do sneaky, acrobatic things that hendrix' hands would get jumbled up in. it forces a specific style, but i can count as many times that it's been a benefit as i can that it's been a drawback. guitars aren't like pianos like that, there's too many angles going on.
the specific problem is that it's written in the third fret position, and there's consequently a lot of bass notes around there that need the hand to stay put - so they can ring. it's *already* kind of tricky, with pinkies stretching out to the 6th fret. if i tune the high e up to f#, i have to move essentially the whole melody up a string, because i need chords to ring through the high e and also to ring through hammer ons (meaning another solution would be to have six fingers). but, because the low g and f# are both prominent, that puts me in a situation where i need to fret from the 3rd (low e) to 10th (b) frets - which is not impossible in theory, it would just require hands much bigger than mine. it doesn't help to tune the a down to g or f#, because i have the same problem with the f# on the bottom string or the g on either of the two top strings - nor the e up, because it needs to ring quite a bit. a seventh string on either side would be another answer, but it's still not useful to me right now....
the time machine (updated midi nylon guitar mix)
here is the midi classical guitar mix, with a more listenable sample-based sound font.
i gotta be clear: i don't like doing this. i'm a guitarist. this is a computer. my teeth are grating a little.
but, the reason i moved the track from guitar to piano (and then abandoned it, until this year when i turned it into a jazzy techno thing) is that you need a 21-fret classical to play it. there's a live electric guitar mix - because electric guitars have 21 frets, minimum (mine are 23 and 24). but i just don't have a 21 fret classical. i can't even fudge the harmonic; all i have is a miniature 19-fret thing, and it just can't do it.
but here's the thing: maybe i should have a 21-fret or more classical. and i will, eventually. i'd even go so far as to suggest that, when i get done the discography, classical guitar music may be the only music i keep making. that means i can't permanently close this - in fact i can virtually guarantee that i will eventually add a live classical mix to the ep.
but, i won't remove this one, because it's a different slant on it. so, here it is...
this evening, i'm going to do a full drum and bass techno romp mix with crunchy synths in replace of guitars. as of this moment, i'm thinking it will probably finish this off, but i'll need o give it a good listen before i get to that conclusion. i'm also not entirely sure about the tracklisting yet...
written in early 2001. rendered may 27, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/updated-midi-nylon-guitar-mix
i gotta be clear: i don't like doing this. i'm a guitarist. this is a computer. my teeth are grating a little.
but, the reason i moved the track from guitar to piano (and then abandoned it, until this year when i turned it into a jazzy techno thing) is that you need a 21-fret classical to play it. there's a live electric guitar mix - because electric guitars have 21 frets, minimum (mine are 23 and 24). but i just don't have a 21 fret classical. i can't even fudge the harmonic; all i have is a miniature 19-fret thing, and it just can't do it.
but here's the thing: maybe i should have a 21-fret or more classical. and i will, eventually. i'd even go so far as to suggest that, when i get done the discography, classical guitar music may be the only music i keep making. that means i can't permanently close this - in fact i can virtually guarantee that i will eventually add a live classical mix to the ep.
but, i won't remove this one, because it's a different slant on it. so, here it is...
this evening, i'm going to do a full drum and bass techno romp mix with crunchy synths in replace of guitars. as of this moment, i'm thinking it will probably finish this off, but i'll need o give it a good listen before i get to that conclusion. i'm also not entirely sure about the tracklisting yet...
written in early 2001. rendered may 27, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/updated-midi-nylon-guitar-mix
the time machine (updated midi piano mix)
when i initially uploaded this, i had the silly idea that it would be a bad idea to change the sound font, for the reason that it was important to maintain the sound of the piece as i had written it, for historical reasons. but...who wants to listen to a lonely sequenced piano through a budget 90s soundcard....
i've kept the initial files up, because, hey, why not? but, i've updated the font to sound considerably better.
the piano wasn't so bad to begin with - i've used the soundcard for plenty of piano parts, but it sounds a lot better near the higher end of the register, and with a little reverb. it's worth it on an a/b but it wasn't really terrible. i'm going to be updating the guitar part as well, which is going to be a much more noticeable update.
written in early 2001. rendered may 27, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/updated-midi-piano-mix
i've kept the initial files up, because, hey, why not? but, i've updated the font to sound considerably better.
the piano wasn't so bad to begin with - i've used the soundcard for plenty of piano parts, but it sounds a lot better near the higher end of the register, and with a little reverb. it's worth it on an a/b but it wasn't really terrible. i'm going to be updating the guitar part as well, which is going to be a much more noticeable update.
written in early 2001. rendered may 27, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/updated-midi-piano-mix
the time machine (atmospheric electric guitar mix)
written in early 2001. reinterpreted in july, 2014; this version of the track was initially completed on july 21st. remixed to include background atmospheres on may 27, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/atmospheric-electric-guitar-mix
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/atmospheric-electric-guitar-mix
the time machine (string orchestra mix)
inri025 is being overhauled, and almost doubled in length. that's fine, it's why i'm doing this run through.
when i did this last summer, i was thinking less comprehensively than i came to think over the course of the year. in truth, there's quite a few ideas to work out further, and a few that were kind of not the most interesting thing to begin with. this is going to be all digital; the tracks are down and done.
so, this is the second of what i'm thinking will be at least six additions to the single.
i kind of want to get all the "ep-singles" up over 40 minutes, as well. eps are usually conceptual, and subject to different requirements; singles are singles. but i consider the ep-single to be a sort of mini-record. that's what i grew up with - it's what i'd want, as a consumer. the releases are currently priced to sell (*ahem*...hint...), but if i get to a certain number of homemade sales i'd like to press some of them. what i press will depend on what sells - the magic number is 5000, which should pay for a pressing of any specific disc, if i get to that point. so, ensuring these are all "mini records" makes them a bit more worthwhile as possible physical items. i guess it's also worth pointing out that everything is designed for instant printing, should a label decide to pick me up on terms i'm willing to accept...
i don't want to just upload crap, though, either. what's coming is largely based around compilation ideas that actually work. i'm a little skeptical about a chamber works of synthesized string music, but we'll see what comes up.
it's often stated that a song is really good when it sounds good on just an acoustic guitar. i can't agree with that - but i've never been a fan of folk music, either, so it's partially an issue of defining what is "really good".
i think a better metric is "if it sounds good when arranged purely for strings". decide for yourself, i guess...but this isn't going to be the last one of these...
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 27th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/string-orchestra-mix
when i did this last summer, i was thinking less comprehensively than i came to think over the course of the year. in truth, there's quite a few ideas to work out further, and a few that were kind of not the most interesting thing to begin with. this is going to be all digital; the tracks are down and done.
so, this is the second of what i'm thinking will be at least six additions to the single.
i kind of want to get all the "ep-singles" up over 40 minutes, as well. eps are usually conceptual, and subject to different requirements; singles are singles. but i consider the ep-single to be a sort of mini-record. that's what i grew up with - it's what i'd want, as a consumer. the releases are currently priced to sell (*ahem*...hint...), but if i get to a certain number of homemade sales i'd like to press some of them. what i press will depend on what sells - the magic number is 5000, which should pay for a pressing of any specific disc, if i get to that point. so, ensuring these are all "mini records" makes them a bit more worthwhile as possible physical items. i guess it's also worth pointing out that everything is designed for instant printing, should a label decide to pick me up on terms i'm willing to accept...
i don't want to just upload crap, though, either. what's coming is largely based around compilation ideas that actually work. i'm a little skeptical about a chamber works of synthesized string music, but we'll see what comes up.
it's often stated that a song is really good when it sounds good on just an acoustic guitar. i can't agree with that - but i've never been a fan of folk music, either, so it's partially an issue of defining what is "really good".
i think a better metric is "if it sounds good when arranged purely for strings". decide for yourself, i guess...but this isn't going to be the last one of these...
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 27th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/string-orchestra-mix
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
the time machine (percussion & bass mix)
this is a "drum and bass" mix, with pitched percussion for the melodic parts.
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 26th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/percussion-bass-mix
written in early 2001. drastically rearranged in june, 2014. further remixed over july, 2014 and may, 2015. this version of the track was completed on may 26th, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/percussion-bass-mix
republishing stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides (inri043)
i've been in the process of closing down my second artistic phase for longer than i'd like, but i'm really getting to the final points on it, which means taking one last run through everything and making final decisions on it. this is the fourth mix i've appended to this single over the last week, but it is now final. closed.
so, behold inri024, which is now a 90 minute 12-track "single" of reinterpretations of this track.
inri024 has been updated and permanently finalized.
===
this is one of the tracks that i can't date well. i do, however, remember working on it during the winter, which means it must have been late '00 or early '01. i'm going to consequently deduce that it must have been what i was working on over the 2000 christmas break and date it coming out right after it.
actually, i have another reason to date it in early '01 rather than late '00: the introductory piano part was recorded live into my notation program on my dx100, which i was given over christmas (maybe a little before; it was a cheap garage sale pickup) to act as a controller for my recently broken jx-8p, that i had tried to take apart over the summer to clean a sticky key (a common problem with mid-80s roland analog synths) but failed and left keyless. it's still keyless. yet, the dx still drives it....
that introductory piano part formed the basis of the track, which built itself up fairly quickly. somewhere, i lost the nwc file by saving it as midi, which ruined all the formatting. it's been sitting on my drive ever since.
why put together seven different midi versions of the same track, and sequence them after a polished recorded version? well, this was never actually meant to be computer music. i was just composing something the old fashioned way with the intent of later giving it to some musicians to play. that never happened. what did happen was that i found myself playing it back on multiple sound cards over many years, trying to make it sound as good as possible in the short run - until i could finally get the chance to sit down and actually record it. while each of the different renders has it's strong and weak points, i ultimately don't feel that they form a total order. something i thought about doing was recording tracks independently on different cards and then pasting them together, but that would have just created another dozen incomparable mixes. rather than arbitrarily pick one, i decided to just upload all of them.
in hindsight, i think the format is interesting in itself in terms of it being a psychological experiment with sound. the differences from track to track are sometimes inaudible and sometimes extremely noticeable. stringing it all together in a row like this is challenging to any listener in the sense that it rips apart the process of becoming familiar with a piece. it means listening to exactly the same song through multiple different sound libraries. i think your brain would have to interpret that as a sort of a trip, especially when it comes to trying to build associations in sound within tracks that are both similar and different sounding, soundcard wise. i think that might be part of the reason i had so much difficulty isolating tracks in the first place.
so, listening to the ep through all the way is likely to be a bit disorienting and might ultimately be a strange experience. however, if you like the track for what it is as a collection of overlapping sequences of notes then i hope you get something out of the process of comparing and contrasting the renders together.
i have included the original midi file as a bonus item in the download, if you want to play with it on your own. the added guitar sections in the final version are recent additions and have not been written out.
thematically, the track is meant to orchestrate a feeling of claustrophobia with society pushing down on you too hard. it's meant to transmit a feeling of existential dread. at the time, i really felt stuck with life in general and not sure how i was going to get out of it.
four further remixes were added at the end of may, 2015, which has forced me to move two of the midi renders to 'download only'.
written late 2000 & early 2001. the renders present here are all from after 2013. minor instrumentation changes to facilitate a small wind section were implemented in late april, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may, 2014. initially released on june 7, 2014. four new orchestral mixes were added in late may, 2015. re-released & finalized on may 26, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - electric piano, programming, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, vocoders, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, composition.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include piano, bass, synth bass, distorted electric guitar, clean electric guitar, other guitar effects, steel string acoustic guitar, nylon string classical guitar, sitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, synthesizers, clarinet, flute, piccolo, xylophone, glockenspiel, woodblock, tubular bells, orchestra hit, jazz drum kit, hand drums, melodic toms, orchestral drum kit, hammered percussion, marimba, taiko drum, synthetic percussion and electronic drum kit.
released january 10, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
so, behold inri024, which is now a 90 minute 12-track "single" of reinterpretations of this track.
inri024 has been updated and permanently finalized.
===
this is one of the tracks that i can't date well. i do, however, remember working on it during the winter, which means it must have been late '00 or early '01. i'm going to consequently deduce that it must have been what i was working on over the 2000 christmas break and date it coming out right after it.
actually, i have another reason to date it in early '01 rather than late '00: the introductory piano part was recorded live into my notation program on my dx100, which i was given over christmas (maybe a little before; it was a cheap garage sale pickup) to act as a controller for my recently broken jx-8p, that i had tried to take apart over the summer to clean a sticky key (a common problem with mid-80s roland analog synths) but failed and left keyless. it's still keyless. yet, the dx still drives it....
that introductory piano part formed the basis of the track, which built itself up fairly quickly. somewhere, i lost the nwc file by saving it as midi, which ruined all the formatting. it's been sitting on my drive ever since.
why put together seven different midi versions of the same track, and sequence them after a polished recorded version? well, this was never actually meant to be computer music. i was just composing something the old fashioned way with the intent of later giving it to some musicians to play. that never happened. what did happen was that i found myself playing it back on multiple sound cards over many years, trying to make it sound as good as possible in the short run - until i could finally get the chance to sit down and actually record it. while each of the different renders has it's strong and weak points, i ultimately don't feel that they form a total order. something i thought about doing was recording tracks independently on different cards and then pasting them together, but that would have just created another dozen incomparable mixes. rather than arbitrarily pick one, i decided to just upload all of them.
in hindsight, i think the format is interesting in itself in terms of it being a psychological experiment with sound. the differences from track to track are sometimes inaudible and sometimes extremely noticeable. stringing it all together in a row like this is challenging to any listener in the sense that it rips apart the process of becoming familiar with a piece. it means listening to exactly the same song through multiple different sound libraries. i think your brain would have to interpret that as a sort of a trip, especially when it comes to trying to build associations in sound within tracks that are both similar and different sounding, soundcard wise. i think that might be part of the reason i had so much difficulty isolating tracks in the first place.
so, listening to the ep through all the way is likely to be a bit disorienting and might ultimately be a strange experience. however, if you like the track for what it is as a collection of overlapping sequences of notes then i hope you get something out of the process of comparing and contrasting the renders together.
i have included the original midi file as a bonus item in the download, if you want to play with it on your own. the added guitar sections in the final version are recent additions and have not been written out.
thematically, the track is meant to orchestrate a feeling of claustrophobia with society pushing down on you too hard. it's meant to transmit a feeling of existential dread. at the time, i really felt stuck with life in general and not sure how i was going to get out of it.
four further remixes were added at the end of may, 2015, which has forced me to move two of the midi renders to 'download only'.
written late 2000 & early 2001. the renders present here are all from after 2013. minor instrumentation changes to facilitate a small wind section were implemented in late april, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may, 2014. initially released on june 7, 2014. four new orchestral mixes were added in late may, 2015. re-released & finalized on may 26, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - electric piano, programming, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, vocoders, digital effects & treatments, digital wave editing, composition.
the rendered electronic orchestras variously include piano, bass, synth bass, distorted electric guitar, clean electric guitar, other guitar effects, steel string acoustic guitar, nylon string classical guitar, sitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, synthesizers, clarinet, flute, piccolo, xylophone, glockenspiel, woodblock, tubular bells, orchestra hit, jazz drum kit, hand drums, melodic toms, orchestral drum kit, hammered percussion, marimba, taiko drum, synthetic percussion and electronic drum kit.
released january 10, 2001
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides (slow string orchestra fade out)
so, as mentioned, i'm going through inri024-inri050 and posting final updates.
this has been added to inri024 as an absolute final update.
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. further remixed on may 26, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/slow-string-orchestra-fade-out
this has been added to inri024 as an absolute final update.
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. further remixed on may 26, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/slow-string-orchestra-fade-out
my sleeping schedule cycled back around. i couldn't imagine going back to a regular schedule. the last time i tried that (2006/2007), i ended up scheduling myself on 48 hour days - i'd wake up, go to work, go home, stay up all night, go to work, sleep. i did that for months. it was the only way i could get anything besides work done.
nowadays, i tend to live about 25-30 hour days, which means the time of day that i'm awake staggers forwards by a few hours every day. last week, i was doing overnights. this week, it looks like i'll be up during the day. next week i'll probably be waking up some time around noon. and the week after that, i'll be waking up when the sun comes down.
i need to mail a package when the post office opens, and make a few calls at a pay phone on the way back. but, i'll be back to work around ten.
i had put a number of ideas aside for future comps - i need to systematically approach this now, not later. at the least, the comp ideas are finalized, so i can approach this that way. i'll be mildly updating a number of releases after inri024 over the next day or two, until i get back to inri050.
some of the comp mixes have no real option but to be exclusive - they don't make sense on a single, or the single is pushing 80 minutes of mixes already (yeah, i know....but it's what happened...) or the addition is too minor to really justify the addition. but this needs to be comprehensive, because when i push forwards to the post-trip material, i have no intention of moving backwards.
nowadays, i tend to live about 25-30 hour days, which means the time of day that i'm awake staggers forwards by a few hours every day. last week, i was doing overnights. this week, it looks like i'll be up during the day. next week i'll probably be waking up some time around noon. and the week after that, i'll be waking up when the sun comes down.
i need to mail a package when the post office opens, and make a few calls at a pay phone on the way back. but, i'll be back to work around ten.
i had put a number of ideas aside for future comps - i need to systematically approach this now, not later. at the least, the comp ideas are finalized, so i can approach this that way. i'll be mildly updating a number of releases after inri024 over the next day or two, until i get back to inri050.
some of the comp mixes have no real option but to be exclusive - they don't make sense on a single, or the single is pushing 80 minutes of mixes already (yeah, i know....but it's what happened...) or the addition is too minor to really justify the addition. but this needs to be comprehensive, because when i push forwards to the post-trip material, i have no intention of moving backwards.
Monday, May 25, 2015
i'm not going to get anything done today, but ive got a few hours while i'm waiting for a doctor's appointment, and i'm scolding myself for being lazy on the ambient works - i should have created a new mix for "fuck boxes", and knew i should have, in fact i almost did, but i didn't want to open the single or set up the files so i said "this is good enough"...
but it isn't. i mean, half the mix fits the right description, but there's nothing ambient about punk drumming and zeppelin riffs. i'm going to have fix that by taking some parts out, and also create a guitar mix for the atmospheres disc. there's really only one organ part, and no synths, so it's largely a guitar collage.
there's really no excuse for that on my behalf. the point of this is a comprehensive, final, complete revision. i will fix that error, take a closer examination at what's there one more time and promise not to cut corners in the future.
but it isn't. i mean, half the mix fits the right description, but there's nothing ambient about punk drumming and zeppelin riffs. i'm going to have fix that by taking some parts out, and also create a guitar mix for the atmospheres disc. there's really only one organ part, and no synths, so it's largely a guitar collage.
there's really no excuse for that on my behalf. the point of this is a comprehensive, final, complete revision. i will fix that error, take a closer examination at what's there one more time and promise not to cut corners in the future.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
i've pretty much settled on combining the techy guitar tracks together into a "tetris", and waiting until the end of period 4 to release it as a 2xcd. i'm mostly done the sound collage - just a few more tracks. but it's going to be split into tracks for a normal cd release, and it's a little short of the 80 minute target. the guitar atmospherics disc is also seeming like it's coming up a little short, so this may actually get moved to a period 3 comp. i'm just a little hesitant that it may end up creating the problem of requiring two more discs - and i wouldn't really want to release a 4xcd of this nature, or release it in two doubles. tetris is something i've been wanting to do for years, and it works as a 2xcd. but a 2xcd of guitar snippets is overkill, and a 2xcd of guitar atmospheres is likewise pointless; this is only interesting when bundled together as an a/b side type thing.
i have a pile of real world things i need to do tomorrow and probably tuesday, and was hoping i could get this done first. i can't put it off, so if it's not done by the time i sleep, it's going to be until at least mid week before it is.
i have a pile of real world things i need to do tomorrow and probably tuesday, and was hoping i could get this done first. i can't put it off, so if it's not done by the time i sleep, it's going to be until at least mid week before it is.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
so, i've narrowed this down to one, maybe two more comps.
it seems like i'm going to have a guitar works up in three volumes, similarly to the ambient works - with a spliced together mix tape of shorts for the period one material and a 2xcd for the period 2, with one for "lead" parts and one for "atmospheric" parts.
i'm debating also putting together a drum and bass / electronic jazz disc, but i want to put together the guitar disc first to see if it overlaps.
i've had an idea for a while about a "tetris" idea, which is specifically meant to be techno guitar solos. this overlaps with the drum and bass idea. but, it also overlaps with period 3 and also period 4.
so, i'm contemplating these things. and then that is it - it will be on to period 3.
it seems like i'm going to have a guitar works up in three volumes, similarly to the ambient works - with a spliced together mix tape of shorts for the period one material and a 2xcd for the period 2, with one for "lead" parts and one for "atmospheric" parts.
i'm debating also putting together a drum and bass / electronic jazz disc, but i want to put together the guitar disc first to see if it overlaps.
i've had an idea for a while about a "tetris" idea, which is specifically meant to be techno guitar solos. this overlaps with the drum and bass idea. but, it also overlaps with period 3 and also period 4.
so, i'm contemplating these things. and then that is it - it will be on to period 3.
publishing orchestral works (inri072)
this is inri049 - an orchestral works compilation to close my second compositional period. these pieces are diverse, but the commonality is that they are arranged for the whole orchestra.
==
an unexpected result of the project to complete my discography, undertaken in late 2013, has been the construction of a handful of orchestral pieces, mostly as remixes of original tracks from the jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj period. while these tracks were initially written out as scored pieces for expanded instrumentation, they were generally written around the guitar and the expanded instrumentation was largely meant simply for colour. the exception to this is the psilocybin symphony, which was written as a piano concerto from the start and previously completed in early 2006.
the ability to expand these pieces into orchestral works is the result of the advances in vst sampling technology that have occurred since 2003. while changes in instrumentation have been accompanied by extra writing (mostly on the guitar), tempo shifts and other general rearrangement choices, the existing technology makes it very easy to rearrange a rock song for an orchestra, by simply multiplying staves and changing the sound fonts.
the condition i've set for a piece to be "orchestral" is that it must utilize the entire orchestra: it must have percussion, piano, horns, woodwinds/reeds and strings. guitars are generally treated like "first violins", whereas violins are generally not considered to be more special than other similar string instruments. some of the tracks also have prominent choral sections. all of these pieces meet this condition, except the last one which does not have a woodwind/reed section.
my delve into scorewriting ended in 2003; the material in my third phase is more focused on live and manipulated guitars and synthesizers. i consequently feel that this is an interesting summary of my second period, taken from a specific angle that is otherwise largely relegated to single-only remixes.
initially written and recorded between 2001-2003 and remixed and recorded further over 2014-2015, except track 2 which was completed in early 2006. final compilation date is may 23, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - controller inputs, drum & other programming, orchestral & other sequencing, live guitars, live bass, live synths, effects, sound design, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras includes violin, viola, cello, contrabass, electric guitar, nylon guitar, guitar fret noise, bass guitar, synthesizer bass, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, english horn, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, bamboo flute, flute, piccolo, synthesizers, mellotron, organ, piano, harp, koto, music box, clavinet, kalimba, xylophone, agogo, mallet, hammered percussion, woodblock, tubular bells, tinkle bells, glockenspiel, orchestra hit, melodic toms, electronic drum kit, timpani, orchestral drum kit and choir.
released april 29, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/orchestral-works-vol-1
==
an unexpected result of the project to complete my discography, undertaken in late 2013, has been the construction of a handful of orchestral pieces, mostly as remixes of original tracks from the jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj period. while these tracks were initially written out as scored pieces for expanded instrumentation, they were generally written around the guitar and the expanded instrumentation was largely meant simply for colour. the exception to this is the psilocybin symphony, which was written as a piano concerto from the start and previously completed in early 2006.
the ability to expand these pieces into orchestral works is the result of the advances in vst sampling technology that have occurred since 2003. while changes in instrumentation have been accompanied by extra writing (mostly on the guitar), tempo shifts and other general rearrangement choices, the existing technology makes it very easy to rearrange a rock song for an orchestra, by simply multiplying staves and changing the sound fonts.
the condition i've set for a piece to be "orchestral" is that it must utilize the entire orchestra: it must have percussion, piano, horns, woodwinds/reeds and strings. guitars are generally treated like "first violins", whereas violins are generally not considered to be more special than other similar string instruments. some of the tracks also have prominent choral sections. all of these pieces meet this condition, except the last one which does not have a woodwind/reed section.
my delve into scorewriting ended in 2003; the material in my third phase is more focused on live and manipulated guitars and synthesizers. i consequently feel that this is an interesting summary of my second period, taken from a specific angle that is otherwise largely relegated to single-only remixes.
initially written and recorded between 2001-2003 and remixed and recorded further over 2014-2015, except track 2 which was completed in early 2006. final compilation date is may 23, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - controller inputs, drum & other programming, orchestral & other sequencing, live guitars, live bass, live synths, effects, sound design, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras includes violin, viola, cello, contrabass, electric guitar, nylon guitar, guitar fret noise, bass guitar, synthesizer bass, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, english horn, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, bamboo flute, flute, piccolo, synthesizers, mellotron, organ, piano, harp, koto, music box, clavinet, kalimba, xylophone, agogo, mallet, hammered percussion, woodblock, tubular bells, tinkle bells, glockenspiel, orchestra hit, melodic toms, electronic drum kit, timpani, orchestral drum kit and choir.
released april 29, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/orchestral-works-vol-1
reflections (orchestral mix)
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render was completed as an ambient mix on may 16, 2015 and expanded to include a horn section on may 23, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-orchestral-mix
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-orchestral-mix
done up to the trip
hey..
this has been a painfully slow process, but i'm finally done up to the bc trip. that's a lot of stuff. like, almost two days of music. now, i need to get to creating final versions of as many of the songs i wrote on the trip and right after it as i can remember...
"refractions" (inri046), "flying" (inri045) and "la la la la" (inri043) are singles of material from "reflections (inri050), which was the going away trip. there's some new remixes on 43 & 46 that you may enjoy, specifically.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/music
j
this has been a painfully slow process, but i'm finally done up to the bc trip. that's a lot of stuff. like, almost two days of music. now, i need to get to creating final versions of as many of the songs i wrote on the trip and right after it as i can remember...
"refractions" (inri046), "flying" (inri045) and "la la la la" (inri043) are singles of material from "reflections (inri050), which was the going away trip. there's some new remixes on 43 & 46 that you may enjoy, specifically.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/music
j
prematurely publishing orchestral works (inri072)
ok, so i've published this with the ambient mix of "reflections", but i'm in the process of adding some horn parts. these are minor additions that are doubling guitar and bass parts - you'd have to know the track fairly well to even notice. but it's conceptual in getting the comp together, and it *does* brighten up the sound a little.
i'm not expecting to add reed or woodwind parts to this, but i'll have to listen to it on repeat for a few hours to be convinced of that.
for right now, this is basically inri049. i'll post the final update when it's finished.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/orchestral-works-vol-1
i'm not expecting to add reed or woodwind parts to this, but i'll have to listen to it on repeat for a few hours to be convinced of that.
for right now, this is basically inri049. i'll post the final update when it's finished.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/orchestral-works-vol-1
Friday, May 22, 2015
inri024 has been updated again with two more mixes - the discussed orchestral mix, and a glitch sound collage that came out of the process. i believe this is the final update.
this process of compiling ideas at the end of period 2.2/2.3 will be the absolute final modification of the material up to inri050.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
this process of compiling ideas at the end of period 2.2/2.3 will be the absolute final modification of the material up to inri050.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
stuck in the middle of an alley with angry googley-eyed robots slowly closing in on all sides
i wanted to check that two outs from the orchestral mix mostly nulled, and ended up with somewhat of a musical - albeit very glitchy - difference file. i created this collage out of that difference file on may 22, 2015.
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015, again for the orchestral works on may 22, 2015 and a third time for this glitch mix on may 22, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-with-angry-googley-eyed-robots-slowly-closing-in-on-all-sides
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015, again for the orchestral works on may 22, 2015 and a third time for this glitch mix on may 22, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-with-angry-googley-eyed-robots-slowly-closing-in-on-all-sides
stuck with a guitar in the middle of a slow electronic orchestra playing on all sides
for the orchestral works (inri072). the sound font on the strings was modified to sound less synthetic and the live guitars from the original mix were worked in at the slower tempo.
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015 and again for the orchestral works on may 22, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-with-a-guitar-in-the-middle-of-a-slow-electronic-orchestra-playing-on-all-sides
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. live guitars were layered into the final version over may 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015 and again for the orchestral works on may 22, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-with-a-guitar-in-the-middle-of-a-slow-electronic-orchestra-playing-on-all-sides
yeah. i've got a five track, 76 minute comp of orchestral music that is coming up as inri049, i just need to make some adjustments to "stuck". it wasn't in my initial list because it's kind of a punk song, but it turns out "spin" meets my requirements of "orchestral". and i've made an exception for the ambient mix of reflections, which is like....if it wasn't there, the disc would be 50 minutes instead, and who prefers that? it's basically bonus. it doesn't have reed, wind or horn parts but the synth bass sounds sort of like a horn and the choir, when it comes in, is pretty epic. i'm going to experiment a little with adding some parts in, but i don't expect any to stick...
the thing is that there's nothing approaching "orchestral music" in the discography after 2003 until at least 2006. i was more interested in trying to find a drummer in order to start a rock band. some of the stuff may have picked up string parts and whatnot had they developed further, and a few still might, but there's just not anything to put aside the tracks for. if i don't put it together for april, 2003 it will probably never get put together at all.
the other two tracks are the mushroom symphony and the guitar concerto.
first things first: let me take a look at "stuck".
the thing is that there's nothing approaching "orchestral music" in the discography after 2003 until at least 2006. i was more interested in trying to find a drummer in order to start a rock band. some of the stuff may have picked up string parts and whatnot had they developed further, and a few still might, but there's just not anything to put aside the tracks for. if i don't put it together for april, 2003 it will probably never get put together at all.
the other two tracks are the mushroom symphony and the guitar concerto.
first things first: let me take a look at "stuck".
Thursday, May 21, 2015
i've been wanting to do an "orchestral works" for a while, it's just that i need to be strict about how i'm defining an orchestral work - because otherwise i end up with almost everything.
i'm going to lean towards horn-heavy tracks as being "jazz" and string heavy tracks as being "chamber". that's going to let me put both of those ideas off until the end of period 3.
an orchestral work needs to have horns, strings, reeds and winds - it's gotta actually be a full orchestra. it also helps if it's a concerto.
i've got two pieces that fit this definition cleanly, and two i want to remix mildly to get closer to the point. i'm thinking this will probably get done for an inri049 release, which will put reflections up to 50 - or 51, if that guitar disc gets built, as i think it will.
so, there's still some ideas to work through with this.
i'm going to lean towards horn-heavy tracks as being "jazz" and string heavy tracks as being "chamber". that's going to let me put both of those ideas off until the end of period 3.
an orchestral work needs to have horns, strings, reeds and winds - it's gotta actually be a full orchestra. it also helps if it's a concerto.
i've got two pieces that fit this definition cleanly, and two i want to remix mildly to get closer to the point. i'm thinking this will probably get done for an inri049 release, which will put reflections up to 50 - or 51, if that guitar disc gets built, as i think it will.
so, there's still some ideas to work through with this.
publishing ambient works vol 0-2 (inri071 + inri035)
i've got the mix tape up which means inri048 is now done...
i've got a number of snippets after about 1999 that i'm not sure what to do with. i'm probably going to just forget about most of it, but some of it will no doubt end up on volume 3, which will be somewhere in the 60s or 70s. so i'll just put it aside for later.
i put aside a number of compilation ideas as i was sorting through the material. i wasn't expecting anything to get a release in this space, but i'm now questioning that. it's largely a process of elimination. but right now it'slooking like inri050 is actually going to be a similarly epic guitar-focused disc.
that said, there's plenty of guitars on this disc, especially in the mix tape. i'll post it when i figure it out...
===
i've taken to splitting my discography into phases, and my hitch-hiking trip to british columbia is a very important separation point - both in terms of the nature of the material that came out afterwards and what is now a substantial body of work that came before it. that makes it a natural point to look backwards and build compilations of intersecting ideas.
a characteristic of my work is that it does not conform well to genre norms. this is not an accident; when compiling a record, i'm guided more by the late beatles' philosophy of vast diversity in a small space than i am by any kind of desire to collect together nice singles, or by some kind of compulsive organizing into categories or concepts. i write psychedelic music. that means something different in 2015 than it did in 1966, but the commonality is that it's necessarily challenging. i want all of my records to do everything at once, and accomplish everything by their end point. that makes compilations of this sort inherently difficult, because every song touches on every compilation idea at the same time. the jazz record would have the same tracklisting as the punk record, the classical record and the folk record - and none would really be what they're claimed to be.
the one exception to this conundrum is how i interacted with ambient music in this period. i very regularly utilized ideas from the genre, but i tended to interpret ambience as something that is necessarily obscure. in this period, ambient pieces are almost always outtakes or b sides. i tended to interpret covers and remixes as ambient pieces, probably because that was unexpected. when ambient ideas make it on to the record, they're almost always for effect: introductions, endings, connecting passages, that sort of thing.
when i began reconstructing my discography in early 2014, i came across a handful of songs i'd written out into midi format and put aside for later. a number of these ended up reworked into ambient pieces, and released as b sides. i also ended up converting some of the material i wrote in this period into ambient sound collages that are more in the style of music i created after 2003.
the end result is enough bsides and remixes to put together two full cds of ambient music. none of the tracks on volumes one or two are on any official record as they appear here; this is technically a collection of remixes and outtakes.
initially written and recorded between 2000-2003 and remixed between 2014-2015. sequenced over mid may, 2015. final compilation date is may 21, 2015,. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars (acoustic, electric, nylon), effects & treatments, bass, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, orchestral & other sequencing, drum & other programming, generative programming (sounder), "projectile synthesis" (audiomulch), granular synthesis (granulab), sound design, electronic and conventional drum kits, sampling, loops, films, voice, digital wave editing, composition, production.
sean - vocal ideas (tracks 4 & 7, disc 1), ring modulator (track 9, disc 1)
jon - background guitar performance (track 4, disc 1)
greg - drum performance sample source (track 5, disc 1)
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth bass, electric bass, acoustic bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon guitar, guitar effects, guitar noises (fret noises, pick scrapes, knocks), synthesizer, synth pads, mellotron, choir, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, string section, pizzicato strings, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute, piccolo, mallet, piano, woodblock, music box, xylophone, tubular bells, other bells, orchestra hit, electronic drum kit, melodic toms, drum machine and orchestral drum kit.
released april 28, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
i've got a number of snippets after about 1999 that i'm not sure what to do with. i'm probably going to just forget about most of it, but some of it will no doubt end up on volume 3, which will be somewhere in the 60s or 70s. so i'll just put it aside for later.
i put aside a number of compilation ideas as i was sorting through the material. i wasn't expecting anything to get a release in this space, but i'm now questioning that. it's largely a process of elimination. but right now it'slooking like inri050 is actually going to be a similarly epic guitar-focused disc.
that said, there's plenty of guitars on this disc, especially in the mix tape. i'll post it when i figure it out...
===
i've taken to splitting my discography into phases, and my hitch-hiking trip to british columbia is a very important separation point - both in terms of the nature of the material that came out afterwards and what is now a substantial body of work that came before it. that makes it a natural point to look backwards and build compilations of intersecting ideas.
a characteristic of my work is that it does not conform well to genre norms. this is not an accident; when compiling a record, i'm guided more by the late beatles' philosophy of vast diversity in a small space than i am by any kind of desire to collect together nice singles, or by some kind of compulsive organizing into categories or concepts. i write psychedelic music. that means something different in 2015 than it did in 1966, but the commonality is that it's necessarily challenging. i want all of my records to do everything at once, and accomplish everything by their end point. that makes compilations of this sort inherently difficult, because every song touches on every compilation idea at the same time. the jazz record would have the same tracklisting as the punk record, the classical record and the folk record - and none would really be what they're claimed to be.
the one exception to this conundrum is how i interacted with ambient music in this period. i very regularly utilized ideas from the genre, but i tended to interpret ambience as something that is necessarily obscure. in this period, ambient pieces are almost always outtakes or b sides. i tended to interpret covers and remixes as ambient pieces, probably because that was unexpected. when ambient ideas make it on to the record, they're almost always for effect: introductions, endings, connecting passages, that sort of thing.
when i began reconstructing my discography in early 2014, i came across a handful of songs i'd written out into midi format and put aside for later. a number of these ended up reworked into ambient pieces, and released as b sides. i also ended up converting some of the material i wrote in this period into ambient sound collages that are more in the style of music i created after 2003.
the end result is enough bsides and remixes to put together two full cds of ambient music. none of the tracks on volumes one or two are on any official record as they appear here; this is technically a collection of remixes and outtakes.
initially written and recorded between 2000-2003 and remixed between 2014-2015. sequenced over mid may, 2015. final compilation date is may 21, 2015,. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars (acoustic, electric, nylon), effects & treatments, bass, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, orchestral & other sequencing, drum & other programming, generative programming (sounder), "projectile synthesis" (audiomulch), granular synthesis (granulab), sound design, electronic and conventional drum kits, sampling, loops, films, voice, digital wave editing, composition, production.
sean - vocal ideas (tracks 4 & 7, disc 1), ring modulator (track 9, disc 1)
jon - background guitar performance (track 4, disc 1)
greg - drum performance sample source (track 5, disc 1)
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth bass, electric bass, acoustic bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon guitar, guitar effects, guitar noises (fret noises, pick scrapes, knocks), synthesizer, synth pads, mellotron, choir, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, string section, pizzicato strings, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute, piccolo, mallet, piano, woodblock, music box, xylophone, tubular bells, other bells, orchestra hit, electronic drum kit, melodic toms, drum machine and orchestral drum kit.
released april 28, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
ambient works vol 0, side b
side b mixes various ambient sections from period 1.2 and period 1.3, which, here, is all over 1999. mix created on may 21, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/side-b
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/side-b
ambient works vol 0, side a
side a mixes various noise and ambient sections from period 1.1 and period 1.2, which is 1996-1999. mix created on may 21, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/side-a
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/side-a
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
ambient works vol 1
my liner credits are often ridiculous, and this is the near the top of the list in ridiculousness.
j - guitars (acoustic, electric, nylon), effects & treatments, bass, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, orchestral & other sequencing, drum & other programming, generative programming, granular synthesis, "projectile synthesis" (audiomulch), sound design, electronic and conventional drum kits, sampling, loops, films, voice, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth bass, electric bass, acoustic bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon guitar, guitar effects, guitar noises (fret noises, pick scrapes, knocks), synthesizer, mellotron, choir, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, string section, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute, piccolo, mallet, piano, woodblock, music box, xylophone, tubular bells, other bells, orchestra hit, electronic drum kit, melodic toms, drum machine and orchestral drum kit.
i'm tempted to convert the kitchen sink into an instrument, just so i can put it in there.
vol 1 is done. these discs are both over 79 minutes, so you're in for a lengthy listen.
vol 0 will be the spliced together mixed tape and will be what i'll be doing after lunch. it should hopefully be up the morning.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
j - guitars (acoustic, electric, nylon), effects & treatments, bass, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, orchestral & other sequencing, drum & other programming, generative programming, granular synthesis, "projectile synthesis" (audiomulch), sound design, electronic and conventional drum kits, sampling, loops, films, voice, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth bass, electric bass, acoustic bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon guitar, guitar effects, guitar noises (fret noises, pick scrapes, knocks), synthesizer, mellotron, choir, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, string section, french horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, oboe, english horn, bassoon, clarinet, flute, piccolo, mallet, piano, woodblock, music box, xylophone, tubular bells, other bells, orchestra hit, electronic drum kit, melodic toms, drum machine and orchestral drum kit.
i'm tempted to convert the kitchen sink into an instrument, just so i can put it in there.
vol 1 is done. these discs are both over 79 minutes, so you're in for a lengthy listen.
vol 0 will be the spliced together mixed tape and will be what i'll be doing after lunch. it should hopefully be up the morning.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
ambient works vol 2
volume 2 is up. wait a few hours if you want it with volume 1.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works-vol-0-2
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
bird's eye view (sounder mix)
this is a sounder sequence, which was rendered some time in late 2002. i've dated the file to december 25, 2002. published on may 19, 2015.
i will not be appending a mix to inri027. volumes 1 & 2 are done, and should be available to stream within a few hours
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-the-middle-of-an-alley-closing-in-on-all-sides
stuck in the middle of a slow electronic orchestra playing on all sides
so, i've appended a mix to inri024.
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-in-the-middle-of-a-slow-electronic-orchestra-playing-on-all-sides
written late 2000 & early 2001. rearranged, rendered and faded out on apr 27, 2014. further remixed for the ambient works on may 19, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/stuck-in-the-middle-of-a-slow-electronic-orchestra-playing-on-all-sides
i've also decided that i need to prioritize getting over the final "not smoking" hump. i've been in this transitory state with this for...years...where i'll quit for a month, go back for a month, cut down, quit, pick up...
a lot of it has to do with focusing. nicotine increases alertness. that's well understood.
i'm convinced the swallowing issues i'm having are not exactly from smoking, but are probably the beginning symptoms of ms. but, if you have ms, the worst thing you can do is smoke.
so, i'm going to the doctor tomorrow or the next day to get the ball rolling on that. i've done enough experiments with not smoking, not drinking coffee, increasing water, etc to conclude it's the rational next step.
ironically, it will also help my financial situation if i can get diagnosed with it. that's permanent. capitalism: that system where you hope you get auto-immune disorders as a path to economic freedom.
there's two ways i can get over that week hump: (1) get sick and (2) focus on reading/writing. just about anything else requires that focus.
so, the next thing i'm going to do - before i start the lost symphony - is to migrate all of this into a new website.
i've been trying to get off facebook for quite some time. it's going to take a while to get off of it. but, it's what i need to do next.
this isn't just going to go quiet, it's going to more or less disappear. i'm going to need a more open journal interface to embed in my appspot site. facebook is just awful in every way. livejournal, maybe. tumblr. even blogspot. i'll have to see what works best. or i may even just hardcode it...
this will be reduced to a sort of cv, that uses the timeline in a minimal manner. you'll be able to scroll through and see major releases. but, i won't be posting here much longer.
a lot of it has to do with focusing. nicotine increases alertness. that's well understood.
i'm convinced the swallowing issues i'm having are not exactly from smoking, but are probably the beginning symptoms of ms. but, if you have ms, the worst thing you can do is smoke.
so, i'm going to the doctor tomorrow or the next day to get the ball rolling on that. i've done enough experiments with not smoking, not drinking coffee, increasing water, etc to conclude it's the rational next step.
ironically, it will also help my financial situation if i can get diagnosed with it. that's permanent. capitalism: that system where you hope you get auto-immune disorders as a path to economic freedom.
there's two ways i can get over that week hump: (1) get sick and (2) focus on reading/writing. just about anything else requires that focus.
so, the next thing i'm going to do - before i start the lost symphony - is to migrate all of this into a new website.
i've been trying to get off facebook for quite some time. it's going to take a while to get off of it. but, it's what i need to do next.
this isn't just going to go quiet, it's going to more or less disappear. i'm going to need a more open journal interface to embed in my appspot site. facebook is just awful in every way. livejournal, maybe. tumblr. even blogspot. i'll have to see what works best. or i may even just hardcode it...
this will be reduced to a sort of cv, that uses the timeline in a minimal manner. you'll be able to scroll through and see major releases. but, i won't be posting here much longer.
i have more than enough material to fill three discs, but i'm prioritizing the concepts of each of the discs and it's leading me to a likely recreation of two ambient versions: one for stuck in the middle of an alley closing in on all sides, and one for the psilocybin symphony. that would make the second volume of the ambient collection a triplet of the thru concept, which is what i was aiming for, with the exception that the ambient collection contains a reflections period track in replace of the walk.
i have versions of both of the tracks that i was planning on substituting, but they're just not "ambient" enough. i may convince myself otherwise.
if i go through with this, it will mean updates to inri024 and inri027. i'm going to start with "stuck" first, and go from there.
after lunch, that is.
it's consequently going to be a day or two....
volume one is done up to the continuity mixing. and volume 0 hasn't been started yet.
i have versions of both of the tracks that i was planning on substituting, but they're just not "ambient" enough. i may convince myself otherwise.
if i go through with this, it will mean updates to inri024 and inri027. i'm going to start with "stuck" first, and go from there.
after lunch, that is.
it's consequently going to be a day or two....
volume one is done up to the continuity mixing. and volume 0 hasn't been started yet.
Monday, May 18, 2015
this is a slow process. i think i've got it worked down to a three-cd set (with a possibly download-only "cd 0"), but i don't want to upload this on a track-by-track basis. maybe before the next sleep.
the zeroth disc is going to be a "mix tape" of spliced together ambient sections, the first is going to be made of material that is (mostly) sourced from live instruments and the second is going to be an all-sequenced record. these three approaches are substantially sonically different - the sequenced material is very ordered, whereas the mixtape is likely to be pretty messy and jarre-ing (sorry.).
for vols 1-2, i'm trying to avoid overlap with the other official and unofficial recordings - i want this to be made up of b-sides, mostly. as a "mix tape", the 0th is a different thing...
the zeroth disc is going to be a "mix tape" of spliced together ambient sections, the first is going to be made of material that is (mostly) sourced from live instruments and the second is going to be an all-sequenced record. these three approaches are substantially sonically different - the sequenced material is very ordered, whereas the mixtape is likely to be pretty messy and jarre-ing (sorry.).
for vols 1-2, i'm trying to avoid overlap with the other official and unofficial recordings - i want this to be made up of b-sides, mostly. as a "mix tape", the 0th is a different thing...
consequence of impulse
this is an instrumental/ambient remix of a section of "me, myself and the time i thought this was a good idea". i did not initially reclaim this track from rabit is wolf because the source file for the bass and vocals are in the same wave file (making them inseparable) and i felt that redoing the bass would destroy the track's rough, lo-fi feel. i created this mix for this collection by removing both the bass and vocals via phase inversion and then reconstructing the bass via loops and strategic editing. i then faded the track out before the "chorus". it works in this context, but wouldn't work in any other, so this is an exclusive mix to this collection.
written and recorded in the fall of 2001. remixed on may 19, 2015.
written and recorded in the fall of 2001. remixed on may 19, 2015.
trepanation nation (ambient mix)
written over 2001 and rethought repeatedly over 2002, again in 2007, a third time in 2009 and one last time in late 2014. this mix was initially completed on december 5, 2014 and augmented to include some further effects work on may 18, 2015.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
i'm going to be compiling, mixing and finalizing things for the next few days, but when that's done i'll have to start work on what is my lost symphony. that will take me all the way to the end of 2003 - which was a year with what seems like a big dip in output compared to 1999-2002, but is really defined by larger pieces. instead of ten releases cycled around 8 minute songs, i've got three cycled around 30 minute ones. that might end up forcing double releases...
i'm remembering that this was supposed to follow the isomorphism symphony, but when i sat down to record it in late 2004 (i finished the isomorphism symphony in august, 2004), i ended up writing a new symphony instead, the xenophanes symphony. this period was defined by a lack of studio access (or a place to sleep....), so i didn't have the time or ability to record much, which created this backlog. the beginning of this exists as the end of xenophanes. xenophanes was actually just meant to be an intro, and in the end it sort of will be, but it's a 33 minute intro and consequently kind of needs it's own space. it also kind of lost itself in a wave of ambience.
i specifically remember trying to jam on this - as it is recorded, here, in this 2007 demo - in sarah's apartment, in the fall of 2003, meaning that is the proper place to sequence it. i also have a tape demo from 2003 of part of it, so i'm going to have to go through that and see what i can get out...
in the end, i'm going to have to find a way to splice it with xenophanes, which is not uploaded anywhere yet for public listening. it will eventually end up as the final part of the four full side composition trivial group 2xlp. but, as i did with symphony 4, i think the best way to approach this for now is how it was originally written, which means attacking this from scratch.
so, this is my next major project, and it could very well occupy me until the fall.
i'm remembering that this was supposed to follow the isomorphism symphony, but when i sat down to record it in late 2004 (i finished the isomorphism symphony in august, 2004), i ended up writing a new symphony instead, the xenophanes symphony. this period was defined by a lack of studio access (or a place to sleep....), so i didn't have the time or ability to record much, which created this backlog. the beginning of this exists as the end of xenophanes. xenophanes was actually just meant to be an intro, and in the end it sort of will be, but it's a 33 minute intro and consequently kind of needs it's own space. it also kind of lost itself in a wave of ambience.
i specifically remember trying to jam on this - as it is recorded, here, in this 2007 demo - in sarah's apartment, in the fall of 2003, meaning that is the proper place to sequence it. i also have a tape demo from 2003 of part of it, so i'm going to have to go through that and see what i can get out...
in the end, i'm going to have to find a way to splice it with xenophanes, which is not uploaded anywhere yet for public listening. it will eventually end up as the final part of the four full side composition trivial group 2xlp. but, as i did with symphony 4, i think the best way to approach this for now is how it was originally written, which means attacking this from scratch.
so, this is my next major project, and it could very well occupy me until the fall.
publishing refractions (inri065)
inri046.
the just uploaded ambient mix is track 11. you might want to sit down for this, it's something else.
--
some time in late 2002, sean sent me a message over msn or icq requesting that we begin a song based on looped birds chirping. i thought his idea was kind of cliched, but i took to working around his suggestions by converting them into something more musically expressive. i didn't want to write a song that literally climaxes around birds chirping, but i was willing to write something tonal that evoked the feeling of birds chirping.
at the time, i had my sister's electronic piano downstairs. she had a miniature grand upstairs. it was initially written on the keyboard with a very strange timing, which the scorewriter had difficulties capturing - partly because i was inconsistent in performing it. the piece was greatly simplified as it was arranged.
however, i believe the piece sat for a long time before the second section was added to it.
sean and i didn't talk much over the next few months, and the truth is that i just never brought this piece up to him. by the time it was finished, i had firmly placed it in my successor project, the trivial group. it was initially dedicated to sean as a part of the going away disc, but that's really as close as this ever got to being a rabit tune.
i don't have clear memories around composing it, although circumstantial evidence makes it very likely that this happened in the late winter and early spring of 2003. i vaguely recall playing it on the grand upstairs, which could have only happened after sarah moved home to the outer suburbs to get ready for the trip. this was around march. i do remember recording the guitar parts and percussion parts, and am convinced this was in the spring due to memories of the spring sun hitting the bowls. the april 25th date may be a little late, but i have every reason to believe that this was not finished until after exams that year.
the percussion sections in the track are notable. the metallic sounds were created by smashing cutlery into a metal bowl, whereas the woody sounds were created by "playing" a pen on a desk. the track also includes hand claps.
these percussion parts were not notated until 2015. this was a careful, lengthy process that required a lot of careful listening, and a bit of napkin math. notating the percussion allowed for a more comprehensive exploration of the track over midi.
this is sequenced for indefinite looping.
i've included the midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. all renders finalized on may 16, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synth, voice, bowls, claps, tables, ebow, orchestral sequencing, drum & other programming, loops, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth pad, synth bass, synthesizer, mellotron, fingered bass guitar, picked electric guitar, bowed electric guitar, guitar noises (fret noises, knocks, pick scrapes), violin, viola, contrabass, cello, string section, piano, celesta, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, woodblock, mallet, electronic drum kit, jazz drum kit, orchestral drum kit and choir.
released april 25, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/refractions
the just uploaded ambient mix is track 11. you might want to sit down for this, it's something else.
--
some time in late 2002, sean sent me a message over msn or icq requesting that we begin a song based on looped birds chirping. i thought his idea was kind of cliched, but i took to working around his suggestions by converting them into something more musically expressive. i didn't want to write a song that literally climaxes around birds chirping, but i was willing to write something tonal that evoked the feeling of birds chirping.
at the time, i had my sister's electronic piano downstairs. she had a miniature grand upstairs. it was initially written on the keyboard with a very strange timing, which the scorewriter had difficulties capturing - partly because i was inconsistent in performing it. the piece was greatly simplified as it was arranged.
however, i believe the piece sat for a long time before the second section was added to it.
sean and i didn't talk much over the next few months, and the truth is that i just never brought this piece up to him. by the time it was finished, i had firmly placed it in my successor project, the trivial group. it was initially dedicated to sean as a part of the going away disc, but that's really as close as this ever got to being a rabit tune.
i don't have clear memories around composing it, although circumstantial evidence makes it very likely that this happened in the late winter and early spring of 2003. i vaguely recall playing it on the grand upstairs, which could have only happened after sarah moved home to the outer suburbs to get ready for the trip. this was around march. i do remember recording the guitar parts and percussion parts, and am convinced this was in the spring due to memories of the spring sun hitting the bowls. the april 25th date may be a little late, but i have every reason to believe that this was not finished until after exams that year.
the percussion sections in the track are notable. the metallic sounds were created by smashing cutlery into a metal bowl, whereas the woody sounds were created by "playing" a pen on a desk. the track also includes hand claps.
these percussion parts were not notated until 2015. this was a careful, lengthy process that required a lot of careful listening, and a bit of napkin math. notating the percussion allowed for a more comprehensive exploration of the track over midi.
this is sequenced for indefinite looping.
i've included the midi files of the original composition, if you'd like to mess with it on your own.
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. all renders finalized on may 16, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synth, voice, bowls, claps, tables, ebow, orchestral sequencing, drum & other programming, loops, digital wave editing, composition, production.
the various rendered electronic orchestras include synth pad, synth bass, synthesizer, mellotron, fingered bass guitar, picked electric guitar, bowed electric guitar, guitar noises (fret noises, knocks, pick scrapes), violin, viola, contrabass, cello, string section, piano, celesta, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, woodblock, mallet, electronic drum kit, jazz drum kit, orchestral drum kit and choir.
released april 25, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/refractions
reflections (ambient mix)
i wanted a longer version, but i went a little overboard on the ambient mix, and got a twenty-five minute head cave that sounds like the climax to a sentimental film.
there's a level of randomness to the mix, so i need to listen to a few different renders. as it's 25 minutes, that's a lengthy process. but it will be up before the sun is.
and that closes the period. i just need to go over the last 25 records i finished to try and separate out compilation material.
--
this is the ambient mix, created by slowing the track down, running it through some cut/paste algorithms and putting it through an array of arpeggiators and delay effects.
render from may 16, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-ambient-mix
there's a level of randomness to the mix, so i need to listen to a few different renders. as it's 25 minutes, that's a lengthy process. but it will be up before the sun is.
and that closes the period. i just need to go over the last 25 records i finished to try and separate out compilation material.
--
this is the ambient mix, created by slowing the track down, running it through some cut/paste algorithms and putting it through an array of arpeggiators and delay effects.
render from may 16, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-ambient-mix
Friday, May 15, 2015
that leaves me with an ambient mix to complete inri046 and jump into inri048.
upping the vst version of reflections this morning also closed period 2.3. period 2.2 will need a representative from inri048. period 2.4 will be completed within a few weeks.
this connects to inriℵ7.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JSjmqp0cbvt_-_Lt2CqTm_MuaOwNrgw
upping the vst version of reflections this morning also closed period 2.3. period 2.2 will need a representative from inri048. period 2.4 will be completed within a few weeks.
this connects to inriℵ7.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3JSjmqp0cbvt_-_Lt2CqTm_MuaOwNrgw
reflections (vst guitar mix)
so, i set up the guitar mix over vst with the intent of arranging it and then playing it, but the reality is that the piano part spans seven octaves - meaning i'm going to need at least an eight string guitar, and i don't have access to one. it would defeat the point to put it through a pitch shifter, as a pitch shifter is a synthesizer. i could see myself revisiting this one day if i ever get one of those monster guitars...
as it is, this is going to have to stay like this. i had to mix and match the guitar synths a little as sample-based guitar synths can't hit the higher registers (because no such guitar exists to sample...), but i think it sounds pretty good. so i'm happy with it.
render from may 15, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-vst-guitar-mix
as it is, this is going to have to stay like this. i had to mix and match the guitar synths a little as sample-based guitar synths can't hit the higher registers (because no such guitar exists to sample...), but i think it sounds pretty good. so i'm happy with it.
render from may 15, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-vst-guitar-mix
reflections (vst mix)
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render is from may 14, 2015, and was edited mildly on the fade-out on may 15, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-vst-mix
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-vst-mix
Thursday, May 14, 2015
publishing thru (inri070)
i've also finished inri047 today, which is a 2xcd compilation of scored electronic music written between 2001-2003 and completed from 2013-2015. this falls outside of my record list enumeration, but it's a substantial release. influences range across the electronic music spectrum from varese to rdj and everything in between - and also to early forms of classical music - but these are all scored pieces, and very much connected to ideas of written music with the notes and the time signatures and the aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.....
there's plenty of weird electronic music in my discography, but this is a reprieve from that.
it's arranged in two discs that mirror each other. the first is soundblaster mixes. these mixes sound sort of 8-bit, but they're actually 16-bit; it's next gen 8-bit technology, before the game changed from wavetables to larger sample databases and software synthesizers. disc two rearranges disc one for vst software synths, which gives it a huge facelift in terms of sound quality.
this is pretty much comprehensive in terms of this style, for me. i left to hitch across the country in the spring of 2003; there's very little scored soundcard music in my discography after i came back.
so, this is a musical statement. it's a little weird, but there's a niche audience waiting for it.
===
back in 2001, and bleeding into about 2003, i wrote a number of tracks into a scorewriter with the explicit intent of eventually having them performed by live ensembles. at the beginning of 2014, i decided that this wasn't likely to ever actually happen and went about completing the tracks in finalized forms - which happened over 2014 and 2015.
my initial plan for this compilation was to produce a record of midi compositions mapped to modern vst instruments as a "chiptune" (not literally) project, and have it double a record of fully realized versions of the tracks. as i went about completing the project, i began to realize that these vst versions were not sufficiently different enough from the finalized versions to justify a separate album and consequently aborted the project.
however, something that's happened since 2001 is that a more mature market has developed for midi-generated music, largely on the back of the success of the gaming industry. people have nostalgia for the sounds that their childhood gaming consoles made and an interest in listening to original music in the style of the soundtracks to those games.
i need to be clear that these are not gaming soundtracks - they're a mix of various types of classical and jazz, taking in influences from across the musical spectrum but essentially none from gaming. gaming isn't a thing i've ever really done, and the little bit i've done has tended to act as an excuse for listening to music (i had a mild civ2 obsession in early high school).
however, i feel that compiling a record of soundblaster mixes is something that could appeal to a specialized, niche audience and am going to put this record together for those people. i also feel it captures the headspace that i was in at the time. i've decided to mirror this soundblaster disc with the vst disc i was initially contemplating, to demonstrate where the technology has arrived at.
all of these tracks also appear on a set of cross-listed singles, and most of them are sequenced into a record at some point. there's more info on the track pages.
i've included the raw midi files in the download for further listening and modification.
these tracks were written from 2001 until 2003 and in some cases rearranged over the course of 2014 and 2015. all disc 1 tracks rendered through a soundblaster live! wave device that was manufactured c.1999. all disc 2 tracks created in cubase with vst software synthesizer technology. the compilation date is may 14, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - controller inputs, programming, composition, digital wave editing, effects processing, production
the various rendered electronic orchestras include acoustic bass, synth bass, electric bass, flute, clarinet, brass, trumpet, trombone, tuba, soprano saxophone, orchestra hit, violin, cello, string section (tremolo), drum machine, electronic drum kit, hand drums, finger snaps, nylon guitar, electric guitar (distorted, clean), steel string acoustic guitar, fret noise, sitar, banjo, pc card clavinet, music box, piano, organ, bells, synthesizers, mellotron and choir.
released april 27, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/thru
there's plenty of weird electronic music in my discography, but this is a reprieve from that.
it's arranged in two discs that mirror each other. the first is soundblaster mixes. these mixes sound sort of 8-bit, but they're actually 16-bit; it's next gen 8-bit technology, before the game changed from wavetables to larger sample databases and software synthesizers. disc two rearranges disc one for vst software synths, which gives it a huge facelift in terms of sound quality.
this is pretty much comprehensive in terms of this style, for me. i left to hitch across the country in the spring of 2003; there's very little scored soundcard music in my discography after i came back.
so, this is a musical statement. it's a little weird, but there's a niche audience waiting for it.
===
back in 2001, and bleeding into about 2003, i wrote a number of tracks into a scorewriter with the explicit intent of eventually having them performed by live ensembles. at the beginning of 2014, i decided that this wasn't likely to ever actually happen and went about completing the tracks in finalized forms - which happened over 2014 and 2015.
my initial plan for this compilation was to produce a record of midi compositions mapped to modern vst instruments as a "chiptune" (not literally) project, and have it double a record of fully realized versions of the tracks. as i went about completing the project, i began to realize that these vst versions were not sufficiently different enough from the finalized versions to justify a separate album and consequently aborted the project.
however, something that's happened since 2001 is that a more mature market has developed for midi-generated music, largely on the back of the success of the gaming industry. people have nostalgia for the sounds that their childhood gaming consoles made and an interest in listening to original music in the style of the soundtracks to those games.
i need to be clear that these are not gaming soundtracks - they're a mix of various types of classical and jazz, taking in influences from across the musical spectrum but essentially none from gaming. gaming isn't a thing i've ever really done, and the little bit i've done has tended to act as an excuse for listening to music (i had a mild civ2 obsession in early high school).
however, i feel that compiling a record of soundblaster mixes is something that could appeal to a specialized, niche audience and am going to put this record together for those people. i also feel it captures the headspace that i was in at the time. i've decided to mirror this soundblaster disc with the vst disc i was initially contemplating, to demonstrate where the technology has arrived at.
all of these tracks also appear on a set of cross-listed singles, and most of them are sequenced into a record at some point. there's more info on the track pages.
i've included the raw midi files in the download for further listening and modification.
these tracks were written from 2001 until 2003 and in some cases rearranged over the course of 2014 and 2015. all disc 1 tracks rendered through a soundblaster live! wave device that was manufactured c.1999. all disc 2 tracks created in cubase with vst software synthesizer technology. the compilation date is may 14, 2015. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - controller inputs, programming, composition, digital wave editing, effects processing, production
the various rendered electronic orchestras include acoustic bass, synth bass, electric bass, flute, clarinet, brass, trumpet, trombone, tuba, soprano saxophone, orchestra hit, violin, cello, string section (tremolo), drum machine, electronic drum kit, hand drums, finger snaps, nylon guitar, electric guitar (distorted, clean), steel string acoustic guitar, fret noise, sitar, banjo, pc card clavinet, music box, piano, organ, bells, synthesizers, mellotron and choir.
released april 27, 2003
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/thru
reflections (vst mix)
this is the vst software synth mix that updates the soundfonts.
some time in late 2002, sean sent me a message over msn or icq requesting that we begin a song based on looped birds chirping. i thought his idea was kind of cliched, but i took to working around his suggestions by converting them into something more musically expressive. i didn't want to write a song that literally climaxes around birds chirping, but i was willing to write something tonal that evoked the feeling of birds chirping.
at the time, i had my sister's electronic piano downstairs. she had a miniature grand upstairs. it was initially written on the keyboard with a very strange timing, which the scorewriter had difficulties capturing - partly because i was inconsistent in performing it. the piece was greatly simplified as it was arranged.
however, i believe the piece sat for a long time before the second section was added to it.
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render is from may 14, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-5
some time in late 2002, sean sent me a message over msn or icq requesting that we begin a song based on looped birds chirping. i thought his idea was kind of cliched, but i took to working around his suggestions by converting them into something more musically expressive. i didn't want to write a song that literally climaxes around birds chirping, but i was willing to write something tonal that evoked the feeling of birds chirping.
at the time, i had my sister's electronic piano downstairs. she had a miniature grand upstairs. it was initially written on the keyboard with a very strange timing, which the scorewriter had difficulties capturing - partly because i was inconsistent in performing it. the piece was greatly simplified as it was arranged.
however, i believe the piece sat for a long time before the second section was added to it.
written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render is from may 14, 2015.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-5
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
i'm looking ahead to the next phase a little, to try and order it and it's very clear where i lost myself. up to the middle of 2003, everything is carefully ordered and meticulously laid out. from 2003 to 2007, all i have is an unordered mess.
but that's why i'm doing this.
as mentioned repeatedly, 46-48 will be done shortly. 46 is the piano piece. 47 and 48 are both 2xcd electronic music compilations. 49 is up.
after 49, i disappeared to bc for a few months.
when i came back, i was pretty shaky. 50 is a short ep of downright disturbing material; i've never released this, and i still find it difficult to listen to. i actually need to conquer this for myself. it won't be altered, except maybe to have an instrumental mix.
51 will need to be put aside momentarily, as it's really the only thing in this batch that is going to need recording attention. it was only a few weeks after i got back from bc that i got thrown out. i guess my stepmother liked it better when i was gone. i ended up staying with sarah for a few weeks and recording with a 4-track for a little while rather than with a computer. one of these tracks, specifically, needs to be completed as the second half of my eighth symphony, but the fact that i have a tape of it indicates that this is the proper place to put it. so, this will collect those cassette demos.
i eventually ended up at my mom's for a few months. 52 is a protest single about afghanistan, whereas 53 is a demo i put together for an art show sarah was doing - and collects material recorded over the second half of 2003.
sarah and i then got a place for a few more months. 54 was put together out of spare parts as a part of a basement record label; it's stuck as my seventh disc, although i'm going to expand it to a double, here. i'm also going to compile an ep of material that was edited at this point, and call it 55.
56 and 57 are going to be related to the sixth symphony, although it's not clear to me yet how. 58 is going to be my still unfinished seventh symphony. it needs vocals and sound design attention. 59 is going to be a slice of matlab generated noise, and probably exist as a standalone for now - when i come back to this and finish it, i will date it to 2016 or 2017. this is not written material, so it would be weird to date it to 2004 or 2005. it's the first time i've come across this issue [my classical guitar project is not possible to finish].
that actually takes me to early 2005, which is when a brick wall hits. i wrote a number of more conventional jazz-pop-punk type pieces over 2004 that i was hoping to get sarah to drum on. sarah had a type of add that made her unable to do anything but dad rock and screamo, which stripped her of any use to me as a musical collaborator. thankfully, i at least have a demo tape of some of these songs - as many have been forgotten. but, it's not dated until 2005, after i'd moved out and moved on. at this point, i was still trying to record material that i'd written as far back as mid 2003. what that means is that there's an entire record - and probably closer to three - that got lost in the shuffle.
worse, it left me with the painful task of trying to artistically document a failed relationship while it was raw. i kept putting it all off to working on something else, then going back to it, then doing something else; it wasn't until mid 2007 that i drew a line in the sand and said "i'm working on material after 2005".
what that leaves me with is a lot of songs written over 2004-2005, essentially none of which have anything close to a proper recording. most of them exist solely in the form of very rough demoes.
i'm thinking i probably want to split this group of demos in half and put the first half into a record dated to very early 2005. the reason is that the period shift in 2005 came with frances the mute, which i found very inspiring. i hadn't heard a solid rock record in a long time at that point. it kicked me into more dynamic, almost metal pieces - which became the proverbs era. this is period 4 and defines my main project from 2005 all the way to 2011, complete with long periods of inactivity and some depression over an inability to find a drummer. so, i've walked you through basically all of period 3, here. it's not clear how this will be numbered.
2005 also needs to find space for a throatmotor demo that i wrote, a couple of compilations and the eventual trivial group double lp, which will be made up of symphonies 5,6,7 and 8 - once 7 is finished and 8 is recorded.
i ended up back in my parents basement at the beginning of 2006 to finish my math degree. i only needed to finish my honours project, and some breadth requirements. i used the breadth requirement as an electronic music course, which allowed me to finish my second symphony. i'll be releasing something in that space to document this - likely a compilation of all academic musical projects. i also started an unrelated electronic symphony that i'll need to finish.
period 4 recording began seriously in mid 2007, after i'd found a job with microsoft and got my own apartment with a small studio in it. unfortunately, it took two years to finish the song i started working on next and i stopped writing due to the backlog of material...
but that's why i'm doing this.
as mentioned repeatedly, 46-48 will be done shortly. 46 is the piano piece. 47 and 48 are both 2xcd electronic music compilations. 49 is up.
after 49, i disappeared to bc for a few months.
when i came back, i was pretty shaky. 50 is a short ep of downright disturbing material; i've never released this, and i still find it difficult to listen to. i actually need to conquer this for myself. it won't be altered, except maybe to have an instrumental mix.
51 will need to be put aside momentarily, as it's really the only thing in this batch that is going to need recording attention. it was only a few weeks after i got back from bc that i got thrown out. i guess my stepmother liked it better when i was gone. i ended up staying with sarah for a few weeks and recording with a 4-track for a little while rather than with a computer. one of these tracks, specifically, needs to be completed as the second half of my eighth symphony, but the fact that i have a tape of it indicates that this is the proper place to put it. so, this will collect those cassette demos.
i eventually ended up at my mom's for a few months. 52 is a protest single about afghanistan, whereas 53 is a demo i put together for an art show sarah was doing - and collects material recorded over the second half of 2003.
sarah and i then got a place for a few more months. 54 was put together out of spare parts as a part of a basement record label; it's stuck as my seventh disc, although i'm going to expand it to a double, here. i'm also going to compile an ep of material that was edited at this point, and call it 55.
56 and 57 are going to be related to the sixth symphony, although it's not clear to me yet how. 58 is going to be my still unfinished seventh symphony. it needs vocals and sound design attention. 59 is going to be a slice of matlab generated noise, and probably exist as a standalone for now - when i come back to this and finish it, i will date it to 2016 or 2017. this is not written material, so it would be weird to date it to 2004 or 2005. it's the first time i've come across this issue [my classical guitar project is not possible to finish].
that actually takes me to early 2005, which is when a brick wall hits. i wrote a number of more conventional jazz-pop-punk type pieces over 2004 that i was hoping to get sarah to drum on. sarah had a type of add that made her unable to do anything but dad rock and screamo, which stripped her of any use to me as a musical collaborator. thankfully, i at least have a demo tape of some of these songs - as many have been forgotten. but, it's not dated until 2005, after i'd moved out and moved on. at this point, i was still trying to record material that i'd written as far back as mid 2003. what that means is that there's an entire record - and probably closer to three - that got lost in the shuffle.
worse, it left me with the painful task of trying to artistically document a failed relationship while it was raw. i kept putting it all off to working on something else, then going back to it, then doing something else; it wasn't until mid 2007 that i drew a line in the sand and said "i'm working on material after 2005".
what that leaves me with is a lot of songs written over 2004-2005, essentially none of which have anything close to a proper recording. most of them exist solely in the form of very rough demoes.
i'm thinking i probably want to split this group of demos in half and put the first half into a record dated to very early 2005. the reason is that the period shift in 2005 came with frances the mute, which i found very inspiring. i hadn't heard a solid rock record in a long time at that point. it kicked me into more dynamic, almost metal pieces - which became the proverbs era. this is period 4 and defines my main project from 2005 all the way to 2011, complete with long periods of inactivity and some depression over an inability to find a drummer. so, i've walked you through basically all of period 3, here. it's not clear how this will be numbered.
2005 also needs to find space for a throatmotor demo that i wrote, a couple of compilations and the eventual trivial group double lp, which will be made up of symphonies 5,6,7 and 8 - once 7 is finished and 8 is recorded.
i ended up back in my parents basement at the beginning of 2006 to finish my math degree. i only needed to finish my honours project, and some breadth requirements. i used the breadth requirement as an electronic music course, which allowed me to finish my second symphony. i'll be releasing something in that space to document this - likely a compilation of all academic musical projects. i also started an unrelated electronic symphony that i'll need to finish.
period 4 recording began seriously in mid 2007, after i'd found a job with microsoft and got my own apartment with a small studio in it. unfortunately, it took two years to finish the song i started working on next and i stopped writing due to the backlog of material...
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