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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

yeah. i'm feeling very introverted right now, and focused on the tunes. i think i'm staying in tonight.

that took way longer to write than i expected, but it was an eventual necessity. i'm falling over, but i should hit the stretch with this tomorrow.

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...

25,000 views & 300 subscribers

google is of course mostly interested in finding ways to show you ads. and, they've consequently erected this ridiculous theoretical idea of subs as the best way to get ads across, under the idea that it ensures a level of regular brainwashing. they've then managed to enforce this theory from the top down through their company, with the expectation that people will just do what they expect.

of course, the reality is rather different. youtube feeds are not like facebook feeds, because videos take time to watch. you can scroll through a feed of pictures. you can't scroll through a feed of videos. the result is that almost nobody really uses their youtube feed, rendering subscribers almost entirely pointless.

i don't expect google to ever understand this. it's too engrained in their corporate culture; it's an article of faith that building subscribers is the way to success. it's a good example of why any entity should base their theories on observations, rather than projected realities. really, it's sort of depressing that it's 2015 and influential organizations are still confused on this point. and it could very well be their unraveling. if some other company is able to use research tools to find out ways that people want to interact - rather than decide how we should interact based on the perceived ideal advertising arrangement - it could very well leave youtube a ghost town.

in the meantime? yeah. people will sub to you without having any interest in your channel, and without watching any of your videos. then they'll miss your uploads because they don't read their feed, and not care because they weren't interested in the first place. it's still a mystery to me why they subscribe, but i think it is generally seen as an act of solidarity.

yesterday was weird. i meant to put aside a few hours to fill in track details at bandcamp, and ended up sidetracked at youtube. i got about halfway done the intended purpose and then crashed. that needs to be the focus, today. it's hopefully done by lunch time.

i think i've worked out a plan to overnight in pontiac. there's an all night mcdonalds a short walk south down woodward. there's also an all night diner in the area, but it's only open weekends. this is 120 stops up woodward - an almost two hour bus ride. it would be hours and hours walking back. i think i'm going to go. should be a nice tour into the rotting suburbs of michigan, at least. once i do it the first time, it won't be scary any more.

if the show runs close to two, i could conceivably only have to wait two hours....

social critics are unpopular, by definition. they seek to hold up a mirror, not to win popularity contests. they reject admiration and revel in pariah status. they're often killed by angry mobs, die penniless and dejected or even take their own lives.

i know exactly what i'm doing. you just can't see beyond the flaws in the human model of homo economicus.

inriℵ6 & 7 are now officially completed and compiled.

inriℵ6:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2-box-set

inriℵ7:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/period-22-rabit-is-wolf-jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2

publishing la la la la (inri062)

inri043 completed.

--

this was meant to be the last rabit is wolf track, but instead morphed into the first trivial group song. this single explores the track from various angles.

sean wanted a song that just went "lalalala". i think his intent was to try and simplify my thought process, because what i'd been doing sounded more like FTIeikdTY7isdD7E5dk!. he was just kind of like "how about.....lalalala.".

it got a bit of an eye roll from me, as you could imagine, but i played with it. he wasn't really that excited about what i did, and it just didn't move forward. there were no further sessions, as he became interested in working with a more conventional early 00s "emotional hardcore" (think at the drive in) style guitarist and i got very involved in a relationship.

despite his initial suggestion, i'd consider the result to clearly be of my own doing. so, i took the core of what i did and warped it into the first track on the reflections symphony. this track has lain dormant since, comfortably completed.

it's now 2015, and i'm completing my discography. that puts this track in a blurry space: it was completed, but not as initially intended. while there may have been a vocal part recorded, i don't have it any more. yet, the intention is clear enough - and the manipulation would have been thick enough - that i do not consider it to be invasive to complete it on my own.

i'm releasing it as rabit because it's collaborative in the abstract, despite sean not actually existing in the track. this track was written in late 2002 and completed over april and may, 2015. final completion date is may 11, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, drum programming, soundscaping, sound design, sampling, vocals, vocoders, digital wave editing

sean - lyrical concept

released november 15, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/la-la-la-la

reflections (string orchestra mix)

as mentioned, i was going to do an orchestral mix, but decided against it in favour of a chamber mix. the chamber mix got a bit too big to be a chamber mix, so it's a string orchestra mix.

the major reason i'm uploading this is that the skittered up, glitchy percussion at the end transfers over well to pizzicato strings, creating a rather wonderful mess.

this render is from may 11, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-string-orchestra-mix

crashed early yesterday and slept for over ten hours. at least i'm completely alert, now...

i'm playing with different mix combinations. i've already ruled out an orchestra mix, and i'm both nearing completion and rejection of a "chamber mix", although it's a bit too big of a string section for that. i'm just not convinced this is worthwhile. i'll be deciding soon.

i'm also thinking about an all guitar mix, and may do it live if it sounds good digitally. that's on top of the literal vst mix and an ambient/synth mix.

so, it's going to be between 3 and 5 mixes - and will hopefully be done today.

melt banana is thursday, and i'd like to go, but i'm concerned about the weather overnight and not having anywhere to stay in pontiac. i'll need to look at a number of things. but it's 50/50 right now.

weird day. i was up early, got out to get groceries, took a shower, made some eggs, watched a documentary on the punic wars and...shit, its 6:00....

i'm back to work now. something or other will get done before i sleep. but the day's over before it started, dammit....

reflections (percussion mix)

this is a purely percussive mix, mapping the instruments to things like marimbas and vibraphones and glockenspiels. render from may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-percussion-mix

reflections (homemade percussion mix)

this version is for piano, claps, bowls, pens, tables and some effects. it's mixed to sound like it's in an open room. the idea is to isolate and highlight the strange percussion choices in the original/final mix. so, this isolates the weird percussion in the track. constructed on may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-homemade-percussion-mix

reflections (soundblaster mix)

so, the soundblaster version of this track is done, and uploaded both to thru (47) and refractions (46). this completes the first disc of 47, which is likely to be finished completely tomorrow.

i've got some extra ideas for remixes for 46, but it shouldn't be a really lengthy job.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed and re-rendered over may, 2015. this render is from may 9, 2015.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-4


https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/reflections-completed-soundblaster-mix

yeah. i cut my nightly back up partition from 50 gb to 10 - i'll just have to be more focused about it - and shifted the 40 to the discography partition. that let me shift the aleph isos over to the discography partition, which gave me 20 gb back on my iso backup partition. now, i've got enough for about 10 more isos there, and plenty of extra space in the discography for alephs and wave files. by the time i get that done, my pile of work to get through should fall down to about 50 gb, which will let me swap my work partition [a full 250 gb drive] for the iso partition [a 135 gb partition]. if there's only 50 left, the 135 will be plenty of space to work with - and it will put the other drive aside for eventual storage as iso backups. that won't be until probably the end of the summer, but i need to be thinking about it. and i think this configuration will probably last me until christmas, if i'm still alive by then. maybe ssds will go down by then or hit a sale point...

if you're wondering how i'm using 750 gb, of course i'm not. it's just a question of partitioning things and being sure i don't hit a brick wall. the way things are set up gives me two drives to work with; the plan was three, and that's what i'm musing about fixing.

first drive:
system: 50 gb. just program files.
part 2: 50 gb. installation files. there's a script; i could shrink it, but there's not a lot of space, and it wouldn't be useful, due to where it is, physically.
part 3: 50 gb. virtual machines. i'm actually a heavy vm user, because my image is so minimal. and, there's backups and shit hidden in there. linux. i'm a half credit short of a computer science degree, you know, so it's useful for programming. cracks. suspected spyware. having it in it's own partition (and scripted) makes it easier to not lose in a reinstall.
part 4: 100 gb. temp. it's about half full, of install files and other shit. having sufficient temp space is incredibly useful.

drive one has been pretty much static for ten years and is unlikely to change. pretty much ever.

second drive:
music partition: 250 gb. currently, there's about 100 gb of unfinished files and 30 gb of samples for vst instruments. previously, there was almost 200 gb of unfinished files. so, the need for this much space decreases as i get through the work. this particular drive will get shelved in time, but i like the idea of a dedicated drive for music work. i certainly don't want it on my system drive...

third drive:
part1: 10gb. backup. just whatever i'm working on.
part2: 95 gb. discography. mp3s, flacs, waves & isos for compilations of them. it's for easy access, but it's necessary. this will probably eventually need it's own drive, but i can't see it ever getting over 250 so that drive is probably this one.
part3: 145 gb. iso backups. this is the completed work - all source material, mixes, programs, etc.

so, there's lots of space there, it's just not really usable. like i say: i built this for four drives. and i guess it means i'm eventually buying two, not one. just not right now...

well, i got the cymbals/bowl notated, anyways. needed a break there to clear my head of the syncopation, and come back fresh. next up needs to be the pens/toms. i'm thinking about adding snares. and there's a few guitar parts to get in there, too. i'm going to need to eat first, though.

i'm running out of hard drive space. on the one hand, that was never supposed to happen. i built this thing ten years ago with 4x250 gb drives, giving me a tb of storage. on the other hand, i lost a drive last year [it was a traumatic experience; i lost months and ended up having to get a bus pirate to parallel in to flash the bios...], which has me down 250 gb, to 750 gb.

nowadays, i'll never find a 250 gb drive that isn't refurbished. which seems nuts. but t approaches infinity whether we like it or not. and, while i might be able to get a deal on something, buying used hard drives is like buying used underwear - even if it seems alright, you never really know what's in there. rootkits. who knows. so, it seems like i'm looking at adding another at least 500 gb. but i didn't budget for this (although i should have - and i almost bought a drive instead of the blu-ray burner). i'm tempted, but it's going to hurt my finances.

i should be able to move things around for the night. in the long run, i'm going to actually take one of these out completely, for data redundancy. they're all almost ten years old. i take good care of my shit, but with hard drives it's not if, but when. i figure 250 gb should be sufficient to hold all the source files of everything from 1996-2015. so, i'll just take it out and put it in the box. i'll then swap it out for a newer drive...

i've got my pile of work down low enough that i should be able to get it into one of the smaller partitions, now. i can then drop all those isos on to the disc i wanted to put away. that should hold me, but not for very long.

i've been holding out for an ssd, but they're still kind of pricey, and a lot smaller. even a 250 gb drive is pushing $200. tb hdds are around $60. and, in 20 years, i've only ever had one die. it's just that i know i'm eventually going to land an ssd, probably several, so it doesn't seem like the wisest purchase.

on top of that, it's really just a convenience issue. i could wipe the isos. i've got them backed up several places.

but, i'm thinking about it. i'll do some shopping at some point over the weekend. and carefully look at the budget.

it shouldn't slow me down, though - not really, at least.

i've been holding off on this because i was hoping to fit period 2 on to one dvd, but this isn't going to be possible. i'd have had to have truncated to do it in the best scenario; instead, i'm going to be inclusive over three discs. what i had previously posted as the rabit is wolf disc will be filled out and converted to disc two, and the third will be ftaa, comps and the first trivial group eps (up to may, 2004, which is the ftaa completion date and the completion of the last period 2 material).

it's a combination of the box sets for deny everything & jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj, minus the wave which fits better on 2.2.

when period 2 is done [within a few weeks...], i'll have this up as a 3xdvd and 1xbd.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/period-21-deny-everything-jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

note to self: writing syncopated cymbal parts in 48/32 is challenging. it's almost like i'm going to need a math degree or something to do this.

the backbeat is in patterns of sixteen but is a dotted sixteenth note, which means i need to be thinking of ways to weave the offbeats in at a 64th note quantize level due to the factorization, but also that everything is staggered with ties and dots. if one sixteenth of the bar is measured in terms of a dotted sixteenth (that is three 32nds), then a 32nd of the bar is half that, which is three 64ths. i may find myself looking for 128ths (this program stops at 64ths).

this is probably the reason i played the percussion in the original recording - using bowls, pens, tables and other objects i had around. it's not that i need the quick succession, it's getting the space between the notes right. and i'm currently not sure i'm going to be able to divide the various subsets (or bars) into small enough pieces to get the syncopation my brain is giving me.

in some sense, what 48/32 really indicates is a tempo change (represented by the dot), and i suppose i could sit down and work that out, then rewrite it in a more "normal" time. that would convert my dotted sixteenth notes into quarter notes and give me my "128th" and also "256th" back. but, it would mean shifting the math to the already written sections. i'm only going to do that if i really can't get small enough notes...

also, i don't know how or why i have 300 subscribers, but it seems as though i do. the only benefit of this that i can comprehend is that it might rank my comments higher, thereby increasing traffic.

otherwise? sorry, google. subscribers are useless...

i mean, i uploaded a video the other day, and i've got 8 hits on it. hooray for 300 subscribers....

don't get me wrong: i like the idea of having 300 interested people. it's just that, strangely, subscribing to a music channel doesn't seem to indicate any interest in the music uploaded to it.

i think most of them liked something i had to say, or thought i was cyute or something.

in fact, i'm not even posting it to the main profile! i scoff at the general direction of your subscrrrribers! i'll wait until i get to 25K...

[i'm actually well over 25K. but i deleted around 5000 hits since i posted 20K. unnecessary uploads...]

46 and 47 aren't done yet, but i've got them up public.

i'm currently filling in the midi sections for 46 to better represent the completed track. that will render into the end slot of 47 disc 1. i'll then remix that for modern vsti, which will slot into the end of 47 disc 2. i'm going to do at least an ambient mix of 46 as well, which should appear on 48 with the other ambient mixes. i'll have to decide if it's done at that point or not.

this is 46:


this is 47:

why the computer isn't behaving like it should, i don’t know...

maybe i should just play it?

it's gotta be a quantization thing, it's just that i don't think the version of cubase i'm using can count this precisely. oddly, this windows 95 program i'm still using - noteworthy composer - doesn't have any problem with it.

i'll figure something out. but if it doesn't come down to finding the right setting to tweak, it may have to be pretty odd.

maybe i should register after almost twenty years?

nah....

it was shareware, dammit! i doubt a crack even exists....

honestly: it's way better than finale or sibelius or the rest. just a very simple, clean ui. it can't do anything fancy. but it's keyboard oriented, rather than mouse oriented, so it's much faster for geeks. when they sat down to write those other programs, they seemed to assume they were writing them for balding music teachers that used aol and needed simple point and click uis...

ah, aol. i miss it, sometimes.

ironically, i may have to get one of the newer scorewriters on here for this, if i can't get cubase to read it. i *think* some of the newer ones take vstis.

reflections (original soundblaster mix)

this is the 2003 version, which is special due to the greater focus in the mix on the skittery choir parts.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. this render from may 7, 2015.

reflections (punk sonatina mix)

this is the original program, for piano, synth and strings. it has a more minimal feel.

written and recorded in early 2003. this render is from 2003.

reflections (windows mix)

the windows xp software synth rendered this rather differently than the old soundblaster, which just gives it a different flavour. of specific note is the guitar section at the end, which comes out sounding bowed.

written and recorded in early 2003. transcribed, slightly rearranged, remixed repeatedly and re-rendered repeatedly over may, 2015. this render from may 7, 2015.

13/116 = 11%.

that's how many front page views have officially counted over the last two days. the other 89% did not meet some kind of youtube condition. i'm able to get more reliable stats on this video, because the count is under 300 - so it increments immediately, and then the scripts "confirm" the hits after.

i'm not here to argue about conditions. it's quite obvious that these hits "should count". i'm here to point out how grossly inaccurate the view counts really are.

i've been through this in this space before: i don't care about hit counts. youtube is not a marketplace, it's an advertising area. i seek to maximize sales, not to correctly enumerate advertising reach.

it's just that it would help if i could correctly enumerate advertising reach.

89% is not a minor error to be written off or otherwise ignored. the stats are completely useless.

and, i still don't know why ~60,000 views on this page disappear and reappear - although i do expect them to come back any day, now. before i get to 300,000, anyways, so i can get the snapshot. thanks.

i'm not the one going on about the sanctity of the metrics. i'm just pointing out that they're basically worthless.

with 42 finally done, 43 on hold and 44 decided upon, i had to take a moment to pause for 45 before i moved to 46 as i wasn't going to look back a second time. i uploaded it the other day, as it was left in 2002. but was it really done?

i run this page as a journal, not a marketing site. facebook is useless for marketing. this needs a journal entry to explain what i'm thinking. for historical reasons.....

i claimed that i couldn't figure out where to go with this, but it's a slight fib. it's more that i came to dislike it as i was recording it. it struck me as cheesy and goofy; i just abandoned it, and then avoided it. all these years later, and with a little hindsight, those concerns are less relevant to me. i mean, i agree with my twelve year-ago self: this is cheesy. and goofy. but that's cool with me, at this point.

so, what was i going to do with this? well, i had vocals in mind, and i think i wrote them down, but they seem to have evaporated into nowhere. i don't remember them now and i'm not going to make up new ones. besides that, i was mostly just going to fill up the "chorus" with extra electric guitar parts.

listening to it today, i feel that adding electric guitar riffs into the track would in some ways be obvious but would ultimately not be beneficial for the following reasons:

1) the spectrum is already saturated. adding guitars would necessarily blunt the attack of the bass, drums or both - and i sort of like them how they are. one way to work with this is to saturate the guitars (perhaps by vocoding them into a synth), but thought experiments on the point presented the existing minimalist structure as preferable.

2) for the second chorus, it would create a fake crescendo that would be flat out trite. with the rising breakbeats, i'd have no way out of it. and, it would be reducing the track to some kind of parody.

the result remains frustrating. it's not done, but i've concluded that finishing it is impossible without ruining it. it really has no future but stasis.

so, i've acknowledged as much, left it is a download only outtake release and am moving on.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/ostrich

that ended up taking two days rather than one but i am now ready to wrap up in that blanket and work through from 45-55 over roughly the next week. expect relatively frequent uploads.

at the end of it, i expect my throat to be in better shape, and i should be able to take a shot at finishing 43.

it's basically going to have to wait until my throat is good enough for it.

ugh. it's going to get ugly down here when the humidity picks up. i'm going to drive the temperature down here up to 35, and hope he keels over.

it's may 5th - a good seven weeks before summer. the high today is 12 degrees, with a cool wind from the north. it's gloomy and overcast. it's a cold, yucky day. and, yet the air conditioner is on upstairs, seemingly set to around 10.

the result is that i have the heat set to 25, i'm wearing two sweaters and yet i'm still cold.

i've been trying to understand how the thermostat can say 25 degrees, and yet i'm shivering. it has to just be what a/c units do to the air. they suck all the good parts out, leaving the no good parts. the thermostat might say something, but it doesn't reflect the actual air quality. i mean, there's a difference between 25 with a cool wind, 25 with humidity and 25 with a dry, bright sun, right? the thermostat says the same thing in all cases, but it can run the spectrum from 'need a sweater' to 'sweating profusely'.

air conditioners are a special kind of evil in what they do to the air, though. they'd steal the oxygen right out of it if they could - vampires. you get one of these units running, and there's just nothing good left in what you're living in.

the frustrating thing is that it's actually too cold outside to open the window. i have no option but to crank the heat.

obligatory "influential on lead track post"...

i'm trying to remember what i was driven by at the time, and the truth is that i was just mostly playing with the gear. all i'm really coming up with is some early 90s industrial music. it's about the time i was starting to get big into coil and skinny puppy. but, in the sense that it was an influence it was more in the horizons-expanding sense. listening to records like this one legitimized the idea of splicing samples together in weird ways.

(relevant tracks: skinny puppy have been a dominant influence on material i recorded after 1997.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_VmkLKkRgw

obligatory "influential on lead track post"...

when i started playing with samples in late 97, i was told by some older music fans that negativland is worth checking out. i spent quite a bit of time sorting through mp3s downloaded via ftp and didn't really find anything i could seriously relate to. it was very influential on me in an aesthetic sense though - it legitimized the idea i had of splicing samples together in weird ways.

(relevant tracks: inrisampled, eat my fuck, most of the connecting sections in the 1997/1998 material)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gPSSYxex0

obligatory "influential on lead track post"...

i'm trying to remember what i was driven by at the time, and the truth is that i was just mostly playing with the gear. all i'm really coming up with is some early 90s industrial music. it's about the time i was starting to get big into coil and skinny puppy. but, in the sense that it was an influence it was more in the horizons-expanding sense. listening to records like this one legitimized the idea of splicing samples together in weird ways.

(relevant tracks: inrisampled, eat my fuck, most of the connecting sections in the 1997/1998 material)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzqsVbFs5fc

odsp drug coverage / transgender medication not covered

hi...

i'm contacting you about the issue of hormones being covered under the odsp drug benefits. whether i agree with the reasons or not (cosmetic, not medical), i understand why that this has not traditionally been covered. and i understand that it's something that is probably still a little touchy in certain circles. however, i think the current liberal majority is the type of government that is likely to throw off certain stigmas attached to the issue, that it will probably even generate broad public support, and it's something progressive forces should consequently be taking the opportunity to move a little on. you are my mp, so i'm approaching you as a first point of contact.

i've been taking hormones for years, and have been able to cover the cost for one of three drugs while the province covers the cost of the other two. i've interpreted this as "it could be worse", but the price just went up a lot and it's provided me with an incentive to try and get it covered. i understand that there's a procedure to go through to ask for an exception, but i think it really just ought to be changed altogether.

the three drugs are a progesterone, an estrogen and a testosterone blocker. the province covers the testosterone blocker because it's used to treat men that have difficulties with sexual impulses - rapists and child molesters. it covers the progesterone because it can be used as a menopause treatment. further, it will cover some types of estrogen that are used in birth control, but the doses are far too low to be useful to me.

should i really have to rely on a legal loophole for sex offenders when i have a diagnosed medical condition, and the prescription i need is approved for other uses? this condition is deeply intertwined with mental health issues. it's generally consistent in the canadian legal framework to ensure access to this kind of thing, when it intersects with issues of well being. i know i'm on the right side with this.

again: i understand why this would have been difficult twenty years ago. but, i think the society has matured enough around this issue that this medication should be interpreted by odsp as medically necessary, and consequently covered under the circumstances of my diagnosis - rather than the loophole i'm currently forced to accept. and, i think the current government provides an opportunity to move on this.

jessica

record #6

hello...

as i mentioned before, if you've given me your address, which i never asked for, you must be pleading with me to send you updates. i must respectfully oblige.

my sixth lp released the other day. this is a major release of 2002 material, and the portal out of my second period.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2

i also completed a double ep single last week which is of special interest in terms of it's complexity. you don't hear the phrase "guitar concerto remix" very often.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/untitled

two large compilation records will also release in the next 10-14 days.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/thru
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-works

the next major release will be the seventh record, which is already completed and should be sequenced and released by june.

j

record #6

i was hoping to have this done by the beginning of the year, but i got very caught up in one of the tracks, which took me nearly five months to work through.

this is the 6th record:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2

this disc takes me up to the end of 2002. it requires headphones, preferably not cheap ones. these are thick mixes. it's number 44. it's built on a succession of singles: 29, 35, 36, 37, 42 and 43.

the 42 single is the one that took me five months, and takes that particular track in every direction possible, including the form of a guitar concerto.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/untitled

also in this space exists the grand total of rabit is wolf material, which left two lps (34, 38), an acoustic demo (40) and five singles (30, 35, 36, 37, 43). the sixth lp is largely a reclamation of rabit material as instrumental music.

the other thing that exists in this space is the first few noise lps, which will form the basis of my seventh record, which should be done by the beginning of the summer at the absolute latest. two of these are short eps of harsh noise (32, 41) while the other is a systemic workthrough of what i call my fourth symphony (39).

45, 46 and 49 lean forward into the next period. 47 & 48 are electronic music focused compilations of the first 45 records, based on the ideas of midi music and ambient music, respectively. they will appear within the next week.

as before, the bandcamp site is the preferable site for all purposes. however, here is a back door to the mp3 archive. again: please do not share this link.

(link removed)

j

i had a relaxing weekend of listening to some recently completed music in it's intended state, and compiling collections to end my second compositional period. i'm seeing daylight on this, so i don't expect to be going anywhere for a few days - probably not until the melt banana show on the 14th.

i need to give my lungs a few days to rest to get ready for finishing inri043, and completing inri046-48 is going to mostly be a curled-up-in-blanket-in-front-of-the-pc editing process so it's kind of ideal as that resting period.

i'll need to do laundry and clean and other beginning of the month things tomorrow, but i intend this to be a productive week, in filling in the discography up to inri050.

mp3 disc vol 1 (initial release)

i had to cut this off a little earlier than i wanted, but that's how this is going to have to work. it just wasn't going to all fit. not even close. but, who buys volume 1 without volume 2? so, in the long run, it should be viewed as the first half of a double mp3 dvd disc [how's that for pushing media boundaries?], and the lack of any clear end point isn't that tumultuous.

it's going to be a while before i get to inri084, though.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/mp3-dvd-disc-vol-1

publishing reflections (inri074)

i've also uploaded an ep from 2003, untouched, as inri049. tracks 1-5 are what i consider to be my fifth symphony.

===

around october, 2002 i met a friend. i was sort of in need of a friend, and i mean that in the friend sense. but, the mental condition i was in was the explanation of why i needed a friend, if you see what i mean; i was completely unstable in this period and did all kinds of absurd things, which isolated me - and i wasn't getting any better.

i dropped out of school under the realization that i was walking down a path that wasn't getting me anywhere close to what i wanted out of life. i ended up working three jobs to raise money for gender reassignment, and it crossed me paths with somebody that was also trying to think of ways to get out of the box in terms of ways to exist.

she was trying to save up money to go to british columbia. it was some kind of warped take on the grapes of wrath, where everything works out perfectly. but, the rent was eating into her savings, which was making the goal seem impossible. well, unless we stopped having fun.

so, i suggested she should just stay at my parents place. part of it was a hope that she would move her drum kit in, although that didn't happen. and, i might add that this was done with all of the reckless abandon that could be contemplated - we were moving stuff in without even asking, it was really remarkable.

and, it seemed to me that we were getting pretty close over that period.

so, when the time came that she had all that money put aside to go to bc, it was kind of a downer to let her go. and, she initially wanted to go with a friend who dropped out. so, i ended up going across the country with her.

now, i need to be clear: we weren't planning on coming back. we were going to pick fruit or something - we didn't know, exactly, we'd figure it out when we got there.

so, this was meant as a sort of farewell to certain people i hadn't talked to in months and didn't care if i was leaving, anyways. i think it let me work some things out on weird subconscious levels, but the truth is that these songs really aren't about anybody except me, and there's no use in pretending they are - i just liked the idea of a farewell disc.

this disc was initially passed around with a cut up version of the pretentious untitled mix at the end, but this was almost immediately ejected from future burns and is not present on this ep due to the poor quality of the mix. the remaining five tracks became combined into what i now call my fifth symphony. a slightly remixed version will appear on the trivial group double lp.

written and recorded in late 2002 and early 2003. this was uploaded unmodified from a cd-r rip in may, 2015. symphony 5. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, synth, voice, piano, drum programming, generative programming (sounder), granular synthesis, sound design, soundscaping, loops, bowls, claps, tables, ebow, orchestral sequencing, digital wave editing, sampling, production, composition

the various rendered electronic orchestras include piano, synth pad, choir and string section. 

released may 1, 2003

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/reflections

i'm likely going to have inri049 up by mid morning. i just have to listen to it. it's another unmodified upload - the ep i passed around in early 2003.

inri048 (ambient works) and inri047 (thru - midi works) will together function as a sort of quadruple compilation of electronic music over period 2. they're both going to be doubles, and they'll both measure something moving through. i don't expect further compilations, but i will want to pause here and make sure i haven't missed any opportunities. inri047 needs one more song to finish, which is the song in inri046.

inri046 will be the birdsong ep, which will be the final midi music single in the way that defines my output over 2001 and 2002. it will have several vst synthesizer mixes, in undefined directions. it may take some time to develop.

inri043 remains in progress, and will need to remain in progress until i get my voice back a little and can psyche myself up for it. the middle of this week, probably.

inri050 fast forwards several months, and attempts to document material written in an uncomfortable period of time right after i returned from british columbia, including parts written in british columbia.

that gets aleph-5 done: all material related to the sixth record.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2-box-set

uploading the flying ep to youtube

this is an old outtake that i'm publishing for the first time, along with it's initial pairing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRIUnnbtCIQ&feature=autoshare

the youtube alter-reality is about to move forward out of my primitive stages. i feel these primitive stages have earned me a level of notoriety that i would have no doubt craved at that age, so in terms of this game (does this qualify as one of those games?), i suppose it's accomplished it's purpose. but, this only represented a year of my life and i have a much longer musical story to tell, or game to play as you may have it.

1997 was a year spent of a lot of learning how to utilize technology with music. i started playing with tab writers, notation writers, sequencers, drum machines, synthesizers and digital wave editors, which i took a particular liking to.

over the fall, i had everything i needed to record except a recorder. i started experimenting with samples using very primitive tools - the windows 95 sound editor and recorders - and a lot of napkin math. like, you couldn't even loop with these - you had to manually paste each copy in and calculate the entrance points. i deserved a credit in algebra for this, really.

i pasted this together at the end of 2013, but it's the sum total of these sample collages, made out of just any random sounds i could find on my hard drive or the internet - civ2 and doom sound files and simpsons quotes, mostly.

it's going to be the lead-off in the alter-reality now for several months and will bridge to a period where i was interested mostly in synthesizer pop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeRFfBTqlEQ&list=PL3JSjmqp0cbsyQ4cQbszNBKo5GW4Ouz38&index=19

On behalf of the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), I regret to inform you that your application has not resulted in a successful Popular Music grant.

i knew it...

group of my peers, my ass. i failed the corporate evaluation test. governments sometimes work as hr departments for certain private sector interests. schools are kind of something sort of maybe a little bit like that.

i felt the need to apply, but i knew the outcome before it happened. i just hope i get something in the mail with their responses, it should be good for a laugh.

i'm best off with the financial situation i'm in.

i'm not sure i'd have even taken it. i'd have to put that logo on merch, which is kind of yuck. it was a fall back plan...

publishing flying (inri064)

this was constructed as a christmas present for my partner, while in a rather absurd state of entirely preposterous euphoria. only a musician can be so absurdly invested in something so thoroughly delusional - or manage to create something so entirely self-reflective out of a theme surrounding somebody else.

the first part of this was shelved before it was ever released. i was over-exaggerating a sense of self-consciousness, but it still strikes me as unworkable. however, i think it's conceptually important in the idea of this as a christmas present and has consequently been uploaded here without modification. the second part was actually presented to sarah as a present, albeit it a little after christmas - hence the jan 1 release date. it eventually found it's way to the center of my fifth symphony, reflections: jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/reflections

these tracks were written and recorded over november and december of 2002 and uploaded, unmodified, in may of 2015. this will be a download only release. as always, please use headphones.

credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, synth, piano, drum programming, light-sound synthesis (coagula), generative programming (sounder), granular synthesis, sound design, digital wave editing, production, composition 

released january 1, 2003

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/flying

publishing jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj^2 (inri063)

i've just finished my sixth lp.

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the idea of a second jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj record was not something that remotely crossed my mind until i started seriously analysing my work from 2002. that was a separate idea; rabit is wolf separated it from the trivial group. however, remixed instrumental tracks over the rabit is wolf period slowly collected to the point that there was enough to justify a whole record. that wasn't a conscious choice at the outset, but it seems to be the conceptual framework collected on the record. i toyed with the idea of releasing it as a rabit remix record, but my influence over it is far too lopsided.

the thematic linkage with the first jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj record is a tendency to lean towards more "serious" ideas. there are strong influences from a few different types of classical music, including jazz, as well as some more modern electronic and noise influences. however, these songs lean more towards more palatable rock or techno based song structures and are less dependent on existing scores.

the stories for these songs are diverse and explained in more detail on the track pages.

these tracks are all based on existing demos from 2001-2002 that were initially intended to be completed with vocal parts and were remixed from july, 2014 to may, 2015 as purely instrumental recordings. final completion date is may 2, 2015. as always, please use headphones.

credits
j - electric & acoustic guitars, electric bass guitar, effects, synths, electric air reed organ, digital piano, flute, voice, electronic drum kit, drum programming, drum manipulations, drum sampling, orchestral sequencing, sampling, loops, equalization, digital wave editing, sound design, production, composition.

the various rendered electronic orchestras include tuba, french horn, trombone, trumpet, english horn, saxophone, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, flute, orchestra hit, melodic toms, timpani, orchestral drum set, piano, agogo, tubular bells, glockenspiel, koto, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and various full string sections. it also includes choir.

other musicians:
sean - harmonica (2), melody (6)
greg - drum performance sample source (4)

released december 1, 2002

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj-2

a conceptual rethink is going to have me jump ahead and upload a number of releases rather quickly. inri043 is on hold for a day or two.

i've been compiling my sixth record since october. i initially planned to finish an outtake from late 2002 and place it in the last spot on that disc. but, i've decided against this for a handful of reasons.

first, this was an outtake. it wasn't unfinished, it was just something i put aside as substandard. and, while i think it's good enough to release in some form, i'm not excited about placing it last on this record, which is otherwise my most fully realized completed material to date (2002). it was an outtake, and i'd like to leave it as one.

second, including this outtake would make the record span two distinct periods. this outtake was initially written as a part of sarah's xmas present for 2002, whereas all of the other pieces are from rabit is wolf. that christmas was a definite period change for me in terms of writing. while it initially felt reasonable to include everything up until the reflections period on the disc - it fit chronologically, and it didn't leave anything stranded - i'm now leaning much more heavily towards separating the periods more cleanly. this was always a debate in my mind, i've just switched sides on it.

third, that plan was before i decided to do la la la la as inri043, which leaves that piece stranded. but, that piece is far more conceptually relevant to the idea of the disc, which is rabit is wolf outtakes. further, i think it's a stronger piece, with stronger incentive to include on this disc.

now, i don't want to move the vocal version over. the record is otherwise instrumental. and, it's a rabit is wolf idea.

so, what i'll do is leave the vocal version as the lead single to la la la la, stranded, but with the instrumental version at the end of the sixth lp.

i just need to listen to it a few times to be sure of this decision. if i am, that will complete inri044 - which is a major release.

it will also mean i'm removing the ostrich single (the previous inri044) and rather moving it into the flying single - and then releasing it as inri045. i may include a version of birdsong on this to complete a "bird ep".

it will also mean that ostrich will not have entries on the thru disc, as it's not developed enough for me to call it a midi composition.

bird song will need it's own single with a handful of remixes, which will be inri046. reflections and thru will follow immediately.

i'll be planning this out tonight. conceivably expect heavy uploading.

it's going to be nice this weekend, which you'd think might get me out. but, rather, i need to stay home and make sure the windows stay open. the fellow above me carries roughly thrice the weight of the average individual and will turn the basement into a meat locker should he be allowed to, in order that the temperature upstairs stay below 20. that's what happens when you're grossly obese.

it's summer. you want the temperature above 20. so, fuck that guy. maybe he should move to baffin island. or hit a treadmill. i learned last year that i need to get out in front of this if i don't want to be shivering in june - i've had the heat cranked the last two days, and will have the windows wide open so long as it's over 20 (and cranked over night, when it's below 20). that may actually take the temperature in here down a degree or two until the humidity picks up, but the key is to break the seal on the air conditioner upstairs. he's either going to freeze me out or i'm going to fry him out. i need the space in the short term, but i might not in the long term. i can handle everything else about this place in exchange for cheap rent, but i hate the idea of being cold all summer.

i mean, he can't win. not unless we skip summer this year. 35 degree humidity pouring in from the basement 12 hours a day will break his air. too bad. so sad....

what i'm missing is the "blowout" in detroit, but i'd argue i'm not missing much. this magazine is focusing on an aspect of detroit that is too mainstream for my tastes. as for touring bands, i'll check out perfect pussy at some point - although i'm more excited about white lung next month. tonight, they're playing in a mall. it's going to feel awkward and sound terrible. i'll hold out for a small bar with a lower ceiling. if it were a different band, i might feel different about the venue, but this is a bad combo. tomorrow is fucked up, but i've seen them enough to know they do short sets, which is going to end the show at 11:40 and get me stuck in ferndale until 7:00 again. not excited about that for a $20 entry fee. i'll wait until they play somewhere i can walk back to the tunnel with...and they will....

the likely next show is may 6th, but i'm iffy about it. it seems like an early show. we'll see where my head is.

the only feasible way for this guy to exist in the temperature he wants is to not live above anybody. nobody is going to want to live in a 15 degree basement over the summer so the obese guy in the upstairs apartment doesn't break a sweat. he could/should have moved into the empty unit on the other side over the winter - there's nobody under him, there. i hinted at it, but he didn't listen. *shrug*.

vocal tracks. i do them so seldom nowadays, and it's largely because i've never really been able to get my head around the voice as an instrument.

when i was a kid, i use to scream into the mic a little - there was no subtlety to it. you've heard this over and over again. it's punk rock. then, i started just reciting lyrics, almost deadpan. the screaming ended up striking me as contrived, but i still wanted a vocal component....so it was about all i could do. it was never really integral, or what the music was ever actually about. it was just convention. eventually, i gained the abstraction of thought to move beyond it...

since then, vocals have been pretty sparse - and essentially never melodic. i might have a poem, or a political statement. if i hum during recitation, it's either for emphasis or even by accident.

what my brain wants me to do is play the notes on a guitar, convert them to midi and then just run it through a sampler/sequencer combo. perfect pitch reconstruction. but, my gut is rejecting that and forcing me to do it live. if i do the sampler, it will be as a remix, and only after i get the live vocals down.

anyone can sing a tune, right? if given infinite takes. well, you'd get hamlet out of a monkey with infinite takes, too. the way this is going to work is that i'm going to struggle with it for two or three days, then it will "click". randomly. wait for it...

in the meantime, the ep is legitimately almost done. i'm just skittering out some la's and running them through a barrage of effects and then playing with it until it's "right". feel free to enjoy what's already uploaded.

to be clear: it's written. i have a clear plan. if this was a guitar part, it would be very quick. it's just not easy for me to produce the sounds i want out of my voice.

this mix was reconstructed from the 2002 source material in april, 2015 and slightly remixed in the process. track dated to april 30. 2015.

http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/la-la-la-la-instrumental-mix

can anybody help me understand why this view number regularly goes up and down by ~57,000 views? that's a fair amount of views...

i decided to do some record keeping tonight...

i've got these two obsolete 100 gb external drives that i picked up when i bought this machine in 2006. i wanted one of them to be for mp3s, and i can't remember what i wanted the other to be for. i've since picked up a tb drive for mp3s, which is more than i'll ever need for music storage.

worse, these drives can only be read on xp. conspiracy theories abound, but the bottom line is that there's no way around it. windows 7 simply won't acknowledge they're there.

so, i've converted them into extra data backup [my music pc is still using xp]. now, this is highly redundant - i've got all of these isos burnt to dvd, and backed up in multiple other places. but, putting the data on these drives like this allows me to put them away. it's convenient - even if i need an xp machine to read them.

i've hit the first 100 gb of storage, tonight. these isos have all the source material - cubase projects, raw wav data, pod settings, etc.

it's something worth taking note of for my own records. on to drive #2...

i've also determined what i'm doing with the rabit set.

i have each release available for individual purchase in download or physical cd - most of it is cheaper than you'd expect. i've decided to further compile "box sets" for each major release as they appear. currently, my major releases are:

inri / inriched (first box set)
inridiculous / deny everything (second box set)
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj (third box set)
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj^2 (fourth box set)

box sets compile the record along with the collection of singles attached to them - or two records, in the case of the first two box sets, which had less developed singles attached to them. they run between 6 to 8 hours. i've attached the price of $50 to them, which is again cheaper than you'd expect.

i further have "period discs" available, which attempt to combine the work of several records together and are determined by some event or idea in sound. my periods are:

1: 1996-1999 [inri]
2: 2000-2002 [deny everything ----> jjjjjjjjjjj]
3. 2002-2007 [trivial group...."sarah period"]

this is going to change as i go through it

period discs are much longer - 14-15 hours. roughly twice as long, really. period 2 is going to have to be a 2xdvd of flacs, although i may sell them individually. i only have period one up right now, but the price is set to $100.

this rabit compilation falls in between. it's more than a "box set" for inri038 (not considered a major release). but it's not a period disc. it's kind of a special disc, really. and it's over 12 hours.

i've consequently split the difference and put it up for $75.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/merch/rabit-is-wolf-full-compilation-disc

i should also have my first mp3 dvd done soon, as well. i'm hoping i can get everything up to 2003 in. but i may have to cut it off a little early.

this will run for $200. hey, it's 30+ hours over ~45 releases. do the math. it's actually a deal.

if you want to pay me once, wait - i'll eventually have a blu-ray flac disc up for ~$500, and i'm thinking it should be the entire discography. have to see.....not clear yet if i'm going to go over 75 hours.....

if i do, i'll eventually have a 320 mp3 bluray disc for something like $800-$1000. depends how full it gets.