the first track from my recent album, harbor songs. 

a haunting on minnesota point

the closing track from my recent album, harbor songs. 
a haunting, part two was created with recordings from the inside of an abandoned buoy depot at the end of minnesota point. much of the album that precedes this track is dark, and somewhat desolate in tone. for this final piece,  wanted to evoke a feeling of hope and leave the listener feeling light and lifted up.

a haunting, part two

this is something i recorded a couple years ago with my DX7 and chase bliss blooper pedal while listening to interviews of branch davidians about their commune "in a beautiful place out in the country". it made me sad and kind of introspective, which is the feeling i tried (perhaps subconsciously) in the repeating motif that permeates the track.

a memory of sunshine

This was recorded during a not so recent snowfall. I was home all day watching the blankets of white fall from the sky and envelop the world outside. I was fiddling around on my DX7 and came up with this cute melody that reminded me of tiny ice crystals, so I looped it and added more layers and effects. Winter is almost over now, but it’s nice to listen back and reflect on some of the marvelous snowfalls we had a few months ago.

snow

meandering acoustic guitar, spooky abandoned buoy depot squawks, pounding, ominous toms, and a howling synth choir... what more do you want?

this song evokes the bleak mystery of lake superior on a foggy day.

fog song

a little while ago i made a track called "the sparrow", which was inspired largely by the novel of the same name by mary doria russell. more recently i have been using this little piano motif in my live shows which i explored in greater depth here, and ended up making something that reminded me of that earlier track, so i have named it thusly. this one is inspired by the first days of spring and the beautiful music of the song sparrows that i have been enjoying during my time spent outside. i recorded the piano parts on my kakwai ce-7 upright, and used some recordings of those sparrows for some digital sound design. i also found an old recording of some bass drones that i did with an arp odyssey when i had one, which seemed to fit well within the track. 

the sparrow part ii

the original idea behind this track came from a cassette tape that i found in an old answering machine a few years ago. the voice recording you hear in the track is one of the messages that had been left on this machine, and it left me feeling sort of sad and lonely. there was some kind of miscommunication that resulted in this person feeling abandoned. that's something that i can relate to, so i had the idea to create a piece of music to meditate on the feeling of abandonment that is so universal and so personal. this idea stuck with me until today when i rediscovered an old recording i had made with a cocoquantus and a piano, and decided to combine it with the voice message. i then added some more linear piano parts, did a bit of slicing up and moving around the voice message, and here we are. bye.

Composed and recorded with tape loop of a TR-66 rhythm and Juno-60 with Tubbutec CPU mod.

Effects used: Strymon Volante, Vermona Retroverb Lancet, Alesis Microverb II, Alesis Nanocompressor.

More info about the Tubbutec Juno-66 mod: https://tubbutec.de/juno-66/#usrman

model tx-1500

recorded in one take onto tascam 4-track
sequence: monologue
pad: juno
bass: vermona retroverb lancet
delay: volante

(C6H4(OH)2)

Early in the pandemic I visited my sister at home. We were processing everything happening and it was good to be with other humans. I was messing around with Samplr on my ipad while playing a guitar, and the voices of my two sisters bled into the recording. I like how it turned out, and it reminds me of that day when I hear it now.

dreaming of an end

Found sounds, chopped and spliced into music, augmented with synthesizers and acoustic percussion.

This track is not available anymore.

Other tracks from kenneth g.