All the sounds made by my bike and a little boy who's just learnt to ride a bike.

It's Just Like Riding A Bike

All the sounds come from the forest with an owl on vocals!

Forest Funk

Another old one, this is from 2001 - very basic sounds and extremely rough round the edges but I kinda like it. 

Time (feat T S Elliot)

This is totally un-edited - just straight off my digital recorder. It documents an 8 minute journey through the New York subway. Listen in at 0:13 for the train arriving - it's kind of in tune with the  band and sounds like strings. 

New York subway journey.

All sounds on this tune, bar the trumpet and the rain, were taken from a recording of a mojito being made in Casa de Leonor y Armando in Sien Fuegos, Cuba.  

Mojito

Spaced out bass heavy house music. Big thanks to Luke Evans for the extra production.

Heatwave

A few years ago I was asked to contribute a piece of music to a project that my friend Stephen Givnan was putting together. He had written a synopsis of a story entitled The Ten Human Years of Preta Eshana. It follows the journey of a female, hungry spirit who is granted passage to the human realm for one spirit day (the equivalent of ten human years) to examine how human beings cope with suffering, conflict, and loss. Steve then sent this out to musicians, artists and writers with an invitation to create a piece inspired by the story.

I chose Year Six for my piece:
'Preta Eshana walks to places she has never been before. She walks across the seas, to different continents. Following bright lights she ends up in a wealthy city where she begins to mingle with the rich and powerful. At first, she is consumed by a mixture of jealousy and revulsion. Later, upon examining the lifestyles of the ruling class, she contemplates their inability to be content, their dissatisfaction with what they already have and their continual craving for more material wealth, power and status. She realises a commonality: all living beings regardless of wealth or position experience the loneliness of separation. A loneliness that prevents them from enjoying any good fortune that they may already have. She comes to the understanding that all living beings, even those who play the role of subjugating force, lack any real freedom and happiness.'

I chose to focus on Preta Eshana's wanderings as the main inspiration for this track. I wanted to evoke a feeling of slow building intrigue and discovery, starting with a very simple refrain and building in complexity until she reaches the chaotic and discordant city. For the rhythm element of this piece, I recorded the sound of an old clock. I love the variation in texture of the different ticks and the mechanical clanking as the clock gears up to ring it's hourly chime. I felt the clock was an important element not just texturally and rhythmically but also to represent the time pressures inevitably felt by those living beings described in the chapter as lacking real freedom and happiness.

To find out more about the project and order a copy of the album go to: https://freeclarity.org/preta/ 

Many thanks to Steve 'Pinky' Givnan for giving me the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful collection of music, art and writings. And thanks to Max Charles for the image which was the artwork for Year Six in the book.

Moonmonkey - Preta Eshana Year Six

Some music and recordings I have made. Mostly the music is made up of sounds recorded from the world around me. 

If anyone fancies collaborating, get in touch!

djmoonmonkey

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