Yeah, I recognize that there are some pretty serious mistakes in the melody but I had to share the improvisation on this.

Jason Branscum - trombone
Aaron Quinn - guitar
Seth Daily - drums

Red Hook

Thirsty Thursday

ambient piano improvisation. for quiet moments.

recorded for weekly beats 2014 #23: http://weeklybeats.com

on the edge // embrace

a short textural experiment. downtempo ambient beats. prepared improvisation. all sounds created with a lap harp, contact microphone, reverb pedal, and a bit of computer postprocessing.

recorded for weekly beats 2014 #25: http://weeklybeats.com

harpbleed

This is my entry for the August 2014 AGS Tune Contest.  The criteria was to write a piece about a planet, star or natural satellite.

I've chosen Cruithne, an asteroid locked in a 1:1 orbit with the Earth, sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as Earth's second moon.

Cruithne

I've always had trouble picking themes for songs and albums. I usually feel like I'm coating the listener in a thick layer of cheese if I do anything remotely serious, so I generally shy away from topics like love and shit like that. 

The downside to this is that I often have a hard time actually finding topics to write about. This aggravating situation makes me lose hair and messes with my digestion until I finally find something that I'm happy with. That's what happened with Hired Guns. 

Like 'Original Rebels', I wanted to take an evil character (or misunderstood character, as I like to think), and really get to know them. You could almost say I'm giving them a one on one interview. So I chose a Hired Gun--the scummiest of the scummy. Hired Guns kill people, obviously, for money. But that's only a small part of their lives. No one ever talks about the problems that a Hired gun could face. What if they are afraid of blood, or have a hard time recognizing faces? Well, that's what I am going to be writing about on my next album, 'Hired Guns'. 

Here's the title track. It doesn't directly talk about any issues--think of it more as a theme song.

Hired Guns

swimmer

Long overdue recording of a piece for solo guitar originally composed sometime prior to May 2006. I'm not really sure exactly what year.

This recording was produced by splicing multiple takes together. Even so, it's a pretty rough recording. The recording took place on 12/29/2011.

The piece is performed almost entirely by tapping the strings rather than plucking or strumming them to get them vibrating. The exposition and its recapitulation involve playing two different parts in different time signatures with the two hands. The middle section includes a great deal of improvisation, though I typically play something pretty close to the same thing every time.

Listeners who heard my performances of the piece prior to 2006 may be aware of some changes. Certain passages have been removed. Others have been expanded.

Youtube link: http://youtu.be/7KXHOHKEcIE

Gridlock Raindrops

Blanc

First time making electric or electronic or whatever it‘s called

BurBur.ave

Luke Simpson received his Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from the University of Redlands in California in 2006. He received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from CSU San Bernardino in 2011, graduating with High Honors as the School of Computer Science Outstanding Undergraduate student for the year. He presently spends his time composing a lot of music and occasionally telling computers what to do.


Gridlock Raindrops

Luke A Simpson

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