A selection of ambient tracks from my Jamuary 2025 compositions

Selected Ambient Jams

4th track for #jamuary2025, going half speed from the previous jams and into ambient music. A good bit of layering going on with some Roland Jupiter 8 (JP08), Korg M1, Solina string ensemble. Judicious use of delays and reverbs, texture experimentations.

I ended up doing two takes on this one, the first the recorder was armed, but forgot to get it rolling... Decades into this and I still forget sometimes.

Randonneur (jamuary 7)

And now for something completely different...

After a frustrating session lost to a crashing computer DAW, I decided to power up my Roland System 100m tribute modular. Started with a train chuff, the LFO controlling the speed. This same LFO also controlled an external TB-303 and the gate for the envelope for the oscillator (the Pong video game like sound). Another LFO controlling the envelope for the filter and the ring modulator carrier. Some spring reverb, ring modulator and analog bucket brigade delay later and we have a soundscape.

Playing Pong on a train (jamuary 15)

Quatuor is my 9th track for #jamuary2025 (jamuary 17). It is an ambient piece generated on a modular system replicating a pair of Roland System 100m 191j chassis fully loaded with standard modules.

The title Quatuor is french for quartet, meaning four. That's because I used 4 oscillators, 4 guitar pedals and from one to four parallel sequences (the first two driving the two pairs of oscillators and the next two forcing a rest and a percussion), controlled by switches and gates.

Quatuor (jamuary 17)

Another music track for #jamuary2025 generated on one of my modular synth, a System 100m tribute. The previous track (quatuor) used 4 sequences while this one uses only one, so more of a solo. Yet this sequence drives 5 oscillators and two percussions and syncs a drum machine (TR-606) providing a kick and a tom and some hihats. A separate set of effects (guitar pedals) are used to bring a different texture. The mix is done straight to 4 track cassette (Fuji DR-II tape)

Tranquille (Jamuary 19)

11th track for #jamuary2025, "Musique pour decompresser" is French for music to chill or relax to. It also is a reference to the fact that no compressor was used. All the percussions are provided by a (modified, by me) Roland TR-606 clone (TD-6). I'm in the middle of a studio re-arranging and the routing of effects was quite adhoc. For that reason, I used modular effects from some of my other modular / semi modular synths to complement the main synth, a Roland System 100m tribute modular (built from Behringer modules along with some from Pulp Logic and some homemade). No midi, no sequencer, just a plain mono arpeggiator drives all synth sounds.

Musique pour decompresser (Jamuary 21)

For the 13th track I went back to the modular synth setup, adding a behringer neutron semi-modular. To get the soundscape filled relied on several tape techniques, including tape delay and 4 track cassette reverse playback (recording forward, then flipping the tape and playing back channels 3 and 4) and other electro acoustic and musique concrete tricks of the trade.

Heavy use of the stereo image, you'll need headphones to get the full experience (some hard pan left, hard pan right,some middle and some in between)

Reverse Splice Robbie (Jamuary 25)

"Choeurs et Psalterion Electriques" is French for "Electric Choirs and Psaltery". A Psaltery is an ancient plucked string instrument. All sounds here are generated by synthesizers. Playing with odd time signatures and random muting of notes for this 15th track for #jamuary2025. Painting with simple elements in layers and chords, with different timbres coming from the modular synth, a piano, a Synclavier, a few other synths along with a variety of effects.

Choeurs et Psalterion Electriques (Jamuary 29)

This is the last #jamuary2025 track. The track can be seen as both ambient and non ambient, at the same time, depending on how you approach it. It is a short edit, about half the length of the piece I composed. Due to some unexpected circumstances, my time to work on this was cut short. I'm publishing this as a teaser for the finished track which I plan to work on next month. #jamuary might be coming to an end, but I wanted to leave a door opened.

This track features an ARP 2600, a Jupiter 8, an Oberheim poly, some nice retro drums and percussions with some modular effects, some live processing done through a DAW.

Ironie du sort (Jamuary 31 short edit)

Canadian Polyglot and polymath living in North Carolina, Francois is Head of Dion Research by day, & artist, maker of instruments & effects, musician, photographer & sound engineer by night.

His interest in music started at a very young age when he studied classical piano and electronics, both of these things would be quite influential on his future work.

He started composing electronic music as a kid in the early 80s and experimenting with sampling on an Apple //e, and would later use the Amiga, Apple IIgs and on the PC, the Gravis Ultrasound wavetable soundcard, and would publish soundbanks for it. Today, most of his music is done without computers, on modular synths and effects built by him, along with some commercial synths and effects.

From 1988 to 1997, he hosted a show on electronic music from its beginning in the early 20th century all the way to modern electronica, and the history of it and the technology that enabled it. He also did a stint at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Videoway / Videotron in Montreal.

In parallel with that, he would continue releasing music through various media, including digital media before MP3 files (through MP2 and ADPCM WAV files on Hyperreal, IUMA etc). In those 30 years to now, he has produced an average of ~1 album (EP or full) a year

Selected Ambient Jams

Francois Dion