ADSR said "make a song without listening to it." So I did. Luckily I have a pile of very well named files, so I just threw them into Live, using basic moderate processing. I even did some animation. This is the result. Needs mixing. And imagination. But not bad for 15 minutes messing with samples.

What You Believe Is What You See

A short teaser track - an ambient interlude from the next West End Electric album.

DreamPad

Using some stochastic VST and js files in Reaper on Vacuum Pro synth, came up with a humid summer drone that always changes but always stays the same.

Endless Summer

This is a cover of Sleepwalker by Colourbox.

Sleepwalker

Vox Improv 12

My friend Carole Danek was asking for sad songs on Facebook. So I said I would make her one, and this is it. I was inspired by Roads by Portishead, and so I ran with the conceit of their title, and did as they did and centre a Fender Rhodes piano sound in the song and pun on it in the title. I hope she likes it. It's an improvisation. I used Arturia's Stage 73 Rhodes piano, put it into a massive chorus effect from TAL, and then into an autopan effect set to irregular spasms. This then gets thrown into a Spaceship Delay and Valhalla Supermassive reverb cranked nicely. 
This one's for you Carole. xo

Roads For CD

This is one of a series of Guitar Improvisations I've been working on.

Guitar Improvisation #5

This is me having some fun playing around with an arpeggiator in Podolski.

Illyria - 02

3C273

this is just a piano study. First I set about exploring a melody set, and then I went into arpeggio to chord arrangements, so as to explore different texture of given sets of tones. A small "throw-away" but kind of sweet.

Piano Study 1

Got a new computer and a whole pile of new processors and synths, as my old computer ate most of them when I upgraded the OS. I grew up in NJ a few miles from The Arthur Kill, which is a water way between NYC Staten Island and New Jersey. The song evokes some of the sorrow of having such a ruined and polluted place. Music for the Anthropocene.

Arthur Kill

We can all agree. 2020 Sucked. A Lot. This song is a celebration of the end of a really bad year. Let's hope 2021 isn't the messy catastrophe 2020 was.
EDIT: Some people have asked, so here are the instruments used:
Musically I was thinking of Gary Numan, only more upbeat and funky.
All the instruments were virtual. From start to finish I was done in 3 or 4 hours with a short lunch break. For those wondering:

The VST synths used: 
Arturia V collection: DX7, Fairlight CMI, ARP2600.
Other synth VSTs: DCO106, M-tron, Tyrell N-6, Syndt Sphere, VSTSpeek

Samples were of Bass Guitars playing Jazzy Funk stuff.
The Drums were a kit built into Ableton Live 10.

Processors: various built in things from Ableton, Valhalla Supermassive, TAL Chorus, Eventide H3000.

There's very little mixing - I didn't have the time or patience to bother.

2020 Sucked

This is the latest song by West End Electric. It will be on their next album on Kether Records. You can get their first album, "Songs for the Neocene" on bandcamp here:
https://westendelectric.bandcamp.com

Everything Is Contrast by West End Electric

Contemplating music for my next album, I was listening to the album "Voices" by Roger Eno, and thought about my recent re-reading/listening of music by Laraaji, which resulted in my album "Zither Studies", available on bandcamp. This piece is very Roger Eno-ish, and it has led to the ideas for the next album, Horizons. Horizons will consist of a variety of works, a diversity of approaches - the opposite of the Zither Studies. These come out of a different set of meditations - an open set of ideas for the coming spring.
Cover is derived from a photo by my friend, Susan "Space Lady" Dietrich.

Horizons

Making electronic stuff since 1986. My discography is available at Kether Records on bandcamp. I post things to soundcloud as a kind of "test" or "draft" versions. Enjoy! Be kind to each other! Cheers!

henry-warwick

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