This is just me messing around with a small handful of sounds from one kit. Felt like I was just banging some pots and pans in my dreams.

Whose Ronka

The sounds in this track were curated - an emotional-sonic exploration - months ago. The preparation for openness, understanding, and acceptance built in the days immediately prior to the weekend, but accelerated and amplified on Thursday and Friday - with crescendos on the ride up the California coast, an evening with new friends, some preliminary exploration of heart and mind, and a brilliant display of weather, including rain, wind, sun, and snow.

Dropping In (Preparation)

A track inspired by a richly deep and spiritual “come down” lasting several days. Different than the other two tracks, as I was working through specific emotions and realizations in real-time. I wanted to simply tap into what I was processing and see what sounds were manifest.

Settling into Spaciousness (Integration)

This track embodies the heavy engagement of inner work, realization, revelation. I recorded it live with minimal arranging and editing - simply trying to synthesize a past, yet enduring, state of being and feeling.

One of Many (Journey)

Lots of new sounds explored. This was an expression of emotion and intellectual complexity that needed to come out. Playing around with some deep dark sounds but working on methods to not make that overly dominate the track.

Looking Back and Forth

This track just came to me this morning. I banged it out quickly - the sounds were all in my head and just needed some arrangement and vibe.

Resting Assured

Was waiting to have some sounds bubble up in my head, and it happened.

Fates

Been listening to some much harder techno recently, and I just got a bug to make something faster and with more bite. It's a busy track with a lot of variety (some afro-house and tech-house grooves mixed in with edgy techy stabby beats). I really had a blast making this. It can use a bit more work, but this may be my first track that really felt like it was a very personal style.

Detener

A remix of my last track. Wanted to speed it up, fix a few things, try a bit more chaotic harmony... like the track had a few drinks and is ready to go out. Happy techno or heady house - not sure. It's a different vibe for me - but I'm having so much fun with it.

Enter Tao - Second Night Mix

Felt like making a throbbing bass track.  Wanted to try my hand at it.  So fun. Yes, there is too much throbbing bass in this track. :-)

Armed - Original Mix

This was a very simple exercise... take the sounds that were reverberating around my head for the last 24 hours and put them into bits. Trying a bit more hectic and jumpy stuff, but with a really small array of instruments and effects.  This was pre-school techno at its finest.

Mesa Mesa

Another jumpy, simple track with a straight-forward, forward-leaning groove. Working on full-track integration and consistency. Lots of single note rhythms and limited instruments. 

Enticed

Mix of high energy dance and some minimal pulses

Switched Back

Wanted to SLOW DOWN and make longer and more hypnotic loops. I wanted to remove some focus on the arrangement and instead just zero in on the groove I was seeking.  This makes me smile.

And Down

Had a bug to make something more dreamy and progressive. Another attempt at simplification as well.

Sticks

This was a hard track to make, only because I was in a very odd mood for most of its creation. I have so much going on right now, on most levels, and making music is the best anti-anxiety medicine out there. But it required a lot of breaking through…

Maybe It Can't Be Done

Had this peppy vibe in my head last night, trying out some new sounds, samples, extensions.  Yay. A bit more “progressive” than normal - don’t be afraid of those bass stabs and spacey backgrounds. 😀

Take Thattt

I don't even know what to call this. This all really started because I wanted to build a soundtrack around that little trumpet hook. Felt that maybe I could smoosh some guitar and horn sounds together and still bring it back into a tech-house vibe. Fun fun.

Kontextual

Trying to exercise the feedback I've received that I need to keep more consistency and hold a primary groove. I think I sometimes produce like I'm making blended cocktails - throwing in more spice or alcohol or fruit when I think it's not tasting interesting enough.  Take a sip and relax and let it flow.

Sorta Scheme

A rework of a track I banged out a week or so ago. This time I really sat with it, making it both more minimal as well as adding some more mood and complexity.  Also spent hours mixing and mastering, which is a whole new world for me. And also an excuse to get much deeper with Ableton.

Second Scheme

Moody atmospheric symphonic track.  Playing around with new techniques and new sounds. Stepping away from simple 4/4 for a moment.  It's weird out here! :-)

Don't Say Shhh

Very different direction here. I just wanted to make a slow emotional track, without any dance-floor influence. The reality is that I love this type of music even though it's so separate from my music identity. Haven't mastered this at all - just a raw design/arrange/play/record.  Please no Enya or Spa jokes. :-)

Trials

Just having some fun with vocals and strangely pleasant tones. Wouldn’t call this my normal jam, but t’was good times.

Infinite Middle

Reworking a track I made recently, but made it SO much better. I got some help from a mentor / producer, so was able to pull out a much more extensive bag of tricks. Definitely the most polished track so far - and I was able to turn the "soft cheese" in the original into something much more captivating and interesting.

Infinite Middle - Atmo Remix

This was a blast to make. Still working on it, but just needed it get it done for now.  Way funkier than my normal comfort zone, but I'm loving bringing in new sounds and structures. Makes me both laugh and bass-face at the same time.

The Take

Banged this out on the flight home from Hawaii.  Guess I was subconsciously giving some tribute to the island's legacy. This is punchy and real. Could be my fave techno track I've made so far.

Kingdom

Dark and moody track that came out very quickly.  Was experimenting with sub-bass melodies and this kinda wrote itself.

Eye and Ear

Made this on the plane. Made almost entirely by highly doctored sampled audio. Was experimenting with a new bassline construction tactic, using lots of layers.  More trancey and afro-housey than my normal bag, but I'm also experimenting with genre drop-ins paired with a companion sound that demonstrates polarity with it.

Swang

Guess my mood? Been developing this idea of the high-energy slap-strumming guitar atop a tech-house groove. Super-fun, but on the edge of weird and confusing, Exploring polarity ("hey" --- "ok") and context collision (what the hell is a banjo roll doing in there?)  Saw a jackrabbit the other day and it captured the vibe for me.  Good times. 

Jackrabbit (On Your Back)

Was playing with chill minimal soundscapes while mixing minor vibes with major chords layered in. Also continuing my obsession with context collision of organic sounds (acoustic guitar and piano) with electronic elements (stabs and synths).  Lots of drone sounds which for me do the trick of bonding the organic and digital energies. Timbre-wise, working on using filters for a wavy undulation effect to gently wrap around a hypnotic and repetitive groove.

Stir Slowly

Evolving producer / composer, focused on soundscape-oriented, frequency-minded music, with frequent travels into the minimal, atmospheric and pounding. I want my tracks to work for dancing, sleeping, meditating, and blissing - or any combination of the above.  I am ultimately focused on nervous-system entrainment, experimenting with the edges of that practice through both aggressive and gentle rhythms, ignoring genres as much as I can. But I assume most people would call most of it somewhere between ambient, techno (full spectrum between soft and hard), house, and downtempo. 
I am basically using SoundCloud as a journal. I am uploading the tracks I make that I think I like - even if I don’t think they are done. I am hardly mastering or editing the tracks, since my obsession for now is getting in touch with the sounds that are in my head  and heart and gain confidence that I can turn them into music.

John Berkley

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