excerpts from "Utility Music"

Westheimer's Discovery: A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save a couple hours in the library.
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Utility Music is the result of a year long exploration of a Doepfer A-100 modular synthesizer system of my own planning, beginning on January 1, 2019 and ending December 31, 2019. It was my attempt to learn more about the foundational building blocks of synthesis and to explore the idea that interesting and compelling synthesizer-based music can be realized without the aid of modern DSP and “fancy” hardware within the format.

Beginning each week on Monday, I would begin a new patch from scratch and continue to develop it until the end of the week. On Saturday, I would freeze the patch and "perform" it without making any new additions. Sunday was set aside for recording the result, taking down patch notes, then taking the patch apart so that the process could begin all over again the next day.

The final audio portion of the project is a mosaic assembled from these weekly stems. Accompanying the CD is a 72 pg. perfect-bound book containing further information on the project as well as weekly point-to-point patch notes and insights into process.

https://j-w-m.bandcamp.com/album/utility-music

Josh Mason "Utility Music" preview

josh_mason