Right now, two owls are having a conversation in the redwoods next to our house.

TwoOwls_MillValley112814

I sampled Jeff Goldblum's bizarre laugh from this scene In Jurassic Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlOx9738iyw

I hope you enjoy it!

Free Download Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/do43v6qw4d1rryk/hahahrawrrahaha.mp3

Hahahrawrrahaha (Free Download In Description)

Inheritance

While in some old hard drives cleaning house , I discovered that some past self, one a lot less jaded than I am now, had carefully saved .mp3 -- or in some cases even .aif-- versions of LOTS and LOTS of my Leapster game music. These are all background loops I made back in the early early days of first-gen Leapster. Some are nearly 10 years old.
I remember how diligent me and Mark Bartscher were...We could have settled for porting a generalized set of samples onto the baserom, but no...we had to make sure the audio engine had the capability to extend the instrument set to the cart each time, for nearly each individual title, to be able to include some kitty meow instruments for games starring cats, some synths that were a little more complex than just a square or sawtooth wave for our arcade titles, some percussion variety, something that sounds like a gamelan but I can't remember what it was exactly now... all kinds of different hand-built sample sets. In these BGMs I even adjusted layers of decreasing velocity in repeated notes to imitate BPM-synced delay effects (no DSP in midi). I can't believe I was so precious about these. 
Listening back to some of them, I can't believe that they let me get away with so much
beepy electronica in games for toddlers. I hope they make you laugh out loud like I did.

Leapfrog: Leapster Word Chasers Level 3

Zamiaceae

This track is dedicated to all my friends who passed away in the the Ghost Ship Fire, in Oakland, CA. I would like to also dedicate this track to all my friends who survived the Ghost Ship Fire.

We Just Want You To Be Happy

Steve Baker & Carmen Daye - For Whom the Bell Tolls

Remix from the good folks at AE

Pause is featured on the 2012 double vinyl release "Cover&Flood" which you can download/buy here - http://katiekim.bandcamp.com/

http://soundcloud.com/aliasempire

Pause (Alias Empire Remix)

There’s an underlying drone to most large buildings, especially to those that prize a relative approximation of hermetic enclosure. Libraries, hospitals, factories — they all produce noises as a result of their activity, but they also have at their core a root drone, the building’s equivalent of something located somewhere between room tone and soundscape, between the intimacy of a truly confined space and the largely unintended sonic component of the overall location.

The following audio is the HVAC drone in a self-contained study room at a library that I frequent, up at Sonoma State in California, about an hour north of San Francisco, where I live. In person, this drone can have a sheer rush to it, a sense of energy that this recording doesn’t quite capture. It can project the sense of wind, even though this particular room, a small one, like the rest of the library, is entirely still. The result is a matter of disorientation: being alone in a placid space while the sounds suggest you’re at the top of a perilous shaft.

There are some flubs in this audio document, some shifting of a finger on the recording device, and later another finger on a key on a laptop. I could have re-recorded it, but consciousness of the avoided errors would have just had the ear listening for further desecrations. If anything, the odd flub can aid in a field recording of background noise by helping the ear keep the subject in relative focus.

This was recorded directly to the MP3 format on an Olympus VN-8100PC. Photo take on an Nexus 4 and filtered for contrast and affect in the app Pixlr Express. 

Also posted at <a href="http://disquiet.com/2013/02/12/the-library-drone/">disquiet.com</a>.

The Library Drone

Read the review/extensive interview on Disquiet:
http://disquiet.com/2013/05/01/peter-kirn-music-for-dance-2013/

Download a lossless copy (Creative Commons licensed, pay what you like)
http://pkirn.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-dance

Music for Dance
P. KIRN

MUSIC FOR DANCE is a compilation of music I produced for choreographers, 2002-2011. I've recomposed these materials into a continuous musical soundscape. It's a new narrative that's independent of the original works, but inspired by the connection to these collaborators. 

I realize looking back at this work that it represents a chapter in my life, living in Manhattan and working in computer sounds in live, improvisatory contexts, challenged and transformed by the experience of space and time found in the modern dance scene there. Now, looking back on those nine years in New York City takes on a special meaning.

I want in particular to recognize the long-term collaborative relationships I had with two choreographers and fellow Sarah Lawrence College alumni, Kathy Westwater and Christopher Williams. The sound materials here come largely from work for Kathy Westwater, especially her Dark Matter series, along with works completed with Christopher Williams, Elise Knudson, and Pauliina Ailennoinen. The sounds are synthesized or heavily digitally processed, with only momentary incursions of sampled and found sound, including a brief interludes of my own vocals and processed flute/vocal sounds recorded with the talented Margaret Lancaster.

Venues included Dance Theater Workshop, 92nd Street Y, Boston Cyberarts Festival, Joyce SoHo, and others. Thanks to John Yannelli, Sarah Rudner, Dan Hurlin, and Emily Devine of the Sarah Lawrence Dance program.

In memory of Viola Farber, who helped launch me on this journey.

Completed: 2011
Peter Kirn, Berlin 2013

Music for Kathy Westwater, Christopher Williams, and Elise Knudson
Photos: Peter Kirn
Design: Anette K. Hansen

Leapfrog: Leapster Word Chasers Level 3

Kristin Miltner

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