Song For The Growing Grass [sax & piano]

First part of the Where Do We Go From Here? (I-VI) soundscape series. Listen or download the complete 'Where do we go from here?' here: https://etchedtraumas.bandcamp.com/album/where-do-we-go-from-here

The core of my soundscapes is often formed by improvisations with an acoustic guitar and loop station. Six of these improvisations can be heard in their pure form for their first time on this ET release. Sound treatment and mix by Theo Calis. Artwork: Martin Hoogeboom.

Where Do We Go From Here? (I)

I recorded "Neila's Light" using my electric dulcimer, processed through Logic Pro with Valhalla DSP effects for added depth and richness.  

It's a gentle, soothing track characterized by flowing atmospheric drones, sustained tones, cascading harmonies, and steady beats.  Minimalistic approach with rhythmic and melodic elements.

This song uses a unique chord retrogression (C, G, D, A, E) - a cycle of fifths played backwards inspired by Neila Horn in her tune, "Hey Babe."   Her chord retrogression was a new sound that became a part of many hit songs in the 1960's.  Her creative influence continues to shine through this composition.

Neila's Light

candy ball

Close to Cosmos

MELOS is a reminiscence of the archaic roots of sound art - produced with analog modular systems. 
The individual recordings with a length of up to eleven minutes are shortened excerpts from potentially unlimited variations of sound and silence, driven by a generative modular concept.

Cover design by Thomas Breuer, 2020.

Melos

Melos 2

Available on Bandcamp

A Cold Mood Of An Eastern Memory

This piece - a piano quintet in five movements - is named after a small town in northern Italy, nestled in to the alps. The final movement is sort of a loosely structured theme and variations, also thematically tied to the second movement. Hope you enjoy!

A little backstory on this music - before covid, I'd made plans to travel the world in early 2020 to celebrate having finished graduate school. I was fortunate enough to be able to do some traveling in January and February before covid stopped everything. I came back to the US early, cancelling the rest of my plans.

This music was written in Italy - I started writing this quintet before covid's first cases were reported there. And I watched, from the standpoint of a tourist, as Italy's cases got higher and higher, and as other nations began to have outbreaks as well. I finished writing this piece of music just before leaving - which was just before the lockdowns started. 

I tend not to think of my own music as being "about" anything. But, listening to this music now, it does make me think of many things - of how great it felt to travel in such a beautiful place, of the freedom of traveling in general (and the hope of returning to it someday, in a world where it's accessible to more people), of how humans can show strength in the face of adversity particularly when they help one another, and of the difficulties as well as the introspection, and the hope, that this year has brought to the world.

I hope you enjoy it. Soon I will upload its companion piece - another chamber piece written after I got back to the US, but intended to go alongside this one as a sort of sibling.

Aosta

Courmayeur - Movement 5

Picture and text reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar

Claudio Ferrari: electronic devices - percussions - vocal intrusions.
Alessandro Bona: bass flute - electronic devices - percussions - hose.

The term quasar originated as a contraction of quasi-stellar [star-like] radio source – because quasars were first identified during the 1950s as sources of radio-wave emission of unknown physical origin – and when identified in photographic images at visible wavelengths, they resembled faint, star-like points of light. High-resolution images of quasars, particularly from the Hubble Space Telescope, have demonstrated that quasars occur in the centers of galaxies, and that some host galaxies are strongly interacting or merging galaxies. As with other categories of AGN, the observed properties of a quasar depend on many factors, including the mass of the black hole, the rate of gas accretion, the orientation of the accretion disk relative to the observer, the presence or absence of a jet, and the degree of obscuration by gas and dust within the host galaxy.

Quasar

respiratio

March 3, 2021
https://thomassander1.bandcamp.com/

THOUGHTS [...]

Dutch sound artist with long standing interests in transcending conventional instrument approaches and the use of non-instrumental organic and homemade sounds. If you would like to stay informed about new releases please subscribe to the Martin Hoogeboom newsletter mailing list on my website
www.martinhoogeboom.com

If you have questions regarding my work or you want to collaborate on future projects, please use the following email-address: m.hoogeboom@wxs.nl.