My latest live set... this one is a little different...

Not a new direction, but just an experiment with playing some pre released tracks in live versions rather than completely improvising. I'm definitely not ditching the improvising - just trying something to see what I can learn.

Having been doing lots of entirely improvised sets recently I started looking into recording some of my improvisations and developing them into tracks. This made me get out my Cirklon sequencer again, and I thought for this month's Factory Setting event I'd have a go at recreating live versions of some of my studio tracks that had been released.

So this set consists of Indigo and Flight, which came out on my own label Cirrus Sounds, and Marble which came out on Traum Schallplatten and was the first Mentat track I ever released.

These tracks were originally written in Ableton Live, so I brought across some of the samples and the sequences to the BitBox sampler and the Cirklon sequencer, and live jammed the arrangements on the sequencer and the modular system.

This brings different challenges than improvising... having sounds in mind for each track and section I have to remember more. I have to remember what sequences are coming from where, how they should sound and how I need to set up the synth to make those sounds. When improvising I can be a bit more immediate and experiment, but here I have to get to something I have in mind, which is a different approach. I don't have to think as much about where I am going though, as I had the three track order planned and to a certain extent the types of arrangements I'd be creating, even though that was a bit improvised.

All in all I was pleased with how it went. It goes a bit abstract going out of Indigo into Flight where the transition in synth sounds wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be. But it's OK I think and something I'd quickly improve with some more practice.

Something I learned was how I might approach varying structures a bit more even when improvising. I have tended to be very loop and groove focused, but my released tracks have more back and forth of differing sections. No reason why I couldn't do this with the improvising - it's just another thing to develop and practice.

Next I'm going to explore constructing some track starting with improvisation on the Torso sequencer, but recording them into the Cirklon and refining them into more finished tracks. The Cirklon is much better for that kind of detailed work - although the Torso shines brighter to me for ideas and live jams. I might try some live sets with a mix of more prepared and improvised stuff - it's nice to play some more detailed melodic stuff and recognisable tunes. But I do prefer fully improvising in the moment in many ways, so I'll see where it takes me.

Gear used:
Sequentix Cirklon - All sequencing
BitBox Micro Sampler - Drums, percussion loops, some synth parts
Mutable Instruments Plaits - Melodies and effect
Doepfer Wasp filter - Filter on the Plaits
Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - Melodies
Dopefer A-111-6 - Bass
Knobula Poly Cinematic - Chords and melodies
Make Noise Mimeophon - Delay and effects
Jakkplug Monsoon (Mutable Instruments Clouds Clone) - Granular effects
Bastl Pizza Crust - Percussion and occasional synth
Blue Lantern Stereo Sir Mix Alot - Mixing
Happy Nerding FX-Aid x2 - Reverb on everything and multi effects on the Poly Cinematic
Mod Dwarf effects pedal - End of chain compression and mastering and some stereo whole mix hipass filtering and delay

If you're interested, my ModularGrid is here: https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/2884273

Live Melodic Techno at Factory Setting, London

Techno and progressive house from UK producer and live act Mentat.

www.mentataudio.com
Contact: mentat@mentataudio.com