The Book of Goddesses
For Flute, Harp, Percussion, and Optional Choreography
Commissioned by MAYA with funding from the  New York State Council on the Arts
Duration: 36'

Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1011

For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/the-book-of-goddesses

PROGRAM NOTES
My initial inspiration for The Book of Goddesses, and the source of the title, is the beautiful, lavishly illustrated book of the same name by Kris Waldherr, a Brooklyn based author, illustrator, designer and cellist. Waldherr’s book contains descriptions and images of hundreds of female deities from around the world, some featured more prominently than others. Rather than focus on goddesses in one particular culture, I highlight a few that seem to evoke something musical, dance-related or sensual. The cultures, countries and continents I draw on for musical material and styles are India, China, Greece, Ireland, North America, Nigeria and Cuba.

The flute and harp parts in each movement are often inspired by similar instruments found in each culture. For example, the harp part in Xi Wang Mu is inspired by the Konghou, and ancient Chinese harp, and the solo bass flute movement, Estanatlehi, is inspired by the sound of a Native American flute. Percussion instruments provide an earthiness, at least with regard to timbre, and each of the trio movements uses instruments that are not common in Western music, including an Indian Gatam, a Middle-Eastern Dumbek, an Afro-Cuban Cajón and the Udu drum, an instrument traditionally played by Nigerian women.

In order to achieve the right feel for each movement, I use non-Western scales, rhythms and other elements, and I occasionally appropriate patterns and other material from pre-existing music. My goal is to merge some of the qualities of traditional music with my own sensibility, and then filter it through flute, harp and percussion.

Many goddesses are associated with dance, certain colors or creativity in general, and with that in mind, I imagine The Book of Goddesses being performed live with choreographed dance. It may be presented in its entirety, although subsets—such as all of the movements for flute and harp—or single movements may also be extracted and performed.

The Book of Goddesses was commissioned by MAYA with funding provided by the New York State Council on The Arts.

The Book of Goddesses

The Book Of Goddesses - VI. Xochiquetzal

Raff Originals - These Colours Have Turned Groovy

(c) 2000
Guitar, Programming, composition,  mixing, producing and mastering by Robert Grigg

TechNo Taco

Wind Quintet
Duration: 18'
Commissioned by Quintet of the Americas; Underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=909

PROGRAM NOTES
All of the movements of this wind quintet are connected and inspired in some way by American icons, surrealism, collage, post-1950s imagery and suburbia.

The first movement, Andante, begins with the ending and ends at the beginning. Some instruments mimic others and just when you think an idea might go in one direction, it goes in another. I gleaned many of my ideas from studying cinematic character development and the unusual forms used in many modern films such as the 1994 film Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino.

The second movement, Suburban waltz-fantasy, contains quotes from 1960s-70s TV show themes: The Jetsons, All in the Family, Green Acres, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch and Leave It To Beaver. The movement begins with a waltz-like feel and two of the players mimicking “suburban chicken lady housewives cackle-gossiping across a backyard fence.” An obnoxious stray dog interjects with loud barking and then the movement takes off in a different direction. Some of the quotes are re-composed to sound like bird songs, others are textural and a few are so subtle that they are not easy to discern. Some of the parts even sound like they are mocking each other. This movement is a strange, surrealist collage.

The most immediate and obvious reference in the title of the third movement, Melting Clocks, is to Salvador Dali’s famous 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory in which there are images of melting or limp watches. I imagine a room full of clocks all ticking away, yet slightly inaccurately, the “baby clocks” a little faster than the “old grandfather clocks.” The middle section contains a few brief quotes form the first movement, and the “slightly melted” end of the movement brings back the cuckoo, but this time it melts as if it is in a house consumed by fire.

The fourth movement, Klezmeshugeh, derives its title from my combining the words ‘klezmer’—which is a combination of the two Hebrew words, kley and zemer, meaning ‘instrument of song’—and meshugeh, which is a Yiddish word meaning ‘crazy’. Essentially, this made-up title means “crazy instrument song.” In this movement, there are a few “wrong notes” that allude to the players pretending to sight-read. The end also concludes with a few thematic fragments from the second movement.

Wind Quintet was commissioned by Quintet of the Americas and underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

Wind Quintet - I. Andante

Thought it was about time I wrote a song with a girl's name as the title. Couldn't make my mind up and came up with this. The Beautiful South's Song for Whoever perhaps a subliminal influence. In my head, it sounds like Elvis Costello or maybe Bob Dyan. Needs work, re-arranging but a live favourite nonetheless.

Song About Girls

I took my Laptop into the desert to get inspiration for this track. Sadly, the heat must have melted some of the electronics and now it sounds like the mixing is done by a complete amateur. Anyways, I hope you can get a little bit of the desert inspiration that i got.

Fata Morgana

I'm taking the piss (liberties) here I know, but I've had this SKA influenced number knocking around for a year or so and I've just got to move it on from the pending songbook. I'm very influenced by post-punk/new wave and just love the Specials (the AKA bit is in-part a tribute to them), Madness, The Beat, Selector and so on. Love the Trojan Reggae that goes with that too. The song is an imaginary tale about a range of different perspectives involved in a fictitious knife crime. It'll make sense when I make the video :)

Charles Hardin

Anywhere in England

A music representation of time passing. 
--
Photo by Marcin Skalij on Unsplash

As time goes by

As time goes by – Ambient & Cinematic Music

cool (demo)

Beautiful World

The Remix/Remaster:
"This is the Re-loaded version of No Forgiveness, No Regrets giving you taster of the next evolution of my sound and provides a completely new dimension to this song as a whole"

NFNR's  Story:
"This is a song of betrayal and revenge, of overcoming all obstacles in the face of great adversity, and eventually realizing what you are truly capable of."

The Suffering & the Aftermath

No Forgiveness, No Regrets (Re-loaded)

No Forgiveness, No Regrets (RE-LOADED)

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Heavy Music for Heavier Minds
From the mind of the UK’s One-Man Metal Machine Mike Webster (also known by some as Iron Mike)

Be sure to check out my website www.ioheavymusic.com for physical music, Merch, feature links and much more
My Debut Album Out of Knowhere and my 2nd Album The Suffering & The Aftermath are available digitally in the links below or as a physical Digipaks
There’s much more new music to come from Me in 2021 too
Stay Safe Out There and Be Well!
Stay Tuned!

Mike✊👊🤘
IO

No Forgiveness, No Regrets (RE-LOADED)

MikeWebster