I don't mean to be self-aggrandizing, but this one is a personal favourite.

Extracts from Song a Week for a Year

The third movement of the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (2018).

Pawel Strzelecki: 3. Finale [Bassoon Sonata (2018)].

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

Experiments with a recursive composition idea: each sound
event triggers more sound events.  Made with Csound.

B LLOON S

Recurse 1

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

Experiments with a recursive composition idea: each sound
event triggers more sound events.  

Made with Csound.

Recurse 2

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

This uses the same technique as track 1 (Pianno).
The source sound is harmonics played on my acoustic guitar
tuned to E flat/A/E flat/G/B/E flat.

Guittar

Recurse 4

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

This started with a bit of code I wrote to generate quasi-chaotic
sounds, very noisy.  I then mixed the results "by hand", 
changing speed of playback, and doing other pretty standard
things to try to give the track as much variety as possible
(for a noise track).

Desperate

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

Source sound was recorded inside a spinet piano I had access
to briefly in Gig Harbor, Washington.  

I cut the recording into chunks, then assigned two 
measures to each chunk (proxies for "pitch" and "loudness"),
thus mapping each chunk to a point in 2D space.
I then created a path connecting all of these points using
a greedy, nearest neighbor method.
The path then determined the sequence of the chunks in 
the output.
This was done with different chunk length, and possibly
different starting points, and the layers mixed together.

Pianno

Recorded in February 2024 as part of the RPM Challenge.

I wanted to see what repeated bits with changing envelopes
would sound like.  Lots of layers, a bunch of 
pitches all at a ratio of 4/3.

When it was done, I hacked it quite a bit to shorten it and
reduce monotony and then added reverb by convolving it with
a recording I made in a stairwell I know that has 4+ seconds
of reverberation.  I used my umbrella, and recorded the reverb
when I hit the floor with it.   You can hear the umbrella
hit a number of times in the track: I'm not sure why.

Enveloppe

Heavy wind, rain and thunder in Provence, South Of France. Recorded from under a canopy with two large plane trees on either sides of the microphones.

Gear: 2x Schoeps CCM4 L in ORTF

Recording Location: 43°56'19.3"N 5°23'22.9"E

Thunder and rain in Provence during summer.

I decided to play around with a couple of synths, a bit of MIDI, a handmade BEW pedal and see what happened. This is the result.
In the process I taught myself a couple of new things about recording too.
I got to the end of the lyrics and realised I really ought to have rewritten the first verse but time was not on my side. So have at thee.
Guest vocals written and performed by Becca Allen.

Free Download

This  is the Great Void

Number seven.  I took a slightly different approach with this piece, layering four or five sounds to make each gong strike and building up the drone from 15 channels of voice (Becca and I).


<a href='https://theartistunion.com/tracks/8ef7b4'>Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

The Overall Immobility of Things

This week's work is the theme for the protagonist of a dystopian sci-fi movie. Sump is a lot like Rick Deckard.
I'm not sure if the reprise is used for the trailer, i.e. for a montage, or for the final moments of the film as Sump stares into his melting ice-cubes recalling the details he hasn't shared with anyone.

Sump's Theme (reprise)

I decided to assemble a track that has been sitting in bits & pieces gathering dust, and apply some of the things I've learned so far to  the arrangement and production.

I'd intended the song to have lyrics, but I've come round to the idea of it being an instrumental, using guitars & synths to highlight the vocal melody. Also my falsetto disappeared about 15 years ago, so my vocals were never gonna work ;)

Blind (Full Version)

This piece, number 24, started off inspired by Black Heart Procession, but then traveled through Gravenhurst and latter day Nick Cave. Once again, it's a bit dark.
Becca Allen joined in on backing vocals and autoharp.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/feadd6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

That's the Message

Nine spread-out clusters of three different pitches.

RPM2021                       

Rust Smut Mildew Mold

These recordings are all demos.

Interested in the dark side, the quirky side, but mainly in that buttery biscuit bass.

Bassist and composer from Belfast.

Fancy a collaboration? Drop me a line.

Sump's Theme (reprise)

Mysterioso

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