Title:
Harmonic Chaos

Composition, performance and artwork by:
Norman Freund, 01-May-2021

A morning’s improvisation and warm-up exercise. A soundscape experience, from harmony to chaos, echoes of the deep.

Best to listen to with earphones and no distractions to get the best stereo sonic experience. There are some subtle instrument introductions in there, that most likely will be missed if listened to through your mobile phone speakers.


Instruments:
Bright Tines
Dusky Swell
Marty Bells
LoFi FM EP
Boom Sub Bass
Glacier Voices
Analog Flute Lead
Percussion - Aero Kit
Tricent (Full Bucket), custom Fat Monster
Monark Synthesiser (Native Instruments), custom Flatter

Software:
Ableton Live 10 Standard

Harmonic Chaos

Title:
Double Ragu

By:
Composition, performance, production and artwork by Norman Freund, 7-Jun-2021

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/double-ragu

Description:
Jazz performance inspired from the E Double Harmonic Scale featuring Piano, Double Bass, Violin and Drums. An original composition and performance (no covers) by Norman Freund.

One night I was experimenting with melodies on my Shakuhachi tuned to an E Double Harmonic scale and recorded this to Ableton Live. In the following days experimented some more with the Shakuhachi. As the weekend approached I listened to a Rick Beat video Ref. [1] discussing in his opinion, what makes some contemporary pop music boring, in short a lack of originality in chord changes, no key changes and no chromaticism. After watching this I open up Ableton Live, the double harmonic experiments came up by default as the most recently worked on, I added a piano track and began experimenting some more with the E double harmonic scale, but purposely not using standard chord progressions and adding chromaticism. The chord changes were an improvisation, rather than a standard II IV I (most of my compositions do not use standard chord changes :) ) . The double harmonic scale was meant only as a starting point, so I did not restrict myself to this scale.

The first piano track were chords and provided the basic rhythmic feel. Next I added some melodic sections with the piano and experimented some more with the Shakuhachi. I decided to keep the Shakuhachi melodic content for another and instead added some supporting electric violin lines. There was a lot happening rhythmically and I needed a track to the ground the piece in the 4/4 time signature, this time a double bass was going to do this, using mostly 1/4 notes with the occasional 1/8th notes, usually the drum kit does this but why not swap things around a bit. Half way into the piece a drum kit enters for a bit of extra spice.

Instruments:

Piano (VST based)
Double Bass (VST based)
Violin (Electric Violin, 4 string, NS Design Wave), not sampled)

Hardware and Software:
GoldStar GMK-49 midi keyboard.
Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 (analogue to digital interface).
iMac computer, Apple.
NS Design Wave 4 String Electric Violin.
Ableton Live (Standard) Release 10.

References:
[1]	“Why Today's Music Is So BORING. The Regression of Musical Innovation”, Rick Beato, 29-May-2021, YouTube Video, Link: https://youtu.be/Ks4c_A0Ach8

Double Ragu

Title:
Atonal Cyclops

Dates:
23-Jul-2021 (inception), 15-Aug-2021 (finalised), 23-Aug-2021 (released)

Artist:
Composition, performance, production and artwork by Norman Freund

Description:
A mix of Jazz, Atonal harmonies and sound samples from unexpected places.

After listening to some atonal Jazz improvisations from Christian Howes, inspired me to write by own atonal composition. Perhaps the art of picking out random notes that sound interesting, well that is how it started out. Some more inspiration came from a lecture from Rick Beato on tone clusters. A collection of atonal melodic ideas, atonal cluster chords and some fast paced arpeggios was then the beginning of this composition. The percussion section then followed. Most of the melodic and chordal sections were played with a church organ inspired instrument, I just imagined my self playing a massive church organ where the walls and floors shook as the chords were stacked up. The second instrument I learnt was an organ, heavily influenced by the works of Baroque composer J.S. Bach.

The bass line was then added, a synthesised bass characterised by the use of portamento. At times the melodic content came from the bass, other times a back drop.

In the mean time, a friend of mine passed on a sound sample of their electric tooth brush, tucked away for a music challenge to see what I could make of it musically. The buzzing sound was interspersed with rattles, and by chance without pitch modification offered a good introduction sound, which was later used as a melodic instrument through pitch shifting, various sound filtering and reverb effects.

My electric violin was sitting on my desk, beckoning to be played, so I tried out some melodic ideas, improvising on top. This was a combination of rhythmic chop and echoing out the sentiment of the bass line and developing it further. The violin offered a smooth warm contrast to powerful church organ sound.

The Stigma synthesiser from Full Bucket was also used in the atonal arpeggios, a sharp contrast to the church organ sound.

I have been toying with the idea of taking the percussion section’s rhythm and apply this directly to a melodic instrument section. Without a change in the rhythm, I applied this to melodic instruments but added melodic content. This then fades out with the purely percussion section taking over. The instrument use for this introduction was the sound sampled and pitch shifted of a hollow pipe being hit.

So yes, samples from perhaps strange places, a hollow steel pipe and a tooth brush.

Instruments:
* CurtainRodKnock, VST, sampled by Norman Freund
* Church Organ (Captive Cathedral, Ableton Live, Houston Singletary), VST
* Percussion (64 Pads Dub Techno Kite, Ableton Live), VST
* Synth. Bass (Anxious Woofer, Ableton Live, Houston Singletary)
* Tooth Brush, VST, sound sample recorded  by T. Schuster, VST instrument creation by N. Freund
* Electric Violin, NS Design 4 String Wave

Atonal Cyclops

Composition, production, performance and artwork by
Norman Freund

Dates:
Inspiration: 12-Aug-2021, Performance and Recording: 21-Aug-2021, Release 26-Aug-2021

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/celtic-skittles

Description:

It was a cold winters morning, playing some Shakuhachi before I start work,
I was experimenting with some Celtic inspired rhythms. As I began work, the rhythms continued
to float around in my head, during my meal break I thought, better write these ideas down. That was 12-Aug-2021.

Some weeks passed by, the time was right to come back to those Celtic inspired rhythms and see what I could do with them. The rhythms were applied to a percussion section with some tweaking of accents. Next came the melody, browsing through my custom sample library, I tried out a very percussive Shakuhachi (a physical instrument I built) and thought perfect. The main melodic content made use of crushed notes typical of Celtic music. No venturing into Jazz chords and harmony this time, just a strict D Dorian. Slower moving chords were added using the Shakuhachi, I was not limited to physical constraints of a real Shakuhachi, so this section would be best described as a bass Shakuhachi, I suppose theoretically such an instrument could be made and played. 

I felt a more visceral even slower moving chordal section would work well, so experimented with a string section from the Native Instruments collection and added a touch of Flanger effect.

Celtic, I wonder what is missing, some bagpipes as a drone in the background — perfect.

All that was missing were some folly sounds for the introduction: wind, glass bells and a crackling sound. The modular synthesiser ModuleAirFX from Full Bucket was put into action for the wind noise, trying out various effects, finally using the Dual Noise, Resonators and a Phaser.

Instruments:
* Percussion, drum kit, VST, “24 7” (Ableton Live).
* Lead melody, VST, sampled Shakuhachi (sampled by Norman Freund).
* Secondary melodies, VST, sampled Shakuhachi (sampled by Norman Freund).
* Accompaniment, String section, VST, “String Melody - Orchestra” with custom settings (Native Instruments, Komplete Kontrol).
* Drone, Bagpipes, VST, “Bagpipes” (Fullbucket, FB3300 synthesiser)
* Folly 1, Wind noise, VST, modular synthesiser — custom settings( Full Bucket, ModuleAirFX)
* Folly 2, Glass Bells, VST, “Church Glass” (Native Instruments, Komplete Kontrol, Mikro Prism).
* Folly 3, Crackling Sounds, custom settings of Space Drone (Native Instruments, Komplete Kontrol).

Celtic Skittles

Dates:
Inception 03-Sep-2021 all takes, Production 04-Sep-2021 - 05-Sep-2021, Release 05-Sep-2021 

BandCamp Purchase:
https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund/friday-night-jam

Description:
It was Friday night, the week end ahead of me and fuelled up with home made Hawthorne Jam (thanks Mum) on peanut butter toast and good cup of coffee. I have been recently listening to the works of Casey Driessen (World of Chop) and Tracey Silverman (Strum Bow methods), all featuring violin chop, mixing percussive rhythms with arco style violin playing. So when I am in a good mood, I keep the record button on and see what happens. Some productions I take several weeks to fine tune them, others more a spur of the moment organic composition, this was the latter. (It actually started out as seeing what new features Ableton Live 11 Suite has to offer). All the takes were done on the Friday night, in the session view in Ableton Live 11, collecting the ideas I liked and roughly the order they should be in. Then leaving the following two days for minor tidy ups placing those clips in the arrangement view.

The time signature is a straight 4/4 throughout, boring you might think? The percussion section has two parts, the first is 6 beats long and the second is 4 beats long, so it synchronises every 6 bars.

The three scenes are a gradual awaking from a at times a chaotic bass line to a restoring of order with the last scene where the electric violin enters. All the while the percussion remains constant, purposely not quantised to give just the right amount of unease.

Section:
1 — Chaos — Bass line chaotic, as if some is experimenting with what happens if your plug a cable into the wrong power socket, but then quickly realises I better not go there agin or should I? The electric piano is more of a stabilising back drop of chords.

2 — Less Chaos —The electric piano ebbs off, leaving the bass line to consider “coming back to it’s senses”.

3 — Order Restored — The electric piano continues in a similar theme, providing haunting chords and melody. The electric violins enter, restoring order: one plays a rhythmic chop, the other a melodic line with significant use of a live Wah Wah pedal (fun keeping intonation on the left hand synchronised with the Wah Wah frequency on the left foot!).

No artificial intelligence drummers were used, all work is original (no covers), violin part is a live recording.

Instruments:
* Percussion, Drum kit, VST, “24_7 Kit” (Ableton Live)

* Melodic Percussion, Bells, VST, “Bell Delay” (Ableton Live)

* Keyboards, Electric Piano, “Dan Piano”, VST, (Ableton Live, Michele Darling) 

* Bass, Synth Bass, “Altered Harmonic Bass”, VST, (Ableton Live, Huston Singletary)

* Violins, Electric Violin, NS Design Wave 4 String Electric Violin, physical instrument, played through Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 at “Inst” level.

Friday Night Jam

Funky Snake

Dates:
14-Oct-2021y (inception), 02-Nov-2021 (finalised), 03-Nov-2021 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/funky-snake

Description:
On discovering the MDD Snake Sequencer (Ref. [1]), I started to experiment with it, at the same time figuring out how it worked. What started out as a temporary Ableton Live session, soon evolved into a full blown composition. It had a funky feel and uses the MDD Snake Sequencer, hence the title “Funky Snake”. This first track was a fusion of textural rhythm and melodic content. What made this sequencer interesting was that the notes played, the gates when those notes turned on/off and velocities could all be independent sequences of different speeds and number of steps, producing potentially patterns that repeat them selves over very long periods. The approach taken here for the main sequence was just to experiment and learn at the same time — by the time I figured it out, the original settings were lost, but fortunately the raw midi output was saved. For the mid section, the sequence was altered for contrast, here the sequencer settings were retained, 3 16th note pitches, with an on/off gate pattern of 1/16th notes for 7 steps, and a velocity sequence of 1/16th notes for 16 steps. A Dulce Delay instrument was used for this. And just to spice things up, there is a swing option for the gate sequencer portion of MDD Snake.

The next two tracks also used the Dulce Delay instrument, but took on a different roles, the first a rhythm guitar and next the role of a lead guitar. Next came the bass line to give it a funky feel, reminiscent of Vulfpeck (Ref. [2]).

The vibe track of the first Dulce Delay (using MDD Snake) was almost a random repeating line, so to provide a grounding to the 4/4 time signature, the percussion section was added. To add a bit of mystery, a “Dirty Back Roads” electric piano was added to one of the scenes.

One of the key lessons learnt was when using such a seemly simple sequencer but with the potential for producing some complex rhythms, note pitches and velocities, include a midi out channel to save it for latter when the various improvising tracks are layered up. Oh and the MDD Snake has a peculiarity in that some midi notes feed to it control how it behaves as well, so lot’s of screen grabs of settings as well !


Instruments:

Sequencer, MDD Snake, (performed by Norman Freund)

Sequencer, rhythm and melody; Dulce Delay (VST) (Ableton Live, Michele Darling), (performed by Norman Freund)

Bass, Basic Electric Drive Bass (VST) (Ableton Live, Michele Darling & Huston Singletary), (performed by Norman Freund)

Drums, Boom Bap Kit (VST) (Ableton Live, Theodore Striese), (performed by Norman Freund)

Keyboards, Dirty Back Roads (VST) (Ableton Live, Francis Preve), (performed by Norman Freund)


References:
[1] MDD Snake Sequencer, maximedangles, http://maxforlive.com/library/device/4771/mdd-snake

[2] Vulfpeck, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulfpeck

Funky Snake

Title Twine

Dates:
10-Dec-2021 (inception), 12-Dec-2021 (finalised), 15-Dec-2021 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/twine

Description:
Been listening to a lot of saxophone pieces recently, I felt like in a sax mood. So laid down some Alto Sax ideas. It’s all Virtual Instrument (**) based, so odds are it may venture into the Tenor Sax territory! I did not want looking into instrument ranges get in the road of creativity during the composition stage. Later checking, Bb Bass Clarinet, Tenor Sax and a 5 string Double Bass would be needed without transposing. The Saxophone part would need some re-writing for the Alto Sax range. I still have my physical clarinet from my high school days and thought I need some music that I like and a practising target, so added a clarinet track. Any jazz piece without a double bass is just missing something, so next came a Double Bass (**). To round it off some soft drums (**). The first ideas were sketched out in about 45 minutes as a first impression during a relaxing Friday evening session, settling in for the weekend. Over the next two days the ideas were further evolved and refined. Looking back at where the notes fell on the grid, some were exactly on the 1/16th note grid, whereas others needed to be off the grid (just as they were recorded) to give the right feel. Once I get around to scoring it, a readable score with lead/lag expression markings will be added.

**Virtual instrument:
Either VST, Sampled, Synthesised, or Physical Modelling based instrument.

Instruments:
* Bb Clarinet, (Virtual instrument), (Ableton Live), (performed and composed by Norman Freund)

* Two Saxophones, (Virtual instrument), (Ableton Live), (performed and composed by Norman Freund)

* Double Bass, Upright Bass (Virtual instrument), (Native Instruments, Komplete Kontrol, Band collection, Upright Bass), (performed and composed by Norman Freund)

* Drums, Akustichord Kit (Virtual instrument), (Ableton Live), (performed and composed by Norman Freund)

Twine

Title:
Electric Fling

Dates:
26-Feb-2022 (inception), 27-Feb-2022 (finalised), 06-Mar-2022 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/Electric-Fling

Description:
Started out as taking the rhythm of Wonky Time’s percussion section (Norman Freund, 26-Feb-2022), now applied to a melodic instrument but keep the standard 4/4 time signature, appearing in Bass Synthesisers 1 and 2 . As the ideas began to evolve, my imagination ventured to the feel of Scottish folk song, Scottish Fling if you like, but played on an electric synthesiser, which is heard in Drone 1 with hints to bagpipe embellishments. A second drone mimics a Jaw Harp, hinting back to folk music tradition. The Bass Synthesisers provided both texture and fast moving melodic content. In sharp contrast, two slow moving melodic parts were played with a flute and piccolo, more traditional to Scottish folk song. The flutes interweave their melodies with each other. The accompanying percussion of the modern drum kit is far from what one would expect in a Scottish folk song. I would call it a fusion of folk and electric synthesiser music, with a hint of bagpipes.

Hi resolution cover photo available on BandCamp
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/Electric-Fling

**Virtual instrument:
Either VST, Sampled, Synthesised, or Physical Modelling based instrument.

Instruments:

* Bass Synthesiser 1, Funkline vol2 (Virtual Instrument) (Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Bass Synthesiser 2, Quack Attack (Virtual Instrument) (Houston Singletary, Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Drone 1 (think Electrified Bagpipes), Grinder Dunk (Virtual Instrument) (Huston Singletary, Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Drone 2 (think Electrified Jaw Harp), Talkbox Solo (Virtual Instrument) (Huston Singletary, Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Percussion, 24_7 Kit (Virtual instrument) (Mic Checkmate, Ableton Live), (Norman Freund), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Piccolo, Piccolo Solo (Virtual instrument), (Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

* Flute, Concert Flute Solo (Virtual instrument), (Ableton Live), (composed and performed by Norman Freund)

Electric Fling

Angry Cleaner

Dates:
12-May-2020 (inception), 26-Mar-2022 (finalised), 03-Apr-2022 (released)

Artists:
Music composition and performance: Norman Freund and Darren DeWolfe
Music produced: Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund and Zachary Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/angry-cleaner

Description:
The Cleaner in the pet food factory is angry, a big mess to clean up. Plenty of sample based industrial sounds to make up the drum kit and synthesisers to set the mood for improvisations on synthesisers and electric violins. A fusion of Rock and Jazz, melody is provided with a physical modelling based cello with attitude, along with non-synthesiser based electric violins. Additional melodic content via the Tricent synthesiser. A collaboration from Norman Freund (New Zealand) and Darren DeWolfe (Canada).


For a full description and links to a YouTube Behind the Scenes video, please refer to:

https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/angry-cleaner

or Norman Freund's FaceBook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545/


Additional Artist Links:
Darren DeWolfe
* SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/darren-dewolfe
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.dewolfe

Angry Cleaner

Title: Pub Talk

Dates:
11-Jun-2023 (inception), 12-Jun-2023 (finalised), 27-Jun-2023 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/pub-talk

Description:
It's been a while since I have done a music challenge. Recently I have been experimenting with granular synthesiser design, and just randomly the idea popped into my head whilst having dinner with my wife at a local pub/restaurant to record the random sounds of many people talking. There must have been in the order of 80 people in the pub, so no single sentence could be understood, rather just a random gaggle of people's voices with the odd clang from the kitchen. This was the perfect seed for a music challenge, to create new instruments based upon this sound. The recording was done on Friday night and Saturday morning the experiments began along with the final render. All music was produce in Ableton Live Release 11.

Track 1:
The original recording from the pub talk appears 0:00 to 0:12 min:sec in track 1, then re-appears at 1:48 - 2:04.

Track 2:
Direct sampling of the pub talk appears in a drum rack device in track 2 at 0:12 - 0:18. This provided an intro drum roll percussive sound.

Track 4:
The pub talk sample was feed into the Live Wavetable device in track 4 at 0:12 - end. A slowly sweeping low pass filter with a resonant peak was applied as an automation lane in the Wavetable device. This was used as a bass line riff.

Track 5:
The one track where I did not use the pub talk sample, here the Ableton Live "24_7" drum kit to provide the main drum kit. This appears at 0:18 - 2:04.

Track 6:
This is where the sound of the pub talk could not be more different from the original! The pub talk sample was feed into Robert Henke's Granulator II synthesiser (Ref .[1]). A melodic section was initially recorded in as midi, then I went to town, layering on top adjustments of the synthesiser "spray" and "Time" settings, entering these with the Push2 rotary encoders. A Live Phaser-Flanger was also added, with modulated "rate" settings recorded in automation lanes. This sounded more like an electric bench circular saw cutting through sheet metal, than random pub talk. This appears in Track 6 at 0:26 - 0:50 and 0:56 - 1:16.

Track 7:
A very short sample of the pub talk was feed into the Ableton Live Sampler, added some distortion, passed through a band pass filter and finally some plate reverb. This appeared in Track 7 at 0:32 - 1:24. This sounded more like a heavily distorted electric guitar, which played the role of the rhythm guitar.

Track 8:
Track 8 appears at 1:22 - 2:04. It used a copy of the track 4 instrument but changed the attack decay sustain release (ADSR) and acoustic filtering. Here it played the role of the lead instrument using higher pitch melodic ideas versus the bass line of track 4.

References:
[1] "Granulator II", Robert Henke, Granulator II is a Max4Live synthesizer based on the principle of quasi-synchronous granular synthesis. Link: https://www.roberthenke.com/technology/granulator.html

Pub Talk

Wood Saw Grains

Dates:
09-Sep-2023 (inception), 10-Sep-2023 (finalised), 10-Sep-2023 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/wood-saw-grains

Description:
Tim Stem posts on the 7-Sep-2023, an amusing joke on the "Ableton Live Music Production" FaceBook group: "Today..mostly workin on a saw wave..sin didnt work out" with a picture of a wood saw cutting some wood. So I took this as a music challenge.

I replied and took it as a music challenge, so on the afternoon of 09-Sep-2023, I sampled the sound of cutting wood with my iPhone and put the sample into Robert Henke's Granulator II granular synthesiser in Ableton Live. The experiments began. No tuning was performed, just listening to what I liked at the time. The Ableton Push2 was used as the performance instrument to "play the saw". A band pass filter was applied to one of these tracks where the centre frequency was controlled by the OpenTheremin via an envelope follower. Next came layering in some theremin, performed on a hardware theremin, the OpenTheremin. A percussion layer finished off the project.

A fun little project.

YouTube, https://youtu.be/lFTcjGk4CRg

BandCamp:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/wood-saw-grains

Buy Wood Saw Grains

Wood Saw Grains

Title: 5-7-11

Dates:
30-Jul-2023 (inception), 13-Aug-203 (finalised), 23-Sep-2023 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/5-7-11

Description:
A microtonal music composition combining 5 equal divisions of the octave (EDO), 7EDO and 11 EDO. For a full description see my BandCamp page at:

https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/5-7-11.

Buy 5-7-11

5-7-11

Title
	Korimako Paikea

Dates:
01-Jan-2024 (inception), 01-Jan-2024 (finalised), 02-Jan-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/korimako-paikea

Description:
Some experimental microtonal in Just Intonation and theremin evolving sounds to kick in the 2024 New Year.

Imagine your self in an Aotearoa (New Zealand) forest, listening to the Korimako (Bell Bird) and the sounds that Paikea (Ref. [1]) may have heard from the back of the whale that took him on the great journey from the Cook Islands to Aotearoa. This is my modern imagining or interpretation of the legend of Paikea.

The first track uses a synthesiser (RectDiff) I programmed (still work in progress) in Max which is really two instruments in one, keyboard driven and audio driven. The tuning can be any logarithmic scale (EDO is a subset of this) or linear scale (Just Intonation, (JI). The tuning used in this case was JI with the twelve ratios of:
20:22:24:26:28:30:32:33:35:37:38:49:40

i.e. 22/20, 24/20, ... 40/20

To me this was the Korimako. The initial tracks provided the back drop for further improvisations of the Korimako and then latter for the theremin.

The theremin track was performed on an OpenTheremin. Slow evolving sounds, which to me sounded like a whale song. If you let your imagination drift, you could image this is what Paikea could have heard. And when Paikea landed in Aotearoa, he could also have heard the Korimako.

References:
[1] Indigenous Kiwi & Paikea. Link: https://whalewatch.co.nz/our-people/indigenous-kiwi-and-paikea/

[2] Bellbirdo/korimako. Link: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/bellbird-korimako/

Buy Korimako Paikea

Korimako Paikea

Title:
18-22-27

Dates:
08-Oct-2023 (inception), 11-Oct-2023 (finalised), 14-Jan-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/18-22-27

Description:
Accidental inspiration and minimalist micron tuning.

Daniel Richardson (8-Oct-2023) asked on the "Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory" Facebook group a question about the 18:22:27 harmonics. I was curious what this triad would sound like, frequency ratios of 18/18, 22/18 and 27/18, so I quickly put together a scala file using just these three frequency ratios. Represented as cents, the notes are 0cent, 347cent and 702 cent; or represented as 12EDO note names C, Eb+47cent, G+2cent. So this is basically a cycle of (almost) perfect fifths with an almost mid-way note thrown in for good measure. This is the minimlist part, a two note scale, but repeating not over an octave frame but a perfect fifth.

The scala definition is:
18_22_27
2
22/18
27/18

The first string track used this tuning. Next came the melodic section, which I felt needed some extra notes, nothing too extravagant, nine notes using these frequency ratios: 18:19:20:21:22:23:24:25:26:27, which form a harmonic series.

The scala definition is:
18_all_27
9
19/18
20/18
21/18
22/18
23/18
24/18
25/18
26/18
27/18

which formed the second and third tracks.

I was after some rhythmic content and settled on an electric cello sort of instrument. Which gave a very dark and contrasting
section for the second movement. The previous string sections join in.

The last movement returns to more peace and quite, the original strings open, with the occasional electric cello coming in,
but this time imitating the honking sounds of geese flying over head (they pass my neighbour hood certain times of the year).

During the final mixing phase a combination of rotary encoders on the Push2 and envelope followers driven by a theremin (OpenTheremin) were used.

Buy 18-22-27

18-22-27R

Title:
Pixel Patrol

Dates:
14-Jan-2024 (inception), 17-Jan-2024 (finalised), 18-Jan-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/pixel-patrol

Description:
Music challenge for the weekend, make music from the sampled sound of my cat's meow! Actually this one has been on my list for a while and have tried it in the past and found it very difficult due to an ever changing pitch, characteristic of most cat calls. I was determined to make it work, plus some more experience with Robert Henke's Granulator II did help. It also helped getting the recording just before morning feeding time. All tracks appearing in this composition were based upon sampled sound of my cat, Pixel.

The recording strategy was one of opportunity and seizing the moment, Pixel was only too keen to get my attention and my iPhone was handy to capture the recording. A small amount of noise reduction was required and this was done in Audacity. Pixel likes to keep an eye on the borders of our property for any fury intruders, the music title and mood reflects this "Patrol" feeling.

I fired up Ableton Live and used the Granulator II device (Granular synthesis) to quickly try out various portions of Pixel's call. I soon settled on a theme clip that set the mood for tracks to follow. All tracks were performed on the Ableton Push2 midi controller. 

The Ableton Live Wavetable device has some interesting wave modifying feature, warping and folding, plus the ability to drag and drop in your own sample. This was used for two other tracks. The Wavetable device also has a built-in filter, here I used a low was filter, modulating both the centre frequency and resonance, which were mapped to an Instrument Rack. This automatically made those parameters visible on the Push2 rotary encoders, which were varied rhythmically with one hand, leaving the other hand free to improvise on the note pads. 

During the second movement, at a more relaxed pace, parameters were adjusted on the Granulator II to give a wavering pitch for the backing harmony section. So instead of dealing with Pixel's wavering pitch, I was under the control of a slowly varying pitch modulation. The melodic section, pitch shifted Pixel's call several octaves higher, with a Tonnetz Triangle layout (perfect fifths in the horizontal direction and an augmented fifth in the vertical direction on the 8x8 playing grid) on the Push2. This custom tuning was achieved using my "NOF_Midi_NotePitchLookup" Max for Live device, which is a means of applying custom midi mappings. I wanted to be able to improvised melodic content with large note intervals, the Tonnetz Triangle layout was perfect for this.

I could not resist to include Pixel's call as a long sample instead of the short granular synthesised versions, this comes in after the second movement to finish off the composition. The only effects used for this outro, was a touch of reverb and a faded in Spectral Blur.

Buy Pixel Patrol

Pixel Patrol

Title:
Harmonic Three

Dates:
25-Jan-2024 (inception), 28-Jan-2024 (finalised), 3-Feb-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund
Film scanning by Zachary Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/harmonic-three
and a more detailed description.

Description:
Inspired from my earlier work 24-Jun-2023, "Tuning Scale Based Upon 1st Three Octaves of the Harmonic Series", where I constructed a Just Intonation (JI) scale based upon the first three octaves of the Harmonic Series, which were then octave reduced, so the note range was kept within one octave. The constraint I set myself here as that any JI frequency ratio could only be divided multiples of powers of two and only over octaves 0, 1 2 and 3. This produced nine notes within one octave range. Early harmony experiments produced a series of triads named to the nearest 12EDO chord names, an exploration of what might be possible harmonically. This tuning was then mapped to the Ableton Push2 8x8 note pads, ascending scale notes (scale divisions) in the horizontal direction, then repeated for each row vertically ascending in octaves.

In the following year, on the 23-Jan-2024 the former scale was extended to a two dimensional JI lattice. The original provided the tuning vector for the horizontal direction, each note on the lower row, providing the reference frequency to take the same  tuning vector applied vertically. So this provided an isomorphic keyboard layout in that any chord using notes in one column would have the same harmonic content if shifted in the horizontal direction. So not fully isomorphic, since if the chord notes appear in different columns, shifts in the horizontal direction will alter the harmonic content, but this can be used for effect and is a pleasant feature of JI tunings typical of harmonic series tuning.

Then it was a case of creating a basic harmony track to improvise over and discover what can be done with this tuning and this two dimensional tuning lattice. The music production was entirely performed on the Push2, recorded and edited using Ableton Live.

My Facebook page at:
https:/www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545
has high resolution images of the score,
plus the music and score has been released on my YouTube account at:
https://youtu.be/EnZXjRC6U4E

The composition is divided into three sections. The master time signature is 4/4. The first section slowly moving chords, introducing the listener to the more consonant harmony. Section two, has a change in mood, the harmony becomes more dissonant and the percussion section rhythm chaotic. Section two percussion used poly meter of  4/4, 11/8, 13/4 and 21/16 . A new instrument is introduced, a reverberating pipe or didgeridoo like sound, who's note choice is rather simple, more of a drone but interest is added through modulations of timbre, much like what didgeridoo players do. Imagine yourself one the edge of a huge canyon, as the dissonant harmonies build up, with reminders from the percussion section not to go further. The release comes in section three, the visitor to the canyon finds more stable footing, here is where the percussion section is put to the forefront and the string sections give a quiet backing harmony. The piece ends with 1/1 5/4 65/32 frequency ratio JI chord (C5 chord with some spice added), harmonious and settling.

Harmonic Three

Title:
Pipes

Dates:
10-Feb-2024 (inception), 10-Feb-2024 (finalised), 11-Feb-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/pipes

Description:
Time to experiment with my new music instrument purchase, The Pipe from Soma Laboratory, to see, hear and feel what this mystical instrument can do.

All sounds made on this performance went through The Pipe, then assembled in Ableton Live with some additional effects.

The Pipe consists of a very close up and personal microphone, intended to feed it sounds from your human voice, or via the plug any other electric audio signal; then feed it through it's hardware synthesiser to transform the audio to another sonic world.

For this recording, the sounds feed into The Pipe were, my voice, percussive sounds from my mouth, and my didgeridoo. The didgeridoo was recorded through a Sure Green Bullet mic, through to an LR Baggs Para Acoustic D.I., then to The Pipe.

A combination of directly using The Pipe sounds in Ableton Live and altering them were used. For the latter, either sampling techniques with and without pitch shifting, and via granular synthesis (Robert Henke's Granulator II), Effects used were a custom audio enveloping tool I developed in Max (Cycling'74) as a Max for Live device, Ableton Live Spectral Blur and Live's Convolution Reverb Pro.

The Pipe has several different algorithms to change or re-synthesise the sound it hears, I used the Orpheus, Pulse, Reverb, BassDrum and the Generator (I called it the Radioactive, due to the appearance of it's icon on the control box).

The hardware used was The Pipe, Sure 520DX Green Bullet Mic, LR Baggs Para Acoustic D.I., Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 (DI interface), Ableton Push2.

Pipes

Title:
Thereko

Dates:
11-Feb-2024 (inception), 11-Feb-2024 (finalised), 16-Feb-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund
DigitalFilm scanning by Zachary Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/thereko

Description:
A meditation of evolving pitches, three OpenTheremins feed into The Pipe (Soma Laboratory instrument).

Buy Thereko

Thereko

Title:
One At A Time

Dates:
13-Feb-2024 (inception), 27-Feb-2024 (finalised), 27-Feb-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/one-at-a-time

Description:

At the heart of this composition is a just intonation scale using some of the octave reduced otonal harmonic
series, then filling in the rest of the notes in an equal temperament style to have an unequally spaced twelve note
scale.

The first section consists of slow moving chords, transitioning from one chord to the next by changing only one note at a time. It serves to immerse the listener into this microtonal system.

The second section introduces a fast paced melodic content using the same custom tuning.

The third section changes the instrument for the chordal part to a smooth string section.

The fourth section re-introduces the harsh synthesiser of the first section but now takes on the melodic role, with the smooth string section taking on the harmony role. 

The fifth section brings in alterations of the human voice (my voice) through various synthesis algorithms via the Some Laboratory, The Pipe. Since the human voice was used, the tuning was improvised based upon what was heard from the synthesiser's strict scale tuning.

Buy One At A Time

One At A Time

Title:
	No Return

Dates:
16-Mar-2024 (inception), 29-Mar-2024 (finalised), 31-Mar-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase (and more detail on tuning):
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/no-return

Description:
Inspired by a 41 note just intonation (JI) video from the Lumatone people, thought I would construct my own 41 JI scale. Whilst trying out the scale, I liked what I heard and started composing and recording, this formed the backing track to give the feel of the piece. Could not resist to add in the main melodic and textural parts using the Soma Laboratory Pipe.

The 41 JI scale was formed by taking combinations of primes, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 as the numerator for the frequency ratio, then octave reducing by powers of 2. These were sorted by the least number of prime numerator combinations, (one prime the least ("pure interval"), six primes the most (complex interval)), then allocating to the nearest 41 EDO note. These primes only appeared on the numerator. So this forms a an unequal scale of 41 notes based upon just intonation.

This 41 JI was then mapped onto an Ableton Push2 midi keyboard, an 8x8 note pad. The step spacing in the horizontal direction was 7 (approximately a tone) and 1 step ( in the vertical direction. This resulted in the diatonic (white notes) to appear as a Bosanquet like shape,
forming a stair case note pattern.

A custom mapping Max for Live (M4L) device was used for the one to two dimensional keyboard mapping (NOF_Midi_NotePitchLookup_Rel08), and the Ableton Live Microtuner for the microtuning using a scala file of:

41JIFromPrimes1To13UpTo6Combinators
41
65/64
135135/131072
135/128
273/256
35/32
9009/8192
9/8
585/512
297/256
19305/16384
77/64
39/32
5/4
1287/1024
165/128
21/16
1365/1024
693/512
11/8
45/32
91/64
1485/1024
189/128
3/2
195/128
99/64
6435/4096
819/512
13/8
27027/16384
27/16
55/32
7/4
455/256
231/128
117/64
15/8
3861/2048
495/256
63/32
2/1

It was then a case of finding notes in the 41JI that suited my mood at the time and the instrument used. The 41 JI was played through tracks 1 and 2, using the Ableton Live "Poly 60 Saw" with some customisations, one of them being my M4L Device, the NOF_AENV, an audio enveloper to apply an amplitude envelope to the incoming audio, where the envelopes were a combinations of sine and pulse waves of independent frequencies and wet|dry mixes.

The remaining tracks three to nine were all sourced from the Soma The Pipe instrument. The Pipe algorithms used where Orpheus, Drum and Harcho, where my voice was the input. At times my didgeridoo playing was miced by a Sure Green Bullet, through an L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic D.I. (pre-amp), then to The Pipe, using the echo and pulse algorithms. The last track, took digital samples of The Pipe and feed it into a drum rack to play it rhythmically, plus a touch of grain delay.

The Orpheus mode of The Pipe lets the audio input exit two tun-able resonators, the tuning sets the fundamental frequency. The spectral plot of this mode shows peaks as a harmonic series, so when the voice is fed into The Pipe in Orpheus mode, a JI scale is heard.

The didgeridoo is capable of some tuning from the player, but is more relaxed for the player to adopt to it's natural frequency and overtones, so the backing tracks playing the 41 JI scale, needed a key transpose for the didgeridoo part. Hey, it's all improvised played, not a strictly planned composition, so I had to go with the flow.

Buy "No Return"

No Return

Title:
Power Pipe

Dates:
14-Apr-2024 (inception), 17-Apr-2024 (finalised), 18-Apr-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/Power-Pipe

Description:
Some inspiration from the "Microtonal Music and Tuning Theory" facebook group, a post on a guitar with 24 frets (Ref. [1]), 12 in the usual 12EDO places, then the remaining in-between tuned to harmonics. So I messed around with my acoustic and electric guitar and did some calculations trying to reverse engineer what harmonics were used, didn't use any of it, but did get me in the right mood for some electric guitar noodling. Will revisit this 24 hybrid tuning another day.

So, back to Power Pipe. Tuned the strings with heavy distortion on and by ear, so effectively tuned JI (E-A as 4:3, A-D as 4:3, D-G as 4:3, G-B as 5:4, B to E1 as 4:3). Found a nice scale to noodle on and this became the scale used for Power Pipe. As it turned out, the scale was in the key of C# in Locrian mode, but by the time I improvised with this tuning in my Live session, ended up as the Phrygian mode.

Here is the scale I used, normalised to start with C natural (and as defined in the scala file):
0:200c
1:300c
2:500c
3:698c
4:798c
5:998c
6:1198c
7:1396c
8:1496c
9:1696c
10:1894c
11:1994c
12:2194c
13:2380c
14:2580c
15:2680c
16:2880c
17:3080c

with each line defined as
ii:xxc

where
ii = step number
xx = number of cents, rounded to zero digits right of the decimal point

The scale definition is:
GuitarWizzard
17
100.00000000
300.00000000
498.04499913
598.04499913
798.04499913
998.04499913
1196.08999827
1296.08999827
1496.08999827
1694.13499740
1794.13499740
1994.13499740
2180.44871127
2380.44871127
2480.44871127
2680.44871127
2880.44871127

Because this tuning did not include all of the semi-tones, the standard piano mapping put notes in strange places, but forced me to look in new places for inspiration. I used a a synthesiser with heavy distortion, setting the mood (thanks Jon Catler, Ref. [1] for the inspiration).

I then added some percussion using the Push2.

Then out came the Soma Pipe, all done with inputs from my voice, using mostly the Filtera and Orpheus modes, with the intro section done using the Harcho mode. The tuning used with the Pipe was all improvised, using the backing tracks already recorded as inspiration and guidance. The Pipe tracks served dual roles, harmonic and percussion. As usual, the Orpheus mode was a bit of a mystery tour, exploring what frequencies to set the two resonant filters too.

The introduction section, bar 1, used the Harcho mode of the Pipe, then disguised the sounds of what was to follow in the main section with Robert Henke's Granulator II granular synthesiser, my custom reverb Max for Live device (feed back and delays), the Live Spectral Time device effect and finally a sweeping high pass filter.

References:
[1] "Jon Catler, 12-Tone Ultra Plus Guitar demo, Part I, 5/15/01", Youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2eukIoSsKM.

Power Pipe

Folk music composition written and performed by Norman Freund August 2019, whilst waiting for the weather to clear in the South Island of New Zealand. Instruments used were a combination of sampled midi played through keyboards (violin, double bass), synthesiser (Fullbucket's Stigma) and audio instruments (accordion, electric violin (NS Design Wave 4 string), bass harmonica). Cockos Inc.'s Reaper DAW was used to record and arrange the music.

Waiting for the Weather To Clear

The Distraction, composed and performed by Norman Freund, 24-November-2019. 
Special credits: Thank you Zachary Freund for your valuable music advice during the development phase.

Centres around a Cmajor blues scale. The melody is played by a violin supported by two synthesizers and percussion. The development of the melody started with the accompanying synthesizer parts, essentially
improvising over these parts, then formalising this into a composition. The composition is comprised of two movements, the first is a slow moving melody supported by soft synthesizer chords (synth1) and the second a fast paced syncopated melody supported by a synthesizer (synth2) with rhythmic frequency modulation.

Instruments used:
	Violin - VST sfortzando sound font, VirtualPlaying.com
	Synths - emulation of Korg PS 3300 Synthesiser using Björn Arlt’s
	               FB-3300 Full Bucket Music synthesiser
	Percussion - sfortzando Aria Engine, Mind Games from
	                     Digital Sound Factory
	Percussion - Apple’s DLSMusicDevice VST

Equipment used:
	Music and Video production: Reaper DAW, Cockos Inc.
	iMac Apple computer
	GoldStar GMK-49 midi keyboard
	Roland UM-One USB Midi Interface
	Cameras: GoPro Hero2, GoPro Session, Panasonic G85
	Stills processing and stills to video conversion:
		Adobe Lightroom, DaVince Resolve

Attached picture by Norman and Zachary Freund, scene from the Port Hills, New Zealand.

The Distraction

Title:	Sunset Cruise
Composition, performance and artwork by Norman Freund, 29-April-2020

Bandcamp purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/sunset-cruise

Description:
This composition started out with a percussion section assigning the same drum to more than one adjacent key on a midi keyboard to experiment with rapid beats or bursts of closely spaced beats typically not possible when the one drum is assigned to only one keyboard note. A rhythmic bass line riff then followed. In the mean time I heard that Björn Arlt from FullBucket had released a new virtual synthesiser, the Tricent Ref. [1], I dropped this on a track to experiment with the various preset program sounds to see what I liked. The Tricent was then used to develop a series of riffs using ten of it’s preset sounds with some modification. Ableton Live’s “EP Faceplant” an electric piano, was then used to improvise a melody on top of the Tricent riffs, bass line and percussion section. Some swirling stereo effects, modulated low pass frequency filters and a touch of reverb from the Native Instruments Raum completed the picture. Thanks Björn, great new synthesiser and the amusing names for the presets.

The artwork came from a sunset across the Canterbury Plains, South Island, New Zealand.

Instruments:
	Ableton Live,
	  Percussion:
	    A-Kick Remo 1 A, A-Sanre Cust N&C 1,
	    A-HitHat 1 Half Open A
	  Bass: Cathedral Wave Pipes
	  Keyboards - Melody:
	    EP Faceplant
	    (Classic electric piano with the Amp and Cabinet element)
	FullBucket Synthesizer: Tricent mk III Ref. [1]:
	  Synthe+String, Incidious Bass, Plinker Plang, Quak Quak,
	  Mery Pad, Ensemble Tweak,
	  Big Sweep, “This Is Not Right”, Cluster, Stargazer

Software:
	Ableton Live (Lite), Release 10

Hardware:
	GoldStar GMK-49 midi keyboard
	Apple iMac computer
	Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2 - Audio to USB interface

References:
[1]	“Tricent mk III”, Polyphonic Synthesizer Ensemble, Version 1.0,
        © 2020 by Björn Arlt,
	http://www.fullbucket.de/music

Sunset Cruise

Title:
Cicadas Awake
Music composed and performed by:
Norman Freund, 28-Nov-2020
Art work:
Photography by Norman Freund, post editing by Zachary Freund

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/cicadas-awake

Here I was listening to one of Rick Beato’s great music reviews on Youtube (Ref. [3]), which featured an interview with drummer Steve Jordan, at 15:07 they start talking about the “Bug Track”. This was a reference, much to their annoyance, modern bands using “That Cicada Sound” to emulate a hit-hat drum kit sound. I’ve heard Rick talk about this before, so this was for me much like a red flag to a bull, a musical challenge — can I compose music which featured the sound of a Cicada? Challenge accepted. So the hunt began to find a suitable Cicada sound. Being born and brought up near the Australian bush (forest), I was quite familiar with the sound of Cicadas. No Cicada’s were to be heard where I now live, in New Zealand. Hopefully a google search would reveal a source and way down the list was this recording from Chicharra Campanero on a YouTube Video (Ref. [2]) which provided a creative commons (CC0) version (Cetin Yigit) to freely use this data (Ref. [1]). These Cicada sounds are some 10 minutes long, however in my music composition, time slices between 245 milli-seconds  to 3.3 seconds were used to form the musical virtual instruments. These sounds were pitch stretched to a musical scale, effects added and played in synthesiser style to form music rather than the recording of a Cicada in it’s natural state. In essence, it’s my fantasy of what a Cicada might do musically, from a human perspective. 

The Cicada sound is used in seven tracks, three of them purely percussive, one a sound scape of an evolving pitch and three of them with melodic content. Sound processing effects were added and in some cases an arpeggiator with an accelerating repeat tempo. At times, it was the art imitating the rhythmic sounds Cicadas make naturally. If you listen carefully one of the Cicada tracks is reminiscent of a Rock Organ played through a Leslie. My compositions are usually a reflection of the mood I am in at the time, so I progressed quickly, capturing rhythmic and melodic ideas into clips in the Ableton Live Session View, then arranging this in the Arrangement view for the final composition. A bass line was then added not using the Cicada sounds but a synthesised sound “Bass Wave Selector” (Ableton Live instrument), which with a bit of imagination sounded like someone playing a bass Jaw Harp (some artistic license here, a very large Jaw Harp to achieve such low notes, a giant’s Jaw Harp if you like), perhaps walking through the forest inspired by a chorus of singing Cicadas. An instrument with a softer timbre was needed to provide the main melodic content, a Shakuhachi from the Native Instrument’s Komplete Library was chosen. The Shakuhachi was the bird song of the forest, echoing amongst the trees and Cicada sounds.

Some Cicada’s spend fifteen years underground before they emerge above ground, this composition is a celebration of their emergence into the free sunlit skies, as they come together and sing in chorus, accompanied by the bird song of the Shakuhachi and the wandering giant playing a Jaw Harp.

References:
[1]
“4_Cicada Sounds by FOUNTAIN YouTube Channel (CC0).mp3”, Cetin Yigit, 12-Jul-2017, (Creative Commons 0 (CC0))
https://goo.gl/mnFVPe,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8D7WUgY5sfZVmt2aWI5QjRNMzA/view

[2]
“CICADA SOUNDS - Sound Effect of Cicadas in Summer at Night - Sounds of Cicada (Chicharra, Campanero)”, Kiddopedia Animals, 10 Sep 2017
https://youtu.be/thbgObpfoNs

[3]
“STEVE JORDAN UNFILTERED: What Every Musician Needs To Hear!”, Rick Beato, 22-Oct-2020, YouTube Video,
“Top Hits Discussion / “The Bug Track"” at 15:07
https://youtu.be/jqAqvIYxEuA

Cicadas Awake

Title:
Strawberry Ripple as Classic, Orient and Cool versions.

Composition and Performance:
19-Dec-2020 - 07-Feb-2021
Keyboards, percussion and bass — Norman Freund
Violin — Darren DeWolfe

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/strawberry-ripple-classic

Production:
Norman Freund

Art work:
Norman Freund and Zachary Freund

Inspiration and circumstances play interesting roles in music works. Strawberry Ripple, started out with some rhythms and melodies in my head whilst removed from my keyboard, computer and instruments, including exclusion of whistling or singing — just music manuscript paper, a pencil and my imagination. The next day I transcribed the manuscript ideas into my digital audio workstation, in my case Ableton Live, some of the melodic ideas sounded a bit random, but I pressed on and wrote some percussion for it. Some of the repeating rhythms fell into a 7/8 time metre, so left that as the default. All the initial clips of music and percussive ideas were bar aligned and kept short, this time to avoid poly metres (which in its self can be interesting). As further layers built up, I thought it sounded good, the initial random melodic ideas from the manuscript served their purpose, a seed for better things to come. 

The first melodic ideas were introduced with the Bright Tines instrument, the percussion entered and soon the melodic line changed to a rippling echo through use of an accelerating arpeggiator rate. A Clavichord like instrument, a Crep Slide then entered with a mixture of chord stabs and melody to set the mood. A calming set of repeating chord rhythms entered with the Dirt Back Roads instrument. The bass (Beat That Bass instrument) line then came in with it’s signature riff. The scene was then set for the lead instruments to improvise over this back drop.

This composition comes in three variations, Classic, Oriental and Cool. Each variation has a different selection of lead instruments, each instrument with it’s own timbre, attack and character, which brought out different emotions with different melodic and rhythmic ideas. Once the initial ideas had been laid down for the Classic variation, I contacted one of my music collaborators overseas in Canada, Darren DeWolfe and asked if he would be interested in a doing an electric violin solo for the last lead section.

Some weeks later after some noodling in Canada, Darren added his part. 

Mean while in New Zealand, I kept working on the composition and received valuable feedback from my son, Zachary Freund: he liked the introduction and ending where the bass deviates from the riff into an improvisation; and was hoping for a different sound for the lead section. I use Native Instruments for my Audio to USB interface as well as some of their virtual instruments, at the time of compiling this composition, they were offering a free instrument, the Chinese Yangqin, so the Orient version had begun. My imagination wondered to quite a different place using this instrument, though some of it’s percussive hammering technique echoed the use of the arpeggiator in the first track of the Bright Tines.

My son had a listen and thought, too oriental dad, still I liked it. Spurred on from my son’s comments, I experimented with different instrument selections and narrowed it down to a classic synthesiser sound of the “Honey Pulp Lead” and an over-driven Clavichord sound of the “Fuzz Clav”, so the final version, Cool, took shape.  The “Fuzz Clav” was tweaked and additional effects were added, a grain delay, a Saturation effect (for some extra kick in places) and some reverb from Raum. A low pass EQ in conjunction with a pan effect with automation lanes was added at the end of this lead, simulating the musician walking off stage to make way for the electric violin solo.

Darren DeWolfe:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/darren-dewolfe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.dewolfe

Strawberry Ripple - Classic

Title:
Strawberry Ripple as Classic, Orient and Cool versions.

Composition and Performance:
19-Dec-2020 - 07-Feb-2021
Keyboards, percussion and bass — Norman Freund
Violin — Darren DeWolfe

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/strawberry-ripple-orient

Production:
Norman Freund

Art work:
Norman Freund and Zachary Freund

Inspiration and circumstances play interesting roles in music works. Strawberry Ripple, started out with some rhythms and melodies in my head whilst removed from my keyboard, computer and instruments, including exclusion of whistling or singing — just music manuscript paper, a pencil and my imagination. The next day I transcribed the manuscript ideas into my digital audio workstation, in my case Ableton Live, some of the melodic ideas sounded a bit random, but I pressed on and wrote some percussion for it. Some of the repeating rhythms fell into a 7/8 time metre, so left that as the default. All the initial clips of music and percussive ideas were bar aligned and kept short, this time to avoid poly metres (which in its self can be interesting). As further layers built up, I thought it sounded good, the initial random melodic ideas from the manuscript served their purpose, a seed for better things to come. 

The first melodic ideas were introduced with the Bright Tines instrument, the percussion entered and soon the melodic line changed to a rippling echo through use of an accelerating arpeggiator rate. A Clavichord like instrument, a Crep Slide then entered with a mixture of chord stabs and melody to set the mood. A calming set of repeating chord rhythms entered with the Dirt Back Roads instrument. The bass (Beat That Bass instrument) line then came in with it’s signature riff. The scene was then set for the lead instruments to improvise over this back drop.

This composition comes in three variations, Classic, Oriental and Cool. Each variation has a different selection of lead instruments, each instrument with it’s own timbre, attack and character, which brought out different emotions with different melodic and rhythmic ideas. Once the initial ideas had been laid down for the Classic variation, I contacted one of my music collaborators overseas in Canada, Darren DeWolfe and asked if he would be interested in a doing an electric violin solo for the last lead section.

Some weeks later after some noodling in Canada, Darren added his part. 

Mean while in New Zealand, I kept working on the composition and received valuable feedback from my son, Zachary Freund: he liked the introduction and ending where the bass deviates from the riff into an improvisation; and was hoping for a different sound for the lead section. I use Native Instruments for my Audio to USB interface as well as some of their virtual instruments, at the time of compiling this composition, they were offering a free instrument, the Chinese Yangqin, so the Orient version had begun. My imagination wondered to quite a different place using this instrument, though some of it’s percussive hammering technique echoed the use of the arpeggiator in the first track of the Bright Tines.

My son had a listen and thought, too oriental dad, still I liked it. Spurred on from my son’s comments, I experimented with different instrument selections and narrowed it down to a classic synthesiser sound of the “Honey Pulp Lead” and an over-driven Clavichord sound of the “Fuzz Clav”, so the final version, Cool, took shape.  The “Fuzz Clav” was tweaked and additional effects were added, a grain delay, a Saturation effect (for some extra kick in places) and some reverb from Raum. A low pass EQ in conjunction with a pan effect with automation lanes was added at the end of this lead, simulating the musician walking off stage to make way for the electric violin solo.

Darren DeWolfe:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/darren-dewolfe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.dewolfe

Strawberry Ripple - Orient

Title:
Strawberry Ripple as Classic, Orient and Cool versions.

Composition and Performance:
19-Dec-2020 - 07-Feb-2021
Keyboards, percussion and bass — Norman Freund
Violin — Darren DeWolfe

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/strawberry-ripple-cool

Production:
Norman Freund

Art work:
Norman Freund and Zachary Freund

Inspiration and circumstances play interesting roles in music works. Strawberry Ripple, started out with some rhythms and melodies in my head whilst removed from my keyboard, computer and instruments, including exclusion of whistling or singing — just music manuscript paper, a pencil and my imagination. The next day I transcribed the manuscript ideas into my digital audio workstation, in my case Ableton Live, some of the melodic ideas sounded a bit random, but I pressed on and wrote some percussion for it. Some of the repeating rhythms fell into a 7/8 time metre, so left that as the default. All the initial clips of music and percussive ideas were bar aligned and kept short, this time to avoid poly metres (which in its self can be interesting). As further layers built up, I thought it sounded good, the initial random melodic ideas from the manuscript served their purpose, a seed for better things to come. 

The first melodic ideas were introduced with the Bright Tines instrument, the percussion entered and soon the melodic line changed to a rippling echo through use of an accelerating arpeggiator rate. A Clavichord like instrument, a Crep Slide then entered with a mixture of chord stabs and melody to set the mood. A calming set of repeating chord rhythms entered with the Dirt Back Roads instrument. The bass (Beat That Bass instrument) line then came in with it’s signature riff. The scene was then set for the lead instruments to improvise over this back drop.

This composition comes in three variations, Classic, Oriental and Cool. Each variation has a different selection of lead instruments, each instrument with it’s own timbre, attack and character, which brought out different emotions with different melodic and rhythmic ideas. Once the initial ideas had been laid down for the Classic variation, I contacted one of my music collaborators overseas in Canada, Darren DeWolfe and asked if he would be interested in a doing an electric violin solo for the last lead section.

Some weeks later after some noodling in Canada, Darren added his part. 

Mean while in New Zealand, I kept working on the composition and received valuable feedback from my son, Zachary Freund: he liked the introduction and ending where the bass deviates from the riff into an improvisation; and was hoping for a different sound for the lead section. I use Native Instruments for my Audio to USB interface as well as some of their virtual instruments, at the time of compiling this composition, they were offering a free instrument, the Chinese Yangqin, so the Orient version had begun. My imagination wondered to quite a different place using this instrument, though some of it’s percussive hammering technique echoed the use of the arpeggiator in the first track of the Bright Tines.

My son had a listen and thought, too oriental dad, still I liked it. Spurred on from my son’s comments, I experimented with different instrument selections and narrowed it down to a classic synthesiser sound of the “Honey Pulp Lead” and an over-driven Clavichord sound of the “Fuzz Clav”, so the final version, Cool, took shape.  The “Fuzz Clav” was tweaked and additional effects were added, a grain delay, a Saturation effect (for some extra kick in places) and some reverb from Raum. A low pass EQ in conjunction with a pan effect with automation lanes was added at the end of this lead, simulating the musician walking off stage to make way for the electric violin solo.

Darren DeWolfe:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/darren-dewolfe
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.dewolfe

Strawberry Ripple - Cool

Welcome to my place of musical experiments and my endless journey of exploring new sound textures, rhythms and melodic ideas. I am a multi-instrumentalist coming from a background of having actively played, harmonica, recorder, piano, organ, clarinet, tin whistle, pan pipes, guitar, violin, Shakuhachi, jaw harp, didgeridoo and accordion. My genre is mostly a fusion of Jazz and Soundscape, however I often seek inspiration from a wide variety of music, Celtic, Rock, Heavy Metal, Classical, Folk, Micro-tonal, just to name a few. I also build my own instruments, various Shakuhachi using them either directly in recordings or sample the sounds to incorporate in pitch shifting tools in Ableton Live. I often set myself a music challenge, taking every day sounds not considered musical, sampling, transforming and moulding them into a virtual musical instrument. Experimenting with evolving polymeters is a favourite feature of my works. I have been classically trained but soon ventured into free improvisation, which is my happy place.

I am based on the South Island of New Zealand, enjoying the great outdoors there. I often take inspiration from this for my music and associated cover art.

I have a no cover’s policy, all my works being original compositions, the only exception would be the odd jazz interpretation of a Bach piece from the Baroque era. My percussion sections do not use any artificial intelligence drum machines, nor do I use auto tuners for my violin playing. Paid likes and plays — none of that either. 

I also participate in musical collaborations, from accepting sound samples to see what I can do with them, to instrumental collaborations. Send me a message if interested.

Please join me on this wonderful journey of music exploration.

Norman Freund

Popular tracks