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

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.