Strasbourg Saint Denis (Live Performance)

Trombone - Ollie Pickup
Keys - Jon Sullivan
Bass - Mike Sumner
Drums - Nick Upton

Produced by Dr (to be) Laurence Hobden MEng

Get happy (ft. Richard Oakman)

Mix and Master of Snake Eyes, by Sworn in. 
Probably one of my favourite mixes so far!
Fucking MIDI bass though, tried my best to make it sound all as natural as possible. 

Snake Eyes Master

When working with this piece, I abandoned conceptual ideas (which is rather unlike me). I created the form according to what I thought it should take, and where the mood was going. The piece is an ABA form, but I did not pre-compose the development. I used contrasting sounds to generate interest, and recognizable gestures to bring helpful repetition into the piece. The piece also has several 'pitched moments' where a bell noise is played and that sensation is temporarily experienced. I thought it really brought some contrast to the texture and its material.

I also have a graphic score for the piece, which so far only a few people have seen. It is extremely colorful, and its axes are time for the x-axis, and a combination of volume and pitch for the y-axis. I tried to order the sounds from low to high, and make bigger sounds louder (compromises had to be made, but this was fine, due to interpretation).

There are only three sounds used to create this piece:
-A crackling fire
-Wind chimes
-A bell

The aesthetic is also weird, which I love exploring. I tend to receive impressions of fear or awe from computer music works, which is not true of this music. I've somehow made something which really sounds like a strange hybrid of a more musical rhythm and sound itself, without resorting to traditional meter in the slightest. I suppose my feelings from this piece are similar to excitement, but not the same excitement I get from standard strong rhythms. It's hard to describe, and I really enjoy that. I also get the vague impression of hearing machines at work when I listen, machines that have come from sounds in nature.

Feedback welcome (not the kind that hurts your ears, of course).

The Sky At Witching Hour

Couple of tunes recorded as demo tracks.

All ownership remains with the original artists. All recordings are for demo purposes only and must not be shared for profit.

06 Low

My love’s warmest smile 
Is ruby-sunshine
My love’s juvenile 
Innocence divine

She whispers me words
So secret and kind 
What I’ve never heard
I’m lucky to find… her…

(Counterpoint section)

She makes time for me
Opposites of habit
And that’s the reason
Relationships quit

My love’s enticing
Is golden-rosy
My love’s inviting  
Virtuous lovely 

She gives the best gift
Her time and her thought
When I need a lift
She does what she ought

She goes out of her way
Opposites of habit
To serve and to guide
To listen and try

(Counterpoint)

Each time with her is time
I want to live again
Each time our season
That fades from where and when

Her touch is infectious
So full of affection
Such potent confection 
It counts as refection  

She makes time for me
So many wonderful, beautiful, diverse opposites of habit!
Inspired by her efforts
I must make us better

(Counterpoint)

My love’s inspiring
My love’s inviting  
She’s strong and she chooses
My love is my muses

She makes time for me
Opposites of habit
Inspired by her efforts
I must make us better

It’s the good she deserves
It’s the good she’s earned
All the adoration 
I have to offer
And all of the time 
That I can proffer
And ev’ry last song
Deep in my stirred heart
Is hers all along 
And thus my shared art
Is the resistance,
To old ways and cold ways,
My gift to her existence,
And I am in love always!!!

Opposites of Habit (13-EDO)

Vulfpeck - Beastly (Backing Track)

This piece was accepted to Electroacoustic Barn Dance 2018, and SEAMUS 2018.

I used 4 voices: 2 organ tracks, and 2 clavichord tracks. Both sounds have overtone spectra corresponding to a very ambiguous chord that I like using in this tuning (I end the piece on it: it can sound like a major chord, or a minor chord in first inversion, due to the ambiguity of the interval in 21 that sounds right between a major third and perfect fourth.) Other sounds of indeterminate pitch phase with the main four parts, creating association and subversion of melodic lines. 

Stretto and point-of-imitation are used extensively. I always use xenharmonic fifths, and the third-fourth, when available as the building blocks of the harmony. They are the most shocking to the Western ear, but they actually aid in smooth part-writing as well.

I use the following octatonic scale (with very little pitch material wandering outside of this):

3L 2M 3s
L = 4
M = 3
s = 1
41341314

Iridescent Wenge Fugue (21-EDO)

Violin I - Tilly Langford
Violin II - Catherine Robson
Viola - James McIlwrath
Cello - David Leighton

Recorded and edited by Jaiden Muschett

Madness For Alice is a serial approach to depicting a macabre and twisted interpretation of "Alice In Wonderland". The music depicts Alice's struggle with her mental instability and culminating with a complete snap of the psyche. This is followed by a rare moment of tranquil lucidity which ultimately degrades as we hear soft harmonics as fragments of her mind over an "ide fixe" of Alice.

Madness For Alice

A chiptune epic that describes something mischievous. The conversation, like the piece, pays enormous attention to detail. The attention to detail also serves a utilitarian function... just like when things get "pixel perfect" in a game. It's that feeling of finding the correct spot and seeing where it leads. This kind of attitude - seeing where something leads, often produces whimsical, lyrical music that moves back and forth between various similar melodies that circle each other loudly. This is the same attitude that accompanies conversation without an agenda.

I heard from Darreg's writings that dial tones use 14-EDO pitch steps (about). I haven't investigated this, but I use 14-EDO clusters together anyway for the effect of having a phone nearby.

Our Pixel Perfect Dial Tone of Voice (14 - EDO)

Phrygian work for Alto Flute, Clarinet & Bassoon. 

Alto Flute: Jenni Cohen
Clarinet: Katherine Williams
Bassoon: Elodie Lawry

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Billy Pettis.

Denorium

I do trombone and sometimes write musics....

Get happy (ft. Richard Oakman)

Ollie Pickup

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