Live Premiere Recording
Vibraphone: Jonathan Carr
November 15th, 2014
Recital Hall, University of North Texas, Denton, TX

Rothko is a very intimate and personal work commissioned by percussionist Jonathan Carr. There are many nuances to the piece that get hidden in a wall of sound, and that’s where the intimacy of the work comes from.  Much like the famous color field paintings by Mark Rothko, there are fields that are made up of one single color.  Inside each field, though, is a massive amount of texture and some inflections on the shades of each color.  This piece aims to achieve a similar effect, but sonically instead of visually.

Artwork: "Electric Rothko" by Myxi
Link: https://flic.kr/p/3gx5sj

Rothko (Premiere)

Side

heaven on earth rough snippet

'Need You' is finally here!!! It feels amazing and a bit unreal that something that started out as a voice memo in a rainy forrest somewhere on Ember Island now can be heard by people from the other side of the world. We're so happy for the love and support you've been showing us so far and hope you're gonna love this one as much as we did creating it ♡ ☂

Spotify: open.spotify.com/track/2NC58VL9ADAL1LSYki5XEL
Facebook: facebook.com/emberisIand
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download ♡

need you

Watch the video of this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnxedqZZkfM

This is a vibraphone cover of the song Near Light by Ólafur Arnalds from his album Living Room Songs. I recorded every track on a homemade vibraphone. 

You can download free sheet music from Ólafur Arnalds at his website http://olafurarnalds.com/.

I made a blog of building the homemade vibraphone here:
https://buildavibe.blogspot.com/

Near Light [Vibraphone Cover]

Discovered a sound that reminded me of the arpeggiator used in Nils Frahm's track 'Says'. So I made a thing

with apologies to 'Says'

(NOTE: This work was originally written for 8-channel surround sound; you are hearing a web-compatible stereo mix, which contains every sound of the original but lacks the intended effect of depth.)

www.mattridgemusic.com

These Sound Woods came about through a particular musical obsession of mine. In certain songs within the popular music umbrella, the voice is processed in such a way that it attains a mechanical, inhuman quality (through vocoding and pitch tracking). Artists who utilize these techniques usually do so to add an alienated yet, paradoxically, intimate character to their songs.

Thus, this piece revolves around exploring such techniques. After an ethereal introduction, we hear strange, glitchy melodic lines emerging one by one. Eventually, we experience a full chorus of these peculiar “voices”. Then, these lines are further processed, bent, and distorted until the opening chorus returns in a shout.

These “voices” are, indeed, derived from recordings of my own voice. After singing the individual lines (ripped directly from a choral work of mine), these sounds were processed with DSP software which tracks the pitch and amplitude of my voice. The resultant data was used to generate sine tones following the contour of my voice, which were further processed to attain the odd, synth-like tone heard in the final piece.

This method resulted in some peculiar glitches and blatant intonation errors. Eventually, I decided not to reject those imperfections, but to embrace them. I find them endearing, and they add a lot to the raw, intimate character of the piece.

The title contains a threefold meaning. Firstly, it is meant to reflect the peculiar ambiences heard in the work, as though we are in the midst of some alien woods. Secondly, on a metaphorical level, it might reflect the mind of the artist, thoughts running rampant yet falling into some semblance of order (“sound” meaning “secure”). Finally, it is meant as an homage to two tunes whose sounds inspired the piece: “Sound” by Sylvan Esso and “Woods” by Bon Iver.

These Sound Woods

Live Premiere Performance Recording
Darry Hearon, tenor
Jonathan Carr, piano
March 23, 2013
Voertman Hall at UNT

	This song is parallel to the first in the cycle: Denial.  However, instead of dark anguish, I used the material to create frailty and a sense of warm glowing light.  I liked the image of a glowing blanket of snow; it's a beautiful way to imagine the coming of death.  The material is cold, yet it's welcoming and warm.

Artwork: ".long before acceptancE" by Sippanont Samchai
Link: https://flic.kr/p/77mKHo