Name: U & I By Design by Peter Totterdell
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Description: U & I By Design is an electronic instrumental track that blends sequencer, bass, and vocal elements. It concerns how an internal dialogue about a relationship shapes perspective. The vowels in the title reflect the use of synthetic vowel sounds in the instrumentation.

Teletape. I don't have much to say about this electronic instrumental track, except that I liked the sound of the rhythm. It reminded me of some old technology - specifically the noise of the teleprinter that accompanied the BBC's reporting of football results, and the punch cards that were used to program computers (holes as information - brilliant!).

Up Close and Global

I'm Older Now

Teletape

I'm Older Now. Well I am and so are you, and it needs to be reckoned with. The body clock is still ticking, albeit a bit more laboured. Plenty to like about the accumulation of experience though and some beauty still to be found too. Reverse - no thanks. This is an electronic instrumental track with a slow but steady pulse and a vocal thread.

Art is an electronic instrumental track with a bit of a sci-fi feel. I initially called the track Art simply because one of the instrument patches had that name. As it turned out, making this track felt different -  more like painting, less structural than usual. Splashes of sound were reworked and blended. Art after all.

U & I By Design is an electronic instrumental track that blends sequencer, bass, and vocal elements. It concerns how an internal dialogue about a relationship shapes perspective. The vowels in the title reflect the use of synthetic vowel sounds in the instrumentation.

U & I By Design

The title of the track - This Time - suggests that it is a response to the times we live in and yes it is partly that but I named the track at an early stage mostly as a self-admonishment because I knew the sound that I wanted it to have but I kept straying onto other tangents.

This Time

O Laurie A is an electronic instrumental track with vocal elements. The track is a tribute to Laurie Anderson's song O Superman but it is different and not as good. The track uses a synthetic vocal rhythm that brought O Superman to mind, and how much that song once meant to me. It reached No. 2 in the UK music chart in the early 1980s. There had been nothing like it before, nor much like it since: No drums, no guitars, but a vocal pulse. Its lyrics involve relationships, technology, the military, and petrochemicals - all still so relevant - and imbued with ambiguity and tenderness. I first heard O Superman in a Department Store - the store felt transformed, so did I, thank-you Laurie A.

O Laurie A

The track title refers to a theory of art known as the 'beholder's share' which sees art as a collaboration between artist and audience because the perception of art relies on the experiences of those who engage with it. In this track, the heavy pressure of the bass and the ticking sound may elicit a reaction that varies between listeners.

The Beholder's Share

Vox Pop (Voice of the People) is an upbeat electronic track with arpeggiated rhythms, percussive beats and voice samples

Vox Pop

The arrangement of this track involved finding combinations of a set of sounds that worked together to advance through the piece, which produced moments of both drama and reflection. This felt somewhat like a chess game hence the track's title.

Chess

Having conducted research on mind wandering in my work as a psychologist, this piece reflects its shifting, integrative, prospective and sometimes ruminative nature. Research has shown that mind wandering - sometimes called daydreaming - can have positive and negative effects depending on context. This track channels the calming, constructive, and imaginative properties of mind wandering.

Mind Wandering

Bandcamp Mind-Wander

Peter lives in Sheffield, England. He was once in a short-lived indie band called The Eleventh Hour, and has returned to music after a career in psychology that included research on emotion and imagination. His music is mostly electronic and ambient but includes vocal elements - sound paintings rather than songs. The album Up Close and Global connects personal and collective experiences.

U & I By Design

Peter Totterdell

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