returning now to what was already becoming my favourite mood, the "green" mood, and using what has remained one of my favourite backgrounds (a simple horizontal pattern with horizontal lines and spaces of varying widths, with soft focus transitions between them) - "scape 8" moves back to a much less musically active motif.  a second background has been added, which gives this scape a much thicker backing than some, and the note content has been kept to a minimum - to let the beauty of the two backgrounds interacting, so subtly, so slowly - to shine through.

the only note elements used are all bass notes, two of one style and one of another - and again, this maintains the very minimalist approach - where less is absolutely more - that I did tend to favour on these early scapes.

for me, then, I begin to believe, a lot of the appeal of this app isn't the amazing "note" elements that you can configure, but a lot of the beauty is in the much more subtle, but also, vitally important - backgrounds and moods.  and the green mood (along with the pink/violet mood) is one of my very favourite moods - and I have a tendency now, to always make a copy, of any scape I create, using the "green" mood - because you are almost guaranteed a great scape if you move into the green mood.  

scape 8 is no exception to this, the green mood perhaps having the perfect effect atop the blending of the two backgrounds.  it's often quite difficult to resist the temptation to just throw in the kitchen sink - a temptation I fall to again and again, but, I am always glad, when I do take a moment to explore the "less is more" approach - with some pretty effective results - this scape, another supremely ambient one - proving again just how successful eno and chilvers are and were, in imagining and realising this remarkable generative ambient music creation tool.




web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 8

scape 9 presents us now, with something completely different. First of all, a new "mood" - the grey or "black and white" mood, as I think of it, which is a very clear mood - you hear the elements very clearly, there is not a lot of processing, filtering, delaying or reverb going on - but it's a really nice sounding and very useful mood that I only really got into using a lot much later on.

so - now - no backgrounds whatsoever - and just five elements - two "yellow note elements", in this case, the "W shape" - and, three drones (the triangular "mountain" shapes).  I've created a very sparse arrangement really, a small, 3 member "mountain range" in the foreground, with the two large "W shaped" yellow note elements hanging ominously in the "sky" above the mountains.

for whatever reason, based on the hidden, internal rules of the app - this visual configuration creates a scape with LOTS of "space" in it - so - you get some quite lengthy silences; some short silences; and then other periods where the music plays FAIRLY constantly - but these silences really make this scape most interesting - because it stops and starts over and over again, presenting slightly different juxtapositioning of yellow note elements v drone mountain elements - creating a really nice overall sound.  some of the silences are quite, quite long - but that is actually a really nice feature, and the music drifts in and out of your hearing, in a lazy and wonderful way.  so now - silence has also become an "element" - and that is hugely beneficial to this scape in particular.



web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 9

scape 10 is probably my most dense, and "element-populated" scape to date (although some later scapes are far, far denser!) and this is a much more active piece as a result of that - more like a song than an abstract, minimalistic piece.  having said that, it's still very ambient - but the more complex and dense visual structure, absolutely makes a huge difference in the music that the generative engine creates.  far more complex.

I've returned to the "orange" mood, another mood that I probably do not favour enough, there is one background, which would have been "new" at the point in time that this was created - scape week one, the last part of september, 2012 - a beautiful cotton-wool-wavy-lines motif of a background - to which I have added no less than three different types of element.  those are, beyond the "cotton-wool" background in the "orange" mood - 2 "yellow note" elements; 3 bass elements, and 2 "drone" elements.

these eight elements, of three different types - gives us much more note activity - give us no silences - and give us our first moments of real dissonance - although, having said that - the dissonance supports the ambience, rather than detracting from it.  there are still enough positive, melodic elements, to carry this as an ambient tune, which very occasionally, veers off into a slightly uncomfortable, slightly dissonant, but still temporary - mood.  I love it - and, if you sit and listen to these first ten scapes - all made in the first few days of me downloading the application - a new user - a new tool - a whole new world of generative ambient music to explore - these ten tracks really give a pretty decent idea of what "scape" is all about, what it's capable of - but it's the next 817 scapes (which already exist, after just five weeks of work!), where you will, gradually and eventually, witness the remarkable growth and evolution that takes place with this absolutely amazing instrument.  personally - I can't wait!





web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 10

a new background arrives, the "lava lamp" background, which, over time, has become one of my very, very favourite backgrounds - with a cool, deep, ambient feel to it.  still with a fairly limited toolkit, and possibly still conscious of trying to not overuse the elements, the construction of this scape, scape 11, is fairly straightforward / very simple.

this scape uses the "brown" mood, and contains just three elements: one "drone" or mountain shape; one bass note or square-within-square shape; and one note element - the "w" shaped note.  this simple arrangement, along with the new background, creates a piece of quite staggering beauty and elegance.  it's quite "active" in that there are fast-moving notes (which occasionally slow down in a really, really lovely way) but the mood is pure ambient.

there is a slightly glass-like feel to this piece, I can't explain it but it sounds like shivering glass, or it feels like glass - words fail me here, there is a sort of expectancy about the piece, almost as it is waiting for something to happen - that never quite happens.  it's enigmatic, it's difficult to describe, but when you hear it, I believe you will understand what I mean.





web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 11

now we have a significant departure: I've realised that it's OK to put more than a few elements into a scape - so I create my densest scape to date, "scape 12".

using the "green" mood, and another beautiful "new" background, I layered a daring six bass parts; different bass parts; bass parts sitting atop one another...including the lovely "sliding bass with seagulls" and what was then a "new" fretless bass...coupled with my two "yellow note" elements, this piece could almost be described as "busy" - but with scape, and with ambient music in general, over time, I've realised a really, really odd phenomena:  sometimes, pieces that on the surface, seem quite "active", and have many notes and musical events - can sound as ambient, or even...more ambient...than you would think.

I think the reason this surprises me is that I always equate "ambient", with "minimal" - but in reality, some of the most successful ambient pieces are actually quite, quite busy and active.  so it's not a lack of activity that makes a piece of music "ambient" - it's really just the mood evoked.  I've found over time that both approaches work; sometimes, a very, very minimal piece will succeed beautifully, but on other occasions, and "scape 12" seems to be included in this - a much more active layout produces music just as beautiful, just as ambient...and scape is a very good example of this, as a tool - because over the many weeks I've now worked with it, I've created some very, very "busy" pieces indeed - far busier than this early effort - and even those, or many of those, sound beautifully "ambient".  so it's not the number of elements - it's the way they work together.




web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 12

lucky thirteen: an ominous, almost percussive, rhythmic backing - a "new" background, ambient white patches, set in the pink & violet mood - this is a challenging, active piece - and a new kind of scape for me.

it's basically a simplistic piece of art:  a small mountain range, made up of six triangular drones, is laid out in the foreground; a single square within square sits in the middle of the screen, and the whole thing is set in the large, blotchy white background.  it looks nice, but the sound - is a bit more sinister than some of my earliest efforts.  the presence of so many drones creates a continuous sound, that shifts constantly from major to minor, glass/percussive notes repeat constantly, while other eerie synths play minor key washes in the background - it's hard to tell what is going on sometimes with this scape, but there are no silences; it's constant music motion.

there's also a beautiful delay, that you only hear occasionally, during a rare, short pause, a delay with a medium long decay, that fades out whatever sound it is holding in a really beautiful way - so these constant musical streams move into the delay, and are then faded out, only to be replaced by the next set - the six drones feeding continous sound into the processors of the pink/violet "mood" - beautiful.  I really like this piece, it's much more active than some, but still - somehow - inexplicably, with all that motion - ambient.  I just don't understand how eno manages to make music that is so active...sound so ambient, and so, so beautiful.  I could listen to this track for hours, I find it endlessly fascinating, because it's constantly changing...yet always moving forward.




web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 13

now, for scape 14, a complete change.  the mood, is now distinctly "orange". a new background, hazy orange horizontal glow sticks, produces a constant background that mutates between a whirring sound and a constant, plain, electronic organ sound - this would have been a new background at the time, and finally - feeling very confident now, that it's "OK" to put many, many elements into a scape - I have loaded in an unheard of ten elements - of the yellow note variety.

eight of those are the "letter c" shape, the "letter w" shape, but the result of having ten yellow note elements in one scape, is a wonderful and somewhat random series of musical events, some of the yellow note events sound almost like bass guitar harmonics, others, like plucked note events, but against the constant, whirring/organ back, the almost gamelan layers of notes falling is really wonderful, like a strange and random wind chime made up of bass harmonic, guitar and piano notes, all landing at random times, with different pitches...

this is, like scape 13, a much more active piece than some, and it's possibly a bit less "ambient" in flavour, but the wonderful randomness of the 10 yellow element notes, cascading unexpectedly atop that wonderful, whirring background, is highly pleasant to the ear, and once again, a very active piece has a fantastically relaxing and lovely ambience about it.




web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 14

now we return to the land of the very ambient, with scape 15: back to very few elements, and a peaceful, beautiful mood.  the "orange" mood still persists, but with a "new" background, like a fuzzy cotton wheatfield, that creates a beautiful single chord wash, to which I've added just three elements: one triangular drone "mountain", and two "yellow note" elements - one, a "letter w" shape, the other, a "letter m" shape.

this very simple arrangement - one background, one drone, two notes - in the orange mood - gives us a slow moving, stately scape that could not be more lovely.  long, lingering chords fade in and out, while the two yellow notes occasionally "play" with soft, electric piano-like muted tones.  

there are moments when the key threatens to change from moody ambient to something slightly more threatening, but, it never quite does, and the overall effect is really pleasant - a great background, a single drone, and two notes - it's hard to believe that something so simplistic could produce a piece of music as simple, yet sophisticated, as "scape 15" - but that is the genius of scape, and when the entire piece changes key, that's highly effective - another hidden rule at work, bringing surprise and variety to each new creation - and scape 15 is an unbridled success.


web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 15

I'm now embarking on my first "scape series" - where I build one scape, and then create variants of it.  this started out fairly innocuously, trying one or two variations, but later on, I would very quickly, for example, create 7 variations, one in each mood - if I had a scape that I liked - I would just take seven snapshots in a row, to capture seven quite differently "treated" versions.

but at this early stage, I wasn't quite that sophisticated yet, so I am just taking scape 15, and removing some elements, to create scape 16 - intentionally trying to make it more ambient - and succeeding well.  so I have removed the two "yellow note elements" leaving just a single drone, on the white, fuzzy, background - in the orange mood - so it's totally down to the two sound sources, the background, and the lone triangle drone - to create the scape, and up to the mood to process it with a lovely, mild, short delay.

the two sources are both very chordal, very modal, so we get long, lingering, entwined chords, which makes for an extremely ambient effect.  as the second in this "scape series", this piece succeeds - because by removing the two note elements, I've left an almost purely ambient scape behind, which is simple, lovely and absolutely enoesque ambient - a beautiful sound.


web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 16

to celebrate two important events, first, brian eno's remarkable day of light, november 17, 2012 - the live streaming preview of his new ambient album "LUX", and, the official release date of my own CD, "gone native", which is part prog, part rock, and part ambient/experimental, we present to you, "scape 17" - made with brian eno's (and peter chilver's) brilliant "scape" application - november 17, 2012, scape 17, studio 17, purescapes17 - it's all about 17.  naturally.

the third part of my very first scape series, is the most minimalistic scape attempted to date - basically, it's just a background, in a mood - with no other elements - in terms of the series, I started out with scape 15; removed the note elements to create a more minimalist scape 16, and by the time I reached this variant, scape 17 - everything, except the beautiful, fuzzy, white, "wheatfield" background - was gone - leaving a beautifully simple and very, very ambient scape indeed: scape 17.

this is a scape with no jarring activity, no sharp edges, it's basically one beautiful, long chord, that slowly evolves - this is a scape so pure, so ambient, that you could sleep to it - I'd love to mix a two hour version of this at some point, as an object lesson in what minimalist ambient music should sound like - soft, gentle, chordal - it's just beautiful, words do not do it justice.

scape 17 is an example of "less is more" - because I would never have dreamed that using one background, played back in one mood - would get you an ambient piece as beautiful and as fulfilling as this one is.  that's the beauty of scape, and it's capacity to surprise - you never know what will happen when you try any given process - and I am SO glad I chose to try this very, very minimal, but very, very beautiful and ambient one - scape 17 is one of my very, very favourite scapes to date.  it's really surprises me, too, because it sounds so much like a track from an eno album - it's the purest of eno DNA, and this track captures that DNA beautifully indeed.


we should also take a moment and say that this is the last scape that we will be uploading to the purescapes channel on sound cloud, but if you'd like to hear more please join us on the purescapes channel on youtube, where we will be continuing the series beyond these first seventeen "early" scapes.

we hope to see you there.

so from the sound cloud purescapes channel...over and out.



the purescapes channel on youtube can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/purescapes17

where we will be resuming this series shortly with scape 18.



we hope to see you there !



all the best ~~~

dave stafford
november 17, 2012



web: www.pureambient.com
twitter: @pureambient 
blog: http://pureambient.wordpress.com/ 
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pureambient
bandcamp: davestafford.bandcamp.com

dave stafford - scape 17

a dedicated channel for the work of ambient loop guitarist with "scape", a generative ipad application designed by brian eno and peter chilvers.