a little demo showing processing drums through Cylonix/Intellijel Shapeshifter module

drums are from MachineDrum
Shapeshifter in vocoder/chord modes, some modulation added from ADDAC Filterbank envelope followers
additionally playing with morph control
the pitch input on Shapeshifter is not used, all pitch changes are from modulation / morphing

first part is dry signal directly from Shapeshifter with no additional processing, then I add analog BBD delay at around 2:47 and the MachineDrum track at the end

drum processing through shapeshifter [modular demo]

From the forthcoming digital album release "Objects of Dissociation Volume 1", this selection is a recent live-in-the-studio rendition of a track recorded for the "Revisionist History" CD (2016).

iBlue (Lithic Version 12 - 17)

Piano I: Paul Çelebi
Piano II: Olivier Rabu

"Neige" d'Anne Hebert: http://www.barapoemes.net/archives/2016/09/07/34290920.html

Program Note:
Cent traces, sur de vastes plaines was inspired by Anne Hébert's poem "Neige" (snow). Submerged in its poetic image, the music follows its emotional trajectory and attempts to embody it through a language of resonance, harmony, and temporalities. The work was also peripherally influenced by the novel "Kamouraska" by the same author. Both texts depict a wintery dream-scape that devolves into a fever dream peopled with hazy memories. The opening five minutes contain three musical dreams composed using a collection of altered paraphrases from other piano pieces 'about' snow. These quotations appear the way characters in these dreams do: one might have an idea of who they represent from daily life (memory) even if for some reason they do not fully resemble that person. Over the course of the piece the boundaries between dreams erode and the recurring characters' identities become increasingly distorted. Musical memories appear, disappear and intermingle, culminating in a blurred mass and then a rupture.

Commissioned by the Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Competition.
Performed November 11th, 2019, Tanna Schulich Hall, McGill.
Composed January-May 2019 (Montreal/Baltimore).

Note de Programme:
Cent traces, sur de vastes plaines est inspiré du poème "Neige" d'Anne Hébert. Submergée dans son image poétique, la musique suit sa trajectoire émotionnelle et tente de l'incarner dans un langage de résonances, d'harmonies, et de temporalités. L'oeuvre a aussi été influencée par le roman "Kamouraska" de la même écrivaine. Les deux textes décrivent des rêves hivernaux qui s'écroulent et deviennent des rêves fiévreux éveillant d'ambigus souvenirs. Les cinq premières minutes contiennent trois rêves musicaux, chacun composés d'une citation altérées d'autres pièces pour piano 'au sujet de' la neige. Ces citations incarnent la façon dont ces personnages habitent ces rêves: on sait qui ils représentent dans notre vraie vie même s'ils ne se ressemblent pas exactement. Au fur et à mesure les frontières séparant ces rêves se déconstruisent et les identités de ces personnages se tordent. Les souvenirs musicaux apparaissent, disparaissent et se mélangent, menant à une masse nuageuse puis une rupture.

Pièce commandée par le concours de composition pour duo de piano Luba Zuk. 
Interprétée le 11 Novembre 2019, Salle Tanna Schulich, McGill. 
Composée janvier-mai 2019 (Montréal/Baltimore).

Cent traces, sur de vastes plaines (2019)

A version of Pharief by Boson Spin. Creative Commons.

Pharief

Boson Spin - Pharief - Spectral Message Remix

Lost

a dance in the sun with stuff. and a pipe.

morningon2tree

Morningon2tree

This is the world premiere of the new work for double-bell horn, developed during the Virtual Brass Academy with Christine Chapman and Ensemble MusikFabrik, July 2020. This performance took place on July 30th, 2020 - in Cologne.
I am indebted to Ensemble MusikFabrik and the fantastic work they did with us in introducing us to the worlds of double-bell instruments, and to the ever-expanding repertoire of new music for these instruments they are bringing to the world.

The work explores a sense of dual forces that act and react upon each other, and how the relative mediator (the performer) indeed interacts with the score, the instrument and it's two bells, and finally how the theatre of the piece - both through actions and the position of the instrument - is transmitted to the audience. In the four sections of the piece that each explore a different facet of the manipulation of the horn - first through the use of a contra-bassoon reed to produce aggressive yet fulfilling multiphonics; then in the second and third exploring the two bells and their range of possibilities. The final section condenses the instrument down to only it's single-bell form and the mute and interacts briefly with it to express a settling within the performance. Gasping, grunting, growling and grandeur are all some of the ideas explored in this short miniature.

Image: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/Sonoma State (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/6/1/15721268/gravitational-waves-ligo-future)

Understated Matter - for solo double-bell horn [premiere]

00009

Cath & Phil Tyler play Anglo-American folk music using guitar, banjo, voice and fiddle. Coming together musically through a shared love of traditional narrative song, full voiced sacred harp singing and sparse mountain banjo, they have performed on stages as diverse as the Royal Opera House in London and a dank tower in the old city walls of Newcastle. 

For this release they've kindly shared with us 5 new works written & recorded in the heat of the summer 2020 lock-down, taking in traditional tunes, workers songs and laments crafted with words from the past and present. The stripped-back selection offers an intimate portrait of the duo alone at home in the North of England, singing ghostly tales that echo from their bedroom through the empty pubs, folk clubs and spaces where people come together to listen, meet, drink and dance. A selection that pulls at the heart strings and offers some much needed respite in these trying times.

TR075 - Cath & Phil Tyler - 'Old Churchyard'

I decided, after looking at several of Martin's paintings, that I wanted to focus on that precision repetition, the light/dark alternation, and the subtle gradations of field.

The track is an improvisation inside Live, with one instance of the Buchla Music Easel (providing the upper-register track) and one of ARP 2600 V3 (providing the lower one), with Live's BrainDance and Squishy Beat Repeat effects to put in additional emergent rhythmic effects. I potted down both synths, gradually faded them in, and then slowly tweaked the filter frequency and resonance on the ARP, gradually adding in ore modulation from the ring modulator, then slowly removing it. The Buchla's variations came from tweaking the effects following it, but basically leaving the patch alone to imitate the regular ruled lines.

The Tree, 1964 [disquiet0456]

https://vaaticanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/poussi-re-midi

Poussière midi

Amorn

i write music and code that writes music. all tracks with a very few exceptions are under CC license and downloadable, so remixes / overdubs / collaborations are always encouraged.

drum processing through shapeshifter [modular demo]

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