Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuter's supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud before we got the Patreon going (https://www.patreon.com/InMemoriamScottComanzo). In the meantime we ran out of room here on Soundcloud... until now, as the Soundcloud has raised the money to expand here!

and so, the electronic retrospective can finally continue...

"Starved for Attention" was written in Scott's undergrad years as a small and very non-traditional ensemble with "tape" ...  this is the electronic component of that piece as it was "performed" in that aforementioned NOW festival. We have yet to access the full performance of the piece, but as soon as we do we'll probably release it on the exceedingly affordable Patreon only. 

(There is also a suspicion that there is a revised version of the ambient mix)

Because we have this ambient mix alone at this time, we can't even say for sure that we know what the ensemble consisted of, although we remember at least 2 "screamers"... or maybe they were "yellers" ... and at least one instrument, likely percussion...

This version gives us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in Scott's largely vocal experiment, believed to be largely based on the idea to stack time-stretched vocal long tones (likely Scott himself) in quarter-tones. True-ish to it's parenthetical title, there is a peacefulness here, albeit paired with a persistent, possibly even foreboding unsettling quality.

As our work in "In Memoriam Scott Comanzo" continues and hopefully grows we will likely uncover Scott's own notes for this performance as well and add here.

Thanks for listening!

Starved for Attention (ambient mix)

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuter's supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud before we got the Patreon going (https://www.patreon.com/InMemoriamScottComanzo). In the meantime we ran out of room here on Soundcloud... until now, as the Soundcloud has raised the money to expand here!

and so, the electronic retrospective can finally continue...

This is the infamous piece where Scott had claimed he invented the mashup, and opted for the invention to be named "Scrap Metal" or "shrapnel" ...  This was composed somewhere about the turn of the century and was inspired by the usage of same/similar texts in the Christmas Festival at Capital University (even to this day we've heard), and in Beck Hanesen's 1999 work entitled "Peaches and Cream."  The term "scrap metal" was derived from the term "shrapnel" which was adopted as a phonetic corruption of the word Chapel, as Scott first heard this text sung by Capital's Chapel Choir.  "Shrapnel Choir" just generally tickled Scott's imagination...

Now unlike the convention of what the mashup ended up being, Scott did not just combine elements from disparate sources creatively, he added his own material and creativity, owing to the general tradition art-making throughout the centuries, of composers using folk music, of electronic music in general, and more to the point in those days, the drum programming of IDM artists such as Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. Scott also contributed enhancements on top of samples, performed parts extracted thereof, his own non drum programming sounds, and a healthy dose of his speaking voice, along with the more expected manipulation of samples. 

This invention took place entirely in Capital University's Electronic Studio, and was premiered at some point in their Huntington Recital Hall, we believe, in Scott's final student recital there, although it's very possible it premiered earlier, possibly even the year before.

Scrap Metal on a Theme by Hansen

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuter's supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud before we got the Patreon going (https://www.patreon.com/InMemoriamScottComanzo). In the meantime we ran out of room here on Soundcloud... until now, as the Soundcloud has raised the money to expand here!

and so, the electronic retrospective can finally continue...

World premiered during that Now Festival, Scott composed this piece originally as an emailed thank you gift to three saxophonists that assisted him in the production of a piece for Saxophone Quartet and digital media entitled "Juliette." "Juliette" was performed during Scott's time at The Hartt School. This piece is made up of some of the more amusing outtakes from recording sessions that produced the "tape part." 

The Only Part I Miss

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuter's supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud before we got the Patreon going (https://www.patreon.com/InMemoriamScottComanzo). In the meantime we ran out of room here on Soundcloud... until now, as the Soundcloud has raised the money to expand here!

and so, the electronic retrospective can finally continue...

Now THIS one, we think we remember... used to be here, and so there is it's triumphant return. One of maybe three electronic music collaborations,  this is one of two created in the hallowed Capital University Electronic Studio. (Digital Depravity(((https://soundcloud.com/scott-comanzo/digital-depravity))) being the other). Scott and Margaret dated for a short time after he graduated from Capital, but this was a year or two prior.  We can't necessarily hear the seeds of this eventual romance here... or can you?

The theme seems to be a kind of shameless "what can we do with this annoying sound."  But the secondary theme of a strategic fading in and out, seems to be used to soften the primary noise, or its affect, more precisely. This presentation is almost like an apology for the unmitigated gall of it all. 

MarScar

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuter's supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud before we got the Patreon going (https://www.patreon.com/InMemoriamScottComanzo). In the meantime we ran out of room here on Soundcloud... until now, as the Soundcloud has raised the money to expand here!

and so, the electronic retrospective can finally continue...

In fact, this might be an ending for now.  Although here are two stragglers at the moment. One has a bit of a lost revision(s)/intellectual property issue and the other we can't tell if it belongs here in the retrospective OR on the Patreon's "Song of the Week" collection. 

So, as I was saying, an ending for now, or, a transition... 

At any rate, this selection was omitted from the NOW festival retrospective, we don't know if it was intentional or not, because we found it "living" in a very different place than the rest of these. Now, it is definitely possible that Scott would have disqualified this as not electronic music, but we think it belongs because the Capital University Electronic Studio was ESSENTIAL to the creation of this work. 

Scott gathered musicians one empty day in the "fishbowl" and requested their talents in a recording experiment, at once reminiscent of John Cage and Frank Zappa at the same time. He isolated each of them as best he could and just told everyone to play with the only instruction that we know of was to start and to finish... possibly a timing was given... perhaps this poem was recited even? Scott was probably too shy for that. Which ALSO could be the reason for it's not being included in the retrospective if intentional. 

The poem was to/for an older classmate of Scott's. . . 

As far as the roster is concerned most musicians on here are mere suspects, and they might not want to admit participation, except for who is possibly Scott's first Femme Fatale, Margaret, of MarScar fame ((https://soundcloud.com/scott-comanzo/marscar)), whose sultry melismas must have echoed in Scott's brain for years after.

As far as we can tell Scott added his spoken word recording of this original poem at another session, although shortly thereafter. He then mixed and edited and mixed and effected and edited and effected and mixed until it was as done as it could be. He then delivered this recording to this long lost love and she received it kindly and was touched, as far as Scott has reported in some writings he's left.

Also, interestingly enough this was not the last of this piece till now, as it was featured in Scott's first attempt at a municipal grant in Columbus... and this is where one of Scott's favorite stories took place...


Perfume

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuters supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud while we continue to try to organize his remaining materials in a more official presentation. Since we weren’t sure in which order these pieces were meant to be presented, we’ve settled on alphabetical order to keep things simple. 

This may change because we’ve noticed that there is a time limit to the Soundcloud account. So “American Standard” may be here for a limited time only.

Right now, what we know about this piece is that it was most-likely written between 1999-2001 in the Capital University Electronic Studio. It features the sounds that Scott would listen to during breaks from said studio. While most are bathroom sounds that predicated those breaks, you can also hear piano practice rooms, keys jangling etc. Also present is the unique Mess Hall lobby reverb represented best in what we have to assume is the whipping of a cable of some kind. It is unclear if the “drum set” sounds in the first section are manipulated found sounds or samples. Scott was known to use one or the other, but not often both in the same piece, especially at this early stage of his career. There is also small homage to Kiss, a childhood favorite of all the Comanzo boys. This particular sample was chaos perhaps because of its shared place in a Tone Loc song. 

We also know that this piece was presented as part of the aforementioned “The Last One” in the Spring of 2001, as a part of his graduation recital.

American Standard

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuters supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud while we continue to try to organize his remaining materials in a more official presentation. 

Since we weren’t sure in which order these pieces were meant to be presented, we’ve settled on alphabetical order to keep things simple.

While studying at Capital University, Scott had the opportunity to collaborate with artists Devin Allen & Jen Agricola in an installation presented at the Ohio Art League Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Scott composed a 2 minute drum and synth based piece designed to loop during the entire run of the installation. 

Scott often taught students of his mistake of using the integral compositional tool of dynamic range. In Scott’s own words, during the run of this installation “the douchebag kid working at the gallery kept turning the volume down, so that you could barely hear most of the piece. So the lesson is compress, compress, limit and compress.”. 

Scott was unable to learn from his own lesson until the piece “Debris”. During this piece he learned the second part of the lesson: that “unless you have control over the board, they will still turn the volume down, to the level of complete impotence, if you let them, if you trust them”. 
Scott has produced an artist’s statement for the installation that we will post here as soon as we find it, assuming there’s still room.

From The Ground Up

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuters supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud while we continue to try to organize his remaining materials in a more official presentation. Since we weren’t sure in which order these pieces were meant to be presented, we’ve settled on alphabetical order to keep things simple.

We’ve skipped one to release this piece. We discovered that there are two pieces that aren’t present on the flash drive their finished form. Scott had mentioned one, where a mistake in the lines drawn for automation caused an issue at the beginning of the piece. There was also another one, where he had released an unmanipulated version of a piece to be based on another composers work, but because of time constraints was never released. We have discovered some evidence that the latter has been finished, so we will just have to find the latest version and see. The former automation mistake should be easy enough to fix through use of Logic and GarageBand. 

But in the meantime, there’s this piece, Imperforrent. We believe Scott composed this while at the Hartt School. It is a four movement piece (posted all in one file here), and the audio is derived from interviews with pornographic actresses and the accompanying music in the background of the interviews. Scott utilized basic electronic manipulation using a program called “Metasynth” to express an unsatisfying dysfunction thorough a glitchy, rhythmic drive. This drive is briefly interrupted in the third movement with time manipulation. 

We’ve found no evidence of a specific program Scott may have composed this for. However, we are aware that Scott expressed dissatisfaction with the finished result and had a desire to revise and improve the piece at a later date. It is almost as if it was completed for a deadline, though we don’t know not what that was.

Imperforrent

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuters supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud while we continue to try to organize his remaining materials in a more official presentation. Since we weren’t sure in which order these pieces were meant to be presented, we’ve settled on alphabetical order to keep things simple.

Joy Bliss was Scott’s entree into the world of electronic music. He would remember its premier as having the most applause he ever remembers receiving. This piece features Scott on the vibes loop and vocal talent, along with Jennifer Didier, Jesse Lucas and Matt, who’s last name we’ve misplaced (at least we think his name is Matt) :) The bass may be Jesse Lucas as well, but others think it was actually Manny Quintero. 

As for the content of the piece, it can be best described as young man’s attempt at poetry about what he perceives as his choice of mate, overlaid onto a Sesame Street acid trip. 

Scott never would have described it as such, but we feel he would have appreciated that description nonetheless. :)

Joy Bliss

This piece is part of the electronic music retrospective we discovered. Please see details on the previous entries. 

Seven years ago today, the world lost a great man. Kevin Gray was a mentor and great friend to Scott, and touched the lives of so many others it’s incredible. If you aren’t familiar with the life and work of Kevin Gray, we urge you to research his career and biography. His career ended at The Hartt School, but prior to his passing, he and Scott collaborated on their production of “A View From The Bridge”. They developed and maintained a friendship for the unknowingly short time they had left. 

Scott spoke often of Kevin, and mentioned that he was the only Hartt faculty that demonstrated how proud he was that Scott had gone from student to faculty. Kevin served as a father figure to Scott, and Kevin’s encouragement and wise words had a powerful impact on Scott. It was Kevin’s confidence that gave Scott the drive he needed for the success he experienced in Hartford. 
Kevin’s sudden death was a hard blow to Scott. Even worse, the way the Hartt School segregated music and theatre departments meant that Scott mourned alone. The grief, in combination with a culture at Hartt that punishes hardworking creatives like Kevin & David Macbride, caused irreversible damage in the years that followed. 

Deep resentment lay dormant, but would erupt and manifest itself, like a flare of an autoimmune disorder. Most future attempts at collaboration paled so much in comparison to working with Kevin, that implosions became common place. An example of one such implosion can be found documented in Scott’s own words in the description of a piece called “Debris”. 

This piece is one of two “In Memoriam’s” for Kevin that Scott composed. The other piece owns the “In Memoriam” title, but this piece was named for Scott’s hope about communicating with Kevin, after his death. The anniversary of Kevin’s death is on February 11th, it was announced on February 12th and Scott began mourning on February 13th. In honor of this, every year between February 11th-13th Scott listened through the source material for this piece, which was recordings of every meeting he had with Kevin. He would also listen to and watch all the recordings and footage he could find of Kevin. Through these recordings, Scott was able to glean further lessons from Kevin that he otherwise would have forgotten about. 

This piece contains Kevin’s stories, impressions of fellow actors, his philosophies about the artistic process, heartwarming musings about his wife and just a glimpse of his pedagogical brilliance, along with an eerie premonition of his death. Scott thought that perhaps there was a bit too much of himself in this piece, but he was torn between that, and the idea that every presence of a mentee/collaborator serves to highlight how generous and effective Kevin was as his mentor.  

It’s been a while, as we searched for the original DAW files to this one. We thought it was composed on ProTools, but discovered that everything was on LOGIC. Thankfully, with the assistance of Otterbein University Music School we were able to edit the automation mistake in the beginning. We weren’t able to keep access to Logic for long enough to get the sound to be exactly the same, but we were able to cut and paste into GarageBand and export the track from there. This is a temporary quick fix, but we thought this piece was so important to Scott’s legacy that we wanted to make sure we shared it as soon as possible. Although we found the version from the Capital University sponsored retrospective, we have some evidence that Scott made further changes to this piece. We will continue searching and post a replacement when/if we do. 

At this point we will continue posting the rest of the retrospective. Once we have completed this, we will try to get to the larger project which includes a website and an attempt to get a Facebook in memorial page going. Thank you for listening! :)

The Bandwidth of Heaven

Among Scott’s numerous effects, we stumbled upon a flash drive. On this flash drive were many audio files making up what appears to be a retrospective of his many electronic music works. We think this retrospective was likely for one of the last NOW festivals ever held under Rocky Reuters supervision, in 2015 or early 2016. We felt this retrospective should be featured on Soundcloud while we continue to try to organize his remaining materials in a more official presentation. Since we weren’t sure in which order these pieces were meant to be presented, we’ve settled on alphabetical order to keep things simple. 

“Lists” was written during Scott’s time at Butler University, and live versions usually have a spoken word portion. This electronic track contains everything Scott had written and recorded up unto that point at Butler. The piece is sped up and layered, ensuring that the whole of the composition is a reasonable length of time - coming in at just under 10 minutes. 
We are only aware of one performance of “Lists” that included the spoken word portion, and Scott made it clear that he was dissatisfied with his mic technique for that performance. We will likely end up posting that performance if we are unable to find a recording in the archives that features the spoken word that is a better representation of Scott’s ideals. 
“Lists” is another classic example of a “concrete” type piece, much like “Digital Depravity”, especially when it stands alone without its live spoken word component. We think you will agree with us when we say that the 10 minute composition flies by in a flash!

In Memoriam Scott Comanzo

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