Variation Two is one of six tracks from my upcoming release, "and with this coming together... we grow apart".
The album will be released on June 10th, 2022, on all major streaming platforms. 

this entire piece is based on the parallelisation [of], forced conjoining [of], and attempted separation of four notes: c, f, g and ab.

the title of this piece comes from a line of text written by the composer within a piece of prose:

“... and as we align as parallels, the space between us becomes thinner ...
... and as the space becomes thinner, the more we come together ...
... and with this coming together, we grow apart.”

the piece is inspired by louis andrissen’s worker’s union, as an homage to the composer who passed away earlier in 2021, the year that this piece was written.

all harmonic and rhythmic material in this piece was created using a random number generator.


PLAYERS:
Andrew Liddell - Violin
Georgia Morgan Turner - Electric Guitar
Owain Davies-McCrorie - Bb Baritone
Alex Lyon - Bb Bass Clarinet
Tom Bradbury - Eb Alto Saxophone
Natacha Hansen - Eb Alto Saxophone
Serena Sheane - Piano
Dom Daggett - Marimba
Sam Pugh - Double Bass
Alex Ferkey - Double Bass

Variation Two - and with this coming together... we grow apart.

This track is pretty much entirely computer-generated. The parameters were set by making all drums/notes (in G minor) have the potential to play every 16th beat, but setting the probability of that note/drum to actually play during a particular 16th division from somewhere between 1 and 20% probability.
All notes or drum hits during a given time are therefore random.

The Baseline Harmony of Existence, Given a 1-20% Probability of Occurrence

"Ornettiana" - Rollin' by Monica "Nica" Agosti
ShapeX Ensemble
released September 12, 2022

Monica "Nica" Agosti - Vocals
Tommaso Iacoviello - Trumpet
Tobia Bondesan - Alto Saxophone
Francesco Sarrini - Double bass
Giuseppe Sardina - Drums

01. The Band Comes Playing a Crazy Little March and Goes Away – 02:41
02. Law Years – 05:43
03. Brittle White – 07:55
04. Spread Love – 00:39
05. Kathelin Gray – 04:29
06. Echoes from Fort Worth, Texas – 02:00
07. Cooper’s Game – 03:26
08. Rollin’ – 03:22
09. Human Voice – 03:22
10. At the Funeral the Band is Sad and Drunk – 02:37
11. StoryTellers / Search for Life – 07:20

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Francesco Ponticelli at Cicaleto Recording Studio in Arezzo
Recorded on October 30th & 31st, 2021
Mixed on November 8th & 9th, 2022, December 13th, 2022
Mastered on May 3rd, 2022

Artwork and Layout by Karen Minden
Produced by Monica Agosti and Aut Records
To me, improvised creative music means expressing myself “in the moment”. We live in the illusion of our daily routine, but we don’t know what the future holds. Each day only happens once, and the real challenge is learning to live in the present moment, here and now. This album was inspired by this concept and by the great Ornette Coleman, whose music is an ideal paradigm between his creativity and other musicians’, with total respect for both. I believe that, as individuals, we grow by accepting other people and their views as they provide new input and awareness.
Similarly, music gets richer thanks to the free, democratic contribution of the musicians who participate. Everyone’s voice is valued and enhanced, adding to the others into a harmonious or “harmolodic” whole, as Ornette would call it. These principles also guided my choice of the musicians I wanted with me, with whom I share a profound musical and human harmony: Tobia Bondesan on sax, Tommaso Iacoviello on trumpet, Francesco Sarrini on double bass, Giuseppe Sardina on drums. This album would not have been possible without them, and I am immensely grateful to them for trusting me and the project. (Monica "Nica" Agosti)

Ornettiana

Rollin'

warm my stomach, warm ur heart

performed by "Quadruple Bass", with:
Isabel Rößler - Double Bass
Wolfgang Seidel - Percussion, Electronics
Alexis Baskind - Double Bass

mixed by Wolfgang Seidel

Quadruple Bass (Isabel Rößler, Wolfgang Seidel, Alexis Baskind) - Space is the pace

Ever since I started developing this work, a polyrhythm of 3, 7 and 11 has persisted throughout.  Yet, when I listened to early iterations of the work, I often found myself hearing a phantom 4 time.  I have sometimes noticed this when listening to other music I know to be polyrhythmic.  My brain evidently has a tendency to perceive that rhythm, which is so dominant in my musical heritage, in its drive to find patterns in the unfamiliar.  I understand this tendency to be a cultural construct – I heard somewhere that people of the Balkans, when absent-mindedly drumming their fingers, are likely to do so in an asymmetric rhythm such as 11.  I have adjusted the work so that I no longer hear the 4.  Or perhaps I have merely become more accustomed to the polyrhythm.  Either way, the meaning of the work’s title should now be apparent:  Against The Tyranny of 4!

It is not necessary to be consciously aware of the specific polyrhythm in order to appreciate the music.  However, for those who may be interested, here are some pointers for identifying the three cross rhythms.  For reference, I should first explain that the work is a trio for three virtual instruments:  a sampled drum kit; a monophonic plucked synth part that I shall call the ‘bass’, though its higher registers perhaps sound more like a guitar; and a monophonic ‘lead’ synth part whose timbre varies between a brass instrument approximation and a bowed stringed instrument approximation.

The number of underlying pulses in a bar is 231, being the least common multiple of the cross rhythms 3, 7 and 11.  The total bar length is just under 3.7 seconds.  Because the cross rhythms are all prime numbers, the only beat they have in common is the first pulse of the bar.  When the drum kit plays that beat, it is with a kick drum only.  Other beats of the 3 rhythm are played by the snare drum;  other beats of the 7 rhythm are played by cymbals; and other beats of the 11 rhythm are played by toms.

The bass mostly picks its notes from the 3 and 7 rhythms only.  However, in its ‘solo’ and in the ‘dual solo’ with the lead just before the end, the bass picks notes from all three rhythms.  Similarly, the lead mostly picks its notes from the 11 rhythm only. However, in the lead’s two ‘solos’ and in the ‘dual solo’, it too picks notes from all three rhythms.  (The lead solo before the bass solo has bass accompaniment; the later one does not.)

For the lead and bass parts, the selection of the pitches and, when a part is ‘soloing’, the lengths of the notes is stochastic (i.e. controlled by time-dependant probabilities).  The determination of which drum kit instrument articulation plays when is merely probabilistic, as there’s a fixed pattern throughout, except right at the end.  The same is true of lead and bass note lengths when not ‘soloing’.

Against The Tyranny of 4 is the first work created with a software sequencer I have been developing myself.  I used a Superior Drummer sampled drum kit.  The lead and bass parts were made with the software synthesizer Massive.  Because the work is stochastic, it is different every time I run the software.  So I may release multiple versions.

This particular version was recorded on 26th October 2022 at O'Rorke Towers, Wellington, New Zealand.

Simon O’Rorke

Against the Tyranny of 4

We all fight ennui and anxiousness differently...

Abstractions Nr 2a  - In De Wachtkamer

https://open.spotify.com/album/4ba9FsUA3YDvfGinKAtTQq

Miyako

Derek Beckvold - Alto Saxophone
Isuru Kumarsinghe - Electronics
Isaac Smith - Double Bass
Sum Suraweera - Drums

Recorded live at Big Ears Music Series, 26/4/24, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Beckvold/Suraweera/Kumarasinghe/Smith Live at Big Ears, 26/4/14

Description to come later -- please enjoy the journey for now.

In the Modcans of Madness

More 259e output to output patching experiments 

Liquid Metal Whales 2

Simon O'Rorke discovered improvised music while a student in London.  After emigrating to New Zealand, from 1992 he formed free improv ensembles in Wellington, at a time when activity in the genre appeared to be otherwise non-existent in the city.  Since the improv scene took off in 1997, O'Rorke has collaborated with many of New Zealand’s leading improvisors.  Originally a bass guitarist, he has specialised in percussion since 1997 and then, from 2010, synthesizers and software instruments.  In addition to his ongoing participation in collaborative improvisation, O’Rorke has very recently started to develop software electronic works.

Against the Tyranny of 4

Simon O'Rorke

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