"And they said then, 'But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,..."

The Man With the Blue Guitar is a poem published in 1937 by Wallace Stevens. It is divided into thirty-three brief sections, or cantos. In the poem, an unnamed "they" says, of the titular man, "you do not play things as they are", sparking a prolonged meditation on the nature of art, performance, and imagination.

Release date:
27 March 2025

The Man With the Blue Guitar - a tune beyond

New Jersey-grown content

On this page is the most complete collection of Instrumentals, exclusive songs, B-sides and more, curated by Arkateqq/Woodro Skillson. Top tracks will also be ported to Youtube and other streaming platforms.

Open to new collabs!

Arkateqq (a.k.a. Woodro Skillson) is a music producer and sound designer specializing in rock, hip-hop, r&b and electronic dance genres. After signing with Headbanga Muzik in 2009, he crafted and remixed records for many of today’s notable artists, working from coast to coast. From beats and live instrumentation, including over 20 years of guitar experience, to songwriting, DJing, brand syncs and production for TV and film, he has racked up years of experience doing it all. His work on Italian artist Fabri Fibra's 'Guerra E Pace' elevated the album to Number 1 in Italy, earning a platinum certification, and he has composed music for 3 RIAA-certified (2 Platinum, 1 Gold) albums in the US. Woodro releases his own songs under the name Arkateqq, and with hundreds of sync placements from independent songwriting, he continues to work with artists and brands who are passionate about imagination and delivering an incredible experience. (From Breweryrecording.com)

Reposts will always be collaborations with artists or songs produced! Some playlists will feature my favorite tracks from other artists.

Several instrumentals will be added each week! Please follow & new music will be here. 

Arkateqq - Guitar Moods Sound Pack (for producers)
https://www.skillsonic.live/str/guitarmoodssoundpack

Thank you!




Some of the best accounts on here have really long bios (I actually appreciate this), and I don't want to be confused with a bot account. If you are a human, I am probably listening to your music (I've definitely heard some AI, you know the sound) but Soundcloud is currently the only place I can hear real unmixed underground shoegaze, wild genre experiments, the weirdest rap flows, and piano ballads all in one sitting. My wife Martine only likes mastered music (she sings on 'God Given' and 'Sun' on this page) but I will sit here and listen through everything because some labels can't/won't and I actually enjoy the process of finding gold in the form of a passionate musician who can only afford to upkeep a Soundcloud account. If no one has heard you yet, keep creating! We still don't know you, but we are listening! Ultimately, my goal is to help computer musicians understand that while playing an instrument is an amazing skill to harness, studio-quality recordings can be made anywhere and at anytime (and with any instrument). If you need help achieving a better production, mix, or master please message me and we can discuss how to do that together.

Let's GO



Contact:
arkateqq [at] gmail [dot] com

My music pieces are all piano improvisations expressing emotions. It is music telling stories without the words. In my earIy years I sang and played piano in piano bars or fronted bands of different styles, from country to heavy metal and to 40. I've been composing, teaching and performing most of my life.  I'm getting old(er) now 😔 but the great thing about creating music is it gets better the longer you play, and you have more to write about! 

This is what I leave of me to my generations to come who wonder where their desire to make music comes from. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were both accomplished pianists when they were young. My son is also exceptional.  My great grandmother and gr grandfather sang and danced in minstrel shows (vaudeville) in the early 1900's. Kids today have no idea what life was like before moving pictures.  I now have great-grandchildren. They will know who I am through my music. When I am gone my music will still be here. What a wonderful thought! 

The man who sold the world. YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEaJAo9vVf60TYKOAhXahWnbkWi3RvvFs&si=NKf5MUNhsyGqH4Yp

A place for sound freaks lashing out from the dark. 

So there's all kinds of stuff on this page, but after months of schizophrenic debates about who was playing with who and who took the lead while doing it, finally, the decision was made: all my alter egos got together and decided to form a band. From 2020 on new tracks are created under the moniker Gruppo Infernal. Only pure MMTJ tracks will still be named as such. 

Gruppo Infernal still relies on my work as Me, my Thumb and Jack, an ongoing quest for a liberating approach to sound creation where the human body acts as an oscillator amplifying the natural 50hz hum. Direct live recording, improvisations and delay loops only using analog filters and effects. No editing, no overdubs. Gruppo Infernal adds digital treatment to this original sound material. 

UnterPitch was an alter ego using samples & synths.
Bleached Coffins was a one-off project using guitars.

earliest work when I was still a pup:
https://blindsightrecords.bandcamp.com/album/throbbing-flip-out

I am a composer and producer of instrumental music in several genres, including ambient soundscapes, electronica, orchestral and chamber music.  

Musical influences include John Coltrane, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Holst, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Tangerine Dream, Robert Prince, Frank Zappa, Brian Eno, Heinrich Ignaz, Franz von Biber.

My Method of Composing and Producing
------------------------------------------
I'm sharing my method of composing and producing music recordings in case other composer-producers like me might find ideas worth exploring in their own work. I use this method for Classical, Avant-Pop or Neo-Folk Instrumental genres, not for Ambient and Soundscape pieces. Non-composers might find this explanation interesting, but having a bit of music theory background will definitely help. I consider myself a humble learner when it comes to music theory. 

I owe a debt of gratitude to British musician and educator Gareth Green, whose Music Matters online courses and free YouTube lessons have taught me so much over the past few years. Thanks to his instruction, I’ve moved from struggling to compose music by trial and error to something more enjoyable and productive. The knowledge I've gained has taken my work in new and expanding directions. As the saying goes, “Theory is not a cage — it’s a map. It doesn’t make the journey for you, but it keeps you from getting lost.” 

When I start a new piece, I begin by choosing a key, and picking a scale drawn from one of these sources:
 
1) Western Tonal / Functional Harmony - major or minor chords I II III IV V VI VII
2) Modal Harmony - Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc.
3) Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" 
4) Messiaen’s "Seven Modes of Limited Transposition" 

For many pieces, I also decide on a progression, one as a simple as I IV V, or something more elaborate.  

Next I create a "scales and progressions" piano track in my DAW (digital audio workstation software) and enter the chords I to VII in my chosen key. These harmonized scales serve as a basis for writing multipart harmonies and finding pivot chords for key modulations. 

At the start, I know what instruments I want to use, making adjustments along the way. I tend to write chord parts first, then melodies created through a mix of improvisation and direct input in the DAW. Sometimes I start with a melody.

I develop melodies and variations of a phrase by some combination of: a) passing it from one instrument to another, transposing it by an interval that sounds pleasing, b) reversing it, c) inverting it around the tonic (first) note of the scale. These are well-known methods. 

After completing a section, I choose another scale and maybe a new key and repeat the process until I have a draft of the entire piece. Then I export a recording and listen to it “offline”, take notes of errors and new ideas, and incorporate them back into the piece. Often this “compose / listen / compose” cycle is repeated many times. These iterative cycles include adding new ideas, polishing transitions between sections, changing the arrangement, and incorporating expressive details like accents, and articulations (staccato, sustain, portato etc.). I’m often working several different pieces at once. 

Last is mixing and mastering: balancing the loudness between instruments and adjusting elements like reverb, compression, and equalization. I tend to mix as I compose, even though many producers frown on that approach. I find mixing as I go helps me envision the completed piece and make adjustments to the choice of instruments; it self-inspires me when the piece is starting to sound good.  At the end I do a final mix, but as the saying goes, “A mix is never finished — it’s surrendered.”

In the end, this method gives me a basis for exploration and creativity and helps me stay focused. The goal is always to make a piece of music that feels expressive, cohesive, and emotionally resonant.

Caveat: I explicitly prohibit the use of any material I post for purposes of torture, brainwashing, hypnosis, bedazzlement or any other nefarious activity. This prohibition applies to all governments, corporations, institutions, agencies and individuals. 

“The avant garde is dead. That is its triumph. Let it lie.” - Chris Cutler in “Not As We Choose: Music, Memory and Technology”. (Highly recommended!)

“… there is increasingly less call to exercise an already too rare generosity of aesthetic hospitality.” - Chris Cutler

" Music is one of the great Mysteries. It gives life. It is not a career, nor a business, nor a craft. It is a gift... and a great responsibility. Because one can never know where the creative spark comes from or why it exists, it must be treasured as a Mystery. For the most part I believe creativity chooses you, not the other way around." - John Zorn (excerpt from the liner notes to 'Magick')

“Listen as if you were being told a secret” - Federico Fellini

“Experimental and electronic music was once not-so-benignly tolerated at the margins of western art music, but it has over the last decade or so moved toward a central position as something of the soundtrack of our digital culture. Where it once was merely tolerated it is now more engaged and doesn’t have to apologize to anyone”.  - Douglas Kahn 

"Through technology, voices are amplified and silence is broken. Spaces are shared." – Laurie Anderson

"I frequently hear music in the heart of noise." - George Gershwin

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds." - 
Malaclypse the Younger in 'Principia Discordia'

“Let us cross a great modern capital with our ears more alert than our eyes and we will get enjoyment from distinguishing the eddying of water, air and gas in metal pipes, the grumbling noises that breathe and pulse with indisputable animility, the palpitation of waves, the coming and going of pistons, the howl of mechanical saws, the jolting of the tram on its rails, the cracking of whips, the flapping of curtains and flags. We enjoy creating mental orchestrations of crashing down of metal shop blinds, slamming doors, the hubbub and shuffle of crowds, the variety of din from the stations, railways, iron foundries, spinning mills, printing works, electric power stations and underground railways.” — Luigi Russolo in 'The Art of Noises' (L'arte dei Rumori)

Urban Dictionary (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mesmo)
(New Norberian English)

1. lit. in a state of mesmerism, hypnotism; in a trance
2. in a state of bewilderment or confusion, daydreaming; 'out of it'
3. mind bogglingly awesome, spellbinding, captivating

(1) "He swung that watch in front of her face and she got all mesmo"
(2) "When the teacher called me to the board I had just woken up and was still pretty mesmo"
(3) "The new N64 cartridge is totally mesmo, bro”

Banner: The Hearing Trumpet_Leonora Carrington (detail)

I'm glad you found my music.
I've always wanted to express the music deep in my heart.
My music is music that overflows from the album jacket.
My music will light up a projector of your memories.
It's like finding your old album!
And above all, I hope I can make you all happy.

The Man With the Blue Guitar - a tune beyond

Palatinus