My interpretation of:

Mount Asama
amidst its fumes and ash
fresh young leaves!

Naviar Haiku challenge 579, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

With the exception of the birdsong at the start, which is from this sound pack: https://www.luftrum.com/free-field-recordings sold in aid of WWF Denmark, Everything was created in virtual modular using VCV Rack. As I had a couple of distractions this week I developed the sounds in three separate VCV patches, which rather than combining I performed and recorded sequentially each as a single take.

While doing it this way makes it less of a live experience it does greatly simplify the assignment of physical controls, allows for splitting to more tracks when recording allowing more flexibility in the mixing/mastering process and allowed me to add the birdsong after recording the opening, meaning it was in place when I introduced the sequences.   

Fresh Young Leaves - (naviarhaiku - 579)

Recorded, mixed & mastered on 12 & 14 Feb 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa. 

Synths, reverb, echo.

This original version of "Ribbons/Ribbon" was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 580, Quiescence!

quiescence!
touching not the blossoms,
temple bell's voice

by: Fuhaku

Kawakami Fuhaku was a tea master and the founder of the Edosenke, a school of tea ceremony. He was also an accomplished haiku poet.

Artwork/Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 14 Feb 2014, Penn Station, NYC, NY, USA & 13 Feb 2025

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

For more about the Naviar Haiku Challenge, see https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

Ribbons/Ribbon (naviarhaiku580)

Created in response to:

quiescence!
touching not the blossoms,
temple bell's voice

Naviar Haiku challenge 580, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

I used a combination of the probabilistic generative instrument Ongaku from Giorgio Sancristoforo; https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net Ongaku is just over half way down the page. And Voltage Modular from Cherry Audio: https://cherryaudio.com/products/voltage-modular I experimented with running Voltage as a plugin which allowed me to run it in parallel with Ongaku and make a single "Live" performance, the downside to this was that I couldn't assign physical controls, all mouse and window flipping.

The bell samples used at the beginning and which reappear later processed through granular synthesis and multiple delays are my own recordings.  

Quiescence-(naviarhaiku-580)

Recorded, mixed & mastered on 19 Feb 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa. 

Synths, reverb, percussion, echo.

This original version of "Lollipop Tingle" was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 581, Plunging My Hand 

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds

by: Kobayashi Issa

Among the four great masters of Japanese haiku, Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) was the most prolific: during his lifetime he wrote over 20,000 haiku, hundreds of tanka, and several haibun.

Artwork/Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 19 May 2023, Massapequa, NY, USA

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

For more about the Naviar Haiku Challenge, see https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

Lollipop Tingle (naviarhaiku581)

Inspired by the haiku by Kobayashi Issa:

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds 

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

flexion (naviarhaiku581)

The prompt for this track:

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds

Naviar Haiku Challenge 581,details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

A fair amount of experimentation with ways to represent the haiku, some more successful and obvious than others, the rippling sequence is more inspired by the image than the poem but I kept it in to move the music forward.

Other than the samples, sourced from freesound:

rowing boat from inside.wav by Fenodyrie -- https://freesound.org/s/588307/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
oar.wav by bruno.auzet -- https://freesound.org/s/525030/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Everything was made in virtual modular using a combination of VCV Rack and Voltage Modular.  Running VM as a plugin allowed me to run both in parallel and make a single take multitrack recording. 

Billowing Clouds - (naviarhaiku - 581)

Recorded, mixed & mastered on 26 Feb 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa. 

Synths, reverb, echo.

This original version of "Cool Your Scorching Throw Pillow, Part 73" was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 582, Here And There

here and there
upon scorched fields
wild violets

by: Arii Shokyu-Ni

Arii Shokyu-Ni was a haiku poetess during the Edo period who began a wandering life after running away from her husband at 29 with the haiku poet Kohaku. Just like Matsuo Basho, "the Nun Shokyu" traveled to the Deep North of Japan.

Artwork/Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 12 Feb 2023 - a view of a painting of mine from the same month named “No Plans”, Massapequa, NY, USA

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

For more about the Naviar Haiku Challenge, see https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

Cool Your Scorching Throw Pillow, Part 73  (naviarhaiku582)

An interpretation of:

here and there
upon scorched fields
wild violets

Naviar haiku challenge 582, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

Assembled using a combination of Voltage Modular and Bento, the noise synth from Giorgio Sancristoforo; https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net (Bento is about 2/3 of the way down the list).

I started out with Bento, got it set up worked out which controls I wanted to manipulate the moved onto Voltage Modular and patched together the other elements I'd need. Although a bit of a fiddle, I'd assigned all my physical controls to Bento so had to control all the VM components with the mouse, everything was manipulated and recorder in a single live take.

Scorched Fields - (Naviarhaiku - 582)

Recorded, mixed & mastered on 07-08 Mar 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa. 

Tenor sax, photo theremin, reverb, echo. 

This original version of "Physics Tape Parade" was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 583, Out Of The Blue.

out of the blue
of early morning light:
a paulownia leaf

by: Ōshima Ryōta

Ōshima Ryōta was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. Some sources say he was a disciple of Yosa Buson, while others say his master was Hattori Ransetsu. He's mostly remembered for his essay “Bashō ku kai” 芭蕉句解 ('Study of Bashō's haiku') published in 1759, a magnum opus of his studies and literary theories on Matsuo Bashō's work.

Drawing/Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 9 Apr 2018, Massapequa, NY, USA

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

For more about the Naviar Haiku Challenge, see https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

Physics Tape Parade (naviarhaiku583)

Prompted by and in response to:

out of the blue
of early morning light:
a paulownia leaf

Naviar haiku challenge 583, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

Not as I envisaged at the outset owing to a lucky experiment and a willingness to got with the flow. All the base sounds are generated in virtual modular using VCV Rack with split outputs allowing multitrack recording. I had planned on using the Deelay plugin from Sixth Sample and while I was tweaking the settings put it into chaos mode as an experiment, not what I wanted but more suitable for this track, saved some VCV patching.  With the other elements in place I set up physical controls and did a test run to get an idea of what to patch next. After what would have been the opening ran to over six minutes I decided that with a couple of tweaks I had enough for a take, more minimal and slower evolving than my original idea but probably suits the haiku better. I used a touch of Frostbite 2 from Audio Thing to add some texture to the opening.

Early Morning Light - (naviarhaiku - 583)

I'm primarily a visual artist both 2D and 3D, for the last decade I've operated almost exclusively in the digital 3D realm.   since the late 80s I've made periodic forays into the sonic world, MIDI sequencing, minimalism, musique concrète, found sounds  and improvisation. I am seldom happy with anything and seldom consider a piece finished.

Making music is about being surprised.
https://www.patreon.com/blisterpop
Linktree for more - https://linktr.ee/blisterpop

New tracks tagged #NaviarHaiku