Winter Waterfall (naviarhaiku607)

Winter waterfall
a rock untouched
by sunrise or sunset

very rudimentary ratcheting within a sequence - VM 900 modules within Voltage Modular passing through the Waverley Instruments Quadelay

Gratitude as always to SpaceDog's kennel for exploring, encouragement, and knowledge

winter waterfall NaviarHaiku607

Recorded, mixed & mastered on 22 Aug 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa. 

Synths, crickets, effects.

This original version of "You Fall Off Your Bike And Skin Your Elbow” was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 607: Winter Waterfall.

Winter waterfall
a rock untouched
by sunrise or sunset

by: Setsuko Nozawa

Setsuko Nozawa (1920–1995) was a poet from Yokohama. Inspired by the works of Bashō and Rinka Ōno, she started writing haiku in the 1930s, joined the magazine Shakunage in 1939, and later moved to Hama in 1946. Later in life, she dedicated herself fully to poetry and ikebana, and in 1971 she founded the haiku magazine Ran, later directed by Kōzaburō Wada.

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 19 Aug 2017, Massapequa, NY, USA

Music & art © 2017, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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

You Fall Off Your Bike And Skin Your Elbow (naviarhaiku607)

The haiku that guided this;

Winter waterfall
a rock untouched
by sunrise or sunset
(Naviar haiku challenge 607, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge ),

has an obvious staring point, "Winter Waterfall" the track has finished up quite experimental.


Waterfall = white noise.
So I started with a noise source in Voltage Modular and created an evolving sequence that processed the noise output through a spectral filter bank using two instances of the WC-96 Spectral Processor from DMT Audio. I then created a rhythmic element by feeding that output through an LFO controlled envelope, passing the output on to Quadelay from Waverley Instruments. 

With the noise elements in place I added some pulses using basic VM modules then moved on. Having used a couple of tweaked Dreamsynth presets last week I decided it was time to take the deep dive and learn how to patch Dreamsynth from scratch. Dreamsynth (https://cherryaudio.com/products/dreamsynth) is deep, almost modular. I made a patch for the chord sequence; yes I know it's a bit weird but I liked it in isolation while developing the DS patch so kept it all be it sequenced, converted to MIDI and passed out from VM. While experimenting I found that if I played in a low register I got a rumbly semi random texture so I split that off and tweaked it a bit to represent the rock, triggered by a separate sequence in VM. The final element is a drone layer made from DMT Audio's "West Coast" modules (Uncertainty and Harmonic Oscillator), left over from an early experiment and passed through a band pass filter modulated by reused control, voltages from the noise sequencing. 

With all the elements in place I made two changes before recording, I added a small amount of ShimmerVerb from Eventide to the chord sequence and replaced the pure white noise that I'd planned to use at the beginning with a sample of a real waterfall from freesound (Staying close to waterfall by trader_one -- https://freesound.org/s/670515/ -- License: Creative Commons 0), because I wanted a touch of gurgling water.

With everything in place; opening waterfall, mapped physical controls, multitrack recording and no real plan. I hit record and improvised, one take, longer than I'd expected.
I'll own up to doing a lot of mastering to make the dispirit elements gel but didn't add anything significant.

Winter Waterfall - (naviarhaiku - 607)

Young grasses (naviarhaiku608)

An interpretation of:

young grasses -
not yet bent
in any direction

Naviar haiku challenge 608, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

I had an idea of the structure and development of this track quite quickly. Young grass tempted to deviate by sequences entering from either side, temptation resisted, unbent growth represented by a final melody. Decided to use VCV Rack for this one. As I was going to be assembling the elements in a live mix I knew I wouldn't be able to play the final melody and manipulate everything else, hence VCV I was able to assemble the melody as multiple sequenced blocks that are played randomly, leaving my hands free for other things.  There is a lot of subtle modulation in each of the elements some of which had to automated; even using PatchMaster from MindMeld to set up performance macros where one knob controls multiple things I quickly ran out of physical controls; so like the melody I made a few practical compromises in what I manipulated live.  

I set everything up to record live to multiple tracks giving me the freedom to tweak the mix during the mastering stage. Other than EQ, saturation and gentle compression on both individual tracks and the master; the only extra effect I added is a very light touch of K7D - Tape Delay from imaginando on both sequences, the subtle ping-pong echoes integrated them intp the whole.   

Young Grass - (naviarhaiku - 608)

Revealing the dark torch (naviarhaiku609)

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

Sax, samples, effects.

This original version of "Slop Sink Sings Hip Pop” was submitted as part of Naviar Haiku 609: Revealing In The Dark.

revealing in the dark
the sadness of things
a fisherman's torch

by: Tagami Kikusha

Tagami Kikusha (1753-1826) was a Japanese multi-disciplinary artist and Buddhist nun, mostly known as a poet, painter, calligrapher, and tea practitioner.

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 02 Oct 2020, Upper East Side, NYC, USA

Music & art © 2020, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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

Slop Sink Sings Hip Pop (naviarhaiku609)

As will as the haiku:

revealing in the dark
the sadness of things
a fisherman's torch

this also takes cues from the accompanying image, which together make up Naviar Haiku challenge 609, details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

A bit of a change for this one, I didn't use anything modular and didn't do everything in a single take.   However with the waves field recording, chord sequence, (technically dyads), played using a custom patch for Dreamsynth from Cherry Audio:  https://cherryaudio.com/products/dreamsynth and the footsteps at the beginning in place. 

I then recoded volume automation for those elements allowing me to live mix them with my performance using the Creature From The ID stand alone synth by Giorgio Sancristoforo: https://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net/softwares which was passed through delay and reverb effects, in place as I recorded so I could judge their effect. 

With those main elements done I added the extra footsteps and buoy bell. After listening to the Creature sounds and deciding that in places they more resembled short wave radio interference than whale song I added the Morse Code.

Sounds used.

Waves - My own recording but available from freesound: Waves_on_a_Shingle_Beach by Mr_Lamppost -- https://freesound.org/s/800900/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Footsteps: walking slow on stones by launemax -- https://freesound.org/s/249921/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Buoy bell:  S29-19 Bell buoy.wav by craigsmith -- https://freesound.org/s/675693/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Morse Code - generated nn line using Morse Code Translator: https://morsecode.world/international/translator.html

The Sadness Of Things - (naviarhaiku - 609)

Unusual glass (naviarhaiku610)

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

Little musician from little island. OST for films, documentary & videogames.

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