Take The Gloom Out Of Doom

Title:
Infra Red

Dates:
02-Nov-2024 (inception), 03-Nov-2024 (finalised), 03-Nov-2024 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund, scanning of film by Ferrymead Film (NZ, Christchurch)

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/infra-red

Description:
Using my recent infra red black and white photographs taken on a Rollei Cord gave me inspiration for this composition, performed on the Soma Pipe. My voice fed through the Pipe, into the Soma Cosmos memory station and recorded on a custom Max (Cycling74) eight track recorder patch.

This eight track recorder allows the play back speed to be altered according to Just Intonation frequency ratios (integer ratios), which provided both interesting harmonies and polymeter effects. The occasional reverse playback of tracks altered live during the performance also added some interest.

The master track capturing all the track playbacks was saved to an audio file and imported into Ableton Live for final mixing levels, minimal changes were applied. In keeping with the ephemeral nature of DAWless recordings and Soma Cosmos performances, I only kept the final master track, individual tracks discarded. Freezing a moment in time.

The cover photo was taken on a Rollei Cord twin lens reflex camera (2 1/4"x2 1/4" film), load with "Rollei Infrared 120" film, then digitally scanned after development. The photograph was taken at Lake Coleridge, New Zealand. Effective ISO 6, with shutter speeds of 1s, taken on a very windy day, so definitely a tripod was used.

Infra Red

**Tracklist**
Luigi Tozzi - Atlatl
Luigi Tozzi - Obsidian 
Feral  - Polar Sun
Renil Edis / Side Liner & DI.CAPA, - Staring The Speed
DI.CAPA - Thravsma
Claudio PRC - Axial

OR005 - Hypnus mix

Produced, and performed live using Ableton Live / Launchpad X / Faderfox PC12
Recorded live @ Kale Bass party #10. April 26th 2025.
Thanks to Kale Bass team and the fantastic audience ! 

0'00 : What's going on here ?
1'50 : Bass Culture (Remix)
6'30 : Light up your spliff
14'30 : Didgeriddim
21'57 : Blueberry
31'57 : Tough Cookie
39'03 : Licao de baiao (Remix)
44'50 : Nuit Debout
55'03 : Forward the Revolution
1'04'50 : Pompe la confiote
1'14'45 : Club XL
1'22'30 : Miss Shaker (Remix)

Anima Mundi (live act performance)

Title:
Crackle

Dates:
28-Apr-2024 (inception), 01-May-2024 (finalised), 28-May-2025 (released)

Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund
Photography by Zachary Freund
Astrophotography by John Holgate

BandCamp Purchase:
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/track/crackle
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/WeRj2nls07A

Description:

Midnight Run Through The Port Hills
	
Valley run,
Moon light night,
Tree shadows sweep by.

Forest behind,
Sweeping bends ahead.

Tension builds,
Revs increase,
Hill climb begins.
City lights flicker below.

Sky lights appear,
Ascending light beam,
Hatch silhouette,
Galaxy engulfs,
Silence,
Darkness.


Behind the scenes music notes:

The main motivation behind Crackle is the Just Intonation (JI) tuning used, taking all the harmonics from octaves 0 to 5, octave reduce, remove duplicates and re-order in ascending order. This resulted in a 29 frequency ratios (not including in the 2/1 octave). These 30 frequency ratios were then transposed by JI perfect fifths (3/2 ratio) to expand the scale in violin style ready for a four string violin. When applied to violin, this means there are 30 notes per string spanning one octave.

The scale outline (** full details see my social media and BandCamp **):
Scale Index(i), [string number], JI Equation, Cent
0[1], 1/1, 0c
1[1], 33/32, 53c
2[1], 17/16, 105c
3[1], 9/8, 204c
4[1], 37/32, 251c
5[1], 19/16, 298c
6[1], 39/32, 342c
7[1], 5/4, 386c
8[1], 41/32, 429c
9[1], 21/16, 471c
10[1], 43/32, 512c
11[1], 11/8, 551c
12[1], 23/16, 628c
13[1], 47/32, 666c
14[1], 3/2, 702c
15[1], 49/32, 738c
16[1], 25/16, 773c
17[1], 51/32, 807c
18[1], 13/8, 841c
19[1], 53/32, 874c
20[1], 27/16, 906c
21[1], 55/32, 938c
22[1], 7/4, 969c
23[1], 57/32, 999c
24[1], 29/16, 1030c
25[1], 59/32, 1059c
26[1], 15/8, 1088c
27[1], 61/32, 1117c
28[1], 31/16, 1145c
29[1], 2/1, 1200c
30[2], 3/2, 702c
31[2], 99/64, 755c
...
59[2], 3/1, 1902c
60[3], 9/4, 1404c
61[3], 297/128, 1457c
...
89[3], 9/2, 2604c
90[4], 27/8, 2106c
91[4], 891/256, 2159c
...
118[4], 837/128, 3251c
119[4], 27/4, 3306c


It was then time to start playing around with the scale. The reference note used for this scale was not as per a concert pitch violin, rather concert pitch middle C, then some differing octave transpositions for the various string tracks.

The string sections were played on a 64 note midi controller, the Ableton Push2, so only a subset of the full 120 notes could be played at once. Played "organ style", as chords, well beyond double stop capabilities of a single physical string instrument. These tracks provided the basic harmony and melodic concepts.

Next the Soma Pipe (hardware synthesiser, here accepting the human voice as input) was played to provide improvised lead and percussive parts. The lead parts used various Pipe algorithms (Filtera, Harcho, MadDelay and Synth), the tuning was not necessarily strictly as per the table above, but rather improvised live tuning, where I as the performer, used my ears and emotions to guide the tuning choices. Some of the Pipe parts used a digital amplitude modulation device (Max for Live, custom programmed, the NOF_AENV Release 06). This amplitude modulation tool, used two simultaneous sine wave modulations with JI frequency ratios.

A wave table synthesiser in Ableton Live was used for the string section and for one additional instrument.

** See BandCamp and Social Media links for video production notes. **

Artist Links:
Norman Freund; Social media: https://www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545; YouTube: https://youtube.com/@normanfreund; Music: https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund, https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com

John Holgate; Social media: https://www.facebook.com/blundering.fool.3; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@quedecree; Music: johnholgate.bandcamp.com

Zachary Freund, Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/zac.freund.9, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zac_freund

Crackle

Do What You Want

half-asleep eyes
open to a dreamlike world
of blossoms

Natsume Seibi (1749-1816) was the son of a wealthy Edo rice broker and was acquainted with a number of other famous poets, including Oshima Ryota and Kobayashi Issa. In addition to his poetry, Seibi left behind a number of fine examples of haikai prose. 

Haiku by Natsume Seibi

Picture by Pascal Bullan

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