Original song, written in 2014/15. 
1st arrangement and recording, Sept 2019.
Remastered March 2021.

Where She's Gone [Remastered]

Got Me Thinking

### Still looking for a dedicated singer to join me on this adventure. IF serious, please DM me ####

My Endless Love

Another collaboration with Combstead. He sends me some great tracks to work with. I'm blessed.
Check out Combstead: https://soundcloud.com/markcombs-928282858

Home Brew - Combstead / Robert Grigg

Hard working guitar driven rock with a snotty pop streak. Detroit/Mid West rock and roll.

The Problem

Featuring> 
The Bawl Slant- Vocals
Adro the toxic waste- Guitars
veleno per topi- Bass

I Need A Drink!

CAPTCHA for Baritone and Piano
Duration: 16'
Text by CAPTCHA
Performers: American Modern Ensemble, Jesse Blumberg, baritone; Blair McMillen, piano
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1473
Online Perusal Score: https://issuu.com/robertpaterson/docs/paterson_captcha_perusal
For More Information: https://robertpaterson.com/captcha-baritone-version

PROGRAM NOTES
CAPTCHA originated with an assignment I was given as a participant in the American Opera Projects (AOP) Composers & The Voice program. Throughout the year, we wrote a variety of arias and songs and were given various "challenges." Some of the challenges included using no more than four lines of text, using found text, using prose, and also trying to avoid the passagio (a term used in classical singing to describe where different voice ranges cross over, for example, where the chest voice and head voice cross). I neglected to incorporate any of the challenges into previous pieces, and I only had one song or aria left, so I had to incorporate all of the remaining challenges into a single piece.

For found text, I decided to use CAPTCHA texts. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that only humans can pass. For example, humans can read distorted text presented as a graphic, but current computer programs cannot. To find interesting words and phrases, I spent many tedious hours in front of my computer loading CAPTCHA texts. Actually, what I ended using are reCAPTCHA texts, which are derived from a free version of CAPTCHA that uses combinations of real words from scanned books that need human confirmation and gibberish text.

I initially wrote one song entitled CAPTCHA, but later decided to compose an entire song cycle that incorporates the original song. Each songs uses a few key words (the few that are actually real words and phrases) as a springboard. I attempt to phonetically interpret the other words and phrases that don’t make sense, infusing emotion where none exists. Ultimately, my goal is to create an emotionally moving experience, despite the nonsensical nature of the words.

Winter Songs

CAPTCHA - III. youjusto Nicely

burn (tako cover)

Wind Quintet
Duration: 18'
Commissioned by Quintet of the Americas; Underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=103_137&products_id=909

PROGRAM NOTES
All of the movements of this wind quintet are connected and inspired in some way by American icons, surrealism, collage, post-1950s imagery and suburbia.

The first movement, Andante, begins with the ending and ends at the beginning. Some instruments mimic others and just when you think an idea might go in one direction, it goes in another. I gleaned many of my ideas from studying cinematic character development and the unusual forms used in many modern films such as the 1994 film Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino.

The second movement, Suburban waltz-fantasy, contains quotes from 1960s-70s TV show themes: The Jetsons, All in the Family, Green Acres, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch and Leave It To Beaver. The movement begins with a waltz-like feel and two of the players mimicking “suburban chicken lady housewives cackle-gossiping across a backyard fence.” An obnoxious stray dog interjects with loud barking and then the movement takes off in a different direction. Some of the quotes are re-composed to sound like bird songs, others are textural and a few are so subtle that they are not easy to discern. Some of the parts even sound like they are mocking each other. This movement is a strange, surrealist collage.

The most immediate and obvious reference in the title of the third movement, Melting Clocks, is to Salvador Dali’s famous 1931 painting The Persistence of Memory in which there are images of melting or limp watches. I imagine a room full of clocks all ticking away, yet slightly inaccurately, the “baby clocks” a little faster than the “old grandfather clocks.” The middle section contains a few brief quotes form the first movement, and the “slightly melted” end of the movement brings back the cuckoo, but this time it melts as if it is in a house consumed by fire.

The fourth movement, Klezmeshugeh, derives its title from my combining the words ‘klezmer’—which is a combination of the two Hebrew words, kley and zemer, meaning ‘instrument of song’—and meshugeh, which is a Yiddish word meaning ‘crazy’. Essentially, this made-up title means “crazy instrument song.” In this movement, there are a few “wrong notes” that allude to the players pretending to sight-read. The end also concludes with a few thematic fragments from the second movement.

Wind Quintet was commissioned by Quintet of the Americas and underwritten by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

Wind Quintet - I. Andante

Haunt Me (demo)

Lyrics:

Hold me hostage
In this moment
I don't wanna leave

So many dreams
Memories

The southern skyline towards the city lights
Shines in ways that I cannot describe
Glows ablaze when the sun gets tired
I feel fine

Burned this picture
In my mind
I visit it sometimes
So many nights,
Undefined

The southern skyline towards the city lights
Shines in ways that I cannot describe
Glows ablaze when the sun gets tired
I feel fine

City Ablaze

based in the north east of England indie rock ,acoustic rock , alt rock

Got Me Thinking

82 ( Ian Willis )