The 30+ year journey of a Black engineer in K-12 education – featuring Dr. Darin Gray

Episode 5: "I Am Not A Unicorn"

Learning how to use Ableton Live. Just practicing here.

Ableton Live Practice improv July 4 2023

This track started with a visit to the pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico. A beautiful place, but a place where a lot of the original culture and knowledge that created the pyramids has been lost, and replaced with a rebuilt, tourist trap.

So it's a mix of loss and sadness and beauty with an edge of modern misuse, which I tried to capture in the original strings from which the track was built. I also made some binaural recordings of the sounds there, and a storm which came in, to give a real layer of atmosphere from the actual location. Tom Hodge then played piano to these elements, bringing the whole piece to life.

I loved the piano on it's own in addition to the strings version, so as well as the Part 2 on the EP, we also created a Part 1 piano solo version with the piano sent into a feedback matrix with lots of randomising to create unusual textures. This part 1 version can be downloaded for free from www.maxcooper.net as part of the Quotient Series.

Teotihuacan (Part 2) with Tom Hodge

A beautiful and haunting Nocturne by Henri Tomasi.  Recorded by Toby Oft and Ling Len in the Boston Conservatory of Music's Jordan Hall.
Toby Oft is the Principle Trombone for the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Henri Tomasi Concerto For Trombone, 2nd Movement "Nocturne" Toby Oft, Trombone

Whiskey Lane Productions

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