July Eight

Ambient stuff

FAWM 2023

Created during the first lockdown, from pieces of collected radio sound, made using http://radio.garden/visit/las-palmas/XaXHxnXy

Soundscaping The Lockdown (Radio Babel)

Playing around with samples from Night of the living dead...poor Barbara.

Circuit Tracks and Blackbox 1010

1 of 8 in July for DI4Y

Barbara

Messing about with washing machine samples on BB1010 and Circuit Tracks...the recording was really quiet for some reason, but messing about it Ableton gave it an even hasher sound that seems to work. 

2 of 8 in July

WAshing MachiNe

This is a remix of a loop texture thing I did using a web cam to control ableton live. Originally it was used for an interactive sound experiment as part of Minimus at Ebb and Flow.

 Its a bit messy, but is my 3rd track for July.

Edison Records

4 of 8 made in July, this one sampled and sequenced on a recent camping trip, using samples from the firepit - played through a Blackbox 1010

Firepit

made with circuit rhythm, this is an experiment in using the rode ai-micro to record direct to phone and uploaded without messing around with a computer. as a tune it is a lazy ambient ramble with some erratically evolving hi hat patterns i quite like...this track plays around with the time settings on the rhythm, with some tracks operating far slower than others to prevent overly synced repetition.

Lazy ambient scribbling.wav

This bit of ambient was made from a lovely bit of synth played by Rich on his new Lyra 8, with me doing some beats, samples and added synth stuff on circuit tracks, rhythm, blackbox 1010, op1 and microkorg.

Lyra

No drums track from me and Mr Clark, blending various synth noises sampled mangled, with a big dollop of Lyra 8....its a bit long.

Ambient Souffle

Fawm track one, made with some bits of last years track one.

Eyeballs And Time

I'm a bit behind on FAWM, so I set myself a challenge. Put something together within 15 minutes of opening Ableton. Not much fiddling about. Just play about and post what gets done...its never going to be perfect, but its something...

I was thinking about how ambient music is often thought of as something for the background, chill out or somehow hard to notice. A lot of ambient sounds are pretty hard to ignore, loud, strange, irritating, and amazing. I decided to make something chopping up samples of different otherwise ambient noises and making them into instruments. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea and decided to do it in sections. This one is based on nature sounds. I imagine a group of monkeys riding humpback whales past melting glaciers.

Ambient Cacophony - Part one (nature)

This is the second part of an ambient thing, stitching together a soundscape of less-than-relaxing sounds. This imagines a broken refrigerator witnessing the trial of the squeaky wheel from its vantage point within a road-trapped building site.

Ambient Cacophony Part Two (the machines)

I got an AI to write an argument between two AI computers about the merits of AI art and then asked two AIs to 'sing' it. I don't think I believe either of them, neither seems very convincing.

AI Art

#electronic #AI #fawmtronica


Another experiment in AI writing, with the melody, chords, bass line and riff developed from AI suggestions (or interpreted as the answers didn't quite make sense). This is interspersed with some weird sounds. Messing around with AI like this is both strange, unsettling and intriguing to me. It is sort of lazy, but also not sure it is any lazier than developing music from known patterns and constructs that are known to work...when we create something, we usually apply rules that we have learnt or a process that is established in our minds. Using AI is perhaps not so different, it is another tool ... the question is what element the human plays - arranging, and messing around with the computer results....colouring in the gaps...maybe.

Weird Kid

Another AI collaboration...I really am behind and finding it helpful...realising it is giving me more time to think about other aspects of the track...hmmm...this one evolves around a sample of a tiger...a bit less hectic than some of my other stuff...i'm trying to make things with a bit more space. This has space tigers.

Space Tigers

A bit of slothcore for a late night catch up. Not loads happening here, and maybe thats a good thing. Playing with the good slow spacey 30bpm stuff.

In My Head

This was done quite quickly, both in time and speed. I quite like it, but it represents very little care and attention.

Fast Mess

It's my dog's 10th birthday, so I made this slightly unsettling piece of dog house using a selection of tuned bark samples. There is no good excuse for this. It is as ridiculous as it sounds. I also may have invented a genre in Dog House. It is characterised by four-to-the-floor bass barks, pitched barking and erratic changes in tempo. I may need to do a whole album of Dog House to make this a thing.

Dog Day

This little fawm track is a combination of glitchy drums and field recordings from today's walk in Ashenbank woods, there were some nice cracks and gate creaks as well as kids shouting for their dog and airplane noises. I was headed somewhere dark with this, but think its ended up quite warm and comforting. I was quite happy with the bass arpeggio that kicks in around about half way through and some of the synth.

In The Woods

Getting to the end of fawm, I started craving simplicity. I've had a liking for minimal techno for a while now and wanted to do something with a simpler, but nuanced sound. I've pinched a lot from Underdog's tutorial on minimal techno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh8jV6IGI84  - (he does some very good tutorials). I like his four ingredients: groove at all levels, create movement, use polymeter and build tension...I've tried to do them all here to varying degrees. I also used some microtuner to give the melody some extra wonkyness.

Under The Hood

This is probably my last Fawm track this year...another bit of minimal techno....this time even more minimal...three instruments (kick drum, bass and synth) three slightly different parts, under 3 minutes. Lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes...possibly too much...I may have got a bit carried away. But nice to make it to the finish.

Thrinamal

WARNING THIS IS A LONGISH ONE.  Returning to more ambient places for my tenth Fawm track. This is Volcas (again), microkorg and guitar... I mostly like it, but wish I had less of the little worming noise that dips in an out from the VKeys...it sounded great when I was recording, but think it get irritating on playback.  Oh well, very happy with the rest of the textures, need to do more guitar ambient.

Back To The Moon

Result of a slightly dark and fun and silly jam mixing volcas, microkorg, extra synthy goodness and my new sampler.

Black Magick

A first attempt at a bit of ableton ambient...usually a bit more analogue, but thought sod it.

A Nice Bit Of Ambient For Sunday Afternoon

medway-based noise makers who create playful, textured soundscapes with a variety of electronic and acoustic things processed through some other things.

whthppnsfpshthtbttn?

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