Adieu

A very short piece, written very quickly in late July 2007. As usual it can be heard at

http://www.soundclick.com/markgriffiths

Four Reveries

I created the Four Reveries for F4b.com last year. They offer music to therapists and others interested in music and textures to accompany healing, relaxation and meditation. The music I produced for them is slightly different to the tightly packed material I usually create.
I put an excerpt up on Soundclick and like another track I put up there it played too fast (it's been an issue there for years but it's the first time I experienced it). I got it re-encoded on the site but though the tempo is right it still seems rather toppy.
So to listen to the Reveries best go to www.F4b.com, the link for my page is http://www.f4b.com/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=20
Over the summer I had been looking at algorithmic/ aleatoric music tools in the software domain. I was auditioning a couple that looked promising and will be looking at them again as a tool for creating the basic material for long tracks for F4b.com.

In the Shadow of Narcopolis

I've managed to get this track off the computer and released. There was a lot less that needed to be done, actually it was complete and waiting for about 6 months.

I'm hoping now to start getting back into the swing of recording, seeing as my creative year usually starts in October and goes through to May (ish).

The whole “Dreamers” series is about, sleep, dreams, and those things that lie just beyond our perception. This track takes a gothic lens, borrowing heavily from HP Lovecraft. The story behind “In the Shadow of Narcopolis” involves a Victorian explorer who is plagued by outlandish nightmares. To satisfy his curiosity and perhaps find some relief he travels to a strange city in the middle of a desert. There he discovers that his nightmares are generated by some ancient race that sleep within the walls and the city breathes out these malign thoughts to the world of men. Unfortunately, although the grotesque dreamers are asleep the city itself is not. It captures and entombs the explorer so that he now dreams forever within the city of Narcopolis.

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=5963317&q=hi

May Night (Experimental)

I decided to try and create something a bit more experimental and abstract using the small modular here. Problem was I don't really know the context or "rules of the game" for experiemental stuff so I decided to be guided by a couple of ideas themed around a Russian May Night. May Night itself refers to the Rimsky-Korsakov opera and here I used the image of the stage setting of dark blue when I went to a dress rehearsal for the opera. I then started thinking about Nabakov's description of his childhood in Russia and his delight in seeing the sphinx moths appear. Finally I added in a bit of Stanilav Lem's playful idea of the stars being originally arranged in rows and lines in the sky. So with the pseud police hammering on my door as I write, this ended up with a piece where first the stars come out one by one, then get bored and appear in a rush, frogs croak, a nightbird calls and the sphinx moths arrive. Out hero starts to nod off and starts to fantasise about stars clumsily dancing with comets rushing in and out.
http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=5544505&q=hi

Wonderful PPG emulation

I really love the sound of the PPG when I first heard one back in the 80s and that love has never really diminished. When I restarted my music one of the first software emulations I got was the Steinberg/Waldorf one that I still use for tinkling sequencer runs. I was very surprised when I downloaded this version, it immediately sounded even better and general opinion was that the Waldorf one was pretty good. This one also has some interesting quirks, it's an exact emulation, so sound creation and saving, boot up etc are just as awkward. But the sound! Hermann is working on a EVU/ Wave2.2/ Wave2.3 system, but he's doing it in his spare time. In the meantime a Wave 2.2 emulation is available for free though a donation, or just a thank you might not go amiss ! http://www.hermannseib.com/english/synths/ppg/wavesim.htm

Double blogging

What's new? Well lots. Behind the scenes I have big backlog of partly completed tracks that I'm working on.

More significantly I've started a new venture via F4b.com http://www.f4b.com/help.php?section=about who distribute music for healing and therapy, mainly aimed at the professionals that work in that area..but others might like to buy it. For me it's slightly different from previous releases in that the tracks are longer (e.g 15 mins) but are less "ear catching" so they can be used in the background..ambient music in the truest sense.