Experimental Track released

I have now completed a short experimental piece “I had lost my friend (No way out)”.

The text came from a dream recorded 30/6/2007. It is only a part that appears to deal with the fragmentation of the self into a number of personas, hero, scientist, servant and victim. It’s no co-incidence that the personas are within a graphic novel, they are literally “paper thin”. The significance of the conclusion which adds (No way out) to the title, still eludes me. But I won’t lose any sleep over it.

I had lost my friend.
I was afraid I had lost him.
And then I found him, finally, trapped in a black and white graphic novel.

He was a between the wars butler, but he cannot remember who he used to be before.

He was part of an expedition to Africa with an aristocratic group, but the expedition had gone wrong .

His face appears in one panel. Another scene shows other members of the expedition staked out by the natives.

Yet another scene panel shows one of them, Werner von Braun, dead in the plane crash,

Now my friend appears as superman, but he is only in the garden we started from.

Everywhere else he sees himself dead.

Now he can only exist as a fantasy figure, in this one place.

(Coda, not part of the dream)
I can only exist here as a fantasy figure.
I can only exist here as a fantasy figure
I can only exist here as a fantasy figure


Listen (will open the Soundclick player)
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=6814438&q=hi


Brought to you under the Freedom of Too Much Information Act.

Titus Alone

In addition to working on the “Strange Stars” theme/ album I’ve also been working on ideas for a largely autobiographical set, “Janus”. “Adieu” released a while back was the first, today I released the second element “Titus Alone”.

It’s at http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=6441216&q=hi

Catch Up - April 2008

I've released three tracks as part of the "Strange Stars" theme. All are available on Soundclick.

The most recent is "Point with no no reference". It’s actually an old track. In the early 80s I created a short piece of cosmic/ space synth work called “Depayse”, it was probably on my first cassette release.. Later in the 80s it was reworked for a compilation promo for the Electronical Dreams label “The Dream is just beginning” and re-titled “Point with no reference”. It’s now reworked yet again. By accident when messing around with one of the keyboards I used in the second version I quoted from one of my other pieces of the time and left it in. My first synth was used to take the bass part it had taken about 25 years ago.
After all those years the structure remains very simple and close in feeling to the original. The text that accompanies this version is



“Somewhere in the far reaches, a place with no name, something sings a song of eternal solitude.”



It’s at http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=6423309&q=hi

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.

Farewell to Dreams

The next in the "Dreamers" series, this one took me a long time to complete and has been driving me crazy! That's where the reference to an exit strategy for a dreamer comes from..it sounds much more (my)s(t)erious but I'm just glad I was able to find a way through this piece. I have another, "In the Shadow of Narcopolis" that's giving me a spot of bother, hopefully that will be complete soon or it goes into the musical deep freeze for a while. Oh and the link to it is here; http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=4771973&q=hi

Native Instruments - a catalogue of mistakes

This is an odd and happy tale, rather than the usual "we hate NI" rant. I bought NI's Pro53 Prophet 5 emulation when I first started buying softsynths, largely on the basis of the first killer preset (why is it most other companies have some dreary bass synth sound in that first slot?). Soon, however I came to the conclusion that it really wasn't cutting it, I wasn't using it and it was basically taking up space. Then the Komplete2 offer came along and pro53 was my golden key to get Komplete2 at a knock down price, which gave me the sampler, Reaktor and FM7, all things on my "to buy" list. So mistake one, but with a happy ending.

Then I got Komplete Care 2005 and got all my updates free for 2005. I decided to get Komplete Care 2006 even though I didn't expect the same level of upgrades. Towards the middle of the year, nothing and I started to think I'd made a mistake. Then I got a free gift from NI. Basically they said they were late with the upgrades, don't worry and here are a couple of instruction DVDs. Nice! Never really got far with manuals.

Then the really good news..because they were so late they were giving us Komplete4 for free (makes sense, means everyone is now on the same upgrade path), so I get Guitar Rig, Acoustik and Electrik Piano, as well as the Absynth and FM upgrades. great! And also because you have been so patient, here's a voucher for $180.

I've taken a while to sort out my upgrade as I've needed to get a new external drive to host the additional 12Gb of samples associated with the pianos. In the meantime NI made a mess of their registration programme. So..they given us a copy of their new "Massive" synth for free!

So many blunders..so many gains!

Beyond the Walls of Sleep

Where is it we go when we sleep? This track attempts to answer that question! It's actually based on one of my earlier tracks, "Fugue for an ever darkening land" but there is not much left of the original, only some of the chords and a lead line are retained. The title comes from a short story by HP Lovecraft. Track is at http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=4564579&q=hi

Retro'd version (Berlin Nights)

Some time ago I was listening to alot of music from the early 70s and it got me thinking what I would have sounded like in those days, a decade before I actually started making music. So I tried a little experiment, I took an existing track, "The Lost Harvest" and re-recorded exactly the same track with old style equipment. Now here comes the twist, I don't actually have any synths from the early 70s, so I used software copies. The original track used cutting edge tools such as Reaktor, Spektral Delay and modern processing. I replaced that with emulations of Mellotron, EMS and ARP synths. The reverb was spring or plate reverb, the delay an emulation of tape delay. And what came out was kind of interesting! Have a listen at http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=4514579&q=hi

Creation resumes

With a track, working title "Deep Star Song" which puts me firmly back in ethereal cosmic music using both the new hardware and more familiar musical colours. The picture seems appropriate, Crab Nebula, courtesy of Nordic Optical Telescope taken by Walter Nowotny, for anyone interested go to http://www.not.iac.es/general/photos/astronomical/milkyway/

Sao Paulo Nights

Tonight I've uploaded the first track from the song cycle, "Dreamers" to soundclick. It's "Sao Paulo Nights" and is dedicated to my wife. As such it's a sort of sonic impression of the nights in that Brasilian city, some of the excitment but also some of the quiet times. "Dreamers" as a whole is loosely themed on sleeping, dreaming, memories and thoughts that are just out of reach. http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=3854126&q=hi

Shedding Oxide

Finally taken the plunge and tried to transfer my old tapes (some go back to 1982) onto the computer. I'm amazed, they play fine...but...my lovely Revox (beautifully styled in 70s teak) is having a probably with the weight of the tapes. result? The test tape worked fine but the first master tape broke and because I was short of money at the time, I recorded on both sides of the quarter track..so I have two breaks.

Quite an interesting exercise I found a copy of "Transmixxion" which was supposed to be my next release after "PaperWorlds" and "Crystallography". It was the first release to start using polyphonic synths (I couldn't afford one in those days, I spent several years using just one simple mono synth..now you can download 20 polyphonic softsynths in a night for free!). It was much more varied than previous releases there are even fast fairly aggressive tracks, but I sort of shelved it because the pre-release tape didn't a good reaction from a couple of people. What I did was to keep what I thought were the best tracks, added more material and came up with a more consistent album "K2". I'll probably offer the really old material for free but re-release the last two albums re-mastered...if the tapes don't break.

Dreaming....

Now that the "Lost harvest" cycle of music is complete (although not all released just yet) I'm now working on a new set. Currently under the title of "Dreamers" it's a collection of pieces loosely around sleeping, dreaming and waking dreams of certain locations, some close to home (Port meadow) some much further away (Sao Paulo). So far it's more synthetic than "Lost Harvest" and feels a little less contained than the recent stuff..but then, everything goes in cycles!

New track - Spirited away into a clear blue sky

As previously trailed, this track is now out, can be played by going here http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=3345217&q=hi
Alternatively go to the main page http://www.soundclick.com/markgriffiths

New track - Isle of Exiles

I did this following a dream, one part was about a government infecting political agitators so that they could be exiled to some leper colony island. So there is a line of grey shivering people being injected and then sent to a queue for the boat.
Enjoy and no cutting in on the queue. http://www.soundclick.com/util/streamm3u.m3u?id=3370291&q=hi

Mark

Catch up (part 2)

Also in November and continuing through December I've been working on a short track. "The Lost Harvest". The main parts were created very quickly, it's mainly the children's choir but heavily treated. A few other instruments come in and out. It sounds a little spooky and ends the cycle started with "Ophelia Dreaming", "Hireath", "First Signs of Autumn" and "Spirited away".
In November I was listening to a lot of early Berlin School electronic music and was thinking about what I would sound like using the same equipment. Rather than set out to do a pastiche I took "The lost harvest" and used software emulations of a few bits of equipment used at the time, mainly Mellotron and Arp Odyssey. I kept the reverb to spring or plate reverbs and the delay to emulations of tape delay. Everything was played by hand on the original and there are only a few tracks. I may add some sound effects from an EMS emulation, but then again, might not. Overall this version sounds a lot chunkier than the original..partly because the Mellotron doesn't have the slow attack of the choir sounds I used for the first version.