secret of the mountians

The secret of the mountains is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no “meaning,” they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share. I understand all this, not in my mind but in my heart, knowing how meaningless it is to try to capture what cannot be expressed, knowing that mere words will remain when I read it all again, another day.

-Peter Matthiessen

immunity and the harpsichord

At the time of my  most recent residency at the Banff Centre, I was exploring all sorts of timbres and sonic possibilities, seeing if I could add any more color to a recording I was in the process of mixing.  I recruited a fellow resident and prized harpsichordist Katelyn Clark who demonstrated to me the countless sonic possibilities of the harpsichord and amazing collection toy pianos, which I just had to record, being the sound junkie that I am.

The Banff Centre is one of those magical places that if you can imagine it, you can find a way to make it happen.  Before I knew it, we were recording my tune “Community Immunity” on harpsichord in the gorgeous Rolston Recital Hall using 8 mics with a team of 3 engineers!  Ultimately these takes were not used on the record, but the scratch edits from the session reveal how incredible this sound is, loaded with such a rich history.   Needless to say, I will be mindful of this sound for future compositional material.

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Be sure to check out Katelyn’s affiliations:
Contemporary Keyboard Society
Cantos Music Foundation

Thank you:
Katelyn Clark
Theresa Leonard
Steve Bellamy
Michael Culler
Meining Cheung

programmed drums & piano II

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Composer Darren Miller recently wrote a series of several short pieces for the digital player piano – in fact, for the very same instrument I wrote something for last fall – (see previous post here).  I asked Darren to give me the audio he recorded from the player piano so that I could layer in some drums and other sound bites to the piece.  After many wakeful nights tucked away behind samplers, constructed constructed this collage.

There are hundreds of samples used in this piece, some of which originated from the drums of Nasheet Waits, Eric MacPherson and Jim Black.  (see previous post “Nancarrow Arrangement” and This Mention on Post Classic).  I took it further this time, asking drummer Max Goldman to visit the studio one afternoon.  I recorded him performing all sorts of improvisations spread over 2 drum kits and percussion sets.   His sound is who you are listening to for most of this little experiment.

telematic music for peace

Telemusic mastermind Chris Chafe brought this new project to my attention last week.  The same concept-project I worked on over the summer is now flourishing with a huge global consciousness arising as a result.  This concert is sponsored by the United Nations, and featured some of today’s most respected creative improvisers.  This is truly breakthrough technology being used for all the right reasons – bringing people together to create. Featuring such luminaries as:

Jane Ira Bloom
Oliver Lake
Samir Chatterjee
Mark Dresser

More info from their website:

the joker

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Last year I showed you all an excerpt of a piece I created for recorderist Terri Hron (to see the previous post, click here).  Well, I am happy to say that her album “bird on a wire” has  just been released throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S.,  It’s really a great example of several artistic collaborations on many levels.  The album’s music is comprised of several composers Terri commissioned for this project, and the audio production is of the highest, warmest quality possible – something that is difficult to achieve when electronics and real-time processing are so widely (or should I say wisely?) utilized.  This is a really unique and special album that I  am happy to be apart of and encourage you all to seek out.

Terri Hron – Recorder
Dan Porter – Engineering
Curtis Macdonald – Composition