This track, titled Energy, is the last in a series of sixteen vignettes written and performed for the Northern Spark project In Habit: Living Patterns. For more details about the project please visit http://2012.northernspark.org/project/aniccha-arts.
Many of you know that I have been working on an eight channel, spatialized sound, projection, and dance collaboration for almost two years. I composed the music entirely using my collection of analog synthesizers. I also designed an octal sound system (eight discrete channels) to spatialize the music and sounds. The performances are Thursday, June 7 at 9pm, Friday, June 8 at 9pm and Saturday, June 9th from 9pm until 6am (yes that is 9 long hours). Checkout In Habit: Living Patterns for the location and other details.
What may be of particular interest to ACB readers is how I am processing the music for spatialization. The outdoor stage is a raised 18′ x 18′ square that the audience can view from any angle. At each corner I have outward facing wedges to project sound toward the audience. Behind the audience I have inward facing speakers on stands, also at each corner of the venue (a public space under the 3rd Avenue bridge in Minneapolis by the Mississippi river across from the St. Anthony Main Movie Theatre).
Using a Max for Live patch that I developed and another that is part of the M4L toolset I am able to rotate sounds around the system in many ways. This includes clockwise and/or anti-clockwise at variable frequencies around the outer or inner quads or both. I can also pan sound between the inner and outer quads with or without the rotation happening simultaneously. Quick adjustments allow me to create cross pans to for sweeping diagonals and so on. I originally thought I could do this with one of many M4L LFOs, but found out this would be impossible. In a future post I will explain why I had to develop my own patch to do this. For now, please enjoy a sadly two channel rough mix of Kolum, the second in the series of sixteen vignettes, and come to the performance to hear it in all of its spatialized, eight channel glory.
I love this video promoting the Voltfestivalen Electronic Music Festival, June 9, 2012.
Here’s another analog synth, electro-funk composition that I have kept in a locked drawer for almost a year, taking it out occasionally to brush of the dust and hold it against the light. If this track doesn’t become your Summer jam then it is time for me to give up on music and wonder When did music become unimportant? Aside from the drums, this track was made entirely using my restored Roland Juno-106. Few instruments rival the punchy sounds that the 106 seems to spurt out with only a few careful strokes of her many sliders. Please enjoy responsibly.
I made this track, titled Crowd Dance, almost entirely using the Korg Monotribe synced in Ableton Live. There are 8 layers of the instrument plus a subtle analog drum pattern that includes the wood block, sampled from an old organ. This is one of several works in progress commissioned by the American Composers Forum for a collaboration with a choreographer. It is music for the opening vignette of “In Habit” that will be performed by the Aniccha Arts Dance Company at Northern Spark on June 9, 2012.