I have made the entire collection of pieces that I composed for “In Habit: Living Patterns,” performed at Northern Spark in June, 2012, available as a set of sixteen tracks on SoundCloud. This set will be downloadable for a unspecified time window, so get it while you can.
This is the fifteenth of sixteen pieces that I composed and performed during each vignette of the dance production “In Habit: Living Patterns,” performed at Northern Spark in June, 2012. This is also the last of two of the pieces in the series that I used a patch that I programmed to simulate a Japanese reed instrument called a shō.
This is the fourteenth of sixteen pieces that I composed and performed during each vignette of the dance production “In Habit: Living Patterns,” performed at Northern Spark in June, 2012. This one was based on the Eight Minute Drone that I shared last year.
This is the thirteenth of sixteen pieces that I composed and performed during each vignette of the dance production “In Habit: Living Patterns,” performed at Northern Spark in June, 2012. This one started out with the polyphonic wind I shared last year.
Less than one week ago I added a new instrument to my studio that will soon become the centerpiece of my solo performances and duets with Ostracon. As you can see from the photo, it is a Dave Smith Instruments Tempest Analog Drum Machine. I have been researching the Tempest since it was announced in early 2011, but recently I concluded that it would work well with the current direction of my music and decided to pick one up. This instrument is a one of kind sound sculpting tool that sounds amazing and is capable of so much more than just drums and percussive sounds. For example, as a challenge to learn the synthesis engine, I created this vibes patch exclusively using the two analog oscillators. I played a C minor blues scale over most of the width of a 76 key controller to give you an idea of how it sounds. I like how the envelopes get a little clicky in the low end. No processing was added to this recording, so the levels might be a bit low.
Tempest Analog Vibes