Outside The Walls Part I and II

Outside the Walls Parts I and II  - https://soundcloud.com/mstykes/outside-the-walls-272

 

 

Here is a 15 minute piece I wrote.. it is part of a larger piece I will upload when finished. Sorry, there is no score.. Too much of it consists of manipulated audio scraps, esoteric Kontakt and UVI libraries where are mini soundbeds in themselves thus the MIDI notes have no real indication of the sound patch.

 

Scott Watson provided his great English voice to the dialogue - soundcloud link to his material - https://soundcloud.com/s-watson I wispered.

 

This piece is more of a ‘sonic journey’.. I used ‘found’ sounds, heavily processed. Some of it is more ‘sound design’ than music. A fair amount of Improvisation, first takes, building section by section.. then of course editing, sliding sections around, adding additional parts to make it appear more coherent.

I also put a nod into Frank Zappa, because of his esoteric inspirations.. I too listened to electronic music artists of the 50’s and 60’s. While they didn’t inspire me to the degree of pop pioneers, I appreciated because they came at it with a ‘unmusical’ background’.

 

So sit back, have a cup of tea, coffee, (and think back to the day of alternative ingestions). and journey over this imaginary landscape I have created.

Gosh. I am always somewhat sceptical when people collect (or "find") sounds and paste them together because I'm not sure whom I'm listening to - is it the composer of the opus or is it some other composers whose sounds were taken... But then, compositions are alway assemblies of themes that crept into the composer's head from unknown sources.

So... Ok - I'm impressed. This is really a sonic journey, it is well balanced and never boring.

One could say "may I smoke what you smoke?"  But some coffee will do as well

Good stuff, there's some nice elements in there which kinda 'wake' you as you sit and take it all in, like the bells, they gave me a shiver when they came in- so any physical reaction to music is greatly received, in fact i really like the high frequencies you've got in there gives an enormous sense of air, and environment that runs across your shoulders - great job, and much fun to compose i imagine!

Thanx guys..  Jope- I TOTALLY AGREE with you on 'found sounds'.. An explanation of my actions.  My found sounds were 'SFX' off of sample libraries.. i.e. There are  3 sections that have 'birds'.. I took 5 tracks of different bird samples of Sound libraries, cut and pasted, stretched them into their own 'dialog'.. I used other SFX as well. I heavily processed them with 'grain' stretchers, delays, etc. altered them, cut, pasted to suit my particular needs. 

 

Although I scripted the narration, there was a huge amount of it, and I cut and pasted Scot Watson's dialog, to change what he said.  I didn't take anyone's music piece, that I feel too uncomfortable with..  I DID take a Bach piece - reverse it, chop the order up, quantize pitch to Aolian mode, and then assign to IRCAM's prepared piano for 8 bars, but no one would ever recognize it.  I admit, that it was fun, to take a piece of sound, alter and manipulate it into something different.. 

 

Back in the 90's, a good gig for musicians/DJ's, composers was to sell custom made 'mix CD's to high end stores, or esoteric clubs here in NYC. We had a lot of sex clubs, that wanted dark heavy non vocal music for 'atmosphere..  Hi end posh boutiques, restaurants, wanted non vocal music, that no one would hear anyplace else.   I met this one guy, who made the most unbelievable atmosphere music.. If you found 20 outlets like this, you could make a living.  Making new CD's every couple of months for the same clients. 

 

 I was shocked, outraged, and distraught to find him making these CD's which he sold for $150 a piece..  He was a DJ and had a huge collection of very esoteric atmosphere music.. He ran three turntables into a CD burner.  So his mixtapes were totally ripped off 'improvisations of DJ'ing. What he could do in a realtime 60 minute session, would take a composer many months to do.. The complexity was mind boggling.  Mind you, he was very adept with his mixing skills, aware of keys, tempo etc..  Yet he was making a fistfull of $$$ off of other peoples music, and I was the proverbial broke composer. The NYC attitude then, and now everywhere seems to be, if you're making a lot of money, it doesn't matter much how you made it.  

 

I'm 'baby boomer' age, and thus was a hippie and a flower child in the late 60's and 70's.. There was a fair amount of psychedelic music going around..   I once made this 30 minute piece, similar to the 2nd half of this piece.. It was strictly for folks dropping LSD.  I  could never listen to the piece in it's entirety again, because it was too trippy, disjointed, etc. No attention to any music conventions.. Yet a drummer friend of mine, referred to it, as the most profound  thing he ever heard. No accounting for taste. I originally loved Frank Zappa, but found a lot of his later work, too weird for my tastes.. 

 

I used some of these new Kontakt Libraries, Output's libraries,, and some UVI's sound packs, including Ether Fields . They put out in one layer very complex streams sounds , which already sounds like a number of musicians.  In fact I am beginning to recognize them, in some of the most recent movies..  Even many of the current synths, do a similar thing, they mix several components, so that a one note melody sounds like a strange orchestra.  Years ago, I would consider doing this a 'musical sin, plagiarism.  But in the public's never ending quest for something new and surprising, these libraries are popping up like weeds.. 

 

As far as the coffee, I have discovered I now have to resort to 'decaffeinated' now..  Oh how our bodies change with time.  Thanx guys..  I do appreciate your comments.