Thursday 22nd November 2012 – Interactivity in Sound and Experiential Marketing.

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Jay

Experiential marketing is a fascinating subject and it follows my interests in creating immersive experiences. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it is a way to imprint a brand on people by allowing them to experience it. This is a very powerful tool.

Interactivity has been a long-standing interest of mine with regard to music and these ideas can easily be adapted to create a richer experiential marketing campaign. You may remember about the band that I started called Lunar Rising. For those unfamiliar with the band, we were a folk/rock band that had to split due to members following other non-musical ambitions. Anyway, before the band split, I got thinking about how to make our gigs stand out from the crowd (it’s a sad state of affairs that music is only a small element of this, especially in London for some odd reason – but this isn’t the post to talk about that lengthy subject!).

Partly inspired by a situation we once found ourselves in, I had the idea of getting the audience involved as in true folk-music fashion. One evening at a gig in south London our singer conjured up a disappearing act after sound-check so, not being people to disappoint, we decided to go instrumental and improvise. It turned out that the venue had a bountiful supply of percussion instruments so we seized the opportunity and handed them out to the crowd. The next thing we know, we are jamming with a room full of people and everybody is having a fantastic time!

I started to think about how this could be developed and created into a selling point for the band. There were many ideas; some bad, some good and some probably more at home in an art gallery than a music venue. I thought about entrusting the use of a simple drone instrument to a volunteer; ordering the controlled chaos of jamming somehow so that the crowd could play along to our songs; positioning ourselves among the audience for an acoustic gig so that people could get close and personal and experience being with the band; using samples of conversations and other noises recorded in the venue queue, manipulating them and working them into songs or instrumentals.

This is when I started to think about what else could possibly join music when creating a musical experience, and this was one of the seeds that led me to wanting to get involved in sound for events and experiential marketing. Various sound artists have shown us that involving the audience can create events and such ideas in folk music are very old indeed. With wireless, touchscreen technology; silent discos; sound gardens and trails included, there are many ways to lift an experience by getting the audience involved. On one level, this is great fun but on another it brings each individual to the centre of experiential marketing activities that they will remember for a long time; creating sound is a very rewarding experience.

In terms of audio ideas to bring an events or experiential marketing audience to centre stage, there are many possible routes. As briefly mentioned, current iPod technology has been used to create touchscreen access points that trigger various happenings, but then there are the more primitive ideas where people can interact with sound sculptures; maybe such ideas work in harmony… It doesn’t have to be a gimmick either; given a theme as a starting block, related ideas are always possible. What is also clear is that audiences no longer have to be passive and when they are not the experience is far more rewarding for everybody involved. The rise in experiential theatre as well as experiential marketing embodies these ideas and I believe this is the future for sound and music. And vice versa, sound really is truly immersive and it’s use beyond music in experiential marketing will definitely grow.

Thursday 3rd November 2011 – Senopia and the New Lunar Rising

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Jay

Unfortunately the band I formed (Lunar Rising) when I first came to London has now imploded. I learned a lot from Lunar Rising and played with some fantastic musicians. It was also a great platform for me to explore ideas and methods of working, of which some unfortunately never came to fruition. I had big plans but due to people coming and going quite a lot and a few other awkward issues I could never fully realise what I had in my head.

All is not lost though: Pavel, our drummer wants to continue to work with me and I have also had an offer from a fantastic band called Senopia. The workings of the new band with Pav needs to be discussed but I’m having a few ideas of how it may work. I’m thinking that I would like to go back to a stripped-down but effective setup based around the ‘folk’ ideal of being able to play any place, any time. I would like rhythm to be a central theme meaning that having one or two percussionists as well as Pav would be fantastic: layered rhythm is a great way to get feet moving…! I would also like to have a strong singer with an ear for melody and willingness to experiment and be larger than life on stage. This would mean the central emphasis would be on dancing rhythms and vocal melodies that really pull you in. I envision my acoustic guitar playing to be rhythmic whilst slightly incorporating the atmospheric playing I used in Lunar Rising; nothing showy but nothing bland. I am cautious of having a setup that is too large as this was one of the factors that led to Lunar Rising’s demise but another acoustic instrument to add more depth of melody would also be great…

Also, I am very honoured to be asked to join Senopia and you can hear their fantastic songs here. I know about them as Pia (of Henry Spencer Project) sings for them and I have admired them from afar ever since I first heard them. Pia’s vocals are obviously fantastic and are coupled with strong song-writing and a great view to epic atmosphere. On top of that they aren’t afraid to experiment and are using electronic noises to their advantage rather than following trends. To me though, the songs sounded complete and adding anything beyond pressing play for pre-recorded samples seemed unnecessary. However, this wasn’t what they had in mind. I would be looking after samples and loops but pretty much have free rein over adding extras… and that’s what interests me… With Senopia, I will be able to look at each song and decide what to do with it (on agreement with the band of course!). I will be able to take my current production and experimental (in terms of my own work, not the art movement) ideas and give them a voice as well as a context. Maybe I will be able to use the various field recordings I have been collecting, and mess around with them; as well use loops for these sounds, synth and acoustic instruments I might play. I’ve been listening to the songs thinking of what I can do to produce them live and also what I can add to them so I’ll go along to a practice over the next month or so and see how the songs translate live and do a bit of bonding. Looking forward to it!

Well, I’m sure I’ll be blogging about how all the band stuff goes but this all seems to be happening in tandem with all the other changes I my life. I feel excited and adventurous and don’t see any of the things that have happened to me as a setback. With careful thought and by keeping true to your ideas you could say there is no such thing as a setback… well, mostly anyway…

Thursday 16th June 2011 – My Redundancy Plan – Start of an Epic Year.

Posted on June 16, 2011 by transientmusic

Well, here we are. No more news on the redundancy yet but our reps and union are apparently working hard to stop us from getting screwed over… We’ll see!

Anyway, I’m not about to rely on any of this so I’ve started work on my plan to hit the ground running by the end of the year. It will make sure that any plans I am working on or have even been just a basic thought will see the light of day; as I have said before, these plans will at least contribute towards my portfolio and hopefully give me a bit of leverage when bugging/begging companies to let me hang around their offices to learn about their processes/job vacancies. As I mentioned before, sound design is the direction that appeals to me the most right now because of the huge creative scope that can be possible, and for some reason I just like finding/recording sounds….no, I can’t explain it either! There are various types of company that use sound designers but my starting point is going to focus on the computer games industry because the creative possibility there is just huge. Research here is in it’s early days but I’ll let you know how it goes!

OK, the projects that I have given myself to do… As I have said before, they will all focus on sound design to reinforce my main focus. Some are weird, abstract ideas whilst others are more main-stream with varying degrees in-between. Of course, the whole reason I am embarking on this project is because each element of it interests me and excites me to a degree not unlike the build-up to Christmas as a child; well, without all the jumping and shouting anyway… I’m a little more demure these days. But anyway, the general idea is to use sound to influence emotion and image and to gain a portfolio.

The main project of creating this portfolio includes a follow-up to Bedtime Nursery Rhymes, taking into account feedback I’ve received to improve on the original idea; a second follow-up consisting of original ambient music to promote sleep in children; a spin-off of ambient music for children to encourage creative play; short orchestral pieces aimed at conveying emotions/themes common in film; my audio/visual ‘sound art’ project with Lesley Flower; the new look and sound Lunar Rising; an ambient music project using found sound and synth, based around a theme; a continuance of Henry Spencer Project for something a bit more song-oriented and another project based on Bedtime Nursery Rhymes that I wont disclose information on just yet… Quite a lot of work, especially when considering that making the music is actually only a part of what needs to be done!

So, I guess this blog will turn into one of those ‘rise and fall stories’, but hopefully I wont have to fake my death twice like Reginald Perrin (you’ll probably have to be British and over 30… or even 40… to understand that reference!). But actually, if all goes to plan and I don’t become prone to intense idiocy and/or bad luck I’m hoping this will be a ‘rise and rise story’….. Or at least a ‘rise and level out’ story…. Come back next week to see how it starts…. I’m quite interested to see how it begins myself actually!

Thursday 2nd June 2011 – Rebirth

Posted on June 2, 2011 by transientmusic

It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. After something like 3 years half of the members of the band I formed, Lunar Rising, decided to leave recently. They didn’t all go at once but the reason behind it was the same: They decided that work should come first and they couldn’t be sure they could commit in the future if things got more serious.

After the last exodus, when the band pretty much collapsed, I can’t say I was surprised. We have gone through countless musicians in audition and various other band members that generally left because of that same reason. It follows that it’s not so weird some founding members treat their lives in the same way; in any case we all do really, just in different ways.

I mentioned that it’s funny how things turn out, and I say this because I have a growing interest in sound design and regular readers will have read bits and pieces about that. I envisioned a while back how the future of the band may sound and look; I have talked about creating unique shows, and creating atmospheres in a live situation as well as a recorded situation. As you may have read, I have recently got my hands on some new gear which allows me to experiment with these ideas, but I always thought the band wouldn’t be ready to take these ideas on-board for a long while. It’s quite a happy coincidence that this growth in interest has occurred now that I am building the band up again with the other two remaining members. And another happy coincidence in that it means we can sound just as huge without packing a stage out with eight people. The three of us that are left have expressed our dedication to our project and we all now have more control over how it progresses. We do also have a violin player interested in joining us too and things there seem hopeful but unlike before, our new setup will allow us to adapt if history does repeat itself.

So, I have talked about how my ideas are colliding and about the advantages of this new setup but I haven’t actually talked about how this will actually work. With my main interests being in sound design and atmosphere, this will be the core of what I base the band around. Using a laptop computer and my guitar synth, I have a huge range of sounds at my disposal, and these sounds can all be tailored to satisfy an aspect of each song. In the same way as I have created a sound for an aspect of a picture, I will now be able to design a sound based on the sentiment and story of a song. The computer will also give me power to loop phrases I play and sounds I produce but don’t be fooled into thinking that the computer will do all the work: The phrases can be played live and looped to play continuously and then cut out and brought back in as needed. All the while this will free me up to work on producing another sound or phrase or even change instruments… This will require careful planning in terms of timing and how many jobs I give myself to do at any one time but the sense of build-up and going from small sounds to huge layered soundscapes will be a natural by-product of having to do one thing at a time. Of course, this all has to be done under the glare of venue lights on a stage where, if anything can go wrong it will, as the old adage goes. This will mean that I will be forced to concentrate more, to be more prepared and to not drink so much beer… All good things to get used to!

The new sounds will include synth sounds that I have designed for specific purposes but will also include sounds that I have recorded out and about on my handheld recorder (Roland’s R-09HR); this will allow the final product to be cohesive in terms of atmosphere and concept. These sounds can be adapted and/or warped to lend themselves to the particular song in creation depending on how subtle I want their core make-up to be. Also, elements of the sounds may find more aesthetic or functional uses, making them contribute to melodies or rhythms far removed from their intended concept.

Of course, this band won’t be just me; singer, Dominique Allan and drummer Pavel Stanev are still on-board (hopefully along with a new violin player). Being a smaller, more tight-knit unit this means that we can all work on creating the sounds and sections beyond our respective instruments without confusion or over-doing things. Being a fan of Bjork, Dom brings similar ideas to my own to the project and you will know what I mean if you are familiar with Bjork’s work. Pav loves to push the boundaries and experiment; and being a musician that works on feeling rather than notation and dull, well-rehearsed standards he has an ability to transpose his ideas from instrument to instrument.

Before, the previous incarnation of Lunar Rising worked towards making atmospheric music that contained a sense of journey. This will still prevail but now the band will be much more focussed on the end product as our relationships are more fully defined by ambition and the ways we will achieve this are also more fully defined. Of course, who knows what may happen to disrupt this in the future but all I can say is that the intention is now fully lodged in my mind and somehow I will make sure these ideas are made concrete…

Thursday 18th May 2011 – ‘This week I have mostly been…’

Posted on May 19, 2011 by transientmusic

This past couple of weeks has seen the entry of my newest bit of kit into my arsenal of music-making tools and it should be all I need for quite a while! Last week I received my Roland GR-55 guitar synth as well as my East-West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra sample library. The EWQL stuff is actually being sold as ‘by-one-get-one-free until the end of May (2011) so I took advantage of this and ordered the Ra library too, which is a rather cool library of ethnic instruments from around the world (get in touch if you want the link). On their website, you can have a listen to music made with these libraries if y0u follow the links and I aim to post my own couple of exploratory pieces on here next week. If you have a listen to the music, I’m sure you will agree that the results are truly amazing; a computer is playing the music!

The guitar synth also allows me to play samples such as the EWQL stuff and synth contained in my computer like you would with any midi keyboard. If you are unfamiliar with midi think of the cheap Casio keyboard you may have had when younger and it’s ability to change sounds at the touch of a button. Then imagine this replicating instruments in a way that is actually realistic (amongst other technical extras) and you have a good idea what I can now do with my guitar; as you can imagine, the world of synth and sampling is very limited to somebody that cant play a keyboard so I had to save up for the guitar equivalent. Like in those role-playing computer games, I feel like I have opened up a a huge oaken door with a giant gold key after traversing many puzzles and hazards. The room behind the door is so huge that I can’t see the walls and much of it is dimly lit so I can only just make some things out, whilst small spotlights highlight some other wonderful things in all their glory. Pretty cool.

The first task I gave myself with these new toys was to finish off some music I offered to make a friend for their home video. It was mainly images of architecture old and new with other scenic highlights from a trip abroad which allowed me to really inject all the drama I love so much when creating music (well, maybe I over-did the drama a tad, but I’m allowed to get excited eh! …and who can resist the chance of using ‘Wagnerian tubas’ when presented with pictures of the Reichstag!)

This previous piece was mostly written before I had the sample libraries so it turned out to be a mixture of synth from Logic Studio and orchestral sounds. Next, it was time to have a go at something solely using the orchestra but I decided to keep it simple. So, after work on Tuesday I spent a couple of hours making a short piece (and learning to use the software!). It was based on an idea of confused action and movement which manages to resolve itself in strength before making a swift exit. The next piece I will try this week will be something a little more melancholic and I will post whatever I come up with next week.

As well as now being able to play at orchestration on my guitar, my interests in synth and abstract sounds are also blossoming. For a while now I have talked a little about the project I am working on with photographer Lesley Flower and now I have an instrument I can use more intuitively I started work on a second piece. For those that don’t know, the idea here is an experiment in atmosphere which will create a series of audio/visual pieces using Lesley’s photographs as a starting point for sound. The sound will be designed in such a way as to enhance the overall experience although both elements will work together. I spoke a bit more about it in my post ‘Audio/Visual Work and the Importance of Calm Thought’ back in September. Anyway, my first incursion into this with my more intuitive instrument was Sunday evening…

The picture in question is an angled shot of raindrops on glass, some in focus, other parts out of focus; all very characteristic of Lesley’s work. The main backdrop of the shot contains various shades of a soft grey and I took this as my main starting point, creating a backdrop which I felt echoed the the soft and calm effect the colours had on me. For the next layer, I decided to widen the atmosphere and throw in a few obvious references to the subject matter by spreading different types of ‘droplet’ and ‘pitter-patter’ noises across the soundscape. Some close, some far away; some more ethereal in nature, some more blunt. I then sat back with my headphones on and had a listen to what I had created whilst looking at the print. It was an OK backdrop but as my eyes wondered around the print there were aspects that I had missed. Firstly, some water droplets were in really sharp focus and their bulging appearance also had a light sheen on them. Also, parts of the print were fuzzy in terms of focus which left a feeling of wonder even though I was well aware what the haze covered. To bring a sense of focus to these points which a wondering eye my touch, I found that a very deep bass with a slow attack time gave a ‘gloopy’ enough sound and I combined this with a slight high-pitched sheen; I then combined them by giving them the same compression treatment and a nice and muddy (ie not clear) reverberation (echo to give a sense of space – muddy to try to blur the differences between the two sounds a little). I then spread these ‘rain droplets’ around various positions throughout the stereo field and made them intermittent enough so that their occurrence might seem like a discovery every now and then. To blur passages, I used parts of the same sequence of the ‘droplets’ with a series of distortions heavy on low mid sound frequencies. These sounds were mixed into the original ‘raindrops’ to make it seem like those particular parts ware blurred.

In other news, the future of my band Lunar Rising is in doubt after one of us asked the rest about their commitment level. We were then left two members down and that particular member being unsure if they could continue also. It’s safe to say though that I’ll make sure Lunar Rising lives on in some way. I had started to develop bringing in my new guitar synth into stage performance to heighten the whole experience, and I cant let that idea go to waste!

This month’s Henry Spencer Project post was the first prose-only post for this project. My original idea was for the blog to be based around a fictional character who likes to hang around with a band but I ended up toning this idea down as it felt like I would be taking on too much work! Henry Spencer makes brief appearances during music posts but as I would still like to embellish the project with other bits of information I felt I would like to explore his character a little bit to help create an all-round experience….

Well, that’s this week. Until next time!

Thursday 5th May 2011 – State of Play

Posted on May 5, 2011 by transientmusic

As some of you may know I have decided to slightly change how I write my blog. I have decided to make every other post more about what I’m doing with my life regarding music and keep the other half for my general ideas that I have been blurting out for a while now. It seems like this time has come now as I think I have recorded my key ideas and also I have started to get a few questions from readers about what I am up to beyond all the ‘theory’ stuff.

So, this week’s update will set out where I am with various projects at the moment…

My main musical endeavour has to be Lunar Rising and we are currently auditioning violin players. However, this does not mean that the band are static at the moment as there are various things that need to be sorted. In a few weeks we will be going back into the studio to record another four songs. These will be Embrace, Late Nights, Into Bloom and Just Living. At the moment, the plan is to still offer the current songs for free to anybody that wants them but once we have a full set of songs we will create an album that can be sold whilst we still give away the half-length version. This should also include some special acoustic recordings of the band to add even more value. The band is also currently still gigging once a month (with Alex acting as our temporary violin player) and we are preparing demos to be sent out to blogs and magazines for review. If you are associated with a blog or fanzine, etc and are interested in reviewing our music/gigs please do get in touch! On top of the usual venue gigs we would also like to play acoustic gigs so we are currently working on this idea too. This year will also see the band applying for next year’s music festivals as well as developing some more experimental ideas regarding gigs and playing live….

Henry Spencer Project have been taking a little break while I remix our demo songs ready to be mastered after a bit of disastrous file-losing! It turns out that they are sounding much better than before though so all is good and lessons have been learnt… Pia is using the opportunity to work on her other projects but we will be ready to churn some more stuff out shortly… The demos are pretty much done so they will be ready for mastering soon. We’ll then be sending them off to various magazines and blogs to be reviewed and we’ll offer these improved songs up for sale alongside special extras whilst still giving away the original versions. We’ll also be keeping up getting a new song online every 6 weeks or so enabling our on-line audience to see us develop.

Bedtime Nursery Rhymes is now ready and available to buy as a download or physical CD. I am currently ordering CDs to send off to various reviewers throughout the world so hopefully some reviews should start to trickle through in around a month. Once I get my sales data through around that time I’ll be in a position to make better plans for marketing etc. If things go well here I would like to make a follow-up album which could even include original music devised to have the same relaxing effects.

Finally, this week I have purchased the Roland GR-55 guitar synth which I hope to use as a midi controller in conjunction with the synths I already own as well as the EWQL Symphonic Orchestra and QL Ra software instruments I have bought. These place stunningly realistic orchestral and ethnic instruments at my disposal and I will be able to play them all with the instrument I play (guitar!) rather than struggling with playing the keyboard! With the more experimental ideas for Lunar Rising being formed in my head, some guitar synth may even be accompanying me on stage too at some point…. All of this equipment will also be vital to my audio/visual work with photographer with Lesley Flower; as I said, I’ll no longer have to rely on synth being played using an instrument I am not trained on meaning I can translate my ideas far more accurately. On top of all this, I will want to have a venture into the world of making music for the moving image too….

Until next time….

Thursday 14th April 2011 – A little about Lunar Rising…

Posted on April 14, 2011 by transientmusic

I have mentioned Lunar Rising in various posts for a while now but I haven’t gone into much detail about the band or why Dom and I started it… Around the same time that I collaborated with Jacqueline Rolston on the precursor to Henry Spencer Project. I was also working on an acoustic project called Finding Lunar with singer/pianist Rosie Ellen. Here, we explored the more emotive side to music that I love so much; the idea was to create open, honest music and to tell people things that perhaps you would never normally dare to. Unfortunately though, our differences were pretty large so after a while we decided to cease collaborating.

This left a huge vacuum in my musical interest and after putting all that hard work in I was sad to see it all come to end. However, I’m pretty stubborn and didn’t want to close this chapter just yet so I started looking for singers to resurrect the project and to continue work on the songs that I had written (minus vocal melody), namely Back Soon, Who I Am and what is now Late Nights. I tried out various singers that either proved unreliable or a bit too oddball for what I was looking for. After a few let-downs I met Dominique Allan through FormingBands.co.uk and things seemed to click into place immediately. I was stunned that she managed to totally replicate the mood of the songs as I had intended, something that no one else had managed. Her voice was extremely emotive and once she became more comfortable with me she wasn’t afraid to experiment. I loved every idea that she had so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that she wouldnt be as unreliable as the rest of the singers I had met. She turned out to be just as dedicated as myself though so we immediately started work on the songs.

We played a few open mic nights around London for a while, trying to make sure we played one a week but it soon became clear that the only useful thing we were gaining from this was the experience of playing in front of a small audience. The next logical step would be to form a band and play some bigger venues (which we now do as a matter of routine). However, I had to warm to this idea as I had much experience in the difficulties of forming a band and keeping it going. Usually and very frustratingly, even though people dedicate their love to a band this rarely follows with action! I had originally intended to focus on song-writing and work towards some kind of career in this area but nevertheless I was persuaded and ironically enough our plans seemed to grow and grow…

At first we had no design for what musicians to include in the band, we just wanted instruments. It happened that the first musician we found was a violin player and we liked this so much that after he had left we continued to look to violin as part of our sound. Soon after, violinist Alex Tessari became part of our musical furniture. Her beautifully atmospheric playing and charming character became quite a centre-piece at every gig. Her relaxed and fearless nature also contributed endlessly to the band’s social atmosphere and her recent departure really made us all very sad. However, luckily for us she can still fill in at gigs for the time-being, giving us some breathing space to find some one to take over her role…

Bass player Matthew Nellis was the second to join us and is still a central member of the band. His calm, care-free persona coupled with enviable creativity really helped to set up an atmosphere of fearless experimentation that we rely on so much now. Matt also takes on much of the hard work and without these efforts the band would just not function!

Mark Wilson joined next on piano but had to leave two years or so later to due work commitments becoming increasingly more important. This was a very sore blow for us as he had added a depth of sound and pretty backdrop that we had started to base our sound upon. After a few auditions though, Jaume Fornos filled the void left by Mark’s lamentable departure. Jaume’s presence became strong right away with his ornamentally elegant playing style and his calm, care-free attitude fitting effortlessly into the group.

Karen Jones was our first drummer and departed around a year later due to her life plans changing focus. This was actually our first difficult blow as we were just about ready to start pushing things. Nevertheless, we pushed forward and after quite some time eventually settled on Pavel Stanev. Pav quickly became the heart of the band with his steadfast nature and soulful, creative flare.

Backing vocals also became quite central to Lunar Rising’s sound and our longest serving backing singer Fay Edwards brought hard work and dedication. Even after her recent departure (due to the pressures of the PhD she is studying for) her work ethic and high standards continue to fortify the band. We are also currently looking for Fay’s replacement but we aim to bring some one in that can do more than just sing well…

After all this, it might be easy to say that my initial fears of the band being difficult to upkeep had a lot of truth. However, the core of the band is actually stronger than ever now even though we are two members down (please do get in touch if you know a violin player or multi-instrumental singer!). Our plans are more definite, the bonds within the band are getting even stronger and our song-writing is maturing nicely. We are also creating an atmosphere where members leaving outside of the core of the band wont be such a disastrous blow. Because of all this, I am far from being worried or frustrated, in fact I am very excited about our future! The personalities within the band will ensure that our creative journey will never finish and this makes me certain we’ll never stagnate.

Personally, I have various ideas on where I’d like my input to take the band creatively, and these plans are also shared throughout the group to some degree. My use of various guitar sounds to create atmosphere is only just beginning and synth may also become one of the tools we can use in songs… as well as between them…. And fuelled by the need to be flexible we are also creating an acoustic set that will not need any kind of amplification. This sees the band messing about with mandolin, Cajon, glockenspiel, various percussive noise-makers and anything else that can make a noise! Such a setup also begs for audience participation but of course this all needs to be finely tuned and it’s nature explored.

Along these lines, our show will increasingly become part of the band’s creativity. We want to do more than just play some songs in front of people; we have ideas for the use of visuals and the phrase ‘interpretive dance’ has even been quietly uttered on more than one occasion… although I’m not sure anyone is willing to admit that yet… In my mind the band will fill a space. Not just a venue but any space, and we will work towards engulfing this space with musical journeys swelling and subsiding. Light and physical objects will enhance these journeys and the presence and actions of the audience will do the same. Maybe we can somehow use the other senses to draw people even further into a Lunar Rising experience…Something apart from the smell of sweaty music fans and the taste of beer… There will be no space for idle chat but we will pick an interacting audience up at the beginning and carry them through to the end after having an experience that totally washes over them. Anyway… this is how it looks in my head, and using the crazier ideas or not there will be much work to achieve this… Even the crazier impulsive thoughts don’t seem so crazy when thinking of the things possible within the band and this excites me no-end….

With You, No Sleep, Back Soon and Rest are all available to download for free at www.Lunar-Rising.co.uk and we are currently making plans to record Just Living, Late Nights as well as the two new songs Embrace and Way We Climb. Please do go along to the site and sign up to the mailing list if these ideas take your fancy, it would be great to have you along on our musical journey! …but no whinings of ‘are we there yet??’ as this could be one of those journeys that just keeps on going…

Thursday 24th March 2011 – Music is all around us.

Posted on March 24, 2011 by transientmusic

Some music is created using ‘found sound’ rather than conventional instrumentation; sound that you can record at any point in your life. Such sounds could be street noises, birdsong, the wail of a siren, a crashing of pots and pans or anything else that you can think of. They can be used exclusively or they can be used in conjunction with sounds that resemble music in a more traditional sense. Such ideas are used in conventional music by the likes of Bjork and Aphex Twin but there are others that lean more towards sound art.

This week I would like to talk a bit about the work of Janek Schaefer who works on music/sound art that uses these environmental sounds. Co-incidentally enough, like Iannis Xenakis (see last week’s post), he trained as an architect. However, whereas Xenakis took influence from the mathematical side, Janek Schaefer tends to look at sound with relation to the environment it is created in. He works a lot with ‘found sound’ and also distorts these field recordings using the technology at his disposal. He also combines these recordings with other created sounds such as the application of his three-armed turn-table.

This environmental aspect of his work really interests me. To me, music is all about creating atmosphere and what better way to do that than to use atmospheres that appear in our every-day lives. In my opinion, this can give work a realistic grounding and relevance to the listener’s life. Also, I particularly really enjoy the fantastical element that can be created by adding another less familiar layer or element to familiar ideas or atmospheres. To me, this is pure audio escapism.

Anyway, Janek Sceafer’s first audio work was entitled Recorded Delivery and for this he sent a sound-activated dictaphone through the post. The record function of the dictaphone was triggered every time a loud enough sound was picked up. The project was created in this way to combat the fact that the artist was taking part in an exhibition centred around a self-storage centre but was told that he was unable to visit. He wondered how he would be able to create a work based around something he had never experienced before. In terms of sound, the resulting project recorded the secret life of a package travelling through the postal system in London. This project is obviously more of a piece of sound art but some of his other work blurs the boundary between art and music.

You can have a listen to a shortened version of ’Recorded Delivery’ here:

Fast Tube by Casper

I own two of Janek Schaefer’s CDs which blur these boundaries. I bought them at an exhibition at the Barbican, London entitled ‘Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion’. As you can see from the title, the exhibition focussed on Japanese fashion but Janek had created a soundtrack called ‘Unfolding’ to accompany it. From the exhibition’s webpage, it ‘…was inspired by the ephemeral unfurling fabric of fashion, viewed through the vertical veils of the Future Beauty exhibition. The composition is made from 4 x 44 minute shifting loops spread out across four pairs of speakers in the space, subtly shifting the sound textures and tones all around the different levels and zones of the show. It forms an underscore for the work on display, weaving them together and suspending them in a sense of unfolding wonder.’ A very inviting description. The veils mentioned were literally veils hanging from ceiling to floor and created see-through walls sectioning off different parts of the exhibition. These were located throughout the ground floor but the exhibition also took place on the next floor; a mezzanine level where the exhibits below were also visible from. The resulting spatial atmosphere was almost mystical and the sound that went along with it emphasised this wonderfully (although I would have asked for a private viewing without annoying public chatter… and with the sound turned up a little…).

One of the CDs I bought, entitled, ‘Migration’ looked at space in terms of a journey and was originally accompanied by a site-specific dance performed opposite Grand Central Station in New York. Many of the sounds used here were collected on Janek’s travels and a listen really does take you on a journey to differing soundscapes. I can only try to imagine what the whole experiencing was like in New York city but the compositions take you on an intense journey. From quiet moments of calm and contemplation to intense agitation and even paranoia, the journey moves your emotions along with imagined locations painted with the colours of the various sounds used. The other CD I bought at the exhibition is called ‘Pulled Under’ and the journey that this work takes you on seem to be more claustrophobic although nonetheless still magical in a pleasant way. The sounds here are also manipulated sounds taken from Janek’s travel’s.

I had already started thinking about such applications of sound when I had found out about the work of Janek Shaefer and had created my first contribution to the audio/visual project I am undertaking with Lesley Flower. However, I think Janek Shaefer’s work will probably influence me more as time goes on. The passion and wonder with which he describes his efforts are intoxicating and the resulting compositions brim with these factors making sure they drip with atmosphere. Of course, I don’t want to try to replicate anything created by some one else as I have my own things to say (In fact I’m unsure this is even possible!) but I think I have caught the bug that infects Janek Schaefer and will definitely explore the ideas put forward using my own context. I have various ideas at the back of my mind and thought of putting them into practice makes me very excited indeed… Initially, there is talk of including conceptual ideas in amongst the songs of the Lunar Rising set. Here, I can imagine a continuous stream of sound where soundscapes appear in between the songs to create an enveloping experience. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to combine this with visuals to create something to totally immerse the audience in. Also at a basic level, my upcoming Bedtime Nursery Rhymes project toys with these ideas. The music contains collected sound and synthetic sound to bring out the atmosphere of each piece with a general aim to provide something that progressively lulls the listener into peaceful slumber. It definitely works on me and some willing parents say it has the same effect on their little ones. More about this next week though…

So, in the context of my previous blog post, is this ‘shit’ music? Is it music at all? Well, yes it is music…You could say it is sound art but the compositions have the stories, atmospheres and movements that any piece of music has; and the fact that Janek Schaefer has been awarded with The British Composer of The Year Award for Sonic Art, 2008 and The Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers Prize is an indicator of his status and ability to make music. Is it ‘shit’ music..? Apart form the accolades, to my mind such an accusation would be ridiculous as this is some of the richest, imaginative use of sound to tell a story that I have ever heard…. I really recommend you check it out… and start off with Mr. Schaefer’s website at www.AudiOh.com…

Thursday 24th February 2011 – Henry Spencer Project

Posted on February 24, 2011 by transientmusic

To coincide with two new You-Tube videos I would like to talk a little bit about Henry Spencer Project (HSP) this week. The two videos can be seen ~~here~~ and they are acoustic versions of Henry Spencer Project’s two most popular songs.

HSP was never intended to be a band as such as it is difficult enough running one band (I also write for/play guitar for/help to run Lunar Rising). Getting the right people with the right style of playing and way of thinking is hard enough and getting them all to be in the same place at the same time is harder; finding people that are committed is harder still! So with HSP I wanted another outlet for my ideas but not wanting to wade into another band I kept it as a recording project.

The first incarnation of these ideas involved a singer named Jacqueline Rolston and we called our duo ‘Ephemeral’. We worked quite well together but had to split due to her copyright worries. After that I spent time coming up with music that followed on from this early project and was influenced by funk and acid jazz. Well, loosely anyway… Really eager to get some kind of music project out of the songs I approached Dominique Allan of Lunar Rising. We worked on three or four songs but before long she decided that she didnt have enough time for the project; with the band and various personal responsibilities taking up much of her time. So HSP came to a halt for a bit. Later on during 2009, I found I had more time; taking on various projects always means that your concentration shifts with their needs. So… I carried on with the usual internet advertising trying to find a singer. ..

Pia Berg was the first to contact me, and she did this very gingerly saying that she hadn’t really sung outside of the shower for ten years and hadn’t really tried to write a song before. Always open, I thought I’d ask her to work on an idea that I sent her and bring it along. Having never heard her sing, her caution rubbed off on me and wanting to avoid an awkward X-Factor moment I let her know that we couldn’t be sure if her voice would be right but would very much like to meet her as I really did value her interest in my oddball tunes! Naturally, she was worried that her efforts would be wasted so I suggested that she just bring along a basic idea…. when she did this and started to sing during this ‘audition’ I couldn’t believe my luck…

So, that is how HSP formed. The name of our little musical escapade is usually something that people ask me about too. With much of the rhythmic influence coming from New Orleans funk and soul of the 1960s I wanted to give the name an almost retro feel and to do this I thought a jazz-esque name would be perfect. Therefore, it had to be ‘something’ trio, something ‘project’ etc, etc. The latter seemed the coolest but I still needed a name to go with it… For the name I took influence from a film that I’m very fond of called ‘Eraserhead’. This is typical David Lynch weirdness but to me, the main character Henry Spencer is a (comparatively…) normal guy caught up in a weird world and a weird situation that he never asked for or wanted. This really hit home with my distaste for the the world of corporate work, uninteresting jobs and offices etc that I felt forced into. I’ve always had a gripe with not being able to easily do what I wanted with my life (although I am trying!). People always have an answer for me when I say that but that debate is beyond this post…

So that’s it really… A short introduction into Henry Spencer Project…. I wont say much about the sound of our music as that’s for you to decide really. But what I did want is rhythmic excitement coupled with a soul feel and the occasional use of some nice, dirty guitar… Follow the link in the first paragraph for a listen…. The videos can be seen there or here on my ‘Videos’ page.

Jay

Thursday 17th February 2011 – ‘Romantic Rebellion’ and Improvisation.

Posted on February 17, 2011 by transientmusic

To follow on with the independent film theme, this week I have posted a film made by James Devereaux. ’Romantic Rebellion’ is an early example of his work, as well as mine. My contribution came from a chat we once had about my interests in improvisation. Although the acting wasn’t improvised, the kind of feel you get form such music was something he was interested in.

As I have talked about before, I have an interest in improvisation. This isnt to say that I’m a jazz musician or even an aspiring jazz musician but it’s relevance to me is what it can offer music, and my music in particular. Once you have shaken off the shackles of popular influence you are less constrained by what other people have done before you and therefore you are also more likely to bring up some sounds that are interesting and more likely to be unique. There are schools of thought that believe this to be impossible but trying really can make things interesting… Also, the use of improvisation to make music really adds some realism to the finished product. As I have talked about before here, trying to shake off your preconceptions will make your music sound more viable in the context it is used in.

Despite all this, for ‘Romantic Rebellion’ I did not use the film as my starting point. As explained in the link of the previous sentence my current audio-visual work is exploring this contextual factor more. For this film, James wanted something that only had my current thought and moment as influence. We thought this would enhance the chaotic feel to the film as well as add another dimension to it that the film-maker had not previously accounted for. This was hard as everything musical that has gone on before influences what you are currently playing but I tried to leave chords and their associated theory behind and worked on only letting current emotion out. The recordings I made for James were both about an hour long (one using electric guitar and one using acoustic guitar) and after a few minutes of playing I found that my current emotions were being influenced by the sounds/music itself, creating a sort of feedback loop where the previous guitar sound would influence my emotion which would influence the next guitar sound. I found this interesting as it added another dimension to what I was playing as well as giving me food for thought…

As you will see, James did not need two hours-worth of sounds but I gave him something that he could apply in his own way through choice of what to use. The result works with what’s going on on-screen but also throws up questions and distorted atmosphere. As in the films I wrote about in last week’s post, the marriage of sound and vision created something that is more than just sound and vision combined.

You may think that all this is pretty pointless and just an exercise in being ‘artistically’ weird for the sake of it. Beyond the need for these kinds of sounds in the film, at face value this all seems a little pointless. Who cares if you can be weird..?? As you may have read in last week’s post, art for the sake of being weird does not really interest me, in fact I find it quite distasteful… But what you may also know if you have been reading my posts is that I am interested in creating different types of atmosphere. The aforementioned improvisational technique produces a very raw atmosphere; it channels more directly towards the sound-maker’s current feelings. I am always refining these ideas and in particular will be using a watered-down version in future Lunar Rising songs through the use of electric guitar and the sounds it can make. My interest there is to not play chords/notes that interact with the rest of the music but to make sounds that interact more with the atmosphere. Of course, the songs need to be radio friendly so I’ll still be using acoustic guitar, as well as using both in a more ‘conventional’ way depending on the need of the song! And, I wont be the first to use the electric guitar in such a manner either (it is very widespread) but I will be the first that uses the songs I have combined with my own previous musical experiences combined with how the individual song moves me… And this will all be just a part of my musical development: Depending on how these ideas turn out, more questions and ideas may be thrown up into the air or I may even settle upon something which I see as the ultimate way to express myself (although this sounds very unlikely!).

In any case, below, you can watch ‘Romantic Rebellion’. Please do find some time to check out what James is up to by checking out his blog here. It focusses on acting so may not be 100% relevant to your own interests but what I have found is that many of the concepts he talks about are readily changeable to any other medium/artform, or even life itself!

Fast Tube by Casper