Week 17.1

Context*:  The ionosphere plotting against humanity

Emotion*:  Dread, fear of the numinous

Other:  Something beyond human understanding

We seem to be on a space-oriented binge lately.  This one is full of strangeness, lots of synthesis.  Sort of in e minor, sort of e synthetic.  Some kind of starspawn, an abominational offspring of the two.  This one went better.  Working on the actual website et all.

~græy

Week 16.2

Context*:  A trucker named Jug swears vengeance

Emotion*:  Jog don't have no 'motions

Other:  Ennio Morricone with a dash of Johnny Cash

That one didn't go as well.  I tried to mix in some sprinkles of Cash, some classyness from Morricone, and a bit of disturbing cacophony from something 'Lynchian' like Lost Highway.  And didn't do particularly well.  But the new schedule is set, so it's done and up.

~græy

Week 14.2

Context*:  A kitten playing
Emotion*:  Silly and happy
Other:  a meow at the end

The hardest part was getting a cat to meow into the mic.  Usually, it's no problem, screaming over the smallest inconvenience is a daily occurrence.  Sometimes they scream for no reason, then forget they're screaming.  This time I had to go find a sound effect, because they just would not make a sound, like some kind of kitty oath of silence for their monastic order.
This one's simple, ABC sections, I went with some 'playful' sounding instruments, glockenspiel, toy piano, some silly choir bits and a grain synth I made special.

Week 6.1

Context*: being at the bottom of the ocean and eating chocolate

Emotion*: content in my choco pod

Other:

Well I tried to keep with the ocean and content.  There's a warm 60's-esque organ sound that I used for a kind of drone, you can hear it after the waves fade out (around 30 seconds).  Everything was tweaked to be heavy on the mid-range, for that warm goodness.  There's a wood marimba, an echoey pipe and some other stuff in there on top of four or five textural synths.

High on reverb, High on mid-range eq's, and a few warm pads that have some movement in them.
Hope it's enjoyable and makes you wish for a choco pod of your very own from which you can explore the ocean.

~græy

Week 1.2

A follow-up to the week 1 choral piece, this one starts with a thin, yearning, high-tension bit, then moves into B, a gradually thicker variation on the theme from the A section, with a repeating cello line that sketches out a more hopeful chord. It moves back into some of the minors from A, as it nears the end, revitalizing some of that tension in a thicker form. The resolution at the end speaks especially strongly to me at least, a minor chord that melts into major.

Would you like more specifics?  Am I making sense?  Should I stop talking about emotional impact and get down to gritty music theory explanations?  Or something in between?

In other words, how's it workin for ya?

Thanks for listening

~græy

Week 1

Well there you go

Week one. I decided to write a mostly choral piece that could be looped, with two main sections. The A section is a denser, traditional choral arrangement. I tried to keep it longing, almost mournful, but moving fluidly. The pipes fit texturally just enough into the vocal parts (throaty resonance) that it doesn't shine out too much, but it can emerge clearly when it has a line that should pop.

The B section steps back from the tension built in the first section and takes the piece to a simple, floating finish with a few false resolves, and ends with a thin, floating, yet satisfying finish.  I feel like I'm talking about wine.  The vocal samples are from the London Symphony Orchestra's Symphony of Voices, which is my favorite set of vocal samples, by far.  

Send in ideas you'd like to hear on the form to the right!

~græy

Weekly Composition Happy Fun Time Lucky Game!

The pretext behind this idea is that you, the humble reader, will write in to me, the vaguely talented artist, with florid descriptions of a context that you'd like to hear sonically illustrated. Think of film score or video game background music. You'll say “Aww mans! What my lifelong dream to hear is: An ominous piece of musics for the darkest cave of the hideous frog-people of Angkanore, whose throaty croaks bring the blackest bile rising in those who would dare to walk alone in their domain!”

Then I'll respond “Ok friend, here's some phresh beats, made to order!”
I'll sit down and jam out some music in one day, post it and add some comments explaining what I did.  For now, we're running two compositions a week.

The idea is to give me practice writing things I might not ordinarily attempt, and for you to have some fun coming up with a situation you'd like to hear. It's a win-win situation

You'd be losing money NOT doing it!

-græy