I focused on contrasting combinations of synthesizer sounds along with other recorded samples. The track “Lost Information” is based on a voice-mail recording and “Hotel Room Hum” was recorded using my laptop’s mic in the middle of the night in a hotel room. As for the poems, I’m interested in questioning myself and answering those questions if I can. Is it possible to look into the source of one’s own thoughts? The question becomes what. This, that and what are the wobbling wheels of my poetry. Released December 24th 2023.
Near Earth means getting closer to the planet as it is. The planet is turning in a big space with stars, suns, moons and other planets. Zooming in and listening carefully there is some odd colorful music playing from a tiny speaker. Crossed wires and static, melodies and faint rhythm in a wobbly toy spaceship that is hovering and getting closer. Released October 23 2022.
2JustB (recorded 2020-2021 in Catskill NY) There is often a struggle to fit. Listening back to the tracks is there a category somehow. Setting up a makeshift fruit stand to sell what. Moving a pile of sand with a tweezer. Giving up and giving in then when back at it again. What are my favorite sounds. Alone with a bunch of knobs and plastic keys and lights reading the manual in bed can’t wait to try again. Thank you laptop holding all my half baked. Getting it out there where. From a forest of Moog star patches rainbow pants. Finally to just be.
Fruit Punch and Fog (recorded 2019 in Catskill NY) There is the fruit, there is the punch and there is the fog. Electronic music is like that sometimes, bright and juicy or in-your-face or vague and formless. Fruit Punch and Fog is a collection of instrumental music that wanders through those descriptions, mostly boundless but also tied to pop and experimental electronic music. Noise is allowed, beats are allowed, and catchy melodies are allowed. Synthesizers have lots of knobs and settings and can make familiar sounds and unidentifiable sounds. Putting them together like cardboard cutouts, sequins and glue the compositions are really sculptural. But unlike most sculpture the music evolves over time: starting out simple and abstract and then hopefully becoming an identifiable pattern or tune. The titles are there to question reality. What are we doing? What is music trying to say? What will happen? What are we listening to? These are the questions posed by Fruit Punch and Fog. (Published August 1, 2020)
Beep Beep Type Music (recorded 2018 in Catskill NY) is a collection of instrumental sound creations that play around in the vacant lot just outside the theme park of pop music. Because of this the simple patterns, synthesizer beeps, and transitions exist in a realm of open activity. Electronic music itself only exists in circuits powered by electricity. When the plug is pulled out, the music stops. For example, in the track “Misfit Mice Build A Space Base” the mice are represented by a series of sound tones played not by mice, but by a human being controlling a machine. As much as it is an experiment, BEEP BEEP TYPE MUSIC is also entertaining, thoughtful and fun. (Purchase a limited edition signed CD from this website or from Bandcamp…)
Breezing Through The World recorded in New York City in 2015 is a collection of minimal electronic experimental synthesizer music. Sometimes it breezes towards catchy tunes, and other times it breezes towards ambient sound patterns. Usually there is interplay between two main instruments. Usually there is a percussion pattern. It might add up to a small round world in a square box where different elements rise and fall, bumping into each other and creating new energy. “Since the inside is empty and can respond, absorbing or not absorbing is equal. Since the outside is interconnected and constantly vacant, abiding or not abiding is all the same.” – Zen Master Hongzhi
Nuthatch recorded in Ghent New York March of 2012. This time the odd music was inspired by the upstate New York landscape. Old houses, telephone poles, large trees, small towns and the cold wet air of lingering winter and early spring. Outside the sliding glass doors was a nearly rotten back porch with a huge maple tree growing along side. The tree had a hole where years ago there had been a branch. Squirrels, chipmunks and birds used the hole as a drinking water supply. The animals were cheerful and uninhibited by the closeness of the window. A nuthatch is a small bird related to woodpeckers. It is feisty and joyous, usually standing upside down pecking at bark in search of seeds or grubs.
Innerwishin recorded in Ghent New York 2010. Innerwishin is simple, minimal, meandering electronic instrumental music. Musical spaces act like intentional roof holes letting in sunlight and clouds. Soft raindrops fall into a plastic bucket. There are lumps and gaps, a small melody and then a bell rings. Sometimes sad , sometimes happy, and sometimes neither sad or happy. Track 3 “the cage” is an eight minute journey that is inspired by John Cage’s prepared piano works of the 1950’s. Rodney and Mr. Cage met once in the 1980’s in a freight elevator. They didn’t say anything to each other. Innerwishin also includes a four part “rummage” sonata performed with synthesizer, toys, found objects and the ambient sound of the artist’s studio in upstate New York, where most of the album was recorded. The last track, “meditation”unfolds, builds and is interrupted over and over again, like the mind trying to tame stray thoughts. Innerwishin is delightful, perplexing, circuitous music. Rolling on its own, it ends up where ever it stops.
Baby Sea Robot recorded in New York City in 1996, is homemade experimental quirky electronic fun pop. The CD came out in Japan in 1997 and sold at most of the big record stores in Tokyo. The original packaging was amazing and even came with a set of stickers. For some reason it did not become a big hit, and went out of print the following year. The song “Smorning” has a weird morning-after-big-party feeling that was used in a promotional video for Tylenol pain relief pills! Many people around the world have enjoyed this obscure and wonderful album.