My new music CD is out now. It’s another collection of fun electronic pseudo-pop and sound experiments. You can listen to it right here:
All the songs were created in 2019 and I have even played some of them live at the HiLo Cafe and Bar in Catskill on April 18th 2019. After that I was mixing the rough recordings and then production was delayed by the preparation of my show at Hudson Hall “Something to Look Forward to” followed by the Covid19 pandemic. During that time I finished the tracks.
The concept is FRUIT PUNCH = catchy or punchy songs and FOG = freeform sound experiments. The 12 tracks were all written before the start of the Covid19 crisis so some represent concern for the wasting of the environment which was the main issue way back in early 2019. That’s what tracks “If I love the Earth Why am I Wrecking it” and “Last Laugh of the Wind” are about.
“Battery Corrosion in Forgotten Toy,” “All the Answers in One Place” and “Roof Leak in the Guest Room” are sound experiments with my trusty Moog synth and computer effects processing. Sometimes it’s a relief to get away from pop music forms, forgetting about drum tracks and not caring at all whether it is music or not. Even so, it seems a pattern always emerges.
There are two formalist conceptual tracks “I Lived without Glitches for Two Hours” and “The Impeccable Chicken.” In “I Lived Without Glitches” I am telling a story: Everything is going along fine, and then chaos hits, ends and past order returns. Then chaos overwhelms order. In the end chaos and order unite. “The Impeccable Chicken” is a completely formal experiment. The piece is one simplistic melody, that repeats over and over again with two distinct changes each time: the key goes up an octave by half step starting from C, and each time the sound “patch” of the Moog is changed. It’s subtle but when you understand what’s happening it’s fun! Very difficult to play live. I tried and make some mistakes. The audience loved it.
For those of you who love music technology like I do, my set-up consists of a Moog Little Phatty as my main instrument, and the Teenage Engineering OP-1 that I sometimes sketch out the songs with, and a Nord Lead 2 digital synth. I use Ableton Live 10 to put it all together, with Akai APC40mk2 as a controller. I also use some of Ableton’s own amazing digital instruments. Enjoy!
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