What a ride it has been. I made the analogy the other week that being at art school is like being Doctor Who's companion. You know you want to go and experience something new, but it's like a whirlwind trip of all time and space, and leaves you baffled in the end.
I think I've really come out the other end with some new skills. I feel like I've been thorough. Some things really challenged me, but I feel like I've risen to the challenges set. The Volume piece was hard work, but I think I made that one happen. the sound Object piece was great fun, and I felt like I got to put a lot of skills from Audio Tech into that piece. I was pretty happy with my mix. As for the development of my techniques, this class has really helped me integrate new things into the work I've been making. It's made me much more aware of the flaws in my compositional process, and given me new things to try I'd never thought of. It's been an influence on me finishing some old, almost but not quite completed pieces, giving me the final kick they needed, completing the picture, or just supplying me with the tools to see what what missing. In particular, I'm going to finally finish the Absinthe music recording.
I have made plans to spend the majority of the break (besides working on the federation bells piece, which I will do as well) returning to my track a day process. This time with few restrictions. I'll probably set different parameters each morning. I have some ideas for cover songs, sound improvisations, experiments with new equipment, and I want to make some new field recordings and see what happens. I wont be setting duration or instrumentation restrictions on the pieces this time around, but I will try to start something new each day, rather than working over something. this way I can try a whole bunch of different things and just see where they end up. This will also mean I will still have time to work on the bells, other band related stuff, and my "analogies/black comedy" remixes.
The "analogies" remix (a remix version of the track at the top of this blog) is more or less complete. I've mixed it, and sent it off to Lerms in Cancun to make the animated video clip for it. Lerms is a genius. We've collaborated a few times already. When he had a monthly art jam project going on, I did two short animation sound tracks for him. One was an instrumental edit of my song Green, the other was an original track. I'm glad to be working with someone like him. His style is amazing. Between him and Nathan J (who did the Glasfrosch jellyfish art) I have found the two best visual artists for my sounds.
For my Bells piece (and probably for my piece for the town hall organ) I'm planning to use the members of my band to help perform the work. I plan to controll the bells via midi pads, and triggers attached to the drums, and then to use microphones to process the bells in real time. I also want to examine the tonal colour of the bells and play around with modulating the frequencies via some kind of FM synthesis. I'll probably make a song, with words, since what I do is essentially Pop. I'm trying to envision my work as beyond pop music, but with the spirit of pop as an art. I'm not sure where the line is anymore. I used to think I was making experimental music into pop, but I think that definition is too shallow now. I certainly want to get away from the rock band scene. I'd love to play very few regular band shows and just focus on making really complex pieces for one off performances (or close to one off/rare). The Bells will be the first one of those.
My work as Glasfrosch has been tied down to the Melbourne progressive scene for a time, and I want to take it back. I don't like the expectations of that audience. They like guitars and distortion and riffs. I want to play more with static and stillness. Still mix in the guitars and stuff, but I think for too long now I've been trying to please a scene rather than my self. I had a plan. It started with my lullaby project, to strip everything back and develop the sounds from nothing, and slowly add more pop/rock elements over time until I had developed a unique band sound. I think that's happened, and now it's time to start puling things out and trying to find new things with in that to rebuild onto.
The aubades/nocturnes project wont suffer from that, I think by the time that's all finished I'll have dug deep enough alongside them to be able to combine the two perspectives. The recording of Aubades will begin soon, and I'll be mixing it at school in protools my self. The live versions of those tracks have their function, and the recordings will have their own, but in the long term, i guess what I'm trying to say here is, I want to explore some new live functions for the future of my music to exist with. Something that isn't in every corner of Melbourne already.
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