Monday, August 31, 2015

Oenyaw rebuild

I've started a project of recovering all the Oenyaw music data files, then saving them as wav files, as opposed to only mp3 files at 256kbs.  It's a mountain, but moving along rather quickly, or quicker than I thought it would.  There have been a few surprises.  Such as there are numerous tracks that were actually one take mono recordings.  It didn't remember that "A Quiet Evening With a Few Friends" was recorded in three sessions.  Some of the tracks are requiring multiple increases in gain, while others are do loud that it blows the headphones off of my head and takes a while to recover.  I'm planning on putting the tracks on clouds, sending to internet radio stations, ect.  Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.  Thanks.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Five new discs

There are five discs that haven't made it to the site yet.  "Drawings From the Ancient Gallery" contains tracks using various methods (guitar, midi, synthesizers, percussion software).  Tracks are "based" on poems by William Blake.  "Conversations With Apollo", "A Charming Evening's End", " Music for Colonoscopy Preparation ", and " Elements of Involuntary Memory" are exclusively electric guitar.  I am presently preparing for something new, and will write more when it's all up.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Typee

A musical interpretation of Herman Melville's novel.  Odd coincidence is that there are 35 chapters in the novel, and that this was my 35th disc.  I attempted many different versions, the final is 35 named tracks, which will hopefully make it on the site someday.  It's all electric guitar, by the way.

Conspiracy Therapy

I recorded this one while finding short wave tracks for the Mortician.  It's a lot of noise, but what the heck.  I had to use it somewhere.  Call it a psychology experiment.

Waiting for the Mortician (... or someone like him) Open Mic Night at the Vogon Poetry Club

The title is a mouthful.  It's my tribute album. I have mentioned before that my favorite Beatles song is "Revolution #9", I have numerous references to Douglas Adams and The Firesign Theater, and a long standing love for " Bullwinkle and Rocky", so here it is.  The title is a dead rip from "Waiting for the Electrician(...)", and then there's the idea of a night club on a different Planet where Vogon Poetry is featured.  The voices throughout are backwards tracks from radio broadcasts (shortwave, AM & FM), as well as a speach by President Obama.  Their were initially over 50 tracks, which were combined for obvious reasons.  Many of the tracks titles are from various sections of " The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy ", with a few different titles, one is the only line ever used by both Firesign Theater and Monty Python's Flying Circus, one then there's "Revolution #9" backwards.
The overall idea stems from too many weird gigs, including walking into a corner bar and finding a dysfunctional group of people on stage arguing and playing.  I would be hard pressed to describe how I did this one.  I would have to go section by section of each track to figure it out.  I consider this to be the Oenyaw comedy album, laid out like an all night musical play.  I really enjoyed making it, and still laugh while listening.  It, too, is being repaired.

Excuse Me While I Talk To God

There is only one way to describe this one, a sound track for an impossible movie.  The tracks are quite different than any other Oenyaw disc, so I'll describe them separately.  I did the disc as a movie soundtrack, but the usual Oenyaw occurance is the tracks become quite long.
  "Opening Titles", " Happy in the Afternoon ", " Virtual String Quartet", " Ending Credits"  composed using Finale, transfered as midi file, played by computer
  "Ignition", " Spell for Manufacture and Use of Magic Carpet":  Electric guitar
  "Chaise Lounge Cha Cha Cha", " So Much Work for Such Frivolous Results", "Conjuration of the Bats":  Percussion using Beatcraft software and electric guitar.
  "Our Lady Babylon and the Beast Whereon She Rideth":  the percussion track was a straight 4\4 rock track that I could not do anything with, what sounds like a synthesizer is electric guitar, and the two piano tracks is actually one tracked sliced and diced and rearranged, then presented as electric and acoustic pianos.
  I'll have to continue this later, because I'm in a coffee shop, so I don't have access to the disc, and the website is in the process of repair.
  The cover is a photo I took while driving from St. Petersburg to my home in Greenville.  It looked like one cloud was hiding something while looking over it's shoulder while the other was attacking with outstretched arms.  The title is a cynical remark I would think anytime a person would tell everyone to bow their heads in prayer.  Overall, it's arranged as a movie, which would cover the inner conflicts of growing up in a religious family, leaving home, and exploring other religions, only to find that the they are all the same.

Back with the remaining information.  A few of the tracks were completed using free as synthesizer software downloaded a few years ago.  "Pleasantly Awoken", "From Greenland's Icy Mountains", "Anabiel Sparkles", "Posture and Discipline", " Sebalim", and "The Alchemist Supreme" were all of this method.  "So Much Work for Such Frivolous Results" uses synthesizer, percussion software, guitar and bass.


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

A Life in a Day

This is a twenty-four hour piece.  I wanted to make a statement.  Something that describes how boring everyday life is.  Each disc is six hours, and combined work is twenty-four hours.  The first part is divided into two, I could figure out how to join them.  The remaining three parts are six hours each.
Part 1:  Persistence (What ever it takes)
Part 2:  Solitude (The Polar Bear within)
Part 3:  Stress (Dealing with it)
Part 4:  Simplicity (All that matters is)

All I can say is that it worked for me.  I considered editing/changing part three because it stressed me out listening to it.  Then I realized the name and theme and thought "!".  I stopped there.

A Quiet Evening With A Few Friends

Yes, I'm going to finally update this monster.  Two or three years behind.  I've been busy.  Changing careers, ect.  Now looking for gigs, ect.  On with the show!
Overall theme is a dinner party with an assortment of characters from literary works.

Arrival. Short piece, (4:31).  Distorted guitar.  I was going for the feeling Popul Vuh got in "Nosferatu" when the carriage arrives at the castle.

Ayesha.  (15:36). Guitar loop, describing the young woman in "The Satanic Verses."

Conger. (7:42). A character from Phillip K. Dick's story "The Skull".  I consider this to be the best time travel story ever written.  A very laid back piece.

Zira. (23:04). The ape scientist in "The Planet of the Apes." Performed on bass guitar.

Billy Pilgrim. (49:32). The main character in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five".  A lovely theme for a wonderful book.

Rheya. (7:12). More bass guitar.  The wife that appears in "Solaris".

Bartleby. (38:17). Herman Melville's short story " Bartleby, the Scrivener".  Withdrawn and isolated.

Margaret Walton Saville.  (54:11). The sister of Robert Walton, of course.  From "Frankenstein".  As close to the emotions of the letters I could come.

Moon-Watcher.  (42:53). The ape in " 2001:  A Space Odyssey".  More on the Zira-based bass theme.

The Round Table. (1:20:15). A very long, quite circle of fifths.  The dinner music for this precarious group.  I hope to redo this theme sometime in the future.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Back again

It only took a week to figure out how to write new posts on the phone.  While on the phone or tablet, I am automatically logged in on my Google account. I have to go incognito to log in otherwise.  Kind of symbolic, I guess.
I have recorded a number of discs that have never been mentioned on this blog.  The computer at home has a dial-up connection, and keeps telling me to update the browser.  When I attempt that, it tells me it's already updated.  Needless to say, I'm way behind.  I won't be able to post the covers, but they are on the music site.
I also have a bit more spare time, which I can't really explain right now.  If you are reading this in North America, Russia, Europe, Asia, or wherever you are, sit tight.  Information is forthcoming.