June 1, 2007

A happy ending to a rather unhappy spring semester, and an even happier beginning to diving right into a much shorter 3 week long course on recording techniques. That's all done now, and being much wiser in these aspects Ive since begun my attempts at creating some listen-able recordings. The past couple months has seen me partake in some psychedelic shennanigans with dmusic's very own art rock outfit Octadelica. Alongside this, Ive spent some considerable hours playing the role of engineer, recording some undeniably 'groovy' percussion loop samples with a long time friend (and temporary musical acquaintance). I have hopes of crafting some very inspired songs around these recordings, but we all know by now that most art is really made in the absence of hope, or rather; hope isn't quite synonymous with the will to commit countless hours of work. But most notably, Ive recently contributed a film 'score' to American film maker Eric Atwood's 2002 short entitled "Stillness". An atmospheric art film which at times rivals the beautiful poetic imagery of classic film makers like Tarkovsky, now complete with a dreary soundtrack composed of drone loops, drawn out textures, and a nostalgic mellotron ending theme. You can watch "Stillness" along with Eric's other films at his myspace page: http://myspace.com/ericatwood though "Stillness" (With Sound) is not entirely complete, this was simply a low quality mp3 sync with the film compressed as a 'test run'. The film will be updated with some finishing touches on my end and much higher resolution audio in the coming weeks.

On a side note, I was fortunate enough to bump into one of my heroes, the man Wilson (Porcupine Tree, Blackfield, no-man) hanging out in the basement of a local record shop. Porcupine Tree was playing a sold out show that night, which is great because it's about time his music got the kind of following that it deserves. Had a chance to chat and started mumbling anecdotes of how I also met (yet missed the show) of singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek (whom Steven adores by the way), and well, quite nearly wet my pants like a schoolgirl.

Listening:
American Music Club - Everclear
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1996 Stereo Remastered)
Massive Attack - Collected
Derek Bailey - Improvisation