Category: Jazz

Earthrise

December 2nd, 2012 · · Albums, Earthrise, Electronic, Jazz, Music, Rock No comments

It’s been a while. But it has not been for nothing. Fresh off the shelf is my latest album, Earthrise. It’s a 40 minute solo concept album entirely produced with free/libre software (Ardour, JAMin, Audacity, fluidsynth, Rakarrak, and various libre plugins). Download high quality FLAC’s and Ogg’s below or get ‘em MP3′s from Jamendo where you’ll also find the album listed.

If you happen to dig the almost screaming instrument/sound in ‘Drowning Electric Angels’, then you are definitely not alone. But it may not be exactly what you think it is. It is, in fact, a theremin run through a wah-wah pedal, autotuned, compressed, and, of course, followed up by a ton of reverberation. Not only does it make the instrument way easier to play, it also makes it possible to play it in a different, and in my opinion, far better sounding manner.

So, give it a whirl!

What A Beautiful Day

October 23rd, 2012 · · Jazz, Music No comments

“I sometimes think just to myself: would I be willing to die instead of someone else?” — Me

This is a recording of me playing the piano and singing at the same time. I wrote and recorded it just a few hours ago after having watched Kubrick’s “Spartacus”. Parts of the melody for this song was actually stolen from the ending theme. Anyway, this is the first time I have tried recording myself playing and singing simultaneously, but I must say that I am personally quite impressed with the result. This is a track I feel proud of — and obviously one I want to share. I hope you like it.

Weekly Notes #13: The Weird Wizard’s Lobby

October 7th, 2012 · · Jazz, Music, Solo Piano, Weekly Notes No comments

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” — The Wizard

This is actually a piece I wrote for my new band, but I decided to adapt it as a solo piano piece for this week’s Weekly Notes. I’m quite fond of the tune myself, so I may do another version/arrangement some day with a ton of instruments. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Weekly Notes #12: Just a Minute

September 24th, 2012 · · Jazz, Music, Solo Piano, Weekly Notes No comments

“Here’s a joke I heard down in the pub: what’s brown, and sounds like a bell? Dung!” — Arthur Name from Monty Python’s Flying Circus

I wrote a short piece this Saturday. It lasts a minute. Nothing more, nothing less.

If You Wanna Be Rich

September 10th, 2012 · · Blues, Jazz, Music One comment

“If you think that I’m mad and don’t laugh when I’m funny, then you ain’t gonna get rich” — Me

The secret revealed! I wrote the lyrics and chords this morning and recorded it all this evening. The drums are actually Hydrogen (the drum machine) set with a high randomisation factor on the volume, and then with a load of triggers at various velocities to mute some of the triggers at various points. This gives the impression that the drums don’t follow a simple loop pattern. Of course, now that I’ve told the secret to you, it will be noticeable immediately, but I’m actually rather impressed with how “human”-like it sounds — and it’s great fun to jam along with it.

Weekly Notes #6: Through a Falcon’s Eyes

August 13th, 2012 · · Jazz, Music, Solo Piano, Weekly Notes One comment

“These are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.”

This week’s Notes stems from an idea I got yesterday when I was just about to watch the third and final part of the Godfather trilogy. It’s not really related to the films in any direct way, though. But I think the title pretty much sums up all I want to say about this track: imagine being high above ground searching for prey. You feel the wind beneath your wings as you scout the terrain for breakfast. Or dinner. But you don’t really care because you’re a falcon and you’ve never even heard of the concepts of breakfast or dinner. To you it’s just food at different times of the day.

An Irrevocable Decision

August 11th, 2012 · · Jazz, Music No comments

“I have to make a decision; an irrevocable one. I have to make this decision of mine; it’s one that needs to be done.”

I began working on a track with the same title a year ago, but I didn’t really like where it was going so I discontinued the project. But I really liked the title. Now, I was watching the “Modern Electric Bass” lessons by Jaco Pastorious when I suddenly got this urge to pick up the saxophone and start recording. I had originally planned to do some wild improvisation, but I slowly realised that that wasn’t how “An Irrevocable Decision” was going to be. In fact it was a piece of composition for a large orchestra. Now, I don’t exactly have a huge symphony orchestra in my flat, so I settled for a different approach: Pitch shifters. Three instruments: Saxophone, flute and violin were used, and then shifted and dubbed in four octaves each with massive reverberation. It almost sounds like it was done using synthesizers at times (save the violin), which must be a kudos to modern samplers, but then again not really.

I leave it up to you to decide if you dig it. I certainly do so myself.

Since this track really loses a lot of its intended effects (very low frequencies, especially) in Ogg Vorbis or MP3 format on proper sound systems, you can also download the FLAC below.