– I’m in Montreal! It’s pretty nice so far.
– I finished a hack called Music I Used To Like, based on the shirt of the same name. It is interesting how much variance there actually is between people’s taste in music.
– I had to do a bit of hacking in openFrameworks. openFrameworks is amazing.
– I finished the edits to TORNADO SONGS, based on the feedback from Composer’s Kitchen. Now I get to try to handle edits from 3,700 KM away.
– I’m writing up thesis ideas, as I need to beg for funding for second year. Aiiiii.
week 23 or so
composer’s kitchen
I was lucky enough to participate in the undergraduate version of Composer’s Kitchen, as put on by SFU, Owen Underhill, Christopher Butterfield, and the monstrously talented Quatuor Bozzini. They helped me work out the middle movement of TORNADO SONGS, for which I am very grateful. Big ups are also in order to Jamie, Sara, Alex Jang, Remy, Jeremey, Alex Mah, Thomas, Duncan, and Will for their exceptional pieces. I’ll have recording the moment I get them.
week 20
– You may have heard of this thing we did called Get Excited And Make Techno: we’re finished doing it, now. It was rad. Seven local producers met for six workshops over eight weeks to produce a free compilation of techno, dub, and house.
– I finished up my job with UVic’s CHISEL software engineering lab this week: many thanks to Peggy Storey and co. for a fun six months.
– Everything is ready for Composer’s Kitchen in two weeks.
– Everything is ready for TORNADO SONGS: I just need to make parts.
– I got a hack called ‘music i used to like’ working. I just need to get the styling nailed, and I’ll be good to go.
made techno
Get Excited & Make Techno presents a our free, 7-track EP, a product of a summer’s worth of workshops and beatsmithing:
– BandCamp
– SoundCloud
– Tumblr
Big thanks to Quinn, Kevin, Dan, Mike, Jason, Lee, as well as Rennie, Manj, Nathan, Kirk, Charlie, and Chris.
week 19
– I finished mixdown for HOLD, which doesn’t sound like this any more.
– HOLD will be release as part of the Get Excited & Make Techno project, later this week.
– I made a mixtape! It’s about moving to Montreal, surprise surprise.
– I realized, when watching a cat play some vinyl, that one thing that key-locked digital DJing loses is the pitch up / down that you get on vocals when cranking a tune up or down.
– I’m into the final edit stage on TORNADO SONGS: many thanks to Laine, Alex, and Nathan for telling me what double stops are impossible.
– Started a thing called MONTREAL COMPRESSION EXERCISES. Don’t know how much will come of it, but we’ll see.
music for distance
I’m going to Montreal! This is what I’ll be listening to on the plane.
1: Hannah Read – Only You Will Know [hannahread.com]
2: Lusine – Gravity [Ghostly]
3: Julia Easterlin – Go Straight Away [juliaeasterlin.com]
4: Talking Heads – Once In A LifeTime [Sire]
5: Maximo Park – The Coast Is Always Changing [Warp]
6: Julia Easterlin – Eyes On The Prize [juliaeyesprize.com]
7: Thor Kell – Sunbird (Jillian Hanks, piano) []
week 18
– I have 343 pieces of vinyl. I probably had about 1200 to 1300 before. Well then.
– I am over the moon, as I’m done a full draft of TORNADO SONGS, and all three pieces for the Composer’s Kitchen workshop.
– The Dream|City webapp is working: Connor and I just need to write the music.
– I can recommend you to Bleep’s Guide To Electronic Music in the strongest possible way.
week 17
– I have given away 10 of my 14 crates of vinyl. Wow.
– A draft of my tune for Get Excited & Make Techno is here. It’s a weirder version of 2007-esq “deep trance.”
– I have sketches of all of TORNADO SONGS. Woooosh. I’ve edited all the songs into cleaner version too; I need to clean up the outro and interlude, and then it’s “done.”
week 16
– I finished MULTITOUCH, an exercise in having an entire string quartet play a ‘cello. I look forward to telling you all that I’ve been thrown out of the Composer’s Kitchen workshop.
– How to write a Ph.D thesis in 3 months. Because I may needed it later, but also because it has lots of appropriate workflow related things.
– I have no more books to give away. Whoa.
– I booked a flight to Montreal. Whooaaaaa.
– I got sick! Can’t recommend it.
week 15
– I finished VIII and IX of TORNADO Songs: I just need to write the interlude and a total draft is done.
– I got a decent track going for Get Excited And Make Techno: you can hear the current version here.
– We’re halfway through Get Excited And Make Techno! Woo!
– I organized all of my techno vinyl, and gave a good chunk of it away. I feel like I’m missing an arm.
– Beat Surfer is a kind of amazing iPad app. Non-linear-ish sequencers are super duper interesting to me.
– I wrote a jam called I NEVER LIKED BRAHMS, for string quartet. It’ll be worked on at Composer’s Kitchen, in August.