Search the Community

Outside the Walls Parts I and II Here is a 15 minute piece I wrote.. it is part of a larger piece I will upload when finished. Sorry, there is no score.. Too much of it consists of manipulated audio scraps, esoteric Kontakt and UVI libraries which are mini soundbeds in themselves thus the MIDI notes have no real indication of the sound patch. Scott Watson provided his great English voice to the dialogue - soundcloud link to his material - https://soundcloud.com/s-watson . I whispered. This piece is more of a ‘sonic journey’.. I used ‘found’ sounds, heavily processed. Some of it is more ‘sound design’ than music. A fair amount of Improvisation, first takes, building section by section.. then of course editing, sliding sections around, adding additional parts to make it appear more coherent. When I got my first synth an ARP 2600 back in 71, I did pop music and also a fair amount of exoteric stuff, cause I liked the sound exploration.. This was a lot of fun.. Cause I got to ignore the years of musical rules, I’ve learned.. I took some of the sounds, and had to create a new ‘syntaxr’ in how to use them.. Quite unlike anything I’ve done before.. I also put a nod into Frank Zappa, because of his esoteric inspirations.. I too listened to electronic music artists of the 50’s and 60’s.. Stockhausin, Milton Babbitt, John Cage.. Wheil they didn’t inspire me to the degree of pop pioneers, I appreciated because they came at it with a ‘unmusical’ background’. So sit back, have a cup of tea, coffee, (and think back to the day of alternative substances). and journey over this imaginary landscape I have created.

Shades of Indigo.. I came across the term 'Indigo Children', They are artistic, special and different.. This lead to my exploration called Shades of Indigo.. Better sit down - it's 10 minutes long.. It's more of an exploration of different motifs.. I use a pallet of sample libraries, Tyros 5, Kontak Libraries, and sever virtual other worldly instruments. A lot of instruments but not so dense as other things I've done.. (yeahhhhh)...

The Road Less Traveled - by Mark Styles This is a long piece.. It does have a theme motif, but is more of a musical journey than a song. My first intention was to work with key transpositions. Cause I never really cared for them when I was younger, I regarded them as a cheesy device, when you ran out of ideas.. There have been examples where transpositions are very powerful and moving, and others where it’s just too predictable.. I had sone fun, transposing, and even got it to match the confusion at one point, I wanted the song to convey I use a pallete of traditional sounds but also made more use of artificial sounds, with 3rd party plug-ins, (Audio Units in Logic Pro) cause I wanted to evoke a certain feeling of nostaligia, but also of uncertainty, and alienation.. I applied the computer equivalent to tape manipulation, spicing, backwards tape, etc for other more unworldly sounds. I’ve been taking a course at coursera.org.. ‘Biology as Music”.. It studies how are our bodies were designed to process music, how certain aspects of the relationships of partials, and resonance will evoke specific emotions out of humans.. How our first language was actually mimicking animal sounds. How we even use pitch in our speech to add an extra layer of meaning to our communication.. So it got me thinking that the use of untraditional sounds, will cause the brain to react differently, cause the sound can’t be defined as being something particular. so the brain, will ‘keep an eye on it’.. I started with some chord tracks, but replaced all tracks, mostly with one line parts.. The piece is 6/8 - but I attempted not to make that real obvious. I did that by having certain instruments play notes, that might be counted out in 4/4 time.. So I wouldn't always hit, the 1 beat, I'd hit the 2 beat (trying to trick your brain into thinking it's 4/4 time).. I thinned things a lot too - so as to not have a timed feel (at least that was what I was aiming for) Not entirely successful, but it does take away from the strict feel of 6/8 time. Yes, I was a 'Flower Child of the 60's'.. so this is music for those of us who remain from the 'Flower Power Generation'.. just easy listening now, no FUZZ guitars. I'll use one in another piece later, once I figure out how to use the iPad to change the EQ on my hearing aid (just kidding - no hearing aid yet).. (Mark Styles©2016 Pliant Tunes BMI)