The McKeown’s show on the 10^th went awesomely! I was soo00o happy to see all my friends there; it really made it a special night. Thank you all; especially my Human Genetics masters program buddies, who probably had no clue what they were in for! (^_-) And thank you’s to Maggie Mckeown and Charlie Engstrom, for hosting such an awesome night!
 

My set was all about exploring this idea of loss and return. Sort of about “eternal return”; an idea, I believe, of Nietzsche’s, which I picked up by way of Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I used field recordings I made one beautiful day, years ago, with an old girlfriend. I left in all the moments when we talk… Me, for instance, saying “that was a great sound, sweetie”; or her telling me to record as she runs across an old basketball court to send a flock of birds into flight.  Towards the end, you hear a tape playing forward, rewinding, flitting forward again; one of my favorite sounds. (^_^)
 

I’m pretty happy with how the performance went, on a technical level. My max patch held together pretty solidly… though some sort of weird, buffer-y intermittent noises started popping up into the mix about an hour before I went on. Fortunately, it behaved fairly well during the set. (As soon as she’s fixed, I’ll post her in the max/msp section.) And I only unplugged my main out cables twice! BBbbZZzzRppp! I was quite nervous, so my singing was a bit subdued and I kept it low in the mix; but I think it went well enough for my first time! You can listen to it here!
 

Unfortunately, my little field recorder ran out of gas, cause I would have looooved to record the evening’s two other acts. Helen Gillet was incredible! I hope to start taking cello lessons from her soon! Bryan and Trey’s modular synth/ feedback mixer set was awesome as always. They’ve got this great interpersonal dynamic; wherein Bryan will squiggle something on the synth, and Trey will simply bust out with a laugh. You can tell they really love their sound. It was an experience, as always!
 

Next up, I’ll be playing a 20 minute set at the Big Top on Clio St, as part of this year’s New Orleans Independent Sound Experience. It’s going to be a really amazing day, with something on the order of 17 different acts performing. I plan to change my set up quite a bit… so please come out! (^_^)b
 

I’ll be playing on Saturday, March 10^th. It’s #7 in the Difficult Music series at McKeown’s Books. Aside from my own bit of stumbling folktronica, there will also be performances by cellist Helen Gillet, and by sound artists Bryan Killingsworth and Trey Smith. I think it will be a really cozy, interesting night; and I believe there will be free beer.

I’m really excited/ nervous about it… I’ll be playing some new songs which require a bit of singing, which I’ve only done alone in my car up till now! Eek! Hopefully though, I won’t lose my nerve, and my laptop won’t crash, and everything will go just fine! (^_^)b

Ostensibly, we’ll start at 8, and I’m up first… but no promises for timeliness! Hope to see you there!

Two wonderfully exciting projects, both a long time in the works, have finally been released!

LuvSound.Org has just released the compilation “Summer Gate. Sun Made of Gave.” Since I last posted, the lovely Erik Schoster has invited me to co-curate Luvsound, and I’ve had a blast working on this compilation. It has totally surpassed our expectations: it’s huge, two full cd’s worth of some of the smartest new music, created by some truly thoughtful and bright people.

From LuvSound.Org: “We’re interested in this tissue as a sort of living body - cells reproducing and being re-inserted as artistic production articulates itself and moves culture forward through a messy and wonderful strange loop. We hope this collection won’t be the end of a process, but a step along the way.”

Please check it out!

And Disquiet.Com has just released “Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet”; a compilation featuring 12 remixes of Brian Eno and David Byrne’s 1981 sampling masterpiece, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”. Curated by the always insightful and discerning Marc Weidenbaum, “Our Lives…” is a really good listen. So far, my favorite tracks are from Stephane Leonard and My Fun. I’m super proud to have contributed to this great release.

From Disquiet.Com: “For Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet, I contacted a dozen musicians whose work I admire; I wanted to hear what their renditions of the Eno and Byrne tracks might sound like, and none of them had yet joined in the activities at the bush-of-ghosts.com website. With only a few exceptions, these individuals already participate regularly in the loose community of musicians who post their own music for free download on the web, via netlabels, social networking services or their own websites.”

“… Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet opens with an entry, by AllThatFall, resembling what My Life in the Bush of Ghosts might have sounded like had it been created for the first time in 2006. It builds on our experience, as listeners, with music sewn from samples; what was once innovative to the point of confusion is now commonplace - the esoteric quality of the original’s haphazard construction has given way to music, like AllThatFall’s, that is comforting for all its ramshackle, jittery energy.”

Available here.

I’m thrilled to report that I’ll be a part of the forthcoming compilation “Summer Gate, Sun Made of Gave” on LuvSound. Featuring contributions from nascent luminaries OPN, Implex Grace, Mattin, Muninn, Rain-Cloud, Sleeps in Oysters, Inlets, Bryan Teoh, Effacer, Jeph Jerman, Cremaster, Ryan Francesconi, Jonathan Fisher, Nomad Palace, Osso Bucco, Tsukimono, He Can Jog, and others; this is one project I feel utterly unworthy to take part in. I really think this compilation is going to help set the new agenda for experimental electronic music in 2006. Just click a few of the artist links above, and you’ll immediately understand how immense this thing is going to be!

My contribution is entitled “Making Places”; an ambient work which considers both the sonic and emotive implications of a place. The piece utilizes primarily acoustic textures which, through heavy DSP, are transformed into often harsh drones. Momentary spatial gestures occur within the drones; i.e., microphone placements are effectively changed from moment to moment. I’m trying here to emulate the cubist painter’s technique whereby he affects a spatial concept via the presentation of a multitude of perspectives.

John McCraig of Panic Studios is currently mastering the compilation, which should be available online in May. I’ve heard from label-founder Erik Schoster that a limited edition CDR will be made available to people “in exchange for another gift they make for their local community, in whatever capacity that might be - organizing an event, writing a poem or an essay and droplifting it into a local library, etc etc”. What a tremendous thought! I wonder what I’ll do…

I’ve posted two new patches to the Max/MSP section… One is a little obfuscation of mine that happens to make interesting sounds from time to time. The other is my first experiment with interfacing Max/MSP with the MPC 2000. This patch lets you sample in real time and then cut up the sample using the MPC pads. It’s a bit esoteric and it’s only monophonic at the moment, but I definitely plan to pursue this patch a little further. Also, a BCR 2000 is in the mail, speeding its way towards my loving arms at this very moment! Between this and the MPC, I shouldn’t have to do much mousing around during shows, and I’ll have a much more immediate and visceral control of my patches (or that’s the idea).

In other news, my latest (and actually not-quite-finished) track “Keeping Birds” popped up on the local college station yesterday. That’s always a super-nice feeling, too, hearing your own stuff! Thanks WTUL! I’ll have to post the finished version soon…

Bookishly, I’m splitting my time between Twisty Little Passages by Nick Montfort, and Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos. Dork out!

The ATF badges finally arrived! Yay! If you want one, alls you have to do is scoot an email over to me! Easy! Some of you will get one whether you want it or not, so deal with it ok?! (If you’ve any doubt that I know your address, let me know just in case.)

I’ve been plugging away at a pseudo-granulizer patch in Max/MSP. It’s pretty functional at this point, so I’ll post it in a few days. It approaches some of the old granular problems in a different way, and has a really lovely sound to it. Speaking of which, those into Max really must check out Leafcutter John’s burgeoning Framework project (featuring a subpatch by He Can Jog). Tres hip!