Cinema Volta: Daily Ambience

This is number 31 - one full month completed. I am now 1/12 of the way through: 2005-03-01

By the way, this may be a good time to point out that a donation is always appreciated. The links are in the column to the right, you can use Pay Pal or Amazon. One dollar, one pound, one euro, anything is fine.

During the winter of 1989-90 I was on the road with They Might Be Giants, working as their monitor engineer (and lots of other jobs as well.) During a stop in Athens, Georgia, I spotted a used Ashbory bass guitar in a music store. I really liked it, but didn't buy it. Then they stopped making them.

After years of fruitless searching for another, I gave up. Well, they just started making them and I got one. This was recorded with it. Spooky bass in a long hallway.

2005-03-02

This one is quite pretty I think. Just a guitar and lots of echo.

2005-03-03

Another solo bass piece. Same technology as the first but very different results. Because of this one, I now have a blister on one of the fingers of my right hand.

2005-03-04

Just an experiment in multiple delays. 2005-03-05

Playing around with some beats and washes courtesy of GarageBand. Might back a good backing track someday. 2005-03-06

I started out to record something using my guitar, ebow and a delay, but the computer took over and recorded this. 2005-03-07

Well, the computer took over again. Here's another one I had very little control over. 2005-03-08

This computer is not going to get the best of me. I've imposed my will on what it's been producing. 2005-03-09

Back on the 24th of February, I took an even earlier tune and stripped out the instrument, leaving only the reverb. On this one, I took a very small section of that and turned it into a sample, played it as notes and ran it through a huge echoey reverb. 2005-03-10

My computer and I finally came to a truce and collaborated on this one. 2005-03-11

Fairly simple setup, almost the same as 2005-03-03: simulation of a Space Echo and the reverb from Domkyrken. The instrument is just a Strat and an ebow, with no additional processing. 2005-03-12

I liked the direction things were headed with yesterday's tune, so I'm working on taking it further. I re-recorded the bed, added bass and removed the lead guitar. I'll continue to reveal the progress of this track as it develops. 2005-03-13

Still exploring the same terrain. This time I added some drums. I had to completely redo the bass then. The bass part is still sketchy, but we'll see where this goes. 2005-03-14

Oh no - - again??? Yesterday's was a bit of a trainwreck, so I got up this morning and re-did it. I promise to have something different tomorrow. 2005-03-15

Just playing around with Garageband. It's really a fun program and the results can be quite satisfying. 2005-03-16

Took yesterday's tune and turned it into a big Metal mess. Could have been big in the 90s I guess. 2005-03-17

And now, back to some beatless ambience. 2005-03-18

Some more guided randomness. Not feeling very volitional these days. Mainly waiting for spring to come to Scandinavia. 2005-03-19

It's the first day of spring. 2005-03-20

Same setup as yesterday with completely different results. 2005-03-21

Still exploring how seemingly minor variations on the same settings can have major results. It raises the question - what makes the piece, melody or arrangment? The melodies of the last three pieces have been identical, but they have almost no similarity because the voices are different and the structure of each piece is slightly different. 2005-03-22

Coralia Mancini, a video artist from New York has asked me to create the score for a new piece she's showing at the beginning of April. It's based on the tune from 2005-02-01. I'll be posting what I've done each day until it's finished. Today, I took a seven minute track and turned it into an eleven minute track. I also replaced the bass track which was annoying me. 2005-03-23

By the way, this is number 53. If I'd have been smart and only promised one tune per week, I'd be done by now. Instead, I've got 303 to go.

Back on familiar territory with another exploration of the variations brought about by arrangement. 2005-03-24

Almost done with the video soundtrack. It's still in very rough shape, but it's getting closer. 2005-03-25

Here's the final mix of the soundtrack for the video. 2005-03-26

The piece will be shown in New York on April 6th as part of an evening called "Made in the Shade - Video Works by Cora Mancini and Matias Aguilar."

It's happening in Tribeca at DEKK- Restaurant Bar Lounge Screening Room
134 Reade Street
NY, NY 10013

Here's some new stuff. I'll probably play around with some variations on this one in the near future. This began its life as Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Web Phase instrument on this site. 2005-03-27

Just some subtle variations on yesterday's theme's 2005-03-28

Just some more subtle tweaks. 2005-03-29

Another variation. It's much simpler, but I'm using one of the MIDI tracks to control a filter with the resonance turned way up to add an additional, "ghost" voice. I used the same technique on the environmental recordings used in the soundtrack for "Retina." 2005-03-30

By the way, this is day 60 - I'm 1/6th of the way through. That doesn't seem like a lot, but in one month, I'll be 1/4th of the way through, and that does seem like quite a bit. Numbers are funny that way.

By the way, now might be a good time to consider a donation. You can use PayPal or Amazon. The link is in the right column.

Still hammering away at the same source material. This time it sounds like the early days of analog synths. 2005-03-31