
Some Loose Ends
The weekly deadline to the challenges meant that some pieces that I started were left incomplete, so that I ended up at the end with 8 or 9 tracks in various states of readiness. Some were little more than a piano riff or a line of meeblip improvisation over an organ pad, while a couple were more structured but needed more time to complete. I spent the last week doing just that: editing pieces down to decent length, recording some more melody, textural or rhythm parts and generally finishing things off.
As a result, this last week steps out of the neat lines drawn for the challenges and mixes the instrumentation up, though always within the bounds of the original set of instruments – there are still no bass or guitars or other instruments used in these. Consider them as bonuses, overlapping between challenges and seeing what happens when you mix an iPad synth, an electric organ from the 1960’s and a flute made from a walnut together. They may lack the strict definition and limitations of the preceding weeks’ music, but it seems a fitting way to end the cycle, to just let everything mix together and see what emerges.
Let’s kick things off with a short three-part suite built around the piano, starting with a slow, funereal march that builds into a crescendo and finishes on an insistent beat, backed by percussion in the form of rainstick and gong as well as some drum sounds from DM1.
Next we have a delicate piano arpeggio that starts off with a rising, slow synth pad as bedding, before being joined for a glimpse of ocarina, and then fades away, but only for a moment, as everything comes back for a last run away from the woods with egg shaker, DM1 and walnut flute.
Then we end on a piano melody with a slightly sinister synth backing is joined by pizzicato strings (on DM1) and rainstick for a short up-tempo moment before changing direction as the synth takes over.

Sound Brush and Rührtrommel

Obscurities
You May Also Like

Tryptophan Synthetase and other Songs
March 3, 2011
Peter Hammill at Porgy & Bess, Vienna
October 26, 2012