zengomi

towards a release

2005-11-26T18:02:00.000+09:00

Last weekend I put the ambient pieces on CD and listened to them, propped up in bed, with a critical ear towards a release. A handful of them struck me as being not ready. (Yet good enough for a website?) As a result, 3 and 8 have been redone significantly. There are several more that require refinement.

Mid-week I made ambient 23.

remixing/remastering sub-project

2005-08-08T15:07:00.000+09:00

Originally I'd thought that, these being "ambient" pieces, the overall volume levels could be low. But as I made new ones I realized I was not observing that as a rule and that the pieces were never meant to be vague or slight or diminished.

I've been thinking of "ambient" in the sense of an association with something. When making these pieces, rather than focusing on something external, I have turned inward and let something come out. Those somethings seem to be brain states.

This sub-project is a way of affirming the on-going experience of what I've been making. It's a move to bring to anyone interested in the music a sonic clarity that better reflects those brain states.

So far I've remixed/remastered ambient pieces 1-21. One more to go.

Finally got around to 22. Sounds right to me.

ZK project

2005-03-14T20:40:00.000+09:00

My dearest friend, keyman, and I have embarked on a long talked about adventure. He's in Manhattan; I'm in Tokyo. We both use Sonar and have private servers to facilitate the transfer of large amounts of audio. Our basic working method is one part at a time, back and forth. We're committed to being totally open to whatever the other comes up with, including editing or rearranging received material.

The first track is done.

zk01

breath and heartbeat

2005-02-19T17:28:00.000+09:00

While making this one it occurred to me that natural musical rhythms reflect those of our bodies' mechanisms. Breath and heartbeat are the prominent ones, but I suspect the pancreas has a beat.

Natural rhythms are not locked to a beat per minute.

ambient 19

2004-12-23T22:54:00.000+09:00

Affirmation and denial. Not mutually or musically exclusive.

ambient 19

Meme to myself

2004-12-21T14:00:00.000+09:00

Hobbit Sancho said: "gotta pick a nit, cuz memes often manifest themselves corporeally".

Those are corporeal afterthoughts.

Meme it

2004-12-20T09:40:00.000+09:00

A meme is a creature of the human mind miming "creation" as it is perceived, processed, played with and regurgitated in acorporeal form.

Improvisations in an ambient mood

2004-09-28T15:00:00.000+09:00

Links to the first six of these were posted a few months ago. This time the files reside at my own webspace.

Ambient 1 was made with several softsynths and a Korg Z1. All of the other pieces, except Ambient 10 (formerly called Stage 1) feature a single softsynth. Ambient 10 is a Korg Z1 multi (layered sounds), which was fed digitally to and recorded to the RAM of an Akai S5000.

October 7th

The latest addition--Ambient 12--was done last night, rather unexpectedly, in that I hadn't intended to go so far as to make something to share. It's a long one, running over six and half minutes. It's also the slowest of the twelve.

December 21st

Links to the 18 ambient pieces at my website.

ambient 1
ambient 2
ambient 3
ambient 4
ambient 5
ambient 6
ambient 7
ambient 8
ambient 9
ambient 10
ambient 11
ambient 12
ambient 13
ambient 14
ambient 15
ambient 16
ambient 17
ambient 18

Hope you enjoy them.

Credit due

2004-06-29T11:08:00.000+09:00

Should have mentioned sooner that the drumming on "A Lifetime of Eternity" is by Keith LeBlanc off his "Fresh Killed Meat" sampling CD. Bought that several years ago and have enjoyed listening to the many extended performances, wondering if I'd ever be able to use any of it.

Like a lot of people I'm hesitant to use commercial samples unaltered. In the case of this material, however, it occurred to me that LeBlanc might have envisioned and surely would countenance it. I did a de rigueur Recyling, coming up a lot of very usable loops. But not usable to me, because the spirited and unrelenting quality of the original performance was only hinted at.

Even so, the existing (synth) tracks compelled me to apply several layers of fx. And I did put the Recyled bits to use—albeit all of them, in faithful order—by loading them into my Akai S5000 and applying internal fx.

More later, if anyone’s interested.

Satisfactory mix

2004-06-24T13:02:00.000+09:00

Remixed the track this morning; the first time with speakers rather than headphones. Listened to it 3 times, twice while hanging up the laundry (a 24-minute chore!) and once while watering plants and changing the sand in a cat toilet. Very happy with it now.

2004 VII 20: As several people pointed out, that mix was distorted. So i made it a little less hot.

A Lifetime of Eternity

2004-06-23T15:51:00.000+09:00

Initiating things.

A Lifetime of Eternity