recorded 20130816


ambient



elements used:



vox1_u3_080a_Ambient (10 iterations)
vox2_u8_100c_Ambient (2 iterations)
vox1_u4_100c_Ambient (2 iterations)
syn2_I3_080a_Ambient
syn3_I$_125a_Dance


this is a very, very strange piece – I have to say that right away. it’s…a bit odd. I had a vocal sample in there, in the mixer, and I suddenly wondered if I could create a piece using just vocal samples. so I started bringing them in – some worked, others went straight into the bin – until I had a set of human voices that gave me – this.

it’s odd because the human voice is an imperfect instrument, it’s tuning is questionable, it’s note choices are sometimes questionable, and some of the vocal samples included in mixtikl are very odd indeed! but I do feel that the piece has a very unique “feel” because of the fact that it’s mostly composed of human voices – that set it apart from any piece I’d attempted so far, ambient or active.

I did, in the end, add in two subtle synthesizers, to help solidify the proceedings, I don’t know why I did it exactly, it actually sounds fine without them, but, I felt that they add to the overall feel of the piece, without any detrimental effects.

as far as the feel of the piece, it simultaneously reminds me of many, many things – africa, my childhood growing up in east africa, and the wistful music that I remember from that time – a strange track on “the sacred squall of now” by one of my very, very favourite guitarists, reeves gabrels – the rhythm of the piece resembles the rhythm of one of the looped pieces on that album – those are the two main aural impressions I get, but beyond that, the piece takes me on a really unusual mental journey, I end up dreaming and thinking about all kinds of things as it goes on – it’s not the most ambient, or the most comfortable experience, but – it’s unique. I’ve never heard a piece quite like it, I’ve certainly never done a piece like it before – and for that alone, it deserves to be heard!

the strangest thing about “the pagan gods return” (which is what this “sounds” like, to me – the pagan gods returning after a failed attempt at worshipping a monotheistic god) is that the second I finished it, I decided to make a copy, and see what would happen if I did a dubstep mix of it. however – a complete lack of dubstep samples (within mixtikl – and yes, if I’d had endless time, I could have imported some, because I have lots!) made this idea impossible, but then, just for a laugh, I thought, right, I’ll do a “dance mix” then – not actually seriously meaning it…