CITY OF GLASS

It's been sometime...
[Please listen with headphones for a better sonic ride :) Thanks!]

An ambient sound art piece made up by sampling kitchen wares, faulty cables,
synths, guitar drones and piano.



CITY OF GLASS

I closed my eyes
And got carried away by darkness
When I opened them again
I was standing in a city made of glass
The only people I saw
Were my own distorted reflections...

COMMONTONES PHASE II

Three musicians...
Three minds...
One song...

A weekly affair between the trio. Their first music making effort as an entity rather than solitude contributions. They will be working on a single piece weekly, a song a week, for the entire month of July. This is their next step, something they had in mind for a long time... and finally materializing. This is only the beginning.

PHASE DESCRIPTION:

In PHASE II, one musician will be appointed the "musician of the week" at the beginning of each week. This renders the other two "contributors". At the beginning of each week, the "contributors" will provide short audio samples of their own creations, anything goes (sounds, guitar, synth, etc), uploading to COMMONTONES. The "musician of the week" will collect these samples, and over the course of the week, compose and arrange a piece with the samples, plus his own input. The song will be uploaded here at the end of each week in the month.

This makes three songs, in three weeks, with the trio taking turns to be the "musician of the week". In the final week (week 4), all three will be contributing at the beginning of the week, and all three will be cutting a track from all the samples provided. Rendering three songs by the end of the week and loading them up on COMMONTONES. At the end of the project, there will be 6 songs in total.

Please join us in this journey of creating music on cyber-space.

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PHASE SCHEDULE:

WEEK 1:
Musician of the week - Sonicbrat
Contributors - Eric, LDT

WEEK 2:
Musician of the week - LDT
Contributors - Eric, Sonicbrat

WEEK 3:
Musician of the week - Eric
Contributors - LDT, Sonicbrat

WEEK 4:
Musicians of the week - ALL
Contributors - ALL

DAY 4: s o n i c b r a t

"Une peu de Démence"

Delirium is a luxury like the calm before a storm
Like the laughters before tears
And the adrenaline rush before collapsing
Living an oxymoron...

















Tempo: 73 bpm
Colour: Multi-colour

A mini Hungarian citera, a toy piano and a chinese gourd flute; contact microphone...

Sampled using KORG Kaoss Pad and passed through an interesting reverb that makes it sound metallic (I believe is very long early reflection). The percussion was done again by slapping the rhythms on the lid of the toy piano, and clapping of hands. No synths or any other electronic instruments were used at all except for processing using KP3, all acoustics. The recorded samples were manipulated later during post and some subliminal sound designs.

DAY 3: s o n i c b r a t

"Tenir des Mains"




























Tempo: 85 bpm
Colour: Blue

An instrumental piece, nothing experimental about it. Just exploiting the Casio SA-5. A bit slightly over ambitious to want to do it in one night. But this one comes from the bottom of my heart.

Casio SA-5 being the main player for most of the sounds you hear in it, sampled through KORG Kaoss Pad III. It's a battery powered toy keyboard so bear with the high level of noise and bad quality... I backed the bass up, also did the high ringing ambient with modulation (somewhere in the middle) and a guitar track with KORG Radias (but minimal)... the rest are all Casio SA-5 and a lot a lot of touching up and plug-ins used.

Picture taken at my favourite tree at TFP Cairn Hill Rise.

DAY 2: s o n i c b r a t

"Journal Intime De Pluie"




























Tempo: 100 bpm
Colour: Green

Continuing my explorations using toy instruments...

Toy piano, contact microphone, Casio SA-5 toy keyboard, sampled through KORG Kaoss Pad III; no other synths used. Percussion done by hitting the lid of the toy piano, the clicky noise from the start is done by tapping the toy piano's lid with the fingernails and grained through KP3. Added a little sound design as well to add on to the mood.

Feel free to comment.

COMMONTONES [PHASE I]

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Make music in a day...
01052007 - 31052007

Three musicians... three individuals from different backgrounds, cultures and geographical locations...

They exist in different time and space but they share one common belief - to make music from their heart. This is where cultures, voices and minds concoct to serve only artistic expressions.

Welcome to Phase I of COMMONTONES - Concert For Drifting Ghosts. In phase I of this project, the trio will be composing and improvising music or sounds on a daily basis so that there will be a new piece loaded up daily. There is no fixed theme or concept, only honesty, fun and explorations. Anything goes... from music to a sound, a simple tune, a riff, a groove to noises and silences. We may even choose to add on to a track added by either one of us. From using electronics to acoustic instruments or a mix of it... there are no rules, no restrictions. This is a virtual space where all differences can co-exist, only to express what is in the heart using a common language - music and sounds. Phase I will last for the month of May 2007.

COMMONTONES is an online project helmed by Eric Saliege [France], Lorne David Thomson a.k.a. LDT [Bangkok Thailand] and Darren Ng a.k.a. Sonicbrat [Singapore].

Feel free to comment. For drifters on the net... to share our time, space and existence.

COMMONTONES [bio]

COMMONTONES is an online project helmed by Eric Saliege [France], Lorne David Thomson a.k.a. LDT [Bangkok Thailand] and Darren Ng a.k.a. Sonicbrat [Singapore]. For drifters on the net... to share our time, space and existence.
























THE CULPRITS:

Eric Saliege [FRANCE]

36 years old music lover. I discovered the power of music when putting my fingers around the strings of a guitar of my uncle and doing glissandos, before the age of 20. He then gave me his Hagstrom 60's swedish guitar. That was the beginning of experimenting, often in solo, with keyboards, cassettes, and little means in general. Not very proud of that period, though having fun with stupid songs. Working now with the gear I like, trying to make the deep and conscious music I want. I work full time as a software engineer in the industry, I consider myself as an amateur in playing musique.

What is music ? What is art ? What for ? I'm still thinking about it.

For more info, please visit: HERE.


Lorne David Thomson [BANGKOK THAILAND]

I was born in Vancouver Canada in December 1963; I grew up in a very religious and also very musical family. My interest in "sound" began when I was 7 and a friend showed me his portable cassette record. My love for electronic music began at the same age when I discovered "Switched on Bach" and later "Popcorn". My parents wouldn't allow "rock" music into the house however didn't object to electronic music. By the time I was 13 my collection was extensive and included Isao Tomita, Larry Fast, and Tangerine Dream. In my teen years I discovered the Nash the Slash who performed with synths and drum machines backing him as he played on heavily processed electric violin and electric mandolin.

As a musician I have worked primary as a vocalist. I was a selected for the 1982 British Columbia Honour Choir and sang as a second tenor in the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir from 1984 until 1986. From 1987 until 1991 I provide vocals and played Chapman Stick in a progressive rock band called Wisehammer. I played in a variety of band through out the 1990s in various rolls the last being guitarist and vocalists for Snowmelter. In 2000 I left Canada to work in South East Asia settling in Bangkok Thailand in 2003. During this time I began working focusing on electronic based music.

For more info, please visit: HERE.


Sonicbrat [SINGAPORE]

I am a 28 years old sound addict. Having completed my classical piano training, I moved on to sound and electronic music. In my early teens I was glued to big beats and breaks. I first came in contact with electronic music hands-on when my elder Sister brought a laptop back from her teaching course with a midi notation software. I started to drop notes and created my first electronic composition. Ever since, I've never looked back. Currently I am a freelance sound designer and music composer in the local art and theatre scene. I was lucky to have done numerous theatre productions and also did sound installations for the museum.

Greatly influenced by Musique Concrete movements, I believe that anything that can be heard is music. As a sound artist, I go by the moniker of Sonicbrat, where I basically drop my classical background and bend all rules as a "one-man-band". Currently, I am getting on to analogue electronics and modular synthesis. Although I have moved on to making more electronic and sound based music, I still do revisit my classical skills for answers at times and sometimes blend the two. At this stage of my musical journey, I am going into minimalism where I believe less is sometimes more.

For more info, please visit: HERE.


We hope you will enjoy your experience here...