In Conversation With Rain [s o n i c b r a t]

Have you ever watched the rain from the comfort of shelter, and these little tear drops hit helplessly on your window pane... as if they are yearning for you?

Today it rained magnificently. The rain washed our land as it cleansed our tired souls, sending whispers that slipped into our concrete lives impishly. I had a conversation with the rain. But it ended abruptly. A mindless improvisation in response to what the rain told me; with no form nor structure, just reactions. It's an imperfect track that's random... but I guess that's the beauty of it...

A home brewed DIY minimalistic video clip of the track, using my mini casio digital camera, oh well... :) Do listen with headphones, thank you!

THE UNSPOKEN TALE OF RAIN

It tapped on my window
Asking to be let in...
Told me a tale of tomorrow
And slipped away unseen...

DAY 29: s o n i c b r a t

"STASIS"


As I sat there alone
And people passing by in slow motion
The tug, the change of decision, the look
The hide, the disappointment, the sting
Seemed amplified ten-fold...I'll take it all in
Alone...

Tempo: NA
Colour: Nothingness

Humbucker, Alesis Ineko, Reaktor 5 and some sound designs... It's a noisy droney clicky track, I didn't have enough time to touch it up, so as is... It's been a ride, a few more days to go.

DAY 20: s o n i c b r a t

"The Platform Syndrome"


I see people in reflections
Double images of animals
Charging at one another
The next train will arrive anyway...

Tempo: NA
Colour: Pink

An improvisational piece done using KORG Triton ST88 and a little sound design. Piano played on the fly during recording. All effects are from ST88. My first try on playing improvisational "jazz"... for the fun of it, though I don't really know how jazz works.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 20 : Eric

J'ai besoin de rêves.
Between sweet warm and fresh cold.
I need to make dreams.


A simple tune made with only my guitar, an automatic volume pedal (the SV2, since my regular volume pedal seems to now make cracks :-( I should buy an optical one), and delay on FL-Studio, and then just few cuts on the track.
Using an A/B box is quite useful for me : I can rehearse/preview the notes on another amp (for instance my bass amp (yes !)) while the loop/drone is running, so I didn't make false notes ;-)

DAY 16: s o n i c b r a t

"The Noise Of Piano"
"Le Bruit du Piano"

Tempo: NA
Colour: Ice blue

Plogue Bidule; employing graining on Piano samples I've done randomly. Another minimalistic sound piece.

Feel free to comment...

DAY 12: s o n i c b r a t

"Reconstruction"


The reconstruction of a character
Is to disintegrate yourself within...
There in after to work on the foundation
As such it is, in fact, deconstruction...

Tempo: 85
Colour: Metallic

Gears: KORG Radias, KORG Kaoss Pad III, Humbucker, Reaktor 5, faulty connections; old vocal samples I've recorded.

Today's composition came without much thought, just switch my stuffs on and started recording. It's all about layering and try to paint the sub-conscious.

DAY 6: s o n i c b r a t

"Mémoires"

























Tempo: 60 Bpm
Colour: Blue

My humbucker and KORG Kaoss Pad III.

Feel free to comment.

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.

DAY 1: s o n i c b r a t

"LE PIANO DE JOUET"


The boy looked into the mirror and saw an old man
The old man smiled at him as he smiled back...
Their palms met and the old man looked into his eyes
With an acceptance that made the boy happy again...

















Tempo: 60 bpm
Colour: Yellow

With all my regular gears at rehearsals, I am left with bare minimal at home. I wanted to see what I can come up with using just very primitive instruments.

A toy piano, a contact microphone, sampled on KORG Kaoss Pad III and grained, Roland SH101. Recorded live, except drums added later using Reaktor 5 and layering the toy piano samples, pitching them down and reversing them at parts.

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...