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...

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...

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------
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 30: s o n i c b r a t

"REVISITING"


Surging deeper and deeper
Lost in an abyss of eternity
Can you hear my silent cry?

Tempo: 70 Bpm
Colour: Shadowy

KORG Triton ST88. A simple song today... short but reflective of my mood. Feel free to comment.

DAY 27: s o n i c b r a t

"A Simple Feeling"


I kept on falling
Again and again...

Tempo: 50 Bpm
Colour: Orange (warmth)

My first taste of using everything Fruity Loop... sounds on board are electronic sounding. As usual, with a little sound design. Feel free to comment.

DAY 26: s o n i c b r a t

"APOLOGIES"


Cuup Song
Rak Khun Maak

Tempo: NA
Colour: Green

KORG Triton ST88 and some sound designs. Feel free to comment.

DAY 25: s o n i c b r a t

"REFLECTIONS"


I reflected...
And I know, I admit... I am.

Tempo: NA
Colour: Soft and Faint

KORG Triton ST88 and some sound design. Soapy times... Catching up on Commontones...

Feel free to comment.

DAY 23: s o n i c b r a t

"Dyspneic"


Tempo: NA
Colour: Cold Blue

KORG Triton ST88, sound designs... all effects processing onboard the Triton.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 19: LDT

"The Bridge"


Tempo: 68 bpm
Colour: dark

LDT: Novation XioSynth, Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube, Boss Giga Delay, Zoom MRS8, assembled in Sound Forge and Acid Pro.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 17: LDT

"The Comfort of Dreams"

Tempo: 64 bpm
Colour: sleep

LDT: Novation XioSynth, Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube, Boss Giga Delay, Zoom MRS8, assembled in Sound Forge and Acid Pro.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 15: s o n i c b r a t

"Venir à la Maison"
Original Version:

Remixed Version:

Tempo: 75 Bpm
Colour: Tinted Green

Gears: All sounds from KORG Radias, KORG Kaoss Pad III, Drums from Reaktor 5

We are at the mid of this project. It's been fun though taxing. Two versions, version one is without drums and version two is with drums. Sampled 4 tracks onto KP3, played an EP patch on the Radias, improvising real time during recording and the drums are added post using Reaktor 5.

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 10: s o n i c b r a t

"Le Tour de Nuit"


Taking the night ride alone
Stuck in a time capsule
I wish I can speed up time

Tempo: 100 Bpm
Colour: White streaks

Gears: KORG Radias, KORG Kaoss Pad III

Using the same motive of my previous composition, I've developed the song further with a denser arrangement plus changes to the structure. It's the first time I am using the KORG Radias seriously. Nothing was sequenced except the drums, which was heavily sound designed. The song was played live during recording. There's a bit of other sound designs in it as well to paint the picture. Tune was passed through the reversed delay in KP3, and the drums through graining.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 8: LDT

"The Water Fall"

Tempo: ?
Colour: water

LDT: Novation XioSynth, DOD Dimension 12, Digitech Digi Delay, Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube, Zoom MRS8, assembled in Sound Forge and Acid Pro.

Feel free to comment.

DAY 8: s o n i c b r a t

"Une Berceuse Différente"

Tempo: 62 Bpm
Colour: Grey

Yet another sleepless night. My Humbucker and Kaoss Pad III

Feel free to comment.

DAY 7: LDT

"Finding The River"

Tempo: 128 BPM
Colour: Water on Rock

LDT: Novation XioSynth, Electro Harmonix LPB 2ube, Digitech Digi Delay, Zoom MRS8, assembled in Sound Forge and Acid Pro.

Feel free to comment.

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 5: s o n i c b r a t

"Une Distance à Part"

Guitar Original Version:

Guitar with Drum mix:

























Tempo: 75
Colour: Blue

My cheap Humbucker and KORG Kaoss Pad III

One being just the guitar track.
One having a drum track mixed in.
The drum track was badly mixed
A song a day, that's the deal.
If only I had more time...

Picture of a new dawn at my balcony...

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.