ambient

Cobalt Dendrite

The last day, the last track. Looking back, it’s one of those “it seems like I’ve been doing this forever / where did the time go?” conundrums. This year has felt like more work than previous years, though spot-reading through past entries indicates that may not be accurate, just that I’ve forgotten the bad parts – only the music remains. While it wasn’t intentional, the last few tracks have definitely reflected my depleting energy and idea reserves. It’s tempting to look at each piece as a reflection of my emotional state at the moment of writing, but that’s not accurate … Continue reading

Adescential Biolith

While veering a bit into dark ambient territory, this track is pretty chill and downtempo. You would never think that it was the result of panic and desperation. With only one or two exceptions this month, I once again had no real ideas going into the studio, and I found myself in the same procrastination habits I was exhibiting in the first week. The composition session started in earnest around 11 pm, which hasn’t been an issue too many times, as my bedtime simply shifted for the month to somewhere in the 2 to 3 am range. But the cumulative … Continue reading

Zenith Quasar

After yesterday’s diversion into techno, which was a ton of fun, I’m definitely tapping into the bottom of my reserves. There’s nothing inside demanding to be let out, so I’m having to go searching for it instead. After picking Mary up at the airport, I asked her if she had any requests, and she decided on a solo piano piece. That obviously didn’t happen. I did try – I even have a saved project called “30 Minutes of Wrong” on my hard drive now. I started recording without a metronome going and just played whatever for 30 minutes. The same … Continue reading

Xenophobic Tourism

As has happened previously this month, this is not the song I started with. I had an idea, and had started trying to find sounds when I realized that what I had in my head was going to need an earlier start and a lot more prep work. Around midnight I decided to switch gears, but wasn’t entirely sure where that would lead me. This type of sound wash ambient is nice in what it brings to you can change entirely based on what you bring to it. Try this experiment: play this track and then try shifting your mental … Continue reading

Obverse View

A fairly typical Song-A-Day progress arc in the first two weeks, and this was certainly true for me in the first two or three years, is either a release of pent-up songs that slowly dry up, or starting with nothing, struggling for the first couple, but then getting back into the groove of writing and feeling pretty good in week two. And then comes week three. Panic starts to set in. The well is dry. The filters are down. Part desperation, part sleep deprivation, part tired tantrum, week three bites everyone at some point, but as Hunter S. said, “when … Continue reading