S+A Choreographs

Infiltration

This piece started off largely as an attempt to come up with a dance, techno, or drum-and-bass type of track, which it still sort of is, but clearly pivoted mid-journey to become another visually-inpired bit of underscore. Instead of the juxtaposition of a slow, forboding piece of music against images of destruction I had in yesterday’s track, Infiltration is pretty on-the-nose, at least when you take the title as a literal description. I started this one with drums. I used a factory preset in XO, but started playing around with replacing the default sounds. In particular, I replaced a jazzy … Continue reading

The Gathering

Wow. Full disclosure – I’m writing this entry on February 15 (and will be doing so for the next few). Mary was on business travel for a full seven days, so I’ve been taking care of our new puppy, Olive. She’s currently nine months old, and I’ll be writing about her more extensively in a later post, so just suffice to say that I’m behind on the blog. I’ve also given up on trying to also write entries for 2024… that will have to wait for March. I really enjoyed writing Lights in the Mist and, after posting it, the … Continue reading

Mare Marginus

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I tend to have a pretty strong self-deprecating sense of humor. I’m not sure if that’s a defense mechanism, an outgrowth of my early humility training by my parents, a natural extension of my sarcasm, or some deeper psychological thing that some therapist would like to talk to me about because they need to send their kids to college. To expand on the “humility training” thing a bit, I started acting in (little) musical theater at age seven and was … Continue reading

Narcissus Rising

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. Where to begin? This is one of those oddball pieces that became more or less what I was sort of trying to do in a roundabout way. It’s not quite a “pants” track – I had a plan – but that plan was nebulous at best. It’s as much an exploration of texture and rhythm as anything. It veers strongly into Systems Music territory but is just as firmly in Eno-esque … Continue reading

The Search for Tubbs

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track. I’m not sure what this style / genre would have been called back in the 80s, but these days it’s called Synthwave. This is as “stereotypical” a synthwave track as I can think of, yet it’s absolutely true to an actual 80s track by Jan Hammer or Giorgio Moroder. The arrangement is simple, as is the instrumentation: drums, bass, guitar, electric piano, and two synths. The guitar is a real one (as opposed to a sampled or modeled one). I’m … Continue reading