This year hasn't been my best for music, with less time and more concerns, and I have recorded few new songs.
I've tried the 50/90 challenge this Summer, but only managed to record 8 songs as I started my vacation by spilling boiling water on my left hand.
Anyway, Etheric Rambles is complete at last, and I've decided to release it for download now although a better version with a real mastering and the support of Musictrade netlabel will come in the future.
Most songs have been inspired by things I've experienced throughout my life, the kind that belong to Altered States of Consciousness, Holistic visions and "Extraordinay" events, like Healing, State of Grace, Contemplation, Astral Projection...
Included in the free download on Bandcamp is a video of myself performing an improvisation for FAWM 2011, Foggy Afternoon.
Nov 5, 2011
Mar 4, 2011
FAWM 2011 : an unexpected outcome
To join or not to join?
I've started a new job in September and since then I've had very little time for making music. So as February and FAWM drew near I decided it would be more reasonable not to take part in the challenge this year. Besides in 2010 I wasn't in the mood and the experience wasn't very pleasant. Nevertheless since then, I was having a strange recurrent dream in which I was coming back to a house full of people who were making music and who all knew me. I had forgotten them but they welcomed me all the same, and I was very happy to be here. I guess this dream combined with the messages my old FAWM friends left on my board in the early days of Feb made me change my mind.
At first I came back to FAWM convinced that I would post 3-4 songs. I was rather confused regarding the style/genre I would write in, especially after posting Norepinephrine. But the feedback was very positive and I realized my good old artistic schizophrenia was back, due to the sort of stuff I used to post on FAWM in the early years and the not-so-positive feedback I had for Almighty in 2010. Well it WAS positive, but less people were following me and I knew it was the consequence of shifting from alt/indie stuff to something being more radically experimental. So I got rid of schizophrenia and took inspiration as it came, and here was the nice surprise : inspiration was there, and the first songs flowed effortless.
Inspiration
It was the first time since FAWM 2008 I was pleased with songs written and recorded in a hurry, and for me my 2011 stuff has something very similar to the "soul" of the tracks I released in the Lost Opuses and Casual Matters. And to be honest, this unexpected quality (regarding the emotional part) soon caused me trouble because I was afraid to "lose it". Mid-FAWM was a struggle, that finally led me to the "second wind".
The second wind is one of the most pleasant and awesome things I've experienced throughout my creative course.I would take part in this kind of challenges only to get the second wind. Many musicians are skeptical about the validity of events like FAWM where you have to force creativity and, on top of that, have a deadline. For my part I love the process, because you have to let loose. When I start a FAWM my aim is not to write 14 good songs ; it's to write songs, even crap songs, so as to put aside all the things that block my inspiration. When at last I manage to get rid of all the useless considerations, like "is there a better way to play this?", "should I really submit a song that shows how poor my drumming skills are?" and so on ; when I stop spending hours on a song I don't like because I have no clue how to make it sound better, and when I give up trying to force myself to write songs that are "different" and don't sound like me ; then comes the second wind : inspiration is here, near at hand, simple and natural, the songs flow because somehow the lesson has been learned and the way I should work is accepted.
No collabs...
That's the downside of this FAWM. I usually work very differently when I'm involved in collaborative projects and it takes me a lot of time. Whereas I would move forward with my own songs, I accept mistakes and glitches less easily with collabs. Moreover, some collaborators are a little fussy and I calculate on the additional time I could have to spend on the song if the person I'm working with is not satisfied with the first takes. So this year it was clear from the start : I wouldn't have stood a chance to complete FAWM if I had got involved in collaborative tracks, unless if it was for one or two tracks only (something reasonable). But I think 9 or 10 persons asked me, and all of them were songwriters I admire and praise. I really didn't want to choose so I simply turned them all down, as sorry as I might be.
... Except for two songs
with Mark L Berry : When I Look Back At Twenty
I was afraid to get involved in collaborative works with other performers. But when Mark L Berry contacted me I had no reason to refuse to work with him. Mark writes lyrics, and for me they are very particular lyrics : he writes memoirs, and his story is very poignant. For each chapter of his memoirs, he writes song lyrics and ask musicians to record the instrumental part and sing. The result becomes a companion song for the connected chapter.
The song we collaborated on is called "When I Look Back At Twenty". Mark looks back on what he's faced and achieved in his life.
Here is the chapter I've read before writing the song. You can also check out the other companion songs of his memoirs.
The concept is close to the one I had for Almighty last year, so it was appealing enough for me ; but additionally there's something very special about Mark's personality and the lyrics he writes. He puts so much of him in them, so much of the tragedies he had to face and of the positive energy he's raised to move forward and now spreads around him... I had to put a lot of myself in the song too to do it justice. It's the only song I posted on FAWM this year that exceeds 30 layered tracks.
With Mojo : The Stolen Song
Since 2009 I'm double fawming without even noticing it, as I'm putting together some experimental short tracks to fit Mojo's creativity. I don't notice it because it's very special, I really record for him and I tend to forget I put something personal into the catcore tracks. It's like I'm the extension of Mojo's love for music and simply perform what he can't perform by himself due to physical incapacity.
The way I work with him has evolved a lot over the years, as when I started I recorded him separately, looped the best samples I had and completed the songs according to our moods. He was taking part in the final process by either playing keyboards (the way a cat plays keyboards) or simply sitting close to me, listening and showing that he was satisfied (or not) by winking, meowing or purring.
During FAWM 2010 he contributed to a track by recording live vocals for the first time and since then he's showed more and more interest for my music and claimed the mic while I was performing. I was hoping to be able to record a few songs with live performances by him this year, knowing there are a few confines : he seldom speaks (or sing) continuously over one minute and a half, maybe two minutes ; he often moves while we record and I have to follow him with the mic ; he loves the mic so he rubs his nose against it.
Anyway this year Mojo showed absolutely no interest in fawming and making music for almost the whole month. The few samples I got from him were really shy, short and crappy, with a lot of intrusive noises and interferences. I think he doesn't like his new mic : I used to record him with a lapel mic that died a few months ago. I replaced it by a cheap mic for computers but he doesn't respond well to it. I sometimes use the SM58 but it only works if he keeps still and doesn't force me to follow him across the room.
The only song he showed interest for was something I was working on in the first half of the month. I guess he found it sounded like the Chicken Wings song we recorded in 2008 (and actually it does, I hadn't noticed before but it does). He loves the Chicken Wings song, I sometimes play it to him and each time he winks and babbles. So when he heard the song I was putting together, he claimed the mic (by meowing and clinging to my trousers). I hadn't planned to do so but I pressed the record button, then let the song aside as he had stolen the track I was saving for the bass. At the end of FAWM I decided he had taken possession of the song in a significant way ; I looped his voice to complete the track and posted it as The Stolen Song without any further addition except the bass.
I completed his album in my last two fawming days with the scarce samples I had, and it was only at that moment, when he heard the finished songs, that he started babbling and warbling. How can you explain to a cat that FAWM lasts only one month and that it's over? Maybe there will be a post-FAWM album for Mojo this year.
First Live Video
After receiving several comments from people who told me they would like to see how I work, I considered shooting a video. I'm a dabbler in video making but I made a few tests with my phone, with the help of my sweetheart Alex, and found it was possible. So we planned it for the end of Feb : we moved the furniture, took a good amount of time to set everything up and do some soundcheck, and I went for a short improv (it had to last less than 15 minutes, which for me is a very short time to develop something interesting).
Not everything went like I intended, as in every improv and live performance, but I now know that shooting videos is another possibility for me to widen my approach of music.
One of the unexpected things was the appearance of Mantra (Mojo's brother) during the performance. Well, I was expecting him to come down his cat tree but I thought he was going to spoil the whole thing and pester me, but he didn't so it's even a nice addition to the informative goal of the video as it gives an insight of how the cats behave when I perform and record.
Conclusion
In spite of the lack of time and the feeling that I was half there all the time, the fact I only posted 14 Caterwauler songs (including the improv video, which should count as a half song), I'm rather satisfied with most of the songs I recorded in Feb. And Mojo has his third album.
I've fiddled with Hydrogen drum loops, what enabled me to explore a bit and widen my approach of rhythm. I was wondering in the past months what would happen if I tried to give my songs a kind of electro feel, and I guess there will be more songs like this in the future. So a good FAWM, the least prolific I've ever had, but I've managed to handle my "artistic schizophrenia" and to give a soul to my songs after several months without being able to write and record.
And above all I've won against Time. It was important for me to complete this challenge, because surrendering to work schedules and putting music on the back burner would have been a tremendous failure and heartbreak.
I've started a new job in September and since then I've had very little time for making music. So as February and FAWM drew near I decided it would be more reasonable not to take part in the challenge this year. Besides in 2010 I wasn't in the mood and the experience wasn't very pleasant. Nevertheless since then, I was having a strange recurrent dream in which I was coming back to a house full of people who were making music and who all knew me. I had forgotten them but they welcomed me all the same, and I was very happy to be here. I guess this dream combined with the messages my old FAWM friends left on my board in the early days of Feb made me change my mind.
At first I came back to FAWM convinced that I would post 3-4 songs. I was rather confused regarding the style/genre I would write in, especially after posting Norepinephrine. But the feedback was very positive and I realized my good old artistic schizophrenia was back, due to the sort of stuff I used to post on FAWM in the early years and the not-so-positive feedback I had for Almighty in 2010. Well it WAS positive, but less people were following me and I knew it was the consequence of shifting from alt/indie stuff to something being more radically experimental. So I got rid of schizophrenia and took inspiration as it came, and here was the nice surprise : inspiration was there, and the first songs flowed effortless.
Inspiration
It was the first time since FAWM 2008 I was pleased with songs written and recorded in a hurry, and for me my 2011 stuff has something very similar to the "soul" of the tracks I released in the Lost Opuses and Casual Matters. And to be honest, this unexpected quality (regarding the emotional part) soon caused me trouble because I was afraid to "lose it". Mid-FAWM was a struggle, that finally led me to the "second wind".
The second wind is one of the most pleasant and awesome things I've experienced throughout my creative course.I would take part in this kind of challenges only to get the second wind. Many musicians are skeptical about the validity of events like FAWM where you have to force creativity and, on top of that, have a deadline. For my part I love the process, because you have to let loose. When I start a FAWM my aim is not to write 14 good songs ; it's to write songs, even crap songs, so as to put aside all the things that block my inspiration. When at last I manage to get rid of all the useless considerations, like "is there a better way to play this?", "should I really submit a song that shows how poor my drumming skills are?" and so on ; when I stop spending hours on a song I don't like because I have no clue how to make it sound better, and when I give up trying to force myself to write songs that are "different" and don't sound like me ; then comes the second wind : inspiration is here, near at hand, simple and natural, the songs flow because somehow the lesson has been learned and the way I should work is accepted.
No collabs...
That's the downside of this FAWM. I usually work very differently when I'm involved in collaborative projects and it takes me a lot of time. Whereas I would move forward with my own songs, I accept mistakes and glitches less easily with collabs. Moreover, some collaborators are a little fussy and I calculate on the additional time I could have to spend on the song if the person I'm working with is not satisfied with the first takes. So this year it was clear from the start : I wouldn't have stood a chance to complete FAWM if I had got involved in collaborative tracks, unless if it was for one or two tracks only (something reasonable). But I think 9 or 10 persons asked me, and all of them were songwriters I admire and praise. I really didn't want to choose so I simply turned them all down, as sorry as I might be.
... Except for two songs
with Mark L Berry : When I Look Back At Twenty
I was afraid to get involved in collaborative works with other performers. But when Mark L Berry contacted me I had no reason to refuse to work with him. Mark writes lyrics, and for me they are very particular lyrics : he writes memoirs, and his story is very poignant. For each chapter of his memoirs, he writes song lyrics and ask musicians to record the instrumental part and sing. The result becomes a companion song for the connected chapter.
The song we collaborated on is called "When I Look Back At Twenty". Mark looks back on what he's faced and achieved in his life.
Here is the chapter I've read before writing the song. You can also check out the other companion songs of his memoirs.
The concept is close to the one I had for Almighty last year, so it was appealing enough for me ; but additionally there's something very special about Mark's personality and the lyrics he writes. He puts so much of him in them, so much of the tragedies he had to face and of the positive energy he's raised to move forward and now spreads around him... I had to put a lot of myself in the song too to do it justice. It's the only song I posted on FAWM this year that exceeds 30 layered tracks.
With Mojo : The Stolen Song
Since 2009 I'm double fawming without even noticing it, as I'm putting together some experimental short tracks to fit Mojo's creativity. I don't notice it because it's very special, I really record for him and I tend to forget I put something personal into the catcore tracks. It's like I'm the extension of Mojo's love for music and simply perform what he can't perform by himself due to physical incapacity.
The way I work with him has evolved a lot over the years, as when I started I recorded him separately, looped the best samples I had and completed the songs according to our moods. He was taking part in the final process by either playing keyboards (the way a cat plays keyboards) or simply sitting close to me, listening and showing that he was satisfied (or not) by winking, meowing or purring.
During FAWM 2010 he contributed to a track by recording live vocals for the first time and since then he's showed more and more interest for my music and claimed the mic while I was performing. I was hoping to be able to record a few songs with live performances by him this year, knowing there are a few confines : he seldom speaks (or sing) continuously over one minute and a half, maybe two minutes ; he often moves while we record and I have to follow him with the mic ; he loves the mic so he rubs his nose against it.
Anyway this year Mojo showed absolutely no interest in fawming and making music for almost the whole month. The few samples I got from him were really shy, short and crappy, with a lot of intrusive noises and interferences. I think he doesn't like his new mic : I used to record him with a lapel mic that died a few months ago. I replaced it by a cheap mic for computers but he doesn't respond well to it. I sometimes use the SM58 but it only works if he keeps still and doesn't force me to follow him across the room.
The only song he showed interest for was something I was working on in the first half of the month. I guess he found it sounded like the Chicken Wings song we recorded in 2008 (and actually it does, I hadn't noticed before but it does). He loves the Chicken Wings song, I sometimes play it to him and each time he winks and babbles. So when he heard the song I was putting together, he claimed the mic (by meowing and clinging to my trousers). I hadn't planned to do so but I pressed the record button, then let the song aside as he had stolen the track I was saving for the bass. At the end of FAWM I decided he had taken possession of the song in a significant way ; I looped his voice to complete the track and posted it as The Stolen Song without any further addition except the bass.
I completed his album in my last two fawming days with the scarce samples I had, and it was only at that moment, when he heard the finished songs, that he started babbling and warbling. How can you explain to a cat that FAWM lasts only one month and that it's over? Maybe there will be a post-FAWM album for Mojo this year.
First Live Video
After receiving several comments from people who told me they would like to see how I work, I considered shooting a video. I'm a dabbler in video making but I made a few tests with my phone, with the help of my sweetheart Alex, and found it was possible. So we planned it for the end of Feb : we moved the furniture, took a good amount of time to set everything up and do some soundcheck, and I went for a short improv (it had to last less than 15 minutes, which for me is a very short time to develop something interesting).
Not everything went like I intended, as in every improv and live performance, but I now know that shooting videos is another possibility for me to widen my approach of music.
One of the unexpected things was the appearance of Mantra (Mojo's brother) during the performance. Well, I was expecting him to come down his cat tree but I thought he was going to spoil the whole thing and pester me, but he didn't so it's even a nice addition to the informative goal of the video as it gives an insight of how the cats behave when I perform and record.
Conclusion
In spite of the lack of time and the feeling that I was half there all the time, the fact I only posted 14 Caterwauler songs (including the improv video, which should count as a half song), I'm rather satisfied with most of the songs I recorded in Feb. And Mojo has his third album.
I've fiddled with Hydrogen drum loops, what enabled me to explore a bit and widen my approach of rhythm. I was wondering in the past months what would happen if I tried to give my songs a kind of electro feel, and I guess there will be more songs like this in the future. So a good FAWM, the least prolific I've ever had, but I've managed to handle my "artistic schizophrenia" and to give a soul to my songs after several months without being able to write and record.
And above all I've won against Time. It was important for me to complete this challenge, because surrendering to work schedules and putting music on the back burner would have been a tremendous failure and heartbreak.
Nov 4, 2010
Old Things
I come from a family of musicians. When I was a kid I started learning the piano but I stopped due to the life style of my parents who were seasonal workers in a ski resort. that was a great disappointment for me and I developped a kind of rejection for all the instruments I could have learnt with my relatives. Yet I kept a growing craze for electric guitar. Finally, when I was 16, I bought a book, borrowed my father's classical guitar and started learning by myself.
No sooner had I learnt the basics of the guitar than I made the first attempts to write my own songs. I really enjoyed the feel of the nylon strings, but my aim was to get an electric guitar. Maybe I was bound to play the electric guitar... A short time before my 17th birthday I sent a postcard to a magazine, to take part in a draw. There was only one prize : a Japanese Squier Stratocaster by Fender... and I won it. I gave this guitar a name : it's called Gabrielle, and I still play on it nowadays.
I made my first multitrack recordings in 1998. A friend had lent me a 4 track tape recorder and I challenged myself to record at least one song every two days during my summer holidays. It was my first "Introspection session". I wrote songs inspired by my everyday life, my doubts, my fears, the questions I asked myself about the meaning of my life, the world I lived in...
The first Introspection recordings consisted in guitar and vocals only, but soon I started using anything that was near at hand. I used my classical guitar to make percussions, managed to get a bass and crappy Casio keyboards...
For my 18th birthday a guy I had provided housing for sent me a thank you gift : my first multi-effects pedal, a Zoom 2020. I immediately began experimenting with sounds. As years went by I brought in new toys and new techniques, switched from tape recorders to digital recorders, and fiddled with my brother's drums.
Most of the songs I recorded for the Introspection project have remained in boxes until now and few persons have listened to them. One of the main reasons is that I hate the prominent presence of beats I recorded from my keyboards most of the time. Another is the poor quality of the sound of the earliest recordings.
Nevertheless I've decided to release a few of these songs now. They are not great but they are part of my musical history, and some have a strong sentimental value for me...
No sooner had I learnt the basics of the guitar than I made the first attempts to write my own songs. I really enjoyed the feel of the nylon strings, but my aim was to get an electric guitar. Maybe I was bound to play the electric guitar... A short time before my 17th birthday I sent a postcard to a magazine, to take part in a draw. There was only one prize : a Japanese Squier Stratocaster by Fender... and I won it. I gave this guitar a name : it's called Gabrielle, and I still play on it nowadays.
I made my first multitrack recordings in 1998. A friend had lent me a 4 track tape recorder and I challenged myself to record at least one song every two days during my summer holidays. It was my first "Introspection session". I wrote songs inspired by my everyday life, my doubts, my fears, the questions I asked myself about the meaning of my life, the world I lived in...
The first Introspection recordings consisted in guitar and vocals only, but soon I started using anything that was near at hand. I used my classical guitar to make percussions, managed to get a bass and crappy Casio keyboards...
For my 18th birthday a guy I had provided housing for sent me a thank you gift : my first multi-effects pedal, a Zoom 2020. I immediately began experimenting with sounds. As years went by I brought in new toys and new techniques, switched from tape recorders to digital recorders, and fiddled with my brother's drums.
Most of the songs I recorded for the Introspection project have remained in boxes until now and few persons have listened to them. One of the main reasons is that I hate the prominent presence of beats I recorded from my keyboards most of the time. Another is the poor quality of the sound of the earliest recordings.
Nevertheless I've decided to release a few of these songs now. They are not great but they are part of my musical history, and some have a strong sentimental value for me...
Sep 21, 2010
Dreamscapes
I have started a long awaited collaborative work with Geronimodeleon : our aim is to record "a collection of dream inspired pieces".
The first one is called "An Aerial View Of Red Earth". It will be included in the "Dreamscapes Volume 1" album released as a Raining Cloud project.
Geronimodeleon sent me a few pictures of the Red Earth we were about to fly over together, and a track of sound/noise, half eerie, half ethereal for me to record over. The pictures provided me the visual inspiration while the background track showed me the direction to follow. I made loops of overtone singing to keep the strange feel we had started with.
During the recording process we exchanged a few emails and decided to introduce some discreet dissonance inspired by Ligeti (I personaly had in mind the 2001 A Space Odyssey pieces). Geronimodeleon took care of the production and applied some treatments to the tracks I sent him. The guitar loop was recorded in real time to preserve the dynamics.
The first one is called "An Aerial View Of Red Earth". It will be included in the "Dreamscapes Volume 1" album released as a Raining Cloud project.
Geronimodeleon sent me a few pictures of the Red Earth we were about to fly over together, and a track of sound/noise, half eerie, half ethereal for me to record over. The pictures provided me the visual inspiration while the background track showed me the direction to follow. I made loops of overtone singing to keep the strange feel we had started with.
During the recording process we exchanged a few emails and decided to introduce some discreet dissonance inspired by Ligeti (I personaly had in mind the 2001 A Space Odyssey pieces). Geronimodeleon took care of the production and applied some treatments to the tracks I sent him. The guitar loop was recorded in real time to preserve the dynamics.
Aug 4, 2010
Almighty released
Almighty has just been released :
- on mininova : MP3 or FLAC
- on archive.org
- on fairtilizer
When I wrote and recorded Almighty, it was merely a beta test. The FAWM challenge seemed the perfect opportunity to do it.
I wanted to find a new approach for my music, and the idea of having something behind the tracks to give them a deeper meaning had already been haunting me for a long time.
Music for a film that only exists in my head, or inspired by drawings or photographs (like my Caterwauler "Stellar Dreams" inspired by the Hubble Telescope pictures), ... That wasn't new to me. But in order to have a clearer insight I wanted to try it with a whole album.
I started thinking about a plot, a short story I could develop and record music for.
Soon I remembered this weird dream : there were enough details and it was not too long, so I took a deep breath and wrote down all I could remind of, about the landscapes, the sequence of events and the feelings I had while I was asleep and after I woke up.
The most difficult thing was to get over shyness, to unveil very personal feelings. I knew it was the best way not to sound like a megalomaniac, what I didn't want at all (and confess I feared in the beginning).
Once I had made my decision it was rather easy : let the music flow, find the right sounds and melodies to express what was already described in the texts, and more (otherwise what would be the point?).
A few years ago I was attending an improvisation course in the Conservatoire of Nancy. My teacher was this kind of odd persons who can affect the whole way you practise. He made strange sentences about planting pitons to explain how you should build an improvisation, and taught us how to put a meaning behind each sequence of sounds.
The way I worked for Almighty was nourished with these ideas. Each track has a strong intention, and I've done my best to convey the intense emotions this dream brought to me.
So here we are! It's done, I have to record a new one now ;)
Tremendous respects and thanks to Doc for the splendid artwork and mastering, much love to the Musictrade guys and special acknowledgements to Geronimodeleon for his texts revision.
- on mininova : MP3 or FLAC
- on archive.org
- on fairtilizer
When I wrote and recorded Almighty, it was merely a beta test. The FAWM challenge seemed the perfect opportunity to do it.
I wanted to find a new approach for my music, and the idea of having something behind the tracks to give them a deeper meaning had already been haunting me for a long time.
Music for a film that only exists in my head, or inspired by drawings or photographs (like my Caterwauler "Stellar Dreams" inspired by the Hubble Telescope pictures), ... That wasn't new to me. But in order to have a clearer insight I wanted to try it with a whole album.
I started thinking about a plot, a short story I could develop and record music for.
Soon I remembered this weird dream : there were enough details and it was not too long, so I took a deep breath and wrote down all I could remind of, about the landscapes, the sequence of events and the feelings I had while I was asleep and after I woke up.
The most difficult thing was to get over shyness, to unveil very personal feelings. I knew it was the best way not to sound like a megalomaniac, what I didn't want at all (and confess I feared in the beginning).
Once I had made my decision it was rather easy : let the music flow, find the right sounds and melodies to express what was already described in the texts, and more (otherwise what would be the point?).
A few years ago I was attending an improvisation course in the Conservatoire of Nancy. My teacher was this kind of odd persons who can affect the whole way you practise. He made strange sentences about planting pitons to explain how you should build an improvisation, and taught us how to put a meaning behind each sequence of sounds.
The way I worked for Almighty was nourished with these ideas. Each track has a strong intention, and I've done my best to convey the intense emotions this dream brought to me.
So here we are! It's done, I have to record a new one now ;)
Tremendous respects and thanks to Doc for the splendid artwork and mastering, much love to the Musictrade guys and special acknowledgements to Geronimodeleon for his texts revision.
Aug 2, 2010
KraftiM recycles J. Gabriel
Jobin by KraftiM
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
When I joined Musictrade, I shared my "bin" with my fellow musicians. A good number of songs, sketches ans sounds I didn't like and had rejected. I allowed them to use, transform, cut, do anything they wanted with this stuff.
I won't describe what happened next in a better way than KraftiM did on jamendo :
Once upon a time there was a bin.The result is a brilliant artist giving a new life to these forsaken tracks.
Filled with orphanaged soundsnippets from an artist who hesitated what to do with it. Along came a soundarchitect who just learned to behave more ecologically responsable. And so the bin was searched carefully , parts were scrubbed, put in a new home, chopped, treated, refined, remodelled and combined until 7 tracks came out.
The artist is Joanne Gabriel, the sounds are recycled by KraftiM. The titles are derived from the original tracknames and should be pronounced in french...
It's weird to hear sounds I disliked and didn't care for, used as material for something completely new... and good!
Jobin made me discover new soundscapes, new textures, forget the failure I couldn't help but hear in each sound and replaced it with cheeky cohesiveness. Experimental, free and inventive, KraftiM did what I couldn't do myself : he gave a soul to the ghosts of the bin, built them a world at the heart of which they could now have a life of their own.
Each track has a strong personality, and as a whole the album offers a journey into a strange yet familiar world...
I knew it already, but this album reminds it all the time : KraftiM is a genius regarding sound sculpture, carving and shaping. It can't even be called a remix album, it's much more than that. KraftiM is a Soundarchitect...
Jul 27, 2010
OBE
For a few days I've had this urge to record a track about Out of Body Experiences.
I don't know why this topic reappeared now, probably due to listening to elating music from my Musictrade friends and having interesting discussion about spirituality, metaphysical approach of life and such things... Anyway, this track came very easily compared to most of the other ones I've recorded lately.
My first OBE occured when I was 15 or 16 years old. I was lying in the grass under a tree, the air was mild, and I could see the sun through the leaves and drifting clouds. I was staring at the sky, listening to some music and at some moment I looked down and saw my hand. Then I realized I was watching it from above, as if floating beneath the branches.
I learnt afterwards that my brother had called me several times and gave up because I "didn't seem to hear him".
I had other OBE after this over years, most of them very intense and some scary because they were spontaneous and uncontrolled. I read a few books and practiced lucid dreaming to tame them.
The track I've recorded describes more of a "static" experience, not the "astral trip".
I've used entangled sounds to render the ethereal feel of the experience as well as the strange sense of being anchored.
I don't know why this topic reappeared now, probably due to listening to elating music from my Musictrade friends and having interesting discussion about spirituality, metaphysical approach of life and such things... Anyway, this track came very easily compared to most of the other ones I've recorded lately.
My first OBE occured when I was 15 or 16 years old. I was lying in the grass under a tree, the air was mild, and I could see the sun through the leaves and drifting clouds. I was staring at the sky, listening to some music and at some moment I looked down and saw my hand. Then I realized I was watching it from above, as if floating beneath the branches.
I learnt afterwards that my brother had called me several times and gave up because I "didn't seem to hear him".
I had other OBE after this over years, most of them very intense and some scary because they were spontaneous and uncontrolled. I read a few books and practiced lucid dreaming to tame them.
The track I've recorded describes more of a "static" experience, not the "astral trip".
I've used entangled sounds to render the ethereal feel of the experience as well as the strange sense of being anchored.
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