Not really a #onetakestudy (although recorded in a single take), and not really a #splicestudy (though using some of the same techniques), consider this a little ditty to commemorate this special one year anniversary, and the assaults on language in order to justify imperialism.
As everyone’s favorite war criminal said, “there are two kinds of realists: those who manipulate facts and those who create them.”
Park’s one of the most compelling, noisy, and simultaneously humorous and challenging guitarists around…. Jones and Thomas are wonderfully simpatico…. This is just a radically exciting album…. [Read the rest…]
The music is challenging… visceral with confronting rhythms and keys that merge… creating a sense of clashing ideas, yet a willingness also to (eventually) end up on the same musical path. [Read the rest…]
For once, this is non-idiomatic music worthy of being called such, only loosely tethered to traditions and so confounding and strange that simply listening to it makes you feel alive. [Read the rest…]
I’ve said that, while I was mixing the album, I came to “realize this unapologetically unrefined music was probably unreleasable, but I also came to love it more for being delicate as a slab of granite.” I’m very happy that listeners worked hard to prove me wrong on whether the album would find its audience.
I’m honored to have worked with Lara and Pat on this album (you will not find a nicer bunch of trouble-makers), and very proud of the noise we achieved.
Recorded September 7, 2025, Morphine Raum, Berlin.
Audio recording by Rabih Beaini.
Mixed by Han-earl Park.
Recording assistants: Lucas Brell and Valentina Costa.
This is a piece… well, a first shot at an idea-for-a-piece that I alluded to in my previous post. It’s rough, and, in terms of recording/filming, I’m still at the mercy of available light (thanks to the short winter days), but as a first attempt, it’s… got possibilities. I have a couple of variations in mind, and I’ll try and get to these soon.
Let me know what you think—I’d absolutely welcome any feedback.
I’d had an idea for a piece—an actual piece—a kind of micro-composition. However, (just my luck) by the time I set-up,* warmed-up and re-tuned, my D-string decides to meet its maker (‘it is an ex-string’). So, by the time I’m in a position to hit record, I’m about to lose any available light (ah, winter time in Berlin).
So this is not a piece-piece (it’s barely a study), but just something to get down on (metaphorical, digital fairy dust) tape so I can get back into the swing of things.
More soon (I hope).
* Which takes a little longer with the still-new-to-me camera.
The above is a behind-the-scenes mix breakdown. If you just want to listen to music (and who could blame you), please check out the original (video and album track).
Are you still here? Okay, Juno 3: Proxemics was mixed into multiple buses (including parallel processing of ‘melodics’ and ‘environmentals,’ for example) before hitting the master bus. One of those buses was fed a mix of the bass signals from each performer. How the bass was separated, in each case, was somewhat different depending on the nature of the electronics, for example, or the instrument (e.g. clean v. fuzz guitar).
Folk have asked me about my mix strategies in approaching experimental and improvised musics, and here’s a little window into how I approached some of the problematics (I mean that in a positive, creative sense) in this one. I’ve said that, in regards to Proxemics, there’s a different album that lives in parallel, and that’s partly because there’s separate mix (with its own automation and processing) in the bass/subs.
Track listing: Derealization I (4:07), Derealization II (4:57), Derealization III (3:52), Derealization IV (6:19), Derealization V (5:55), Derealization VI (3:47), Proxemics I (5:05), Proxemics II (3:54), Proxemics III (6:10), Proxemics IV (7:15), Proxemics V (6:10), Proxemics VI: Rumble (5:13). Total duration: 62:44.
I’ve approached recordings and performance as very different animals. One way this lack of interest in ‘vérité’ manifests is in how I’ve been mixing recordings of my guitar playing; sending the guitar signal through a crossover, and processing the high and low frequency components separately, feeding them into separate cab sims, et cetera. I’ve also recently performed compositions by Carina Khorkhordina, and by Camila Nebbia, that involved multiple guitar and bass amplifiers. And this got me thinking about multi-amp setups, and practical (low component-count, portable, pedal-board friendly) ways to do this kind of dual-band processing.
So the above is a test; trying to figure out whether something like a simple crossover, coupled with, say, an analog octaver, might do the job in a live situation. (This test video is based around the recording from back in May, so if you want to listen to the music without the audio tinkering, please check out the original video.)
This might be my last in the #onetakestudy series for a while as I’ve got a couple of other projects that will be keeping me busy in the coming months. For those who’ve been following my studies, thank you so very much for listening.
Or maybe I should have titled this one ‘Signal and Noise.’
Some ideas and fragments that I came away with from a session with Sara Neidorf. It’s a bit scattered, and very rough around the edges, but there’s stuff here that I want to return to over the coming weeks.
Simple variation on a trope, technique, gesture, color and shape. This one might be a little more impressionistic than rigorous. Some of this, I think, works; some parts better than others. Enjoy.
I almost called this one ‘Induced Atmospheric Vibration’ after some (likely untrue) reports from Portugal in regards to the recent blackout. As some of you know, I played an unplanned solo set after Kaffe Matthews, with whom I was to perform in a duo, got stranded in Portugal. (For those who had wanted to hear our duo, we will be back!)
If this one feels a little like a throwback earlier studies, yeah, I agree… at least in part. There’s some techniques almost directly lifted from earlier improvisations, but combined with some of the structural concerns from some of the more recent studies. I’m not 100% convinced this one works, but maybe it can be made to. We’ll see.
It’s been a minute since I’ve done one of these excercises; specifically something I’d once called a ‘structural paraphrase’ (my, my, did I go hard on artspeak with that one 😶). Anyway, please enjoy this very loose improvisative paraphrase (with apologies to CT).
And please excuse the scritchy-scratchy pots—the potentiometer in my volume pedal in particular may be beyond cleaning. (You can help me fix that.)
