Soundscapes Radio

Welcome to this month's episode of Soundscapes Radio. Things are bonkers in the world right now with the US election and as I write this everyone is on tenterhooks wondering what the next four years are going to be like but perhaps this is a good opportunity for a short pause from the news cycle. The majority of this month's episode is based around a piece I composed using the generative tools within Ableton. Using short looping phrases of notes that slowly phase-shift out of time with each other I've created a piece that grows and evolves in its own way. Each track contains a single instrument playing a single note or a short phrase of notes. Some tracks are set to loop after 16 bars, some after 18 bars and some after 11. This means that after you set the loops running they will never sync back up; they will constantly shift in time, creating new and interesting patterns. I spent the early days of this month setting up these 'rules' before letting the software do its own thing. After recording a large chunk of this piece I went in and added accompanying parts and also spent time cleaning up anything that didn't quite fit. The method is very similar to what Brian Eno would have done for his early generative pieces.  He goes into great detail about his process in this article from In Motion Magazine and also talks about his inspirations. Please let this episode take you on a journey.Tracklist:0:00 Beneath4:55 The Waves20:40 SurfacingPlease feel free to download this month's episode in individual high quality tracks here.

Welcome to this month’s episode of Soundscapes Radio. This episode starts on a relatively positive note with After the Rain which has a more positive and optimistic sound than recent installments of Soundscapes Radio. Possibly because of how tough these past 6 months of 2020 have been. Is it possible that things might start to look up?This month’s session has been quite heavily inspired by the soundtrack to Defending Jacob which I can’t recommend enough. I was awestruck by the brilliant score Atli Örvarsson composed for the show and the music alone is worth watching the show for. Please let this episode take you on a journey.Tracklist:0:00 After the Rain10:49 interlude14:34 At DawnPlease feel free to download this month's episode in individual high quality tracks here.

Welcome to episode twelve of Soundscapes Radio. How does it sound if you have a whole orchestra playing the same note?In the first track of this month's episode, Gossamer, I wanted to see what that might sound like. The tension it caused was the inspiration for the whole first 1/3rd of this episode. I very rarely play video games but I've recently been utterly captivated by the story of The Last of Us part II which has a deep oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere which definitely inspired the sound I created here within the ten minutes of Gossamer.Reach utilises one of my favourite Ableton Live devices Step Divider which allows you to program beautiful poly-rhythms with relative ease. Two piano parts are playing here, the same notes -- an octave apart -- but in different step counts so they playfully circle each other; phasing in and out of time.The final piece, Shanghai, is from Wander The Night; a website that Cody Ellingham and I are collaborating on which can be experienced in its entirety here. Mixed with the rain sound from the Wander The Night website and some field recordings from the city of Shanghai itself.Tracklist:0:00 Gossamer9:55 Reach20:25 ShanghaiPlease feel free to download this month's episode in individual high quality tracks right here.

Welcome to episode eleven of Soundscapes Radio. Recently I started delving into the world of software instruments from Spitfire Audio and came across quite a few new instruments to use when composing pieces for Soundscapes Radio. It's nice to have the unlimited sonic capabilities that electronic software like Ableton Live affords but sometimes I just want to have the sound of a really well-recorded piano to accompany my soundscapes. It's great to be able to meld synthesis and instrumentation so easily. So this is a first attempt at what is, I guess, a mix of styles. I hope it resonates. The field recording at the beginning is from an excursion John Balaban took to Vietnam in the early 1970s to record the oral tradition of sung poetry, Ca Dao. I found the recording on UbuWeb and loved this little sonic snapshot of a moment so much I thought it would fit perfectly in this episode of Soundscapes Radio. From the description on UbuWeb:During  the Vietnam war in 1971-72, John Balaban traveled the countryside in South Vietnam tape-recording the sung poetry known as ca dao, an oral tradition in which Vietnamese have been composing for hundreds of years. Sung by ordinary individuals without accompaniment, about 5000 ca dao are thought to exist at any one time.Take a listen to that whole recording here. Tracklist:0:00 New Beginnings8:00 Further19:30 Stacks

Welcome to this month's episode of Soundscapes Radio. In this episode I really wanted to push the boundaries and find out how much space and atmosphere I can create with my music. I've long been interested in creating a sense of space with my compositions. This idea goes all the way back to my debut EP Anthem in 2010.More recent recordings have found me trying to recreate the sound of cities or moments and my work has become all about pushing towards perfecting this. I got a lot of inspiration from this article in The Wire in which musician Burial talks at length about his work and what goes into creating his signature sound. A big point of inspiration for him was the stories his brother would weave of the clubbing and rave culture of the UK, events that Burial himself didn't take part in. It's as if the stories of these abandoned warehouse raves he heard about allowed him to recreate a sense of what the atmosphere must have been. He mentions that this fed directly into his music. This anecdote is a great source of inspiration for me recently. If you enjoy this month's episode please do share it with anyone you think might get something from it. The YouTube page can be found here.Tracklist:00:00 There is No Normal5:15 This is Us18:15 Kind Heart

This uncertain time seems to have bred a great deal of creativity in a lot of people and isn't it wonderful to see? I'm also amazed that so many businesses are going above and beyond for their customers; particularly impressive are what Ableton and SoundCloud are offering to their music-making communities.Also out of this reflective pause has come a new episode of Soundscapes Radio which is available right here on Patreon before anywhere else. I would like to give my supporters the chance to hear it first as well as read a little bit about what brought it together. The opening track, Fragile, was written as a soundtrack for Cody Ellingham's digital DERIVE Wanderer magazine; a beautiful audiovisual journey which I highly recommend checking out here. The main drone heard very early on in the piece is made from my very own piece DERIVE Ascension but using granular synthesis to turn it into something completely new.The main motif in the second track, Echoes, originally began as an accompaniment to the final moments of Fragile but it felt like it needed the space to grow into a piece of its own. The atmosphere here is very much inspired by Sam Shepherd's band Floating Points.The final track, Departure, is my first time using less concepts; a Max4Live device which, putting it far-too-simply, is a sequencer that uses a set of pre-determined rules to decide which notes of a scale to play and when. This allows me to hand over note control to the device whilst focusing on the overall sound of what's being played. I think I'll be using it a lot more in the future, it's a great device and a lot of fun. You can read more about less concepts here. It's similar to a technique I used on the original Cloud Nocturne pieces which feature in episode seven of Soundscapes Radio.If you enjoy this month's episode please do share it with anyone you think might get something from it. The YouTube page can be found here.Tracklist:00:00 Fragile11:26 Echoes20:10 Departure

It seems as if lock down has been going on, and will go on, forever. But I feel that many of us are finding a positive in this negative situation which is undoubtedly the silver lining in all of this. It has given a chance for all of us to have a bit of reflection on things we took for granted or finally gave us a chance to do that thing we've been meaning to do for ages now..My cafe, Deakin St coffee stand, has been closed due to the state of emergency in Japan but this has allowed Chie and I to reflect on the past 18 months of running a coffee stand and forge a new path which we're excited for.The lockdown has also uncorked a small creative blockage we were both having. I'm happy to say that episode nine of Soundscapes Radio will be online May 1st.I've offered the first track from the show, a deliciously mellow 11-minute journey, to good friend Cody Ellingham for his latest DERIVE Wanderer magazine which he's offering digitally for the first time. Online Magazine (includes sound and video, best viewed on desktop or laptop):https://wanderer.derive.tokyo/magazine-7.html 

An extended mix of the Memories of Tsukiji soundtrackDear all,The New Year is almost upon us and I hope you’ll spend it comfortably with loved ones. I’ll be in Kyoto for a little under a week and hope to find some of the charming inspiration I usually stumble upon whilst there. But I’m still busy working on music and as I mentioned in this previous post, I’ve been doing a bit of further work on the soundtrack for each section of Memories of Tsukiji. I wanted the chance to give each movement its own space to breathe and develop in its own way. I’ll be working on each movement in the order they appeared in the exhibition piece. So first up are the opening moments of the piece, leading up to the entrance of the market proper.The title, Namiyoke Inari, is taken from the name of the shrine that served as a place for fishermen to pray at before heading out on the ocean; an act of wishing for good fortune. The name in Japanese means “protection from waves” and the shrine acted as a guardian to the market and its traders.Please enjoy the piece and I hope it resonates in some way.