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SNOWCOATED
10/27/2008 at 7:00 AM
1998
"Snowcoated" was maybe the first album (and one out of only three) where I really knew where I was going, and that was actually completed. It has, as you would put it in literature, a beginning, a middle part and an end. It was also the last time I tried to pay tribute to 90's lounge and drum&base influences (which, after all, might always have been a doomed venture on my Yamaha). However, some songs that came out had a certain strange beauty to them, and despite the fact I don't like said influences any more, I still love to listen to some of the tracks.
Note on the cover: the album's cover, assembled only for private purposes, is a montage of Rodney Matthew's Mirador and Anthony Water's Farrel's Mantle. I bow my head to them. I never made any profit with the picture, and I never distributed the songs on this album for money.
Snowcoated pI
There are four tracks entitled "Snowcoated" on this album, each in a different time. This one's 5/4. Each features a basic pattern of keys (piano, harpsichord), string-scapes, a choir and a different set of effects (distortion in this case). They all have prominent beats, and they all carry images of winter and gliding over icy landscapes for me.
Ghost and the Geisha
Love this one - I never got closer to imitating Dead Can Dance than here... I also have to admit that I can't remember any more what I did to the rhythm of this song. I think that I put tracks in different times on top of each other (the melody being 4/4 and the beats 5/4 or the other way around). I also think the piece has a certain sensual quality to it - hence its title.
Liquid Purse Leap
A little trip hop piece akin to the songs you've heard on "Dread Hip 'n' Happy Drop". I still ignore the fact that artificial saxes suck, and that my "happy" pieces always run the risk of plain silliness. The title of the track is a painful pun on the favorite feline activities: Lick, Eat, Purr, Sleep. Go figure.
Temple
Maybe the hoppiest of all pieces hop, with some doses of orientalism on top. I was a lot into bagpipes at that time; now, ten years later, I finally managed to play at least easy melodies on them.
Flower
I think that this song could have some potential if the drums didn't sound like the revenge of the mean 80s solo entertainer association. Still, it gives me a kick to listen to it, so there you are. Rest assured, it doesn't tread further into those realms from here on. See you soon!
"Snowcoated" was maybe the first album (and one out of only three) where I really knew where I was going, and that was actually completed. It has, as you would put it in literature, a beginning, a middle part and an end. It was also the last time I tried to pay tribute to 90's lounge and drum&base influences (which, after all, might always have been a doomed venture on my Yamaha). However, some songs that came out had a certain strange beauty to them, and despite the fact I don't like said influences any more, I still love to listen to some of the tracks.
Note on the cover: the album's cover, assembled only for private purposes, is a montage of Rodney Matthew's Mirador and Anthony Water's Farrel's Mantle. I bow my head to them. I never made any profit with the picture, and I never distributed the songs on this album for money.
Snowcoated pI
There are four tracks entitled "Snowcoated" on this album, each in a different time. This one's 5/4. Each features a basic pattern of keys (piano, harpsichord), string-scapes, a choir and a different set of effects (distortion in this case). They all have prominent beats, and they all carry images of winter and gliding over icy landscapes for me.
Ghost and the Geisha
Love this one - I never got closer to imitating Dead Can Dance than here... I also have to admit that I can't remember any more what I did to the rhythm of this song. I think that I put tracks in different times on top of each other (the melody being 4/4 and the beats 5/4 or the other way around). I also think the piece has a certain sensual quality to it - hence its title.
Liquid Purse Leap
A little trip hop piece akin to the songs you've heard on "Dread Hip 'n' Happy Drop". I still ignore the fact that artificial saxes suck, and that my "happy" pieces always run the risk of plain silliness. The title of the track is a painful pun on the favorite feline activities: Lick, Eat, Purr, Sleep. Go figure.
Temple
Maybe the hoppiest of all pieces hop, with some doses of orientalism on top. I was a lot into bagpipes at that time; now, ten years later, I finally managed to play at least easy melodies on them.
Flower
I think that this song could have some potential if the drums didn't sound like the revenge of the mean 80s solo entertainer association. Still, it gives me a kick to listen to it, so there you are. Rest assured, it doesn't tread further into those realms from here on. See you soon!
HAGSGATE continued
5/26/2008 at 10:04 AM
Time to fill in the last important relics of the "Hagsgate" phase before we can proceed...
"Doubt", unlikely as it might be, is one of my most rewritten, self-cannibalized tunes, including an unfinished fifteen-minutes arrangement (with various midparts) and the back-to-the-roots "Song for an un-doubting lady" edit, a short guitar piece with lyrics. But since there aren't any finished recordings of any of these, this version, the very first one, will have to suffice.
"A Wedding In The Rain" – well, not much that I can say about this. I think of it as a kind of grotesque: the image I have in my head when I listen to it being its title.
"A Journey Below" marked the beginning of my experiments with unusual time signatures (9/8 in this case) but never really led anywhere; also, the strings caused some overload in my poor Yamaha, so here is only an excerpt of it.
"The Princess' Song" has a similarly long history as the "Cassiopeia" pieces or "Doubt" – I did several covers of it, including a sung version I will upload at some later point. It started out as a guitar piece and soon developed into one of my most complex arrangements at that time. Originally, it was the adaption of a poem in Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" (the one Lir's anonymous fiancée uses to lure a unicorn), but it soon got mixed up with some private mythology and RPG stories, so there are at least three different sets of lyrics for it today, and the piece is divided into two parts: A) The Promise and B) The Lone Rider. But more about that later!
"Doubt", unlikely as it might be, is one of my most rewritten, self-cannibalized tunes, including an unfinished fifteen-minutes arrangement (with various midparts) and the back-to-the-roots "Song for an un-doubting lady" edit, a short guitar piece with lyrics. But since there aren't any finished recordings of any of these, this version, the very first one, will have to suffice.
"A Wedding In The Rain" – well, not much that I can say about this. I think of it as a kind of grotesque: the image I have in my head when I listen to it being its title.
"A Journey Below" marked the beginning of my experiments with unusual time signatures (9/8 in this case) but never really led anywhere; also, the strings caused some overload in my poor Yamaha, so here is only an excerpt of it.
"The Princess' Song" has a similarly long history as the "Cassiopeia" pieces or "Doubt" – I did several covers of it, including a sung version I will upload at some later point. It started out as a guitar piece and soon developed into one of my most complex arrangements at that time. Originally, it was the adaption of a poem in Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" (the one Lir's anonymous fiancée uses to lure a unicorn), but it soon got mixed up with some private mythology and RPG stories, so there are at least three different sets of lyrics for it today, and the piece is divided into two parts: A) The Promise and B) The Lone Rider. But more about that later!
HAGSGATE
1/13/2008 at 5:32 PM
1996- ?
Its title obviously owing to Peter S. Beagle's cursed village, this is a project similar in age to the "Dread Hip" Phase, but headed for a completely different direction. Many of these songs have indeed been songs - songs I used to play on my guitar while sitting with friends and beer in public parks, LARP taverns or other unlikely locations. They usually have little to no percussions and rely heavily on harpsichord or piano patterns that form the basis for the melodies. Many of these songs still survive, but have undergone drastic changes over the years - I will upload newer versions where available.
"Lenore (The Fair and Radiant)" is one of my most ambitious arrangements of that time. I never was 100% satisfied with it, and the song only survived on tape. Originally it had been recorded for one of my earliest Vampire Live meetings; I would be playing Alain Montserrat, a young Toreader (of course) and childe to the prince of Heidelberg. And hey, I had to present something! The "Lenore" of the title is of course E.A. Poe's.
I can't say much about "Brightlighted" except that it is another song based on those - supposedly - Star Trek chords of "Depart Sans Regret". A simple piece that came out just like I wanted it, and I still like it a lot.
The "Cassiopeia" Songs are a different story. Cassiopeia has been a RPG character, and later also a novel character of mine. This songs are dedicated to her earliest incarnation, in which she was a proud-hearted noble-woman along with magic sword & cape and what not; her story however was always intended to be a sad one. As naive girl, she sets out to be turned into a tough warrior on the dreadful island of Crandt in order to take revenge on the murderer of her father, but eventually she will fall victim to his manipulative skills and her own vanity. I still have to write another novel about her life.
These songs are mere stations in her story, all of them adapted from guitar pickings I still like to play for relaxation (except for the harpsichord theme of the main part, which still makes my fingers bleed). The Death Song is probably THE ubiquitous theme that showed up again and again in my life. This is its earliest recorded version.
(... to be continued ... )
Its title obviously owing to Peter S. Beagle's cursed village, this is a project similar in age to the "Dread Hip" Phase, but headed for a completely different direction. Many of these songs have indeed been songs - songs I used to play on my guitar while sitting with friends and beer in public parks, LARP taverns or other unlikely locations. They usually have little to no percussions and rely heavily on harpsichord or piano patterns that form the basis for the melodies. Many of these songs still survive, but have undergone drastic changes over the years - I will upload newer versions where available.
"Lenore (The Fair and Radiant)" is one of my most ambitious arrangements of that time. I never was 100% satisfied with it, and the song only survived on tape. Originally it had been recorded for one of my earliest Vampire Live meetings; I would be playing Alain Montserrat, a young Toreader (of course) and childe to the prince of Heidelberg. And hey, I had to present something! The "Lenore" of the title is of course E.A. Poe's.
I can't say much about "Brightlighted" except that it is another song based on those - supposedly - Star Trek chords of "Depart Sans Regret". A simple piece that came out just like I wanted it, and I still like it a lot.
The "Cassiopeia" Songs are a different story. Cassiopeia has been a RPG character, and later also a novel character of mine. This songs are dedicated to her earliest incarnation, in which she was a proud-hearted noble-woman along with magic sword & cape and what not; her story however was always intended to be a sad one. As naive girl, she sets out to be turned into a tough warrior on the dreadful island of Crandt in order to take revenge on the murderer of her father, but eventually she will fall victim to his manipulative skills and her own vanity. I still have to write another novel about her life.
These songs are mere stations in her story, all of them adapted from guitar pickings I still like to play for relaxation (except for the harpsichord theme of the main part, which still makes my fingers bleed). The Death Song is probably THE ubiquitous theme that showed up again and again in my life. This is its earliest recorded version.
(... to be continued ... )
DREAD HIP 'N' HAPPY DROP
1/7/2008 at 2:53 PM
Early Experiments, ca. 1996-97
This is the nonsense title of one of the first collections of tracks I envisaged to collect as an album. I tried to imitate that heavy, big-beat sound of hip hop and trip hop I was listening to at that time and got as carried away and confused as the title of the album suggests. These are some of my oldest recordings, just recently resurrected from old tape.
"Départ Sans Regret" is surely flawed by its monotony as well as the silly sound experiments in the middle part; but I must admit I still love the piano theme and that heads-up mood of the saxophone. The track mostly consists of a sequence of C major and g minor chords; I believe James Horner used that sequence in his Star Trek soundtracks a lot, which was my reason for loving those chords.
"A Trip to Arcadia" is probably what you get when listening to too much of psychedelia in your youth; it's straight-forward, simple and in a way it just came out right. I should try to do a remix of this one day; it's the artificial sound of the instruments that puts me off most nowadays, while I still like the song itself.
"The City Never Sleeps" has the same strengths and weaknesses as the two songs above; I like the tunes and the overall "happy" atmosphere, but the beats and the artificial sound of the sax are a pain in the ass. When listening again to this after so many years, I was surprised about that odd medieval middle part of the song. I was listening to some medieval tunes at that time – friend of mine just began professionally playing the bag-pipes in a medieval rock band – and somehow that bit must have sneaked in.
"Marvellous, Mrs Peel" is my personal declaration of love to one of the greatest series of TV history ever: the Avengers. You have to suffer through a bad piece of artificial brass at the beginning, but I still believe the end of this song to contain some of my finest moments of step-recorded drums and organ. The finale still makes me want to drive a car at full speed with maximal volume (those foolish desires!)
This is the nonsense title of one of the first collections of tracks I envisaged to collect as an album. I tried to imitate that heavy, big-beat sound of hip hop and trip hop I was listening to at that time and got as carried away and confused as the title of the album suggests. These are some of my oldest recordings, just recently resurrected from old tape.
"Départ Sans Regret" is surely flawed by its monotony as well as the silly sound experiments in the middle part; but I must admit I still love the piano theme and that heads-up mood of the saxophone. The track mostly consists of a sequence of C major and g minor chords; I believe James Horner used that sequence in his Star Trek soundtracks a lot, which was my reason for loving those chords.
"A Trip to Arcadia" is probably what you get when listening to too much of psychedelia in your youth; it's straight-forward, simple and in a way it just came out right. I should try to do a remix of this one day; it's the artificial sound of the instruments that puts me off most nowadays, while I still like the song itself.
"The City Never Sleeps" has the same strengths and weaknesses as the two songs above; I like the tunes and the overall "happy" atmosphere, but the beats and the artificial sound of the sax are a pain in the ass. When listening again to this after so many years, I was surprised about that odd medieval middle part of the song. I was listening to some medieval tunes at that time – friend of mine just began professionally playing the bag-pipes in a medieval rock band – and somehow that bit must have sneaked in.
"Marvellous, Mrs Peel" is my personal declaration of love to one of the greatest series of TV history ever: the Avengers. You have to suffer through a bad piece of artificial brass at the beginning, but I still believe the end of this song to contain some of my finest moments of step-recorded drums and organ. The finale still makes me want to drive a car at full speed with maximal volume (those foolish desires!)
I N D A Z E L I K E S E A S
1/7/2008 at 2:06 PM
WHO IS
My name is Oliver, but on the internet I prefer to call myself JL. Don't ask ;-) Today I am what you might call a fantasy writer – I have published a novel and some short stories in my first language (German); my last project was a role-playing game based on the Narnia chronicles by C.S. Lewis.
Some years ago, however, I wouldn't have dreamt of ever getting a single book out, and I had another love: music. I just recently re-discovered some of my old recordings, and I'm using this account to share them with whoever might feel interested in them. For anything related to the other aspects of my life, check out my blog at http://gazette.rainlights.net
INTRODUCTION
It all began in the nineties when I purchased a BIG Yamaha workstation, a PSR-SQ 16 which was already out-dated, but impressive to my younger self nonetheless. I spent almost all my money on it, and didn't do much else than figuring out that glorious machine for the months to follow. Although I led a rather sheltered life then, I also had a big talent of getting myself into trouble, so those keyboard sessions soon became more than an obsession to me: they became a way of finding myself and pulling me out of depression and illness.
Listening to those early recordings is still a strange experience to me. Many of them only survived on tape (the keyboard has some defects by now, and I lack the necessary time and equipment for fresh recordings); they are also flawed by my inexperience, the dependency on a single instrument and its limited array of sounds, as well as by the musical influences of that time. It was the time of Trip Hop and Electronica then, and though I never really got into this style of music (I lost my heart to 70's progressive rock, but for some strange reason, the music you're listening to and the music you're writing yourself don't tend to get along) it made me tolerant to beats and sounds that seem hardly bearable, or funny at the best, today. Then again, I would never really master percussions and bass lines – but it's the melodies I want to share, the melodies that still haunt me until today.
My name is Oliver, but on the internet I prefer to call myself JL. Don't ask ;-) Today I am what you might call a fantasy writer – I have published a novel and some short stories in my first language (German); my last project was a role-playing game based on the Narnia chronicles by C.S. Lewis.
Some years ago, however, I wouldn't have dreamt of ever getting a single book out, and I had another love: music. I just recently re-discovered some of my old recordings, and I'm using this account to share them with whoever might feel interested in them. For anything related to the other aspects of my life, check out my blog at http://gazette.rainlights.net
INTRODUCTION
It all began in the nineties when I purchased a BIG Yamaha workstation, a PSR-SQ 16 which was already out-dated, but impressive to my younger self nonetheless. I spent almost all my money on it, and didn't do much else than figuring out that glorious machine for the months to follow. Although I led a rather sheltered life then, I also had a big talent of getting myself into trouble, so those keyboard sessions soon became more than an obsession to me: they became a way of finding myself and pulling me out of depression and illness.
Listening to those early recordings is still a strange experience to me. Many of them only survived on tape (the keyboard has some defects by now, and I lack the necessary time and equipment for fresh recordings); they are also flawed by my inexperience, the dependency on a single instrument and its limited array of sounds, as well as by the musical influences of that time. It was the time of Trip Hop and Electronica then, and though I never really got into this style of music (I lost my heart to 70's progressive rock, but for some strange reason, the music you're listening to and the music you're writing yourself don't tend to get along) it made me tolerant to beats and sounds that seem hardly bearable, or funny at the best, today. Then again, I would never really master percussions and bass lines – but it's the melodies I want to share, the melodies that still haunt me until today.
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