Sadly, there will be no demo attached quite yet. I’m very much in the planning stages. I have two separate harmonic movements that will link up, as well as an idea of where I’m putting the section Evan sent to me.

D-G-B(flat)
C-E(flat)-G

Very simple, yes, and rather typical in terms of my chordal thinking. But a lot of room for melody and accompaniment. Presently, I have it scaled back to two percussion tracks, a single electric guitar and bass.

The guitar and bass will probably play the root notes with occasional harmonic tinkering. Meanwhile, the meter of the piece will be bounce between 4/4 and 5/4, I haven’t charted it out quite yet. Should be interesting. I’d rather write to the words than my usual practice of writing words to pre-recorded music.

The drums are brisk and insistent, and already I imagine them floating in and out of the rhythmic emphasis.

Should have demo up by end of the weekend, as well as some charts?

Fun.

Times are tight here at Records. Time is tight, moreso. Cary is incredibly busy right now, and I’m currently spending a good deal of time interning at an audio mastering facility in NYC. What’s nice about this situation for me is that I get over 3 hours of train riding for my commute, which means that I get a TON of time to listen to music.

When I was living in Arizona my big time for listening was my 20 minute bikeride to and from school. This was adequate, but involved terrible headphones and, because of the nature of my activity, I was not in a place to listen to music with dynamics or anything without a sense of vibrancy and motion.

BUT NOW! When I’m terribly exhausted from my day in New York, I can sit on the train, stare out into the fleeting daylight (or my own reflection due to the night), and listen to more, well, contenplative stuff. Like Scott Walker! And Henri Dutilleux! Hooray!

Scott Walker – The Drift (2006) is excellent. Exhausting. A lot of textural work in the arrangements. I found myself desiring something with a bit more motion. The compositions feel like set pieces for the words. Almost as if he wrote the words, set the words to a melody, then simply decorated the sonic space behind the melody. This technique works wonderfully and creates some amazing moments, but I honestly wish the record had more variety. Then again, I’ve only given the record a handful of listens (only once all the way through) and maybe there is more subtlety than I’ve picked up on. I may write more on this soon.

Henri Dutilleux – Tout Un Monde Lointain is also excellent. It’s a Cello Concerto from 1970. I love Dutilleux. I love his melodies. Perfectly pleasing, yet wonderfully angular. I’ve been moving backwards through this piece. 5 movements, each one about 4 or 5 minutes long, so not a very exhausting piece. But I started listening backwards. And I love it. I’ve made it to the 3rd Movement (Houles). Delicious. Sadly not much more comes to mind. Still a good deal of details to catch with this one. So might write more about this soon, too!

Otherwise, updates will be minor in the coming weeks. Sad! But they will exist. We will persist! This Records is forever.

This was a collection of songs written before The Clops entered the studio to record their first record, which can be downloaded for FREE here. All of them were recorded on my awesomely funky 8-track or hurriedly applied to Mike’s Pro Tools rig while the neighbors downstairs pounded on the ceiling.

When I first started writing words for Clops, I wanted to create a world, a network of beings, monsters, and childhood memories. Huge Days represents an essential peak to that writing process. Granted, we wrote a lot of music after this EP, but I’m not so sure this music will see the light of day. For now, take whatever Clops the Clops will give ye.

ENJOY.

I’ll do better next time!

Evan: I finished a new song! This came about all because of a contest to win an Apogee Duet at the school I’m attending. We simply had to use it in some way and post our production on the school’s website. Thusly I took the opportunity to write a new song!

Beach Canon

I worked pretty steadily for the past three weeks on this thing, so I don’t really have much to say about it at this point. I need some time away from it. Critiques?

Meanwhile, the rough edit of The Cyclops is Mutual available for download.  It will give you the option of downloading the songs individually or wholly as an album.  Notice that the order of songs is a mess?  Strange, right?

Remix it.  Find you order.  Request changes in the mix, as it should be remixed soon.  Fun.  All recorded at BJ’s barn, 3 nights, music by Mike Clifford, Cary, Mischa Salkind-Pearl, Produced & Engineered by BJ Ramone, Haphazardly mixed for a rough listen by BJ and Cary.

I will include JPEGs of the album artwork for The Cyclops is Mutual soon.

More…

I can’t write. Nor do I spend much time writing. I’ve spent the last five years feeling incompetent. I’ll occasionally find the moment to be right and work on something that feels right. Most of it feels horrible. Writing.

I’m usually in the wrong mental state. Usually in the wrong physical space.

I think about writing every day. But this translates to nothing when I sit down to write. When I was writing more steadily, I wasn’t thinking so much. I’ll work on that.

Also living in different spaces every year, and most always sharing that space with people. People disrupt. The way that Stravinsky always had to find a piano that was isolated from everyone he knew before he could get any work done. But there’s also a lack of immediacy with the spaces I’ve worked in. Unpacking my gear, getting it all set-up puts me into a strange mental state. By the time I sit down to record, I’m in some other state. Suddenly: It’s Time to Record. Then I feel paralyzed. I feel like I have to record as much as possible in one session, because when I’m done I’ll need to pack everything back up and stow it away. I developed this habit where I’d sit down to record and generate one idea. That’s it, just one idea that I liked. Then I’d simply pack everything back up, feeling strangely exhausted.

I now have Logic, though, and will be getting Pro Tools tomorrow. And I feel more competent about recording thanks to this silly school I’m attending. I promise I won’t bring this up again. I just needed to cleanse my palate of the past years. Plus I’ve been getting better at getting the better of my mind who loves getting the better of me. It’s true.

What I will do, though, is post pictures of the fun recording things that I’m doing at school. And write posts about composition and recording and all sorts of fun things. I’ll save Music Writemare (musicwritemare.blogspot.com) for other peoples’ music. This is a blog for Ariskany Records and anyone involved. I’m excited to finally have a dialogue!

Maybe this will get those ideas that bounce around my conscienceness that stop me from writing out into the world. Not that the despair will cease. Despair is necessary to the creative process; mine just happens to be about the work itself instead of a girl.

“Test Post!”

How embarrassing!  He didn’t even realize I would post this!  In any event, Evan will be posting his material on this site as well as acting as a main contributor to our multimedia extravaganza.  Soon, some  of our well-meaning friends who have well-meaning music will post, and yes, you can become our friend by shooting an email to:

ariskanyrecords@gmail.com

If you address the email to Tom Selleck’s mustache, we’ll pretend that offering to do your album artwork for free isn’t already part of the deal!  Fun.