When I was asked to share my thoughts on what defines my music as Ambient, I realized the answer would not be so simple. Though I often use the word "Ambient" to describe my music in a social context, I will often add, that this is not New Age Ambient, but Experimental Ambient. I guess this could cover a very wide range of music, but it is the most precise description I can offer without having to go into to much detail. The reason for this is that my process is often purely experimental, and is most often based on exploratory improvisation using a pre-selected set of sound generating devices and treatments. Since I took a break from film scoring to pursue a career in sound design for games, I have recorded a great deal of music in my free time; none of it really intended for release, as I did not want to work with an audience in mind. This is not to say the results were not meant to be shared at some point, but I thought it would be interesting to work this way and see how I could "reinvent" myself as a composer, leaving the ego aside and letting the music flow from my instruments. Nothing is born out of a vacuum, and it is clear from listening to my work that certain early influences are ever present (i.e Fripp & Eno, Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze's early works), but my process at this point is very different, as I use very little in terms of traditional electronic musical instruments to generate sound, preferring instead to rely on an ever-growing collection of effect units and guitar pedals. Everything you hear in the piece I submitted to Vague Terrain was made using pedals, with no actual synthesizers or sequencers, at least none with keyboards or other standard performance controls. In Your Sleep was created with a variety of oscillator pedals, a sequenced ring modulator, fuzz(es), flangers, phasers, filters, choruses, delays, and reverbs. It was recorded very early in the AM, as are most of my works, and it was recorded live with no overdubs. In this case, it's fairly obvious, as the piece is essentially one slowly evolving psychedelic drone with very little else going on, but what I find makes it listenable is the constant modulation and mutation of the sound sources, and the tracking imperfections of the guitar synths and disintegrating loops. My interaction with the machines was minimal at best, as I like to let things breathe and evolve on their own. I hope you'll enjoy this track, but please go about your business, and don't pay too much attention to it; let it occupy the space you live in. There will be plenty of time to notice the details if you choose to put it on again in the future, or even sleep to it. |
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