Online Release Series: Experiments and Improvisations
Posted on | November 4, 2009
Hi, Thomas Wincek here, and I’d like to present the first in the All Tiny Creatures Online Release Series. We create a lot of music, but don’t have the means or desire to officially release it all. With this series we hope to let those who are interested in on stuff that might not otherwise make it onto a physical release, but that we still think makes an interesting listen. First up: Experiments and Improvisations. As the title implies, it’s a collection of free form explorations or improvised pieces all recorded simply, sometimes with field recorders and in one case with a 1950s era consumer level reel-to-reel recorder. For the most part, all of the pieces are based around one chord. Check out the art and individual tracks with descriptions below, or download the entire album (the link is at the bottom of the post). And thanks for listening!
All Tiny Creatures
Experiments and Improvisations
Tracks:
Melodica and Keyboard on the Porch:
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This was recorded when the power went out one day on a cold winter porch. I used my field recorder to construct the song using a cheap battery powered keyboard (set to “flute”) and my trusty melodica. The field recorder has a “4 track” function, which is how I was able to build up the layers of sound.
Seeds Today
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Here I’m slowly building up a single chord, while manipulating an algorithm that randomly cycles through different harmonics in an organ simulation. The cycling gets more rapid and chaotic as the track progresses, until the chord changes and the piece completes.
Motorized Organ And Singing On A Rocking Chair
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The title is pretty self-explanatory here. The interesting thing is how the force from rocking of the chair effects the sound of the little motorized reed organ and my voice, while the floor creaks a sort of over-arching rhythm. This was recorded on a 1950s era consumer reel-to-reel recorder with the original ceramic microphone. The warble of the tape matches up with the warble caused by the rocking chair quite nicely.
Strummed Harmonics on Four Acoustic Guitars
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Again, pretty self-explanatory. On a guitar tuned to an open chord, I build up layers of sound on my field recorder, only playing the different harmonics of the guitar.
Two Looping Guitars, Out Of Phase
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Here Andrew Fitzpatrick and I man two different guitars hooked up to looping devices that are naturally out of phase with each other. One of us is panned right, and one of us is panned left. The pieces starts with recordings of crickets. One from recordings taken by my house, and one from recordings by his.
Here is a link to the full album and cover art. Thanks!
Download Experiments and Improvisations
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November 4th, 2009 @ 7:27 pm
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November 8th, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
Thank you. I am inspired by these pieces.