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2022-08-01 (Week 2226): Driving Through the Barrens
It recently occurred to me that I may be trying too hard to find ways to be unique with my sound.
Even though I'm many hours deep in refining samples and putting together an ambient noise album, it's leading further down the rabbit hole with noise blending and using aleatoric presets for drum patterns. It's also giving me pause.
I'm going down the road I've gone before with making plans for tens of albums and getting excited to do them, though realizing the amount of time to knock all of them out would be difficult to come by even if I wasn't employed full-time.
I had an idea late last week to make heavily layered chilled-out music - an intense level of calmness. I'd pick up a pennywhistle and record many improvised tracks directly into Reaper. After that, I'd drench them in delay, reverb, and whatever other effects sound cool - painting with sound, as it were.
The above idea sounds like the path of least resistance, in opposition to editing 500+ samples. I've already done a lot of work in editing and experimenting with these samples (as the earlier blog entries can attest), but maybe it's time to let them go and be spontaneous.
I often write of the path of least resistance, or wu wei as it is more commonly known. The current path is not one of least resistance - it's one of throttling the listener with chaos and noise. Is that the best use of my time?
I try to be a calming or positive influence in life, so why is the music I'm producing so dark and chaotic? Could it be because the samples I collected were from a darker and more confusing time in life?
After thinking about it, sifting through all these samples separates the wheat from the chaff. I'm looking for the best sounds to fit in with the eventual pennywhistle barrage, so I must go through everything at every octave.
It's also a symbolic exploration of the past since these samples came from chaotic and confusing times. I'm trying to find the best parts of those times and move forward. I'm doing that with my music, and I'm doing that with my life.
Sometimes I think I have too much time on my hands.
Until next week!
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