By The Way...

As many of you know, I occasionally dabble in electronic music. I recently uploaded an album's worth of the stuff (which I call Music For Headphones) to my personal Web space, so I thought I'd mention it here and make it available to you folks, if you're curious as to what it sounds like inside my head.

The music is encoded as mp3s in a process called variable bit rate (this means it uses a lot of memory when needed, not so much when not), so the files are moderately large -- if you're using dial-up, you can expect each to take several minutes to download. I've included a listing of the size of each file with each link

Here are the tracks, with a few comments on each:

1. Acceptance (5.85MB) -- Possibly my favorite track I've done. It's pretty simple and trance-like, and has some nice swelling New Order-y synths in it.

2. Transformation (7.33MB) -- This one starts off very harsh and electronic and eventually becomes rather more acoustic and mellow; thus the title.

3. Why Don't You Love Me (7.97MB) -- A rather plaintive flute starts this one off; I think it sounds swirly and moody and a good aural approximation of what it feels like inside when you like someone rather more than they like you. One of the better ones as well.

4. Well Imagine That (5.42MB) -- More ethnic flutes; more moodiness. Something about ethnic flutes and moodiness that just go great together, y'know?

5. Athena (3.51MB) -- When Athena was three, I gave her a microphone and let her sing into it. This is what came out. She did all the instruments too! Well, no, not really. But maybe one day.

6. Don't Stop (5.91MB) -- Features the piano line from a famous Journey song. Pretty sure it's fair use.

7. Night Flight (7.97MB) -- If I were writing background music for planetariums to play while they were doing exhibitions about the planets of the solar system, this is what it would sound like.

8. Clear That Up (5.47MB) -- This is what I imagine it sounds like to walk home in the fog after a clarifying "discussion" with a paramour that didn't end very well for you.

9. Kindertransport (8.43 MB) -- The "kindertransport" were trains that European Jews put their children on just before World War II to send them to safety to England; the trains would take the children to ships, which would cross the Channel, and then the children would live with distant relatives or sometimes even strangers. Needless to say in many cases those children never saw those parents again. I can't even imagine what it would be like to put my own child on a train like that, but this piece tries to evoke some of that emotion. I think this is probably the best composed piece I've done to date.

10. Converge to Merge (10.6MB) -- I call this my "Stairway to Heaven" piece, and when you listen I think you'll understand why. However, there are no bustles in hedgerows. Because that would be alarming.

11. Let's Fly Away (7.84MB) -- Yes, that's me singing. Yes, the voice is heavily treated. The actual reason is to cover up deficiencies both in the microphone and in my voice, but as it turns out, I really like the effect; it almost sounds like a guy leaving a song on his lover's answering machine, and I like that mental image. I'm not giving up my day job, but on the other hand, clearly I'm not embarrassed by the song, either. So there you have it.

Enjoy!

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• #5 Comment from ann7inflorida 
  1/26/05 8:49 PM | Permalink

  Very Cool, John!!!
• #4 Comment from plittle 
  1/25/05 4:58 PM | Permalink

  Well, they're good and all, but they're not, you know, ACTIVATE.
  http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/activate.mp3
  -Paul
  http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/
  
• #3 Comment from freeepeace 
  1/25/05 1:42 PM | Permalink

  Cool JS. Thanks for the links.  I've heard a few of these before. Nice to be reintroduced to your sound.  "Let's Fly Away" is cool -- like an outer-space-ish cross between David Bowie and Fletch. (remember that movie?)
  
  I really like Night Flight and Acceptance.  As for Don't Stop, well, I'm a sucker for sampling!  Right on.
• #2 Comment from andreakingme 
  1/25/05 11:19 AM | Permalink

  Well, this is just too cool for words! But I'll have to wait until tonight to download and listen to 'em.
  
  Thanks for the music in advance. Heh, can't wait to hear you and Athena singing.
  
• #1 Comment from miamiga2004 
  1/25/05 8:23 AM | Permalink

  My kind of music!  I love these types of instrumentals and yes, I like the effect in Let's Fly Away in where you sing, too! Cooool!   Thanks for sharing!  http://journals.aol.com/miamiga2004/prismecho