Sketches

Tracks that are either abandoned, on hold or served as a study prior to creating a finished product.

Some are placeholders, waiting to be finished others are compositions at least over a decade old. Often ramshackle in production / fidelity, but with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi.

Actually they are only listed here for the sake of melancholy.

knock.turn

A portrait depicting the nighttime, or more precisely its potential for both serenity and intense paranoia.

Instruments of interest evident on this recording:

The main pad-like motif as well as the muted trumpet-like screeched come courtesy of a processed Piggy synthesizer (by Tasty Chips Electronics), which has a very tweakable envelope section.

squelch (Tasty Chips Piggy demo)

This composition acts as a demo showcasing all the possibilities of a particular instrument.

Apart from the percussion all sounds evident on this recording stem from a Piggy, an Arduino-driven monophonic synthesizer developed by Pieter van der Meer of Tasty Chips Electronics.

Apart from occasional use of overdrive and delay, all sounds were reco...

barren

The track revolves around a 9/8 rhythm and is based around the Hungarian Minor scale, though by deriving its modes it provides a more Arabian than gypsy flavour.

The lo-fi output of the Ploytec PL-2 synthesizer provides a jagged texture in the bass line that revolves around more crisp ambient sounds, derived from several recorded guitar "accidents...

point-blank

Morse code-style percussive sounds provide the rhythmic backdrop for a hyperactive arpeggio repeated on both bass guitar and bass synthesizers.

byzantone

Having been without the sonic nor lyrical inspiration to finish the two "proper songs" that are in the in the pipeline, "Byzantone" came about after deciding to spend a day off with the assignment to "create a short groove in 7/8-time using the Byzantine (double harmonic major)-scale and its derived chords".

The track is the result of imposing two...

ganja jess

An upbeat jam between a Commodore 64 and a single, clean electric guitar, backed by electronic percussions. The Commodore 64 caters for the bass line, lead lines, noise synthesis and arpeggiated chord stabs.

The tune itself clocks in at under 2 minutes, just along enough to showcase how cold, low fidelity computer sounds can blend in with a danceab...

browbeat

An ever-repeating vocal breaks the repetition of its mantra-like motif by subtly dancing around the pushing electric guitar- and percussive-motifs playing in an odd (and shifting) meter.

Soundtrack to a retribution.

the sentry

A blend of metallic industrial percussion, jagged beats, a hefty dose of pulse-width modulation and ethnic instruments.

The narrative of this track shouldn't be unknown to those familiar with the horror that is Geoff Crammonds "the Sentinel" : opening with an ominous drone outlining the tension one feels when desperately trying to remain discreet,...

SID Barrett

The name being a pun on the late English psychedelic songsmith, of course.

A short "Hero vs. Villain"-theme executed in the chiptune realm with all sounds (bar the sequenced kick drums) stemming from the 80's videogame era with heavy pulse width modulation and arpeggiated chords.

Aural weaponry of interest evident on this recording: All sounds (bar ...

jaunty

The piece is led solely by a single finger-picked classical guitar and minimal accompaniment, incorporating a rag-time rhythm lending a horse-falling-over flavour to the main theme.

At the end the original demo - recorded on mobile phone in a less than hi-fi manner - makes an appearance as the low fidelity ambiance seemed to suit the piece, and th...

bird of ill omen

Driven by a cavernous ambiance, you could describe the feel of the piece, at the very best, as "moody". The percussive opening repeats its motif endlessly, but with a time signature of 10/8 and its focus on fives, the accents appear to be floating more than they really are (to a western ear).

Vocoded drones float in and out of the rhythm along wi...

monotron

The sources for the sounds used within this composition stem from the battery powered hand-held KORG Monotron synthesizer. While this device is notorious for its hiss and the small, tinny sound emanating from the internal speaker, the recorded line-output is in a whole other ballpark, especially in conjunction with the extreme, wide filter it creat...

varken

The result of looking suspicious carrying a stereo mic setup into a petting zoo, with a mind set out to record a sow roughly twice the size of an average human.

Apart from piano (sequenced in the MikroWave app for Android) and a single 8-bit synth all sounds stem from the field recordings mentioned above. Drones and beats have been made by creatin...

glass

Short piece originating on acoustic guitar, written and performed for the ivories.

The piece is deliberately short, apart from a single appearance of a bridging section featuring a brief accompaniment on electric guitar, the piano theme is a repeating motif, altered slightly every few bars or so.

Aural weaponry of interest evident on this recording: ...

urubu

Created after a trip to Brazil, it might come as no surprise that the opening rhythmic element is in fact a berimbau.

However, the world music-tag quickly loses its relevance there as the electronic manglings creep in with stuttering glitchy effect to add jagged, distorted edges to the rhythmic elements.

Melodic content comes from clean bass guitar a...

heliopolis

Arrives at your ears in three parts:

An eastern-tinged opening, in which low flute-esque sounds pair up with percussive glass sounds and wooden hits. This slowly leads into the drumbreak section where filtered slap bass coupled with effected guitars and washes of synthesizer pick up the pace frenetically. This part moves steadily towards its end w...

the gospel of the hoof

..."preached at the altar of decay", of course. This can be described as pastiche for those of an industrial metal-bent. Guitars are down-tuned to B for a typical grinding flavour.

Further sonic manglings are catered for by the Elektron SID station and bass guitar thumping. A quick burst of energy-type-of-tune.