Sunday, January 12, 2014

SS SQ XIX I-IV, creating something new...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twenty Four Paintings
Cloudland Blue Quartet - SS SQ XIX
Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain
Cockney Rebel - The Psychomodo
Einaudi - Islands

Up early with ideas in my head...

However, today, for once, I realised them...

I recently became one of thirty three individuals who have undertaken to create between one and four "movements" to reflect a series of twenty visual "string quartets", first posted on Sid Smith's blog...

I was to work on String Quartet XIX, the pictures below, first published on Sid's blog on 14 October last year - the day after we met with him in Whitley Bay...

The publishing date was also Anne and my's 30th Wedding Anniversary - so choosing this quartet seemed apt...





Here's my idea, from start to finish...

I wrote six phrases with regard to each picture...

I recorded me speaking each of these four sets of phrases - no use of musical instruments...

I then took the recordings to the computer and stretched each circa 25 second reading to around ten minutes - at that length, any resemblance to a human voice was completely lost...

I treated the resulting soundscapes to further change their audio characteristics...

I then mixed together a forwards and a backwards version of each piece...

I applied fades, both in and out, to each piece...

And Bob was my uncle...

The finished pieces, which now comprise a new 40 minute album, reflect my current modus operandi of creation - very similar to that used last year to create the still to be finalised "Twenty Four Paintings" CBQ project...


Just as I was finishing things off, Anne arose...

Out for breakfast...

This morning, I seemed to be going for the lumberjack look...


To Patisserie Florentin, followed by the nearby market...


...and a look round the shops of Stockbridge - where I bought a £2 CD by Ballboy - not my greatest ever purchase but it was for charity so that's ok (I think)...

Home and some consideration given to adding field recordings to the pieces created earlier - eventually, after much mucking about, I decided to go with them "straight"...

Out to my mum's around 3:30, after a quick visit to Ikea for frames, which, later on, could be seen housing:-

(a) one of my "Twenty Four Paintings " series and

(b) a nice wee hare which took Anne's fancy over the weekend...


Nice, if I say so myself...


In the kitchen, Meg the Black Cat helped Anne cook a chicken...


...she soon got bored when she realised it was going to take rather a while - and joined me in the living room...


...where we listened to the new, just created today, CBQ LP...




...with the wee black beastie adopting a cute position for the camera...


...although she does look a bit worried in this one...


TV, more work and bed...

Highlight of the Day : Creating something new...

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