NEW LOCATION

I have finally relocated this blog to it's own server at http://fractalmechanism.ofthelion.org

All blog updates and posts can be found at that URL.

Round and Round

Today I attended the dedication of the Fox Islands Wind Project wind turbines that were built this summer/fall and are now in complete working order. Their purpose is to create a self-sustaining community while helping to decrease the emission of greenhouse gasses into the earth. We also hope to see a decreased electrical bill on North Haven and Vinalhaven.

Up close, the sheer size of a moving mechanical device such as this is almost enough to make one light headed. From a distance -which is how I have been able to view them until now- the turbines have a very "futures-past" kind of feel; almost like they would be better suited in the film Metropolis. Below is a photo of the three turbines which are situated on our neighboring island Vinalhaven:



My true purpose for attending this celebration was to take some field recordings of the turbines and do some basic decibel and spectral analysis. The three diagrams below are from this test:

Fig. 1 represents the flat (no input) spectral form


Fig. 2 shows the complete audible spectrum of one of the turbines from about 50 feet in front


Fig. 3 is a zoomed in visual of where I believed the largest jump in magnitude occurred in the lower range between 100 - 200 hertz


There had been some speculation on the magnitude these turbines were producing from some nearby locals. Upon arriving at the site, I thought to myself "these things are quite! I can't hear anything." After about an hour or so of consistent exposure to the constant audible sound produced, my hearing became a bit exhausted. Of the 45 minutes of audio I recorded below is a link to a short snippet of what I heard.

Fox Islands Wind Turbines

A few things to note: This is RAW AUDIO. RAW AUDIO is unedited and contains everything that was recorded at the site by me. You may hear a few footsteps or other movement of me attempting to obtain different perspectives from different angles and heights. Also, to preserve the quality, the file was kept in its original file format of .wav. This means that the file will be a lot larger (around 29mb) than your average .mp3.

Take note about 2/3 through the recording how the frequency of the turning declines with the changing wind.

Please visit the Fox Islands Wind Project website.

EXTRAMUSICAL EXPLOSIONS

Greetings, folks. It has been quite some time since updating, but I have not had the content nor the time to do so.

That said, I recently went through a bunch of my old guitar compositions and consolidated a few for your listening pleasure/displeasure.

LINK TO GUITAR MUSICS

Some of this music prefers to be replayed on a HI FIDELITY STEREO SYSTEM



Hopefully I will be back on the wagon with the content, so bear with me.


Your faithful friend and humble narrator,
WILLIAM

Snakedriver

Earlier today I recorded a cover version of the Jesus and Mary Chain's song SNAKEDRIVER using a Nintendo Gameboy, a Commodore 64, and my voice. This may be the first thing I have recorded using my own voice this far up front.

LINK

I should mention that I first came across this song and this band when I was around 12 or 13. I heard the song in the movie The Crow when I ventured to the theater to see it for the first time.

Currently

I Am

staring out the window
paranoid
exhausted
overwhelmed
underwhelmed
craving strong drink
scared
comfortable
a schizoid man
obsessed
failing

One wonders how one can take on as many contradictory attributes at a certain, short moment on the x-axis. One also wonders how to rid oneself of the majority of these.

...

in honor of yet another obnoxious day, below is a video to brighten it a bit.

Retreating

I've been in a mode I used to frequent quite often a few years ago where I become obsessed with one or two certain types or "styles" of music and decide that I must listen to and study everything about it. Since the new year, I have been almost regressing to genres (I really do hate that word) that I have already known and developing a sort of nostalgic take over of my mind.

A few months ago and up until recently, I was obsessively listening to a combination of "Shoegaze" and "New Wave" (I really do hate all of this labeling...or do I? shit...). The likes of Jesus and Mary Chain, New order, Cabaret Voltaire, Ride, Bleach, Joy Division, etc!! This was filling my brain with a satisfaction I had not felt in a long time. It was like an itch I could finally reach to scratch only to realize it felt better to not scratch it completely, but let it tingle for a while just to torture myself.

The other morning whilst doing a bit of digging in the dirt, I suddenly felt another itch coming from a different location. It literally said "KRAUTROCK!"

Before I knew it, I was at the keyboard typing away, rapidly attempting to gain knowledge as though I were a cyborg having data uploaded to me so that I could master flying a helicopter in record time or something. This may be in line with my obsession a few years back with early Prog and Psych.

In a matter of a few hours, I had LEGALLY obtained a few classic Krautrock artists and some of their seminal recordings:

Can
Faust
Goblin
Amon Düül II
Rälf and Florian/Kraftwerk (up to Autobahn)
Hawkwind (did I mention my lite obsession with Space Rock??)
blah blah blah (not a group)

{Note:

I love how when most folks describe CAN, they always mention that a few members studied with Karleinz Stockhausen as though that were impetus enough to gain even the most avant garde ears.}

Once again, I found myself obsessing over something with which I was already semi acquainted and, once again, it is extremely satisfying in that torturous kind of way. I don't quite know what I am looking for, but this is almost like a choose-your-own-adventure I've already read. I have spent thousands and possibly millions of hours researching and listening to different musics since I was about 17 years old or so. Occasionally I go full-circle...well, more like full-spiral

Anyhow, this fellow blogger has a nice little site with quite a few records that I did not previously own or know of. He's even got it all broken down into GENRE!



"And so??...", you ask, "what is your favorite" piece/record/genre so far?

Faust IV



and the soundtracks from GOBLIN (namely Contamination)




For now, anyway..