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..

Today

Today I "celebrate" living through my 28th year and I can't say as though I am ecstatic (though there has been a present from Courtney and my parents sitting in my house for about a week now and that is pretty exciting in itself).

Regardless, I was doing some intense research on the internets regarding with whom I share a birthday. There are a few I know already:

Bob Hope
Noel Gallagher
Latoya Jackson
John F. Kennedy
Patrick Henry
Iannis Xenakis

And a few I did not already know, but do now thanks to the INTERNET:

Danny Elfman
Melissa Etheridge
Annette Bening
Adrian Paul
Isaac Albeniz

I'm not sure if I was disappointed at my findings or just disinterested in the whole idea, but I am happy to share the day with the likes of JFK, Bob Hope, and Xenakis. In fact, if you have never known of Xenakis before, you will now:

Derryberry

Derryberry is one of my favorite words I have ever heard. Not only does it roll off the tongue in a most unusual and satisfying way, but it is also a last name that belongs to a dear friend with the first name Tyler. Tyler is quite brilliant and is 1/3 of my band Longknives (the other third consists of another good friend John Burgess).

John, Tyler, and myself started longknives in early 2005 or something. Most people consider it more on the noisy side, but I remember our intentions leaning more towards psychedelic and even new/no wave, though we were once placed in the "prog" section of a Boston newspaper. Regardless, we only play about one or two shows a year and it is always a blast for me. Playing with John and Tyler is one of my favorite things in life. Tyler plays synths and other interesting electronics while also doing the vocals. John plays drums and sometimes some strange percussion. I play the guitar and more interesting electronics. We enjoy putting on a stage show with lights controlled in real time by us. Below is a little press blurb that Courtney wrote for us a long time ago:

Harsh. Primal. Psychedelic. Three black-clad men march you to the interrogation room. Martial music overwhelms you - propaganda for the age of intrusion. They stomp on pedals. Lights turn on, strobing or shining straight in your face, blinding you.

You shriek. Their machines shriek back. They step again and the lights disappear, plunging you into the disorienting black. A thin curl of fog seeps across the room, chilling you. Tribal rhythms overcome your resistance. Longknives wants answers. And you will tell them everything.


John Burgess – Drums

Tyler Derryberry – Analog synthesizers, electronics, vocals

Bill Trevaskis – Guitar, electronics


Here are some audio files from our never released record and a video from our first show:

Sewn Together
Hell's Ocean
March Red

Video is from February 2005 I believe




We are playing our first show in almost a year in Boston at a club called Church with some amazing bands (Neptune being one of them and a band that I adore very much). The show is 23 May 2009.

Sound Design

I apologize for not having updated in a while. Not only have I been busy working two different theatre projects on two different islands (North Haven and Vinalhaven), but I have also been attempting to purchase a new (to me) vehicle for the first time since I was sixteen (another story for another time I suppose).

My first completed project was the Vinalhaven production of Pippin in which I played guitar and percussion in the pit orchestra. After three nights, it is now completed and I am currently in the last stretch of Courtney's production of Freshwater by Virginia Wolf. Not only am I an "actor" playing the philosopher Charles Hay Cameron, but I have also created a decent sound design to go along with it.

I will not speak too much of my "acting" as I am not very good, this being only my second acting part ever on the stage, but I would, however, like to discuss a bit of my sound design work with which I am quite happy.

Because my character (Cameron) totes around a caged marmoset throughout the play, I first decided that I would like to have some marmoset sounds that were not only dimensional (moved with the prop itself), but also not overwhelming and overshadowing. I was fortunate enough to have an iPod Touch app purchased for me by my friends the Toughcats called Beatmaker by Intua for assisting them with some recording they did for their next record. This app allows me to access any sample I load onto a 16 x 16 button pad. Since I do not have access to any live marmoset that I can sample myself, I was lucky enough to find a sample on the internet that I was able to split into three different samples. I loaded all three samples (each on it's own pad) to every pad on the screen. Following this I am taping the iPod Touch itself to the underside of the cage in which the marmoset sits and that I carry around on the stage. I was originally a bit worried that the volume would not be suitable and attempted to wire up some sort of speaker to the underside of the cage as well. After realizing that boosting the high frequencies of the sample and subsequently cranking the gain up a bit on the entire frequency band of the sample really allowed the internal speaker of the iPod to project in the theater while not being too overwhelming during the speaking of an actor, thus achieving my first goal. Below is a screenshot of my marmoset samples in Beatmaker:



As I enjoy dimension quite a bit with regards to sound, I decided to follow my usual path of directional speaker placement for the rest of the sound design which consists not only of sound effects, but some musical samples as well. The first speaker placement I required was stage left while the second was about center stage behind the scrim. I mostly used the speaker behind the scrim for the music and the speaker stage left for some more directional sound effects. The most difficult aspect of this was to determine how to perform the sound design live from the lighting/sound booth whilst employing these different speaker placements. The final, and possibly most difficult task, was to achieve the usage of a third speaker by itself while being able to mute the other two speakers without having to unplug anything. This third speaker is placed on the ground at the front of the stage and under a sheet that simulates an ocean. Guess what the sound cue for that is. I achieved this by using the control room function on my portable mixing board where by pressing the control room button, the main output (where the other speakers originate) is muted and thus creating an almost "surround sound" style of speaker placement. The third speaker is plugged into the main sound board via the monitor input, where the other two speakers are powered using a small PA backstage. I did not want to use the house system because the speakers are above the heads of the audience and does not create the desired effect while being very difficult to deactivate as well.

Once the hardware was all set (running cables over the ceiling of the theater, etc.), I used a simple piece of software to program each cue called VSamp. VSamp is a simple sampler that can utilize either midi or the keyboard of your computer to trigger the samples. I like to use the keyboard because it minimizes equipment to be drug into the small lighting/sound booth at the theater. VSamp allows me to program volume as well as panning.

This is, in essence, the basic idea of my sound design for Freshwater. As simple as this process is to execute, it is difficult to describe without many more paragraphs so I will leave it at this. I would also like to mention that this project was made much easier with the help of my friend and student Jack Walker. Jack is an amazing person and I hope he continues to do this work in the future. He is also performing the sound cues live while I "act" on stage.

Freswhater opens tomorrow, 14 May 2009 and runs until 17 May 2009 at Waterman's Community Center

Palindromes

Even before I knew what they were called, I was obsessed with PALINDROMES. As a kid I could not stop seeing them everywhere or even just thinking about them. Sometimes it would make me physically ill to think about them. Often times while driving with one or both of my parents, I would look out the window and see this symmetry on street signs, other cars, people's clothing...this list goes on. My third grade teachers' name was Mrs. Staats. I even thought that most everything I did daily was a palindrome: cleaning my room, walking on the sidewalk, and even sleeping. This drove me mad. Once I became a teenager, I learned to ignore this (of many) quirks I had as a child, but after starting college the urge came back like a familiar visit from an extraterrestrial.

I quickly began to realize that I could transform this weird urge into what I knew best: music. I composed many pieces of music that contained palindromic structures, phrases, and rhythmic sequence. This was extremely satisfying to know that I finally had some control over it and that I could even create it and destroy it at my own will.

I have scanned and uploaded a copy of the only score I have to the first palindromic piece I ever composed (knowingly anyway). Below is the score and a link to the audio I recorded for it. It was composed and performed/recorded around 2003. The piece is for 4 guitars or any instrument capable of performing these pitch sets. It also follows a very traditional and basic Ghanaian rhythmic formula rather strictly in each part:

Spatial



The palindromic idea lies in the form of the piece. As you can see from the score, each instrument has a certain "cycle" it performs for a certain amount of time. The palindrome can be seen in the visual I have created within the score representing the form of the piece. There is also a level of symmetry in the phrases as well, though the melodic and rhythmic content are not very symmetrical. I have attempted to describe the performance instructions as clearly as possible in the score you see above.

Writing music such as this helped me realize that creating a single page score was very useful, practical, and logical. It also helped me realize that palindromes can be heard as well as read and spoken.

My Growing Portable Life

I recently purchased an iPod Touch 2g with 32gb of space to hold all of my music, movies, and, now, applications.

My most recent and impressive of discoveries regarding applications for this handy little device is SignalScope and was written by a company called Faber Acoustical. I have purchased a few other apps from this company's impressive line of audio applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch and have been pleasantly surprised with the professional result. I had waited on purchasing SignalScope as it was most expensive (at 24.99), but since I recently came into a $25.00 gift card for the iTunes store, I decided to give it a try.

Once the download completed I immediately inserted my Macally iVoice III into the dock connector for an attempt at a direct stereo input to SignalSuite. Originally the test was a failure. My last ditch effort was to connect the iVoice into the dock connector while the iPod was turned off and turning it back on. Starting SignalSuite one last time was a success. I immediately received a great signal from my computer (where I had a signal generator creating a sine wave on the left channel at 440 hz and square wave on the right channel at 441 hz.).

Below are some photos that were taken from the capture function in SignalSuite (an excellent feature) and exported through iPhoto and a video that I took with my camera.

The oscilloscope function where the red (left) channel is the sine wave and the green (right) channel the square wave:



The spectrum function using the same parameters as above:



And a little video:



This has quickly become my favorite app for the iPhone/iPod Touch and I will definitely be using it regularly in my audio adventures.

Bitter Music

While I was in college, I became obsessed with Microtonality in music and with that also came my obsession with Harry Partch. Partch was one of the greatest personalities and composers I had ever come across, though I never met him as he died in the 1960's. His theories and ideas about composition/music, history, performance, physics, and living are all quite inspirational to me still. His instruments are some of the most unique in history and hold some of the greatest names (ie, The Spoils of War).

Many people would call Mr. Partch the "Father of Modern Microtonality" and I couldn't agree more. Partch created a 43 note per octave tuning system in the early 20th century (it began as 39 note per octave) to accommodate his compositional style which was far from the traditional Western Equal Temperament that was in use by even the most "avant garde" Western composers of the time. Do not misunderstand, as Partch was not at all attempting to be "avant garde", but rather contribute something to the world that contained not only originality, but an acknowledgment and respect towards the ideas and sounds of the ancient past (he was quite aware of the sounds of ancient Greece and China). His 43 note per octave tuning utilized the ideas of Just Intonation where frequencies are rounded (and tuned) to the nearest whole number ratio creating an effect that is closer to the natural physics of the harmonic series. The result tends to be a bit more consonant than some intervallic examples in equal temperament and other systems (see some of my previous posts for examples and other rants about tuning).

Partch's system may not have existed without his discovery of a book titled "On the Sensations of Tone" by Hermann Helmholtz. As an owner of the book I can assure you that, though being quite dense, is certainly your best bet to understanding where Partch gained most of his knowledge concerning Just Intonation.

Rather than rant about how great Harry Partch is, below are two clips of a short documentary on Partch:






Also, if you would like to "play" some of Harry Partch's instruments, this Virtual Instrumentarium is quite fun and great for sampling.

Another Zolar X Practice Recording

Our version of Space Age Love by Zolar X.

This was mixed by Jonah Mcbride himself.

Recording also done by Jonah

Courtney - Vox/Synth/Bass
Bill - Guitar/Vox
Jonah - Skins

I should mention that we were lucky enough to record this and practice in Jonah's practice space in Allson, MA. Thanks to the guys from Heart of Stone for being so generous in allowing us use of their space.

Mr. Scott: ENERGIZE

Please enjoy a rendition of Energize Me written by Zolar X from our practice last week for the Zolar X tribute show.

Mixed by ME. To the left of center (as usual), you can hear what you see in my previous post put to use.

Recorded by Jonah.

Courtney: Bass/Vox
Jonah: Drums
Bill (me): Guitar/Vox

Back

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything as I have been quite sick and busy (not a great combination).

Courtney and I spent the past week or so practicing for our Zolar X tribute show we did down in Somerville, MA. Our good friends Tim and Lindsay played with their incredible band Thick Shakes and Lindsay set the show up. Tim took some cool pictures and it was a great time despite me being a sickly, frail individual.



I am feeling a bit better now and that means my head is somewhat clear. Whilst preparing and performing the Zolar X material, I got the opportunity to actually play the electric guitar (which I do not do too much anymore. why? I don't really know). One of my favorite things in the world is attempting to achieve the guitar tone I have heard in my head for the past 10 years or so. As of now, I have boiled it down to a few pieces of key equipment that I currently use in my "setup":

1. Vox 125 Lead head (1979-ish)



2. Single germanium transistor treble booster (I originally made one of these in the traditional format: toggle switch sitting on top of the amp. My friend Morgan made one for me in the stompbox format. I used Morgan's for our show this past weekend).

Mine


Morgan's



3. Tech 21 Double Drive (with harmonic boost/cut)



4. Homemade 2x12 cab (speakers are Celestions from a Marshall cab that were given to me by Joe Wizda)



5. Danelectro or Gibson SG guitar (the two are drastically different, but I can satisfy many aural pleasures with just these two guys). Sorry, no photos.

6. Using a dime as a pick




Suffice to say that this is not a lot of equipment and you may say that it is quite minimal, but maybe that is where I have gone wrong in the past. One last thing I decided to do (this thought occurred to me after the show) was to combine the dual input of the Vox 125 Lead into one.

The Vox has two inputs: Normal and Brilliant. I usually plug into the Brilliant channel and kick the high's on the crazy 5-band EQ that it has way down. Actually, I kick the low's down pretty well, too. Regardless, this method works best when using the Rangemaster clone and allows a lot more headroom for other modification on the pedals themselves. I realized that combining the Brilliant and Normal inputs on the amp would give me a more characteristic Vox sound (chimey and yet thick; lots of highs and mids, but plenty of bottom end).

I used an old 1/4" cable for the ends and a stereo input jack that I had lying around to make what you see below.



Sound samples to come in the future.

all is not lost...

Currently, I am staring out the window at what appears to be a windy day. Also, I'm half watching Twin Peaks and writing this. The past few days I have been pretty sick...nothing serious (damn sore throat, fever, now congestion); I do not like getting sick. This is where I do not provide you with content, but where I provide myself with something else. Maybe something to pass the time. I don't really know.

Yesterday I came home and Courtney was sitting by the fire with her computer typing what I assumed was another story for her book. Indeed it was. She wrote a book with her mother a couple of years ago and they hope to one day have it published. She has written quite a bit before that as well, but I think these particular stories are different. The content involves events she remembers from what could be described as a quirky, but loving and interesting childhood. She tells me anecdotes from those times occasionally and I always find myself very engaged (even if I'm doing something else at the moment) and always entertained.

She has read me a few of the stories and they are quite amazing. The characters and activities are so incredible it's hard to believe sometimes that they are of real history. Her life was so interesting. Her life is so interesting. She is a teacher, musician, artist, actress, chef, athlete, scholar, journalist (at one time), sex symbol, etc...this list could go on. It's amazing that so much could be packed into such a small package; she's only like 4'11" tall.

I'm kind of a pain in the ass when I'm sick and she always just rolls with it. This latest episode is no exception. She's good like that. Even though she's the actress of the house, I am definitely the drama queen.

I know she'll read this and smile, but this isn't for her. She already knows this stuff. She knows I love her, blah blah blah. It isn't really for me either. I don't exactly know what it is. Not that it matters.

And here we are

Just a Thought

After my celebration of J.S. Bach's 324th birthday, I began to remember some controversy concerning the Prelude I in C Major, BWV 924(a). Controversy is rarely without a protagonist and this controversy would not be possible without the help of well known theorist Heinrich Schenker.

Schenker developed a method of musical analysis justly named Schenkerian Analysis and touted this method as the last word for analysts and critics of tonal music. In short, Schenkerian Analysis places a hierarchy on pitch class and harmony, exposing the important details of the piece through reduction.

Schenker spent many hours analyzing BWV 924 constantly referring to it as either a draft of another work or even dictating that it was written by J.S. Bach's son Wilhelm Friedmann Bach. The fact is that J.S. Bach wrote these works (included in the Well-Tempered Clavier) to aid his son in learning not only to play the keyboard, but to also tune it himself (see this great analysis I found concerning Bach's tuning using BWV 924). Schenker went so far as to omit pitches from BWV 924 and in the early 20th century during which he had a great hold over the world of concert music, his "corrections" were eventually published as accurate and used instead of the original score.

Schenker failed to realize that instead of what he noticed as erroneous harmony in the middle (I must mention that it is in the exact center of the piece; some sort of palindromic puzzle?) of the Prelude that Bach was also giving lessons in counterpoint to his son. Schenker decides that omitting the leading tone in mm. 22 and 23 (this is from memory folks; measure numbers could be slightly off) would give him the ability to analyze the harmony as a II chord rather than an unresolved leading tone. Schenker does NOT realize, however, that Bach was using a canon at the 7th to modulate quickly to a new key. This is precisely where Schenker did not know about Bach's tuning methods (see link above) which augmented the frequencies of the thirds for all keys in order to modulate very quickly and smoothly without notice from the listener. Bach also used the wolf tone to create a more uniform tuning system, closer to equal temperament, but more closely to Pythagorean and Just intonation. Schenker was working in a strictly equal-tempered mind frame that limited his analysis.

Rather than turn this into a long analysis, I will end with this:

Schenkerian analysis is not to be taken lightly as it is respected to this day as a very important technique in musical analysis. But I do not agree with his idea that analysis (especially his) can be used to critique the validity of music and it's author.

324 years young

Today is Johann Sebastian Bach's 324th birthday and I thought it only appropriate to give him a little tribute on the Fractal Mechanism.

Nearly two years ago my mother gave to me for my birthday a set of 100 cd's containing just about every piece of music J.S. Bach wrote during his lifetime. I call it the Bachset. It is the only thing I have listened to consistently for the last four months and have yet to finish. I occasionally find myself repeating certain tracks two or sometimes even three times because I just cannot believe what I am hearing. Bach had all of the great characteristics of a true artist: inimitable style, originality far beyond his years, influence (past, present, and future), technique, humility, and a relationship with the art form that rivals having a Siamese twin.

That said, Bach did not look at music as an art form, but as an offering. He was a very religious man, but I like to think that he was not just creating art for God, but for what he may have thought of as God's people. Maybe that is one such definition of the word ART itself, but Bach most likely did not acknowledge the word for the work he created on a daily basis.

Art has a strange history in education: eras are almost always carried by one or two figures of the time and Bach was no exception. Bach practically carried the weight of the Baroque on his own back, for without this one man, Baroque music may have not have moved into the Classical era so smoothly. Art of the Fugue alone was free reign for the composers of the Classical period to create new sounds and techniques with an ancient form as a template. American composer Charles Ives wrote a piece in the early Twentieth Century simply titled Fugue in Four Keys.


subtext:

Music is about 50 - 100 years behind the other art forms when speaking of the named period cultures. Baroque music was dated from around 1650 to 1750 where the Baroque period in history was more like 1600 to 1700.


A short story:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Bach's second eldest son) worked for a time under the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great. King Frederick (an accomplished flautist and composer) was quite taken with the abilities of C.P.E. Bach. One night at what one could assume was one of many drunken gatherings in the King's Court, Bach stated in so many words "if you think I'm great, you should hear my Dad". With that, the King sent immediately for J.S. Bach to visit and display what a true genius he was. During the ceremony of arrival for J.S. Bach, an attempt by the King to separate the generations (Bach was 62 or so and the King was about 35) he gave Bach an extremely chromatic theme he had been pondering over for sometime that was supposedly impossible to use in any true composition and possibly presented to Bach with a more malicious intent. It was to be performed on a new instrument: the piano. Bach sat down and began to improvise a three-part fugue on this theme immediately and quite successfully. Being quite the instigator, King Frederick asked Bach if he could improvise a six-part fugue on the same theme. Bach denied performing like such a monkey and instead composed many variations on this theme including a piece that contained a flute part that was way beyond the King's abilities, in part to show the King how it is really done. This piece was sent to King Frederick and became Bach's well known Musical Offering.

Happy Birthday, Maestro.

Full Metal Alchemists of Sound

This is where I provide you with some more excellent content:

A few years ago I watched a BBC documentary called Alchemists of Sound about a collective of musicians, artists, and engineers called the Radiophonic Workshop. Put simply, their job was to create sounds and musics for the BBC and all of their content on the television and radio. Their output resulted in some of the most interesting art of sound on the airwaves including the theme for the classic Doctor Who series.

Side Note:

Delia Derbyshire who did the electronic realization for Doctor Who (the version one hears on the show) is so dear to me (though I never knew her) that I named my eldest cat after her. I feel as though she is not only on of the greatest musicians/electronic musicians and composers, but that she is also quite under appreciated as such. Her contributions to the world of electronic music should never be overlooked: she was a master of tape manipulation and could achieve sounds so original from a means that was so unorthodox, especially for the time (sampling).



Below is the documentary in 6 parts in a format that you can hopefully view:

Alchemists of Sound: 1
Alchemists of Sound: 2
Alchemists of Sound: 3
Alchemists of Sound: 4
Alchemists of Sound: 5
Alchemists of Sound: 6

Enjoy!

Beats and Geeks

A few months ago I decided an attempt to make something already pretty cool into something amazing was in order. Many years ago in Boston, a drummer friend and band mate gave me this "toy" you see below:



This little 4 pad drum was sold by Synsonic (Mattel) in and around 1982 and marketed mostly to kids. There were also various accessories available (kick and hi hat pedal) which I did not have.

Using it in a handful of live situations made me realize it needed some more control. After doing some research, I discovered a great site where folks discuss modifications they've accomplished and any general information about this little gadget. Below are some photos I took of my modifications which I housed in an old printer selector box and connected to the pad via a 25 pin serial connector:





Description:

upper left: TOM 1 - first toggle is an impact mod that increases the impact gain. the pot in the middle modulates the decay. the toggle on the right combines the snare and tom sound and is only activated when the snare pad is hit.

lower left: SNARE - the first pot modulates the decay. the toggle in the middle increases attack gain. the second pot is a tone pot that increases the high frequencies generated by the snare.

upper right: CYMBAL - the pot modulates the decay. the toggle increases the lower frequencies of the snare sound.

lower right: TOM 2/BASS - first pot modulates the decay. the toggle increases attack gain. the third pot modulates the intonation which is what i will use as a "kick drum"

Rather than going into too much detail posting schematics and whatnot, I've posted some sound bytes from each pad with a small description of what you are hearing as each specific sample progresses:

SNARE: begins with increased attack mod -> "tone" fluctuation -> decay sweep

TOM1: increased attack -> tuning (original feature of toy) -> decay sweep

CYMBAL: decay sweep -> "tone" fluctuation (on a toggle switch)

TOM2: increased attack -> tuning (my own mod) -> decay sweep

In the future I hope to build a kick pedal and eventually a hi hat pedal that would connect to my break-out box.

If you would like more tech info, I would be glad to create it and send it to you.

More From Last Night

As promised, below are two links to some tracks from a live recording I took last night at the Toughcats extravaganza. The first song is one that Courtney and I wrote a few years ago called Die Schlange und Die Mädchen about a woman who marries a snake and performed last night with the boys. The second is a new song that Joe Nelson wrote that I love called Grease Monkey. It has yet to be released and I'm not even sure if it will last long here because of that, so enjoy while you can. I understand it will be released on their next record.

Die Schlange und Die Mädchen

Grease Monkey

A Very Long Day

Yesterday:

Courtney and I set off on a busy North Haven adventure yesterday starting with an early morning at the annual Town Meeting. As the secretary of the Planning Board, Courtney was somewhat obligated to go while my motives were a bit different. My obsession with recording sounds does not stop at car horns and footsteps; it also includes what could possibly be audio gold that is a town meeting. Unfortunately, the days of olde are gone at these things. Apparently there used to be knock-down drag-outs at the meetings years ago. Now everyone is mostly civil and after sitting through nearly eighty articles to be motioned I was quite bored. Needless to say, this is probably how town meetings should be organized. I also setup the wireless microphone and PA system (which led to a couple of great feedback incidents; music to my ears).

Now the LOVEFEST:

After the not-so-exciting Town Meeting, Courtney and I headed to the Waterman's Community Center where we had a 2.5 hour (or so) rehearsal with some of our favorite folks The Toughcats. The Toughcats are Joe Nelson, Colin Gulley, and Jake Greenlaw...three of the best people we have met since we moved to Maine almost four years ago. These guys are incredibly talented musicians and have helped us with projects that would never have been otherwise possible (ie, the Milkman Ballet) and they constantly put out some great music.

I wouldn't place their art in any one category, but most folks would probably call them a bluegrass group though they are so much more. These guys have amazing artistic instincts and their musicianship is second to none. We would not do half of the things we have done out here without them. I could go on and on about Joe, Colin, and Jake and perhaps I will in a future entry.

More on this later.

After a brief stint at home (Courtney cooked, I took a nap, stoked the stove), we drove over to our friends' baby shower at an incredible and ancient farmhouse owned by another set of great friends. Courtney made Gougeres that were the hit of the party. The house has been very well maintained in it's original state (other than the normal renovations a two hundred year old+ farmhouse requires). Many rooms separated by maze-like walls and a sometimes disorienting layout. This is a good thing, though probably difficult to heat. Bill Bartovics (one of the owners) gave me a great deal of guidance and parts in repairing a bicycle I found at the town dump (below). I still use this bike now that it is in great working order.



On to the Toughcats performance at the Waterman's Community Center (hence the 2.5 hour rehearsal). Courtney and I performed a couple of songs with The Toughcats: One song we wrote called Die Schlange und Die Mädchen and one ABBA song called Knowing Me Knowing You. Courtney also took part in their usual Busby Berkley-esque introductions while I did sound and lights. I also recorded the entire show (audio only) and will post some highlights in the future.

After Party ---> Absenthe ---> Sleep


The Boys

Black and White Friday

I thought it appropriate on this thirteenth Friday of March 2009 that I expose you to the F-List, a new podcast produced by myself along with cohorts Seth Macy and Elisha Brown.

The F-List is essentially a motley crew sitting around my studio blabbing into microphones about extremely bad movies that we watch/have watched. The format of the show is quite loose, but we all discuss a common film that we have assigned ourselves weekly and then discuss others that we have watched in the past or present. Visit the link above and have fun.

I should also mention that this 13th of Friday is the birthday of Austrian composer Hugo Wolf. I won't say much about him mostly because there is not much to say that you couldn't read on Wikipedia or something. He died young and composed some great music. His songs (for which he is most famous) are intense and beautiful and are completely underperformed works of true art. He did not write much music (compared to his predecessors anyway) in his short life as he died of syphilis at 46 or 47 years old and most of his creativity was ruined by his intense depressions that he went through quite frequently.

Do yourself a favor and give his music a listen, especially the lieder.

Maestro

v.2 Complete With Cookbook

Server issues have been resolved. All links should work (the ones from my server anyway).

Back to the content:

Yesterday I found the cookbook you see below at the town dump:



First of all, the book is bound in WOOD and LEATHER with a very unique burned and painted image on it (as you can see above). Published in 1936, it contains recipes such as "Kennebunk Pickle" and "Clam Omelete" where most of the ingredients could almost be assumed and are obviously "New England".

An entire section of sauces really caught my attention and here is one I thought sounded interesting:

HARD SAUCE

1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup wine
nutmeg

Cream the butter and add the sugar slowly, beating all the time. Add wine drop by drop and beat well. Before serving sprinkle top with grated nutmeg

I believe you can still find copies of this book used on eBay and even possibly Amazon though I doubt you'll find this one-of-a-kind binding.

Server Issues

I'm having some trouble with my web server that I am trying to resolve as quickly as possible. Some of the links below won't work for a couple of days at most so if you NEED them I can send them to you directly. Just send me an email: billtrevaskis at gmail dot com.

Mercury Theatre

It was brought to my attention by me that my additional comment in the previous post may not be clear to some regarding Orson Wells.

HERE is the radio broadcast in which Orson Wells unknowingly confuses the nation in 1938 about an alien visit to earth.

So, This is Why You Came...

Earlier today I digitized some examples that originally came on vinyl to supplement this book:



below is the audio that came from these two extremely floppy discs:

Side 1
Side 2
Side 3
Side 4

The book was written by a man named John Robinson Pierce who was a professor at Stanford University in Engineering and who also had a very prominent career at Bell Laboratories where he not only helped develop some of the first satellite communication techniques (Telstar 1) but also a great many discoveries in psychoacoustics and computer music. One such discovery was a musical tuning system that is now called the Bohlen-Pierce Scale (Heinz Bohlen had previously made a similar discovery which was expressed in just-intonation).

John Pierce also had a friendly relationship with science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke. In 1963, Pierce invited Sir Clarke to a convention featuring some of the first computer generated music. One such presentation displayed the first talking computer. Towards the end of the presentation, the computer sang a song called "Daisy (Bicycle Built For Two)" that Clarke and film maker Stanley Kubrik later used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pierce also created a scenario in the film where an orbiting picturephone booth is utilized.

Back to the point:

The examples I digitized are just supplements to the book, but I bet they would make some great sampling material. Also, I could not find any digitized version on the internet so I did this for YOU. Please utilize at will until I get sued.

Bill


P.S. - My far off connection to John Pierce is through a man named Max Mathews (known to most as the "father of computer music" and the inspiration for Max/MSP synthesis programming):

Max Mathews was also featured at the first computer music festival where he generated the first computer music in history to accompany the first talking computer (singing daisy with accompaniment...listen to the link I posted above because it is incredible). Max Mathews came to give a few lectures at my college in the Music Synthesis Department where I was mostly hanging out at the time (despite being a Composition focus). I performed some Bach Inventions on an instrument Mr. Mathews invented called the Radio Baton. Mr. Mathews complemented my performance and I was just psyched to be associated in some distant way to these crazy scientists.

MC5

the five on the beat club

for j0j0

Felix is quite the CAT

A few weeks ago I read an article in the New Yorker about Felix Mendelssohn written by a very excellent personality Alex Ross. A bit angry with the article, I wrote a response of sorts (mostly for my own piece of mind) to many if not all of Mr. Ross' claims and "facts". Below in italics you will find my response:

My curiosity was peaked whilst reading "The Youngest Master" by Alex Ross written for the New Yorker regarding the 200th birthday of composer Felix Mendelssohn. I was quite excited to read about a composer I am not completely familiar with (other than his body of work) written by someone whom I had always assumed was a semi-competent and knowledgeable writer on the subject. What I read instead was a brief, "Amadeus"-like outline for a hollywood movie script that dropped historical figures such as Goethe and especially Richard Wagner, who did in fact created quite a case against Mendelssohn and his music.

The anti-semetic Wagner was indeed partly responsible for the "suppression" of Mendelssohn's work (a well known fact), but the statement Mr. Ross makes concerning what he calls the "tortured relationship" between the two is simply trite. There is no historical evidence that Wagner ever "dreamed that his older collegue addressed him with du..." Mr. Ross is simply creating his own history in order to make his case that Mendelssohn was next to God.

This God-like admiration can also be taken from the end of Mr. Ross' third paragraph where he refers to Mendelssohn as "a musical Goethe". Mr. Ross is obviously a Goethe admirer as many people have been for generations, but this is unfortunately a failed attempt by Mr. Ross to appeal to another sect of know-it-alls within his circle of faux artists to explain Mendelssohn's prowess with the pen.

My previous knowledge of Mendelssohn's musical virtuosity had prepared me for the popular comparison to Mozart which are, by all accounts, completely out of touch with the art of music. Comparing the technical compositional ability of Mendelssohn to Mozart is like comparing apples and oranges: Two composers from different eras in time and artistic movement. If any comparison must be made, history will speak it: Mendelssohn will never be as revered a composer as Mozart if only due to the fact that Mozart was by all accounts a better composer and had a better understanding of his art, originality, and audience. Originality was not in the forefront of Mendelssohn's artistic process which could be one of many (if unfortunate) reasons his music is placed on a similar level to the likes of Franz Liszt and performed much more infrequently than the work of Mozart even post-Wagner.

My initial intrigue was as to whether or not Mr. Ross actually listens to the music about which he writes; or any music for that matter. Does he indeed have experience in using musical theory in practice or is he merely dropping vocabulary that he finds in conservatory text books, overhears at the superficial parties he attends, or pretends to comprehend at the concerts at which he falls asleep?

I have enjoyed many of Mr. Ross' articles in the past, but this one in particular left a bad taste in my mouth. Mendelssohn was indeed a master composer, but the treatment Mr. Ross gave to him in his article read like the New Testament. It is obvious that he places Mendelssohn on a very high pedestal, but is it at a deserving height in reality?

My little essay came mostly out of anger (I get quite emotional when it comes to music and especially concert music of which I have a pretty extensive knowledge). Mostly, I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I could still form a sentence and flex some sort of muscle at Mr. Ross' expense. The reality is that I still think Mr. Ross is an amazing writer with great appreciation for what he writes about and I will continue to read his shit.

Love,
Bill


Maestro

WELCOME

Greetings and thanks for visiting FRACTAL MECHANISM.

Fractal Mechanism is a platform for artistic, scientific, humanist, and sometimes unusual subject matter that I happen to find interesting and care to share with YOU. Whether it be internet audio/video examples, text/articles/stories, or my own projects I will post it here if I feel like it.

Below I will explain who I am:

My name is Bill Trevaskis
I am a score and seven years so far
I live on an island off the coast of MAINE
I live with my incredibly awesome lady friend who goes by the name Courtney
I have 3 cats, 1 dog, and 1 hedgehog who are all named after musicians or songs
I like to experiment with sounds and musics on a regular basis
I have been in too many musical groups to count
Sometimes I play the guitar
I build and modify electronic instruments and toys
I own a house on this island and it rocks

not the first vocoder. not a vocoder at all actually but a VODER.