Music: Something new from me, Ambient Fear

I'm not wholly sure it can be classed as music... but it has a certain ambience about it and some kind of a rhythm that grabs the attention from the off... if I do say so myself...

The piece started off as just one noise, the horrible distorted one that clicks in and out and then stays for the duration of the "alarm" towards the end. I was looking for a scary sound that would fit a bit of video I took, of a spider taking down its web. I got a bit carried away and went off on a bit of a tangent. This was the result.

The sounds I started with were royalty free samples given away with various magazines. I altered most of them in Ableton Live using creative effects, like beat repeats, splashes of distortion and digital reverbs. All of the effects are running live, so you can grab anything and screw with it to change things up a bit!

The piece is by no means complete. More of a taster of a set of sounds. I threw it together quite quickly in Ableton Live 7. This project could probably do with a few tweaks. Here it is:

SoundCloud

Myspace

Space out...

Work: Kasabian Tour!

This November, Kasabian are hitting the road and doing a UK tour. With any luck the guys over at Concert Live have or are about to get the go ahead for a deal to do their instant live CD thing for the tour.

They've told us that a verbal agreement has been reached and we'll be on it! Doing a recording for such a popular band is always a massive thrill. The crowd noise you get from those pure Kasabian fans is just amazing. Plus Kasabian's sound is just so cool. This cannot possibly be a bad product.

I'm well excited.

Kasabian

Concert Live

Music: Marit Larsen

So after promising to have a recommendation from my re-listening of our recordings I came across this one. She was the first support on Jason Mraz' UK tour earlier this year, and I believe has picked up quite a following in her native Norway and throughout some of Europe. Marit Larsen is her name. Her live set up was a fairly usual set up for a folk-pop band. Acoustic guitars, piano, a few strings and some light percussion. Her character shines through the music. Which is what really lights up performance and makes her stand out.

Now it's strange to say, but I feel that her studio albums are way over-produced. The live performance is where she and her music really excels. If I have to pick any songs from her albums, that are worth checking out; from her album "The Chase" the song Fuel, for it's stripped back feel. I'd also say check the single called "If a Song Could Get Me You" which is just annoyingly catchy pop.

But more importantly, seek her out live. I think since the Jason Mraz tour she has retreated back into mainland Europe, but still worth trying to look out for Marits shows!

Click the pic to get to Marit Larsens site!


(picture sourced from flickr)

Work: DigiCo SD7

At the Rick Wakeman show I worked on, detailed in an earlier post (here), I had a chance to work with a remarkable bit of audio technology, the DigiCo SD7. This is an audio mixing console that can be used in any audio mixing application; from live front of house and monitoring, to post production and broadcast console use. In the former of those scenarios, you can actually link the two consoles via gigabit ethernet, and they can communicate, sharing various information, including complete remote control and a webcam so you can see who's on the other desk Check out that link for it and have a read. It really is remarkable, and extremely pretty (so many lights and screens!!). It currently retails, at time of writing, for somewhere in the region of £120,000 and is customisable on order with various upgrades. Check out the pics (now updated with some images I took at the time!):

Work: Rick Wakeman @ Hampton Court Palace

The last two weekends of April, I was working with Rick Wakeman and his production crew for his latest show, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, live at Hampton Court Palace. The show is based on the music from his concept album, released in 1973, of the same name. Rick has said he wanted to do this show that year as part of the promotion for it. He was denied, but has now been given full permission for it to go ahead. It now happily coincides with a 400 year anniversary of the rule of Henry VIII, which Hampton Court Palace is rightly celebrating.