This piece is kind of homage to one of my "mentors", I suppose. John Cage has probably had the most significant influence on my thinking about music and life, at least in recent years. Not so much with regard to his use of sound as materials of composition (though that has indeed been of strong influence), but rather his engagement with Zen and the concepts of silence, which echo strongly the writings of Miyamoto Musashi - another big influence, and apparently, one of the only Samurai to never get killed in a duel.

Cage wrote in his "Future of Music: Credo" about the use of all sounds, no matter where in the sound source it is located or where it is placed in relation to other sounds. That these rhythms and sounds will all be available to the composer. Over the last two days I've been studying little-scale's treatment of white noise (thanks, dude) and two trial-pieces later, I came up with this. The sounds have two sources:

1. (And attribution): http://www.freesound.org/people/Luftrum/sounds/48412/ freesound user "Laftrum", thanks.
2. UbuWeb's archive of John Cage. Particularly: http://www.ubu.com/sound/cage_diary.html, part two.

The melody and chords are derived from the sound of the ocean, and the "bass line" type thing and associated sounds are derived from part of that diary. Part of the diary is also the spoken word aspect of the piece.

All permission is cleared, yadda yadda. Realised in Ableton Live, final mastering in Logic.

Please enjoy the composition, it may feel like it goes nowhere, but that's kind of the idea, though I don't think it feels that way at all. Sit and think, or stand and think, or hang upside down and think -- it doesn't matter -- just listen and think. And in true Cageian fashion, a small element is left to controlled randomness.

Tags: cage, electronic, meditation, vincent giles, week 28 2012, View by:fc