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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / george bowles's music / Vernal Equinox 2024

Vernal Equinox 2024

By george bowles on March 22, 2024 4:33 am

i think a time or two, in previous years, i've done pieces for the change of seasons. maybe just once before, can't remember. but this time I started recording at the exact time of the start of spring, March 19th at 10:06 cst in 2024. supposedly it is an earlier date because of the leap year, and it will keep getting a little bit earlier for another hundred years or whatever.

initially i intended to do more overdubs to this track, but after hearing it i already liked it quite well, and also i drew upon my experience as a painter, knowing that sometimes adding more or overworking a piece can ruin it or change it into something completely different.

so, I went with my original raw in real time performance for another beautiful spring on this wild and crazy planet. which consists of a contact mic inside a plastic cannister/cylinder with a tall aluminum can and the lid to a lasagna tray, and some other random objects inside to give it a lot of things for the contact mic to hit. then i ran the contact mic through my effects loops, pedalboard setup of a single channel fx chain of catlingbread giygas fuzz > tonefancier x-drive > bleak district electric microlooping fuzz pedal > red panda particle > danelectro fish n chips EQ > Nu-X guitar multiprocessor which split the signal into stereo and then > wampler terraform > tc electronic triple delay > into board... while playing a hydrasynth explorer keeping it on same sound for the duration but tweaking it slowly over time, this is also in stereo.

original recording was over 10 minutes but I lopped the end of it off completely, so this was recorded from 10:06pm to 10:13pm plus some seconds. I think i cut off roughly 3 minutes where it got noisier and kid of veered off the path.

I purposely mixed this a lot quieter than i usually mix my material, so apologies if this isn't loud enough. it seems to be so clear sounding that it didn't need much of a volume boost. and I wanted to step away from louder material this week (even though this certainly has noise elements!). i see this as background music for a scene or something like that, or just straight about abstract experimental music.

March 25, 2024 8:51 am

qp

Sadly, I can't say that I understand it well enough to appreciate the setup you got going on here. I do think that this track is really interesting though. I love that there is a progression throughout the almost 8 minutes of noise. In my mind the first 5 minutes, give or take, represents the endless darkness and hardship of winter and then from 5 onwards we gradually see the signs of spring coming on. It mellows out in a seamless way into the brightness that is the end (or new beginning?).

I think you made the right decision in not overworking this. It is good as it is.

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March 25, 2024 11:51 pm

george bowles

qp wrote:

Sadly, I can't say that I understand it well enough to appreciate the setup you got going on here. I do think that this track is really interesting though. I love that there is a progression throughout the almost 8 minutes of noise. In my mind the first 5 minutes, give or take, represents the endless darkness and hardship of winter and then from 5 onwards we gradually see the signs of spring coming on. It mellows out in a seamless way into the brightness that is the end (or new beginning?).

I think you made the right decision in not overworking this. It is good as it is.

thanks for listening and taking the time to comment, I appreciate it and it is good to know it sounds legit:) I enjoy that it had a bit of a storytelling effect and spring is definitely the theme! I am ready for the old ways to end and for a new world to begin.

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March 26, 2024 2:08 am

lament.config

Have you ever filmed your setups and chains?  They would be a hell of a thing to see.  It's a really lovely track and I think suggests spring really well, the tonal elements calming and the noises like insects.  Pretty sure I will be coming back to listen to this again later.

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March 26, 2024 2:19 am

george bowles

lament.config wrote:

Have you ever filmed your setups and chains?  They would be a hell of a thing to see.  It's a really lovely track and I think suggests spring really well, the tonal elements calming and the noises like insects.  Pretty sure I will be coming back to listen to this again later.

I do plan on showing my performance more and the pedalboard play synth playing:) thank you so much for listening 🎧

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March 26, 2024 3:36 am

SQF

So creative! Would love to see a vid as well

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March 28, 2024 1:52 pm

Cursory

As others have said, it would be so cool to see what this looks like. I appreciate the gradual shaping of the sounds and how things are on a slight trajectory towards more rhythmic/tonal/"spring" textures. Feels like just pausing to take in the season, in almost a reverential way.

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March 31, 2024 4:18 pm

george bowles

SQF wrote:

So creative! Would love to see a vid as well

Cursory wrote:

As others have said, it would be so cool to see what this looks like. I appreciate the gradual shaping of the sounds and how things are on a slight trajectory towards more rhythmic/tonal/"spring" textures. Feels like just pausing to take in the season, in almost a reverential way.

ok I will try and get that accomplished maybe this week or next! thank you so much for listening:)

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