Clement, Jack, Joey

Week of September 25

Plans:

During our first meeting, we discussed more abstract ideas of truth vs. falsehood and how that plays into music, visuals and even words. We are heavily considering creating a vocabulary of words and sounds, etc. where the words are laid out on the Ableton Push and the rest are played live. We establish that vocabulary and then slowly break the pre-established meaning apart from the the sound of the word or note. We could possibly do this using a graphic score with parameters of truth and type of instrument although this is not the only way this concept could be implemented. As we progress through the semester we could find more practical modalities to create this piece and ways to make it more clear and effective.

Timeline:

By Oct. 2 - have a clearly defined idea/list of concept that we want to execute

As of now, probably looking in the realm of words and word repetitions, using techniques such as splicing and recontextualizing parts of different words to play with meaning

Drawing parallels between words and objects and reality and sub-reality (i.e. the world we create on-stage)

By Oct. 9 - begin work on sound: instrumentation, timbre, audio, electronics vs acoustics, etc

Looking at using trumpet, drums, synthesizer, voice, and a myriad of other electronics

Concept of sound manipulation: appearing as one sound on stage, caused of affected by another. Playing with the concept of “hoax” and continuing to draw themes between our reality and the audience’s.

By Oct. 16 - experimentation with executing and trying out all our ideas. Choosing which ones qualify for our collective goals. This will be an ongoing process…

Working individually and as a group to refine sound design and artistic themes

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Week of October 2

This week we got a chance to jam out with each of our instruments (trumpet, drums, synthesizer, piano) and continue to play with the sampling/splicing of the words we recorded last week. We talked extensively about artistic ideas, both broad concepts and performance-based practical measures. Here's what we came up with.

1st CONCEPT: playing with the sounds of everyday colloquialisms said by modern youth

“Fell through the cracks”

“The struggle is real”

“Break the Internet”

“Said no one ever”

• We get recordings of both men and women/young and old saying these
• Maybe we come on stage with a group of other millenials and have a scripted conversation in which all four colloquialisms are said. The phrases flash up on the projector in unison, then it goes black, et cetera. The conversation ends, then the three of us start jamming (precomposed? improvised?)
• We will then splice each word up in a DAW and assign each syllable to a button on a keyboard, Push, or other MIDI device. We will play with manipulation of the words and, ideally, their inherent meanings for the audience.

2nd CONCEPT: create a hoax

• Each of us is playing our respective instrument, then effects are gradually added to make the playing look more complex and sound more wild. The effects and/or tape that replicates this more “advanced” sonic result appears to be coming solely from the instruments. The effects and/or tape are then increased in volume until they take over entirely, then the player steps away from their instrument, but the sound goes on.

3nd CONCEPT: graphic score

• We are interested in creating a graphic score, with or without time/pulse. This could help define and uniquely realize our harmony, themes, and other musical ideas we decide to incorporate. We don't know where this will go. We might go anywhere from a standard musical score to a non-notated improvisation as well. 

With those in mind, here's how we're going about realizing these ideas for the following week. 

GOALS for this week:

• Clement: get recordings of a myriad of different people saying each of the four colloquialisms.
• (Joey/Clement): splice audio samples from said recordings in Ableton and/or Logic - Experiment with effects and rhythm> Is there an inherent pulse/time? Is there a groove? 
• Joey: Experiment with drumming patterns that replicate the phonic properties of the words in each colloquialism in order to “play along” with them and manipulate them as with splicing
• Jack: find new colloquialisms/words we haven’t thought of yet. Work with various instrumentation (piano and other keyboards) to achieve some of the sonic goals we talked about. Come up with ideas for harmonic structure and composition to use with Vocoder (audio samples) and the harmonic landscape of our piece/improvisation.