Spent some time on stage and up in the hills with Lissa Hanner, performed some of the tunes of Mother's Fault. Finished some guitar for the MVS project and got some of the SMG polished as well. Back in Wisconsin soon...
Quite pleased to have finished the People of the Sturgeon audiobook project, and the publisher is very excited about it. Expect a release in the fall of 2012. Meanwhile, I'm about two-thirds through with the reworking of the SMG album, and am slowly working on the songs for the collaboration with Michael Ver Steegt. Taking some time in Colorado to get caught up and try out some different DAW approaches as I'm fed up with Pro Tools...
Hmmm... I find myself mixing audio sometimes 12 hours a day right now, and still can't find time to finish my own albums! The downside of producing for a living but it's something I can handle for now... I have made some progress with the next album, and I'm thinking of some novel and arty way to release it. I did get the King Crimson re-release of Discipline which has a DVD of 24-96 mixes and a rough mix by Rhett Davies as well. Perhaps I'll do something in this manner.
I'll take suggestions as well...
I have found that several tracks off my last few albums make unusual and pleasing ringtones. You can make them yourself for iPhones in Garage Band - just drag a track off the CD you purchased (!) into Garage Band's ringtone template and then export them into iTunes. I like to make them for the maximum 40 seconds, and it sure beats Crickets. Some of my favorites:
Intake, Quantum Entanglement, Miskatonic, Amarna, Stabat Mater (off SMG)
I'm still fussing with some SMG material but the delays are all work-related. I have 1000 things to produce and no clones to help me...
OK - Did an intensive sound analysis workshop at Cornell and contributed my first scientific recording to the Macauley Library. I will now be happily getting back to finishing the small issues I had with the Shining release and try to get that out before Christmas (why does everything take so long?)
As a celebration and a reward to my patient fans, for a short time I am adding a free download of a brand new piece by Debussy, performed by Emily Blessing and myself, that will be featured on the upcoming album, Deep. It was recorded this August at Morphy Hall at UW-Madison. Let me know how you like it!
Apologize for the lack of activity, but the demands of my acoustic ecology study consumed this past month. Happily I passed my exams at the Nelson Institute with flying colors, and to celebrate this I will be posting a free high quality download of one of my assignments tomorrow. Stay tuned!
A few things accomplished! The Graminy project went very well - the musicians played superbly, the music came out well, and it fits wonderfully with the People of the Sturgeon audiobook. That project is coming along slowly but surely, and the word back from the publishers on the initial chapters is: "Fabulous!"
Got the master of Shining back from Jim Wilson, who I was able to spend some time with out in Colorado last month. He did the usual swell job, but I have a few more things I'll need to touch up before it goes out... sigh...
I have the qualifying exams for my doctorate going on right now - a lot of writing but also some recording! I'll give more details after the 18th.
Hope you're having a great summer!
Quite good article has come out in the Spring 2011 issue of the Nelson's Institute's InCommon magazine. Here's the first page:
You can get the whole pdf at this link (the article is on pgs. 22-25):
http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/community/in-common.php
Also producing a recording for Graminy as well as going full bore on a major audiobook project. Very busy!
Finished up the Debussy run with Emily - good fun! Working on MVS material, and will be producing a group from Madison called Graminy next month as well. Looks like Jim Wilson will be mastering the next release once again, the long-threatened Shining Mountains collection will finally get a proper presentation.
Oh, and I bought a new bass for the MVS pieces!
Emily will be joining me at the Discovery Center show on Wednesday - the Debussy set is quite laid-back - and Friday's show has been definitely moved to Der Rathskeller. We will be performing right at 5 PM, not 7 PM as I have heard has been published in the Isthmus...
Using the new guitars and having a lot of fun!
March has been very full of rehearsing Debussy for the Earth Day concert, as well as sending off the master mixes of Deep to Jim Wilson. Turns out there's a snafu regarding some of the samples from Vital Sounds used for the long oceanic piece, though. Plans for releases are on hold till I get out to SF in April. I'll confer with my old producing compadre Paul Vazquez on how to proceed. He already suggested a great order and choice of material for the Shining Mountain collection - which I still have to put out as well. Then again the new material (MVS and the concert stuff I'm working up with Emily) is sounding very good and my hand is pretty much back to a good playing standard, so there's definitely some choices to be made.
But those are good problems! If you look at the 'Buy' section you'll find that you can now use Paypal to buy CDs directly from the artist! (Paypal is still a middleman but they take out far less than anyone else). If you wish your music dollars to support future music creation, this is definitely the preferred and safe method!
Also United has added 'The Hidden Face of Eva' to their inflight music so listen for Catalin and I when you're in the air!
is making things very pleasant for working up the Earth Day Concert material!
Wrapping an audio version of the mercury podcast for WRI; an audiobook for the Wisconsin Historical Society coming up; did a bunch of material with Michael Ver Steegt first week of Jan.; re-touching final mixes of "Deep" for mastering; looking forward to some more time to devote to developing some radio pieces for WPR (I had a brutal course load last semester but I did OK).
Going through some personal upheavals but the only way out is through...
Had a fun interview with Tom Sinclair from In Common magazine - a capital fellow! I'll post a free mp3 from my Christmas album for the holidays; I have a whole album of the m on iTunes.
Best for your holidays!
Chris
working through final tracking for the next solo album - recorded some double bass played by the amazingly talented Ben Willis this afternoon. Jim Wilson will do the mastering - going to San Francisco to work out art ideas with John Hundt this weekend!
I hear this question a lot - here's a great explanation:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specialreports/2009/07/090703_sos_qawwithjohndrever.shtml
Did an unusual gig with some authors (including Curt Meine) for the Wisconsin Book Festival here in Madison. Also have another podcast up on the UW iTunes University site in the Environment section:
itms://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/wisc-public.3682417962.03682417969
If you missed it on air, you can find it online here:
http://www.wpr.org/news/WisconsinLife.cfm
Also look in the music section for a free mp3 of some Baroque music.
Had a great hour-long chat with this renowned nature sound recordist on Friday! Going in to WPR to do some voice work on Monday (yay!) and trying to solve a vexing computer noise question (not yay!). Bus-s-s-s-y...
A big subject but that's where my Ph.D. research is heading! More coursework this fall at UW-Madison though...
Turns out "New Tomorrows" was used in a promo for the CW's hit show this spring:
http://www.youtube.com/user/foxseriesfan1#p/u/35/FVbNmghkU0c
Short but sweet!
I have put an mp3 rough mix of a cool new track from the MVS project up in the music section. Matt Covert plays some deadly horn on this one!
Working on podcasts and the next environmentally-themed album this month - lots to do!
I'm happy to report that some of the music from Airlock has been licensed to various companies this year, so expect to hear it in some unusual places! I actually took a class in North American geography this month, but I'll be spending more time finishing a new solo CD which will reflect some of the environmental influences of my current studies... I'll keep the blog updated!
The nationally-syndicated show To the Best of Our Knowledge used "The Dry Lake" as background on this episode. It's about the resurging interest in psychedelic experience - very interesting, with actual interview audio with Aldous Huxley!