Music

Ever since I can remember I’ve been playing around with sound. Since about 1996 or so I’ve had a fairly capable (and slowly improving) composing and recording setup. It started with a MIDI sequencer, a few synths and a 4-track recorder, grew to a large mixing board with a rack of outboard gear and pieced-together computers. And thankfully now it’s shrunk back down to a small digital mixer, a Macbook and a Firewire audio interface. The only piece of gear that has been in constant use since I started composing is my Juno-2 synthesizer, which I still use both as a keyboard and a synth.

Below are some pieces I’ve written over the years. They were all written and recorded by myself. I play/sequence/sing all the parts.

  • Victim – 2007 – A dramatic song about a terrible event that has happened to someone. The guitar plays the victim and the singer plays the person consoling the victim.
  • Get On With It – 2007 – An electronic pop song.
  • Before the Light – 2006 – All sounds in this piece are generated with software using Reason, and the vocals are recorded and mixed with Logic. (my first piece made with a Mac and no hardware synthesizers)
  • Can’t Have You – 2004 – Experimenting with beats and vocals in a song.
  • Like Painting – 2003 – A musical-theatre styled piece.
  • Still Here – 2003 – A musical-theatre styled piece.
  • Into the Blue – 2003 – Experimenting with very slow moving melodies and large intervals.
  • Short Delay – 2003 – When I’m goofing around I sometimes record just in case something neat happens. This is one of those out-takes singing the praises of digital effects. The ending is funny though.
  • Good Morning – 2003 – A short tune processed through a cell phone connection to sound like an answering machine message. A sweet lullaby.
  • Hold Yourself Tight – 2002 – A lullaby written for a girl.
  • Intro to Act II – 2001 – Music from the world-premiere of “The Phoenix Lottery” play by Allan Stratton
  • Ending – 2001 – Music from the world-premiere of “The Phoenix Lottery” play by Allan Stratton
  • Dance – 2001 – Music from the world-premiere of “The Phoenix Lottery” play by Allan Stratton
  • Innocence – 2000 – A collaborative piece. Music was composed around poetry readings from a friend on IRC.
  • Amaranthine – 2000 – An electronic music composition performed live at the University of Western Ontario.
  • Tectoria – 2000 – An electronic music composition performed live at the University of Western Ontario.
  • Csound – 1999 – An experiment playing live using the csound software synthesis program. Rather rough, but some of the sounds are quite interesting.
  • Phosphorus – 1999 – A piece written for laser harp, violin-triggering-synthesizer, and electronic wind instrument. Performed live at the University of Western Ontario. This is the studio demo track.
  • EME Sweepy – 1998 – Written as part of an electronic music demonstration. This is the track only, intended to accompany a solo electric violin.
  • I Washed My Dishes – 1998 – An experiment in new age music. Note the city sounds replace the typical waves and sea sounds on most relaxation records.
  • Morning Paper v2 – 1998 – A bright, airy piece written for synthesized flute and percussive bass.
  • Foggy Windscreen – 1998 – An experiment with drum loops.
  • Monolog – 1998 – Text prepared by Jamie Zawinski’s “Dada-doodoo” program.
  • Oh Yeah – 1997 – A very early (cheesy) groove which shall never be emulated again.
  • Whimah – 1996 – Written for a high school drama presentation.
  • Hummm – 1996 – Written for a high school drama presentation.