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.