a granular mass - part six: cinemas of memory

**Free to download here or at http://nofi.bandcamp.com/ .**

TRACK NOTES

shakers, flowing, stream, bells, chimes, spilling, gradual, chattering, ringing, swell, plateau, memory, machinery, bubbling, evanesce (pass out of sight, memory, or existence), summoning, appearance, quivering, anticipation, nostalgia, forgetting, poised, perched, wistful, reminiscence, guitar, scattering, wind, fluttering, cinematic, summery, bright, afternoon, seasons, clouds, gentle wind, breeze, clattering, slide, throbbing, shifting, engine, muffled, wavering, hovering

SERIES OVERVIEW

A granular mass is a series of deep ambient, extended freeform compositions, created using granular and pulsar synthesis, personal field recordings and processed found sounds, electronic noise and drone generators.

For these pieces, I wanted to explore the deep range of tone colors, non-linear rhythms and densely layered sounds from mixing organic and synthetic sounds. The dynamics range from minimal and simplified to thick walls of sound.

Rather than position this series as a musical journey through imaginary landscapes, or a soundtrack in search of a film, I prefer to think of it as a collection of short stories. Each part can convey its own subjective narrative through a combination of textures, transitions, lulls, bursts, rises and swells. Together, they document a range of experiential imagery and moods.

AVAILABILITY

WIth a total running length of just under two and a half hours, the series is divided into six parts, to be released a month apart from January to June, 2012. Each section will be a free download for one full month until the next release, after which it will have a small fee to download.

The intention is to allow time for the audience to experience and consider each part in its own space. In our current landscape of unending digital downloads and accelerated media consumption, experiencing smaller doses may be more manageable than feeling overwhelmed by the scale of things.

In June, 2012, the complete album will be available as a digital download for a minimal fee.

All parts were composed, recorded and produced by Jeffrey Melton, 2011–2012 and are released under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Creative Commons license.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Sound sources include: electric guitar; piano; flute, bowed and plucked string instruments; shakers, rattles and toy instruments; vinyl and cassette recordings; field recordings made in Indiana and Upper Peninsula Michigan; granular and pulsar synthesis, electronic noise and drone generators.

Instruments used: Density 2, Pulsaret 2 and Reaktor 5.5; Paul Stretch OS X; an iPhone 4 using Fire 2 and iTalk. Arrangement, audio effects, and mixing was done with Ableton 8 Suite. Mastering was done with Amadeus Pro and Ozone 5.