Phasing Out [disquiet0249] by Formant

This song was created for the Disquiet Junto #249.

More on this 249th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Wish the minimalist composer Steve Reich a happy birthday” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0249/

--

I started out by playing Happy Birthday into my MIDI keyboard. I played each section twice, so if the tune is ABCD, I played AABBCCDD. From there I messed around with the MIDI to make the tune itself unrecognizable, hoping to find something interesting.

The track has four main sections - Noise, Melody 1, Melody 2 and Melody 3.

Noise - starts out with the sound of an old light switch that I recorded a while back. I clicked it on and off a number of times, but not in tempo to anything but myself. I layered this track onto itself, first slowly and then faster, layering up to 36 instances. You can actually start to hear the background hum of the recording as it layers. Then I added a computer interference noise I recorded a few years ago. This part has 15 layers.

Melody 1 - I reversed the MIDI notes, randomized the pitch in Logic, reversed the note order again and then evened out the notes outside of the scale. This is layered 9 times in 1 bar intervals. At one point I edited each section at a different point, and then lined up each part to be in unison.

Melody 2 - This is a simple reverse order of the MIDI notes. There are 6 versions layered that enter on 1/4 beats at random times.

Melody 3 - This is an audio reverse of the tune, and then layered 6 times in one bar intervals.

The track then ends with a little bit of that noise by itself.
The instrument used throughout is the EP88 from UVI.