Ambient Generative Bliss Dm: A Spotlight on Process and Generative Music
This is a work I still regularly listen to. Not something that I do for many of my tracks once they are released, even for my Live Takes. Below, I reflect on why.
Live Takes: Ambient Generative Bliss Dm
Some really gorgeous glassy moments here. I could have kept this going for hours. I set up the Korg Minilogue XD and Wavestate to generatively create music. They have three patterns each set with a chance algorithm setup on if a note will hit, and a random pitch selection within a scale, from the Squarp Pyramid. All patterns set up with odd bar lengths to minimise any potential of ‘syncing’. I then strung a sequence together that has some of these pattern states on or off at odd lengths.
When I recorded Ambient Generative Bliss Dm, it was awesome to take a step back and let music play itself generatively, in a really enjoyable way. Most of my music that I have done algorithmically, has a certain academic sensibility. The act of the process is what drives the creation of the work. The want to explore a new compositional technique. There is an element that the output is merely a happy accident of the interest of working through the process. This piece was different. As in the description of the work, “I could have kept this going for hours”.
While I brief the process of the work in the description of the original work, explaining and exposing the reasons for this process, might help others.
This piece uses two of my regular synthesizers from the Korg family, the Wavestate and the Minilogue XD. The Wavestate has a glassy, frosted, airy timbre. The Minilogue XD has a warm, warbly, piano sound. All of the tracks have a healthy slathering of reverb from my Soundcraft mixing console. I went with 2 instruments in the end because I did not want to over-complicate the piece. It heightens the sense of loneliness the piece evokes.
There are 2 tracks set up for each instrument, with a 3 possible patterns on each track. These patterns all have different, not easily divisible bar lengths such as 2, 5, 6 and 9 bars; to minimise the chance of any potential ‘syncing’. The piece is performed by playing through a series of patterns, that have their on/off state toggled. The song mode of the Squarp Pyramid moves between these different sequences, oscillating between sparse and busier textures. There are 4 combinations of these states I use in the sequence mode. The length of time each of these track states repeat, are also similarly set to odd lengths for the same reason as mentioned before. Though, the chance of repetition, even restricted to one scale, is very low, mathematically. Even though I write generatively often, cognitively considering these elements never gets old to me.
There are many generative aspects at play here. Each of the tracks have a series of midi effects from the Squarp Pyramid. It is a powerful device that has changed my compositional workflow in many ways, since adding it to my rig. While I have custom algorithms I have written to create generative music, having simple but customisable midi effects I can easily apply to all of my synthesizers simultaneously, is very convenient.
Each of the pre-recorded notes in a pattern have a percentage chance effect that varies track-to-track, whether each of the notes will play (on a note-by-note basis). This makes some busier patterns more pliable and diverse. A little trick I do is to record really rhythmically busy/dense patterns and apply this effect to somewhere in the 40% region, so that patterns can be highly varied. When this happens to apply to beginning and end points of pre-recorded patterns, it is sometimes hard to ascertain which pattern is currently playing. Each of the tracks have a generative pitch effect that have a chance of altering the notes that are played by making their pitch higher or lower by a certain range (on a note-by-note basis). I find the best was to apply an effect like this is to long set the range 1-10% higher or lower in range, so you don’t end up with angular melodies (though that could be something fun to explore in the future). When this is applied to the longer notes, that I would have originally recorded as resolution to patterns, suddenly patterns can ‘end’ on imperfect cadences. The outcome is completely transformed patterns that homogenise and blend to form a complete bodied work, rather than a mixture of individual parts. The patterns lose identity when each note could or could not be played, and their pitch may be altered. There is a scale effect added to the tracks to keep all notes in the D minor scale. This was chosen to make sure everything fits together. Dissonance was not something I wished to explore in this piece. Always good to leave something for next time.
The only parts that are not generative are the rhythms; lengths and placements of notes within a bar. This is just to have some sense of consistency to the work. I wanted to invoke a particular feeling, with the texture and space. I wanted to have recorded patterns that create a particular individuality. There have been times where both of these elements have been altered in the past, to varying success.
At some points, the movement between extremely high pitched notes and lower to mid frequencies help balance and ground the track. The amount of space in this track creates a sometimes uneasy feeling. But, it mostly creates a platform for the reverb soaked notes to ring out and take up the empty room. Texture is usually one of my foremost compositional thoughts. This work nails the vision of the artist, even when it is generative. The longer tones in the middle register create a chord like structure, which was an interesting side effect. The lack of drums and rhythmic elements invoke the feeling of unstructured thought. A memory pulls in from no-where of a time spent in a misty forest, and my reflections of that time.
I love composing in D minor. There is a hopeful sadness to it. You will see it regularly in my Live Takes. These timbres are revitalised interpretations of iconic ambient pieces such as those found on Brian Eno’s Music for Airports. I wanted the work to be echoic of these ideas, but I also wanted to play with the reverb and space more. The harshness of the pitch in some parts presents a more extreme addition to the generative/ambient catalogs of my predecessors. The video highlights the space in the work by having the interactive spirals move to the tones. I chose not to be present in the recording, not just to show it is generative, but to draw more attention to the compositional process, and present less focus on me as an artist. In works like these, my role as a composer changes to one of a curator of an experience. I create boundaries and guidelines for the work to generate. Many composers are still fearful of this, but I embrace it.
The length of the recording for the sake of the output is about right where I want it. But, as previously said, this work is something I can listen to for hours. The track exemplifies what my Live Takes collection is about. Creating. Experimenting. Cataloguing.
