This song sounds like a brother or cousin to the last two, “Fog Weapon” and “Hexagram”. Most of the samples are not very noticeable, but many of the instrument sounds are pitch-shifted versions of 1-second slices of the song “Sailin’ Shoes” by Van Dyke Parks. There are also 3 or 4 electric guitars and a reading from a book called “What the Witch Left” by Ruth Chew: a young adult novel I bought at Goodwill for 75 cents.
I’m fairly sure no one cares about these details, and I hate de-mystifying the process, but this is a blog after all…I should write something about what I’m doing!
The Yamaha Tenori-on has been my primary tool for composing over the last 10 months or so, and I LOVE it, despite the limitations you read about in reviews. One sort-of frustrating limitation for lots of people is that the length of each sample can only be .998 seconds…basically a quick drum hit. I actually love this though, because the idea of a fully-composed, rich 1-second sound appeals to me. In this song, I took 1-second samples of the song “Sailing Shoes”. Each of these 1-second slices has a vocal, bass, and other notes going on. It’s like a mini-composition in itself. If I put 16 of these fully composed seconds into Tenori-on or another sampler or sequencer, they breeze by like single notes. Weird melodies and patterns start to emerge in a way that I feel like I can’t even take credit for.
I live with a magician.
