frey

[title] is an exploration of changes in chords, and of pedal points, in particular pieces of popular music. Conceived as an improvisatory piece to be performed live, it relies on the performer's sensitivity to the development and release of the tension of conventional western classical harmony and the passing of time.

Music is fed into a series of PureData patches, best described as a live-sampling Mellotron-like instrument, manipulated in real time by the performer through a MIDI keyboard. The instrument separates out the music in time based on its underlying harmonic content, and maps sets of harmonically similar samples to separate keys on the MIDI keyboard. This process happens continuously and in real time, based on the guidance of the performer.

To generate sound the performer plays back the samples under each key on the MIDI keyboard in a way as to reconstruct the source harmonies or to find new sets of harmonic relationships. The performer has specific control over many parameters of the playback system, so that from a single sample a large range of sounds is possible.

The success or failure of the performance then depends on the performer's abilities as a musician to perform the complete instrument, and to improvise an engaging composition for an audience. Since the process of live-sampling is somewhat indeterminate, the musician is required to listen very closely to what sounds are being produced, to identify potential points of musical departure within the sound stream, and be able to focus in on these points and explore them, taking themselves and the audience through the minutiae of what is ultimately just short fragments of already recorded music, crafting a unique musical journey for each performance.

A bit of techno in 5/4 written on old-school equipment in Bob Higher Intelligence Agency's studio in Birmingham. Thanks Bob, you're the best.

Interesting Fact: the kick drum is pushed so far behind the beat that it's a wonder the rhythm holds together at all. This is what gives this track that nice slightly lazy feeling.

This is the audio from a performance called A Cable Plays by Damian Stewart (frey, audio) and Chris Sugrue (video) at Ars Electronica 2007, part of Welcome to the City of the Real.

The performance was an interpretation of a game played between two on-stage performers using a pin-board and a ball of wool. Video tracking software followed the development of the game in real-time, and effects related to the progress of the game were overlaid on the video image, for projection. The audio in this recording was performed live to accompany the video. The whole performance lasted for about 7 minutes.

An electroacoustic piece I'm entering into the International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Competitions of Bourges. Call it 'contemporary classical' or 'art' music if you like.

The construction of this was heavily influenced by my realisations about good 'popular' electronic music, namely that a lot of the work being done in beat-based electronic music has to do with the transitions between bars, and hiding the digitalness of the pattern-based sequencing methods so often used by electronic musicians.

In beatless electronic music such as this the task then becomes to gather and release tension -- rhythmic, harmonic, textural -- in as subtle a manner as possible, in order to bring a collection of related noises together into a cohesive whole that maintains the listeners' attention.

Feedback is good.

Nice piece of folktronica. Features a giant bassline, tiny little percussiony bits, wavery synths and my friend Sam Prebble from on violin.

Almost the first Frey release ever: it's from December 2003 which makes it vintage as. First played on The Session, Radioactive 89fm.

Crazy listening back to it now. I almost feel like I've forgotten how to make music this simple. Have to strip back the layers next track I think, get more minimal on it.

Fairly intricate techno built up mainly from the sounds of a pair of earpiece-style headphones clattering across a keyboard, hence the title.

Mostly non-melodic, but check the second half where I build a big melodic riff off a single unpitched sample of two bits of metal striking together! Awesome.

Completed December 2003 so an oldy but a goody.

Rolling techno in 3/4. Has a kind of clicky bassdrum/kick thing going on which I quite like. Ends in a big giant puddle of beautiful feedbacky mess.

Built mainly from samples of people talking in an echoy room, although the bass line is a squeaky fence from the Catchpool Found Sound Project cd, slowed right down.

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You know how everyone moans that the biggest problem with techno is its 'monotonous' 4/4 beat? Well, here's some techno in 7/4.

The guitar and other noises at the end are from a gig my band the Laptop Rhythm Pioneers played at Happy, Wellington, as part of Bomb the Space 2005.

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Melodic trance-like Steve Reich-inspired thing.

Melodic because there's lots of arpeggiated notes making lots of harmonies. Steve Reich-inspired because the arpeggios aren't in phase with the beat, so the chords and harmonies shift over time. Trance-like because the production is lush and the chords are simple.

This one makes quite heavy use of feedback, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately. Edited down from a much longer live jam I did a week or two ago. Patience told me it was 'really nice'. I composed it in his living room :-)