Ceven’s Blog

Explaining work makes me uncomfortable. To give away details so literally is an injustice. This comes from the opinion that art (or what is considered to be art) is something that one can only consider as such at least fifty years after it has been made. By then it stands truly on its own. Maybe the artist is dead, maybe the movement it belongs to is dead or maybe it is just a piece that survived to be taken at face value. No matter what, to name something as “art” and to explain it immediately after completion seems like a moot argument. For this reason I detest the time spent justifying what is meant with “this” or “that” and it leads to some very colourful discussions about how videos and music are here (and elsewhere) presented. I do not envy maurus for trying to get past my stubbornness as I am not easy!

It is interesting to watch which projects are successful and which aren’t after being sent out into the world. I cannot predict either way. As a matter of fact, were it known to which extent CM7 would become loved in the world, I would have  genetically changed one or two things. Perhaps that is what keeps it pure. I see an imperfect video and hear an imperfect song every time, but it makes no difference – people respond to the graceful simplicity. The lesson was that if it’s made with love it doesn’t need to be anything more than what it is. Despite imperfections, I am very happy with it.

Other times I have problem children, like Earliest Simple. The song is fine, actually quite well made for the time it was written. The video, however was a fight from start to finish. I actually quit and went back to the beginning after getting through a third of original concept. It’s not a bad video, but lacks the kind of soul I was seeking. The result looks like something a bit rushed through. I lost my patience with it. If there was ever a project to teach patience it was this one. Wesen was a much more successful evolution of Earliest Simple and took an extraordinary amount of patience.

The last video released, You Work It is something I feel must be explained. Perhaps on this level it has failed. Out of all the others I’m going to address this one? Well yes actually, I’ve received enough response to know where it does and does not fail and nevertheless feel somehow positive:

The first thing to notice is that it is largely vocal, meaning the music itself is mainly beatboxing. The inspiration comes from the album Volta from Björk. She made it mainly with vocal sounds, brass and some synthetic drum processing. I really love it and wanted to do a song in the same way. Together with Miriam Siebenstädt, we made a bunch of beatboxing rhythms at the Geräuschkulisse and then went back to my studio and arranged them. At this time I was feeling sardonic towards pop music and wanted to make fun in a way that was well-constructed. The text was improvised and meant to be as obnoxious as possible. Luckily my voice went to an interesting place with no trouble that evening! It ended in a ritualistic type of chanting sequence because I thought it was a funny way to end a song, in an attempt to capture the stylistic openness of modern pop music when it seeks attention.

At first I had a different idea of where to go and asked a couple friends to supply a funk guitar riff or two. I tried to put them in but it wouldn’t accept anything beyond the basic organ which I wrote on the fly. After a few attempts I came to realize that it was best to keep things simple. A couple months passed and the song sat on a shelf alone. When it came time to make the spring Equinox show I decided to use it. Even then I was unsure if the right idea would get by, but in the end liked how it worked. This song is about me putting myself on the line doing something outside the comfort zone of experimental music.

The point of the video was to bring out the song’s pop nature. Using a disembodied head against video feedback was a throw back to the early 80’s music video making. The message is as absurd as a Lady Gaga. It means orchestrated nothing. It was meant to be a satire, but I think something went wrong. Maybe the joke was too personal. The upcoming Rote is another change of direction, we’ll see how that goes.

Here I worked in the key signature of Gm blending 3 instruments. The first and most clear is the organ that carries the piece. The second is a highly processed and resampled Hammond Organ loop that I made from using the same three chord variations as the organ and then laid it on top of the main loop partly through the song. The third is a combination of a Saw 32 Oscilation mixed with 3 sine waves and saturated to create a bass synthsizer sound. The attempt here was to play with the combinations of Gm, Adim, and Bb (sometimes simultaneously by separating the notes of the chords in between the three instruments and then adding effects like wah, delay, and flange.

Here I went back to using a 4/4 time at Allegro (120 bpm). Again there are no guarentees about the equalization, sorry.

Taking what I got out of using 3 chords in the last experiment, I decided to start mixing chords within the same key signature, this time in E Major. For this experiment I began with a simple loop derived from the chord of E and then expanded to G#m and then worked toward B to jump in between D# and F# on one part while playing A on another to see about creating brightness.

The time signature is 2/4 at Allegro (130). The instruments are piano, bass, hi-hat on delay with flange, kick drum, lo and mid toms. I did not equalize and therefore apologize for any excessive brightness.

The following sound piece is an experiment not associated with nevec red. I am attempting to learn chords and harmonics for future music pieces. This one is an Experiment with harmony in D Major between 3 instruments: piano, sine wave, and bass. It is based from three chords: D, Em, and F#m.

It is notable that it is the first piece I’ve ever written in 6/8 time. At some point I deviated from the chord template because it felt a touch monotonous, but also made my guess based on how the overall tone of the piece felt. Please note that I did this all with a very cheap pair of walk-man headphones so it’s probably that the equalization is off.