Right after Veterans Day in Redding we can expect a frost. Not yet, so far, but soon.
The musical excerpt Lithium is from Craig and my CD Planetary Elements Vol 2, released on the Space for Music label. It was recorded live at the Schreder Planetarium on Magnolia Street in Redding around 2004. Here’s the story of the music. We played as a duo under the dome, while Brian Grigsby ran the planetarium visuals. It seats 64 people. We’d played there before but this time we decided to play improvisationally. We planned to play floaty synthesizer textures and ambient soundscapes. We deliberately didn’t play much beforehand, except to setup, so we wouldn’t know what each other was going to play. Here’s the kicker: playing in the planetarium is done in total darkness. We even had to cover the the LED displays on the synthesizers so their dim light wouldn’t bleed onto the dome. So here we were as usual, playing improvised music in total darkness.
About 10 minutes in, I started up a sequence texture that had a mildly rhythmic bass drum in 4/4 time. I figured Craig wasn’t going to like it much actually, so I thought I’d fade it up and then back down. To my surprise, Craig launches into a full-on lead synth line over the texture. Now, it’s going somewhere. At some point based on Craig’s stellar lead, I transpose the sequence, and follow along.
I guess the piece stands on it’s own, and would be otherwise unremarkable beyond that, except to us. Both of us were thinking, where the hell did that come from? It sounds planned. It wasn’t.
One of those weird moments you get after playing music with somebody of like mind for a decade or so. In the dark. It still weirds me out to hear it. Where does music come from?
Photos by Skip on Northpoint in Redding, Fall 2008
Emotional election night
I suspect there were few dry eyes in America last night. I know mine weren’t. We saw history, some of it ending, and some just beginning. I’ll leave the political commentary to the other bloggers, however. If you are near my age, you have seen many changes in the way we consider race in the U.S. Sometimes the changes are slow to come, and sometimes they arrive in an instant. Last night that paradigm shift moment arrived via TV for me, with Charlie Gibson stating “We are ready to predict the winner….” The winner was all of us.
I enjoyed the Onion’s take on things. Click HERE. Warning, link contains ironic humor.
The music in the player is by Craig Padilla. It’s an excerpt from the song titled Vast Emotions. It’s one of my favorites from the 1996 CD Eye of the Storm. My emotions were vast indeed. The music reminds me that Obama has big job ahead. Let’s all wish him luck, because we’ll all need it.
A News Cafe Birthday party
We attended last night’s one-year Birthday Party for Food for Thought / A News Cafe. It was a blast. Lots of people I hadn’t seen in quite a while, and very well attended considering the rainy weather.
I did one of those “stick out your arm with the digicam and take us both” shots here with hostess with the mostest Doni Greenberg. Big fun!
Write-in candidate for City Council, Philbert Fountain performs his magic with a Sharpie.
The Jim Dyar band was really perfect for the gig. I was happy to see Marvin Allen there, on the left. He’s one of my very favorite Redding musicians. Truly a talent. I wish I could have spent more time just enjoying the band, but good food from Andrea of the Bakers Love blog, and lively conversation filled the room. I also wished I had brought a better camera.
A really fun moment for the night was meeting Craig and Erin Friedman of the Still Married band and blog, and realizing Craig and I knew one another from way back when. I’d been to their blog, but didn’t recognize him. Also I didn’t realize until the party that I knew Ann from Infinite Designs from years ago. It’s a small world. A world with excellent birthday parties, too.
Beyond the Portal artwork arrives
We received preliminary cover art for our new CD collaboration project on the Lotuspike label “Beyond the Portal“. I think it looks pretty fabulous. Very exciting! I can’t wait to have the production CD in hand. I have to share this artwork with you.
<
This is the follow up release to the earlier Path of Least Resistance by Craig Padilla and Zero Ohms. Here are 3 short snips from that project:
Craig and Zero were kind enough to invite me to participate on this next project, whose artwork you see here, due out soon. Stay tuned!
New music widget
I found a new music widget, and thought I’d try it out. This is an unfinished pieced titled Cloud Study, I’ve been working on, and now posted on SoundCloud. Worth a listen perhaps while looking at old photos of Shasta County at the Shasta Historical Society’s website. They have hundreds of interesting old photos online, and you can lose a few hours just looking around there. It’s so great they keep these available. Anyway I hope you enjoy the music. This ambient piece veers into trancey electronica.
Old photos of our town remind us we have seen economic cycles come and go.
Photos used courtesy of Shasta Historical Society. Please consider joining us.
Makeover
My blog gets a much needed makeover today. I’ve posted a Craig Padilla synth pop classic from 1996, The Gift, for your listening pleasure while you look over the new format. I hope you like it.
Geese waterski on the Sacramento River in Redding, Fall of 2008, photo by Skip
5000 views and counting
Since I’ve been posting my music, I thought I’d check on Craig’s YouTube channel to see how our music video was doing. We’ve had more than 5000 views as of today. There are several positive comments, which is rather like getting worldwide applause in slow motion. This was a live-in-the-studio performance of Stellar Nursery, and the music we recorded here ended up on our most recent CD, Analog Destination, released on the Groove Unlimited (Netherlands) label in May 2008. We split the video onto 4 parts to fit YouTube’s format better, and here is the first part:
If you click on the video directly, you can get to the other 3 parts of this song, and see some other Craig Padilla videos.
Clemency
This musical fragment is tentatively titled Clemency. I grant you clemency herewith, and hope that you offer me the same, because I may need it someday. As may we all. Let’s keep this word handy in our lexicon. Mercy can sometimes be in short supply.
This musical sketch by Craig and me goes on for a little more than 13 minutes, in longwinded contrast to yesterday’s synth-pop piece. It’s not exactly ambient, but not melodic either. It floats somewhere in-between, and remains thus unfinished. Some of it “works” (in musical terms) for me, and some less so. It requires a bit more listening to see what we can learn and perhaps adjust. Or perhaps put it back in it’s box, out of sight and out of mind. If this sketch doesn’t “work” for you, I beseech your clemency. And offer mine. It is what it is. We were just looking for a spark of some sort.
You and I have been on a bit of a musical journey this week. I like the little Ovi music player widget very much. As I wrote on my music page, all work and no play makes us dull. So the old saying goes. Work and life are inextricably tied together when you do real estate for a living, and you can’t really separate your work from the rest of your life most of the time. That’s OK. But late at night, when at the controls of a musical instrument, I sometimes feel as though I’m not at work. As mentioned when I started posting music sketches earlier this week, your mileage may vary.
/>
Cosmos sulphureus (Yellow Cosmos) appropriately near Sulphur Creek -photo by Skip
Red Bluff synth-pop by Craig Padilla
Click on the play button to listen while you read. If you don’t see the Player, you may need to refresh the browser page. This piece was recorded live at the State Theater in Red Bluff a few years back, and is titled Trance Formation. The event was a fund raiser for the State Theater, which is hoping to undergo a renovation similar to the Cascade in Redding. It’s a fine old building, deeper, and I think larger than the Cascade. I helped with the stage setup, and my friend Craig Padilla performed solo. The performance was augmented by lighting services donated by Morpheus Lights of Redding. Those folks do many of the big-name stage shows, so the lights were simply amazing. The show was well attended, and the Red Bluffian crowd enthusiastic, as you can just hear toward the end of the recording. I think you’ll find the music to be very catchy. Enjoy! 
Backyard double petunia by Skip. Not the flower, the photo.
Ambient music piece
Ambient music, as defined by me, is music that sets a mood of some sort, and is interesting, but not so interesting as to be distracting or serve as a central focus of concentration. It’s good background music for mental activities or other such abstract endeavors. I like to think of it as music that you’re very likely to hear whilst you’re shopping in your favourite retail store. It’s not too heavy or distracting, it just provides a calming and relaxing experience and that’s definitely what you need when you’re shopping. In my opinion anyway. I think you can also refer to it as muzak – a type of soothing music that can be played in many places or buildings. This type of music is beneficial when you have a task to be getting on with and you don’t want to get too distracted.
Does any of that make sense? Well, like most art music, you know it if you hear it, and writing about it won’t help you get it. This 8 minute piece “Lunaria” mostly works for me on that level, but stands unfinished. Maybe I’ll finish it now. Maybe not.
If you are interested in hearing more music of similar nature, you can check out my fellow musician and friend Darrell (aka. Palancar) Burgan’s online “radio station” Stillstream. Some of what you hear on Stillstream falls outside the true ambient definition, but that keeps it interesting. Stillstream is a zero-revenue enterprise. Artists contribute their music, and there are no ads. Worth a listen. You might find you like it, and if so you should tell a friend. You probably won’t hear much of this genre anywhere else.
Firecrew at the Sundial Bridge, photo by Mary A. Thanks!