Bringing things together
I'm working on all kinds of things at the same time: designing a leaflet for the premiere, writing emails to promoters, making changes to the musical side, making changes to the visual side, and so on. The good news: it still mostly makes sense.
I just added a teaser video, shot recently in my workspace in Berlin, that gives a bit of an idea about FIRST LIGHT. You can find it on the index page. I am always a bit hesitant to share work-in-progress, since it is usually still far away from a final result — but hey, marketing! So, here we go. Hope you like it.
The last few days I was pretty knocked out by a cold and could not work on anything software-related — my brain was too foggy for that. What I could do, though, was spend time in bed with my laptop and make edits to the music.
Since we are now less than six weeks away from the premiere, I am shifting my focus away from individual pieces of music or visual sequences and instead looking at the overall flow. And in doing so, I came across a part that I really did not like anymore, especially sonically. I was tempted to remove it entirely, but I liked the laser graphics too much — there just needed to be a different sonic layer. I became mildly grumpy because it was such an obvious flaw in the composition, and I did not feel I could easily fix it. However, giving up is not an option, so I hacked together some sounds until a somewhat interesting color and rhythm appeared. But the overall mood became quite sinister and dark musically, and I was not sure that was the emotion I wanted in that segment. I tried several versions but got the impression I was running in circles. I gave up.
Now, one thing I have learned over the course of my career is that when I get stuck with something, it is a good idea to do something different and perhaps come back later. I was in a music-making mood, but I was not successful with creating that new piece. Instead, I decided to leave the computer screen and spend some time with a few older synthesizers and hardware effects.
Since some of the instruments I really enjoy are way beyond their intended lifespan, I have this ritual of turning each of them on once in a while just to verify they still work. I am happy to report that my small Synclavier II still boots and does what it is supposed to do. However, nothing came out yesterday that inspired me.
Instead, I turned on my Oberheim Xpander — certainly an instrument that is far from being my favourite. You might ask why I have it if I do not like it. The answer is a bit complex. It is a very unique instrument from 1984, a digitally controlled, almost modular analog synthesizer without a keyboard — hence the name. It was intended to be played via another keyboard or a computer. Everyone who could afford it had one in the 1980s; it was one of the must-have items for electronic and pop music production.
The Xpander and I never really became friends. I bought it used some twenty years ago for almost nothing, and I kept it because it is technically amazing — it really is an engineering masterpiece — and it looks extremely cool. The sound never really resonated with me over the years.
However, I occasionally play with it, because despite my not liking it, I somehow do like it. I guess if we were in a relationship, the status would be "it's complicated."
So I had my i-got-stuck piece of music running from my laptop, only the rhythmical parts, and I started to create a new sound from scratch inside the Xpander, just to see where it would lead me.
And it is often in those almost non-intentional moments that essential things emerge.
Suddenly I had a sound whose textural quality reminded me of a lot of music from the 1980s that I really like, and I realised that all those sounds were probably made with it back then. And in a most unlikely juxtaposition, that kind of texture turned out to be the missing element in the piece of music I had failed to finish.
In a dramatic movie, this is the moment when the genius composer writes notes in a frenzy and the symphony is done. In my case, I just enjoyed what came out, and for some reason (yeah, I am a genius!), I did press record in my DAW and captured thirty minutes of beautiful harmonic textures. And then my cold came back and I went to bed.
Only this morning did I realise that my piece is complete, and that all the elements are there now.
