An emotional week, with my son becoming a teenager.

As the fields around here are bursting with their harvest, I am even more aware of the speed with which time is passing. Another Summer is fading as Autumn closes in.

I felt the need to create and share a little piece that shows both my joy and my lament.

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Harvest.mp3
Harvest 96kbps.mp3

I was recently introduced via @greenwoods to ‘Sleeps with the Fishes‘ a 1987 collaboration between Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook. I’m immensly grateful to her for enlightening me. If you love ambient, this is a must have album.

One track in particular I love is Several Times II, but at just over two minutes, its beauty is all too short for me. To help me sleep last night, I stretched and layered it with a little bit of additional reverb into an 11 minute aid to allow you to drift gently off. Here is the result of that.

Only available as a stream for copyright reasons. That said, there is every chance I might be asked to remove it. I sincerely hope not.

I implore you to track the album down and buy it.

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Here is the twenty fifth and the last of my regular zipped compilations for a while.

It’s time for me to try and spend a little more time and effort trying to make something a lot more rewarding for both my ears and hopefully yours.

I am extremely grateful for all the support that you have shown me and please don’t imagine that this blog is dead… far from it. I intend to document and share ideas as I create my next project. Having you along for the journey would be terrific. :)

There are two zip files, one for lower bitrate MP3s and the other for the rather better 320kbps files.

All of the tracks here are free for you to download and distribute.

241 to 250 – 96kbps – zip file (40Mb)
241 to 250 – 320kbps – zip file (130Mb)

This is my second piece created using some of the ambient sounds captured at the 2010 Solstice at Stonehenge.

The overall sound, aside from the piano, comes from a few distant crowd shouts/cheers and some acoustic guitar captures that have been heavily stretched, layered and effected.

This, for me, represents the atmosphere that only a few people seemed to take in, that the setting of the sun, that evening, was as important as its rise on the 21st.

I hope you like it?

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As the Sun sets.mp3
As the Sun sets 96kbps.mp3

I made this dark and brooding piece in the early hours. It’s made from just a few samples of me playing with a glass of red wine. Using my hands to make it sing, I then manipulated it in Ableton Live, using only its internal effects. To experience the intended result, this track needs headphones and a dark silent space in which you can relax undisturbed.

As I let my mind drift, I started to hear additional frequencies, fleeting voices, but I couldn’t be sure if they were real or imagined. I hope you get something from it? It won’t be for everyone.

I’ve also made a stretch version of this, but at 120 mins in length, I’ve yet to decide if I’ll post it.

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Crimson.mp3
Crimson 96kbps.mp3

After a stressful work day yesterday, I found it hard to focus when noodling last night.

The night was quiet and the air, static. I decided to try and make something new from old.
I took one of my pieces from just over a year ago and experimented with some of Ableton’s effects and tools to create a melodic drone-like piece.

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Static.mp3
Static 96kbps.mp3

Today has been one of those days where things, if they could go wrong, have gone wrong. It’s not a doomed day just yet, but it sounds a little like this to me right now.

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Retrograde.mp3
Retrograde 96kbps.mp3

A piece for someone who needed it this evening. They know who they are. I hope it soothes and helps them to sleep.

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The Nature of Things.mp3
The Nature of Things 96kbps.mp3

I’ve been busy working on a few small pieces for a DVD documentary (my first!) and this track evolved. It didn’t seem right for that project, but I like it, so I’m sharing it with you instead.

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Echoic.mp3
Echoic 96kbps.mp3

Here is the twenty second zip file containing the latest ten tracks posted.

There are two zip files, one for lower bitrate MP3s and the other for the rather better 320kbps files.

All of the tracks here are free for you to download and distribute.

As ever, thank you for listening.

211 to 220 – 96kbps – zip file (25Mb)
211 to 220 – 320kbps – zip file (66Mb)