Birdsong
On a trip to visit my son recently I spotted a number of birds sitting on what I think were power cables strung across the highway. (Perhaps they were looking out for wildfires.)
I was immediately reminded of a musical stave, with the resting birds as notes. So I played them. Here’s what they sound like (as ⅛ ♪).
It was a bit of a challenge determining where a “note” fell in the photo, but my rule was if any of the bird visibly descended below a wire it counted as being a note bisected by the line. If not, it was a note between lines. I didn’t put bar lines in or really attempt slurs or much beyond quantization and legato.
I’m not the first to do this. Brazilian musician Jarbas Agnelli beat me to the idea in 2009.
There’s nothing natural or inherent about modern staff notation of course — or of any of the many alternate ways of transcribing music. But the relationship between tones is mathematical and thus spatial arrangement takes on mathematical meaning when music becomings symbolic. Great composers design this spatial arrangement like master architects. Many can write music ex nihilo without first playing it, creating music purely as ink blots on and between lines.
Why are those birds grouped the way they are? Is it completely arbitrary? Are the two birds at far left engaged in something? Is the one at far right outcast? Why do the numbers of birds decrease as the wires get lower? I have no idea, but I do think there is meaning in their arrangement.
The recording above is sonorous, at least, if not exactly catchy. I derive no avian insight from their placement in sonified form. Maybe there’s order there, mathematical or even natural.
I’m going to keep listening.
Giftmix 2014
Some select tunes that I enjoyed this year. I hope you do too. Happy holidays and a healthy, prosperous new year to everyone.
Tolva Giftmix 2014 by Immerito on Mixcloud
Hawkmoth – Plaid
Awake – Tycho
minipops 67 [120.2] [source field mix] – Aphex Twin
I Take Comfort In Your Ignorance – Ulrich Schnauss
Quincy – Deep Dish
Pole Position (Gran Prix Version) – Der Dritte Raum
Higher Ground – TNGHT
Canis – Theorem & Sutekh
Mimas – X-102
101 rainbows ambient mix g1 – Caustic Window
Full stream at Mixcloud, above. File for download here (114MB). Previous mixes here.
Giftmix 2013 (Holiday Edition)
As 2013 winds down it is time for the annual reliving-making-cassette-mixes-for-friends moment. It’s really for me. I’m unwilling to give up on that visceral joy of stitching tunes together as a gift. However, this year, instead of mashing up music that my family enjoyed during the preceding year I’m giving in to listener feedback and actually posting holiday music.
This particular half hour comes from a fun evening of back-and-forth joint DJ’ing the OpenGovChicago Holiday Party on Dec. 12 with DJ C, aka Jake Trussell. Jake’s set is not online, but his warmup is.
Holiday Tunes Past, Future and Which Should Never Have Been by Immerito on Mixcloud
Very best to you in 2014!
Lost in Space, Ascent Stage edition
Got the urge to muck with the Lost in Space theme recently. I loved the re-runs of that show growing up (and have deliberately forgotten that a movie was made of it in the 90’s). The theme I used began with the show’s third season.
The title track is tiny, just one minute long with an unfortunate or awesome (your pick) Austin Powers breakdown in the middle, so there wasn’t much to work with. The arpeggios are emblematically spacey to me so I ran with that. I replaced The Robot with Siri, the panicky AI of our time (especially when using Apple Maps).
I really should embed this on this site’s 404 page.
Giftmix 2012
Keeping the flame alive, here’s the year-end giftmix. You know the drill. It ain’t the best of 2012 and it’s barely generically coherent, but these are the tracks that either (a) made people on the dancefloor happy at Beat Research Chicago or (b) were in one way or another special to my family this year. (You’ll gather that I took my son to his first concert, Roger Waters doing the entirety of The Wall this year, for instance.) Hope you enjoy.
Tolva Giftmix 2012 by Immerito on Mixcloud
In The Flesh? – Pink Floyd
Flutes (Sasha Remix) – Hot Chip
Chime/Crime (Live in Australia) – Orbital
Sweet Thing (Adam Faz Dub Remix) – Tenor Fly & Dreadsquad
Whiskers – Gemini & Feed Me
Breakn’ A Sweat (Zedd Remix) – Skrillex & The Doors
Random – Gary Numan
Puttin’ On The Ritz (Club Des Belugas Remix) – Fred Astaire
Keep Pounding – Mooqee & Pimpsoul
Baby Battle Scratch – Lemon Jelly
Good Gone – K Theory
Ana Ng – They Might Be Giants
Debaser – Pixies
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
The Trial – Pink Floyd
Outside the Wall – Pink Floyd
Full stream at Mixcloud, above. MP3 for download here.
Happy holidays and a healthy, propserous new year to you all!
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
Mix from last night’s always-enjoyable overlap of Beat Research and Urban Geek Drinks. A few older tracks (and a K-TEL easter egg) laced into the stew. Enjoy.
Supertramp on the brain
I just realized I love Supertramp and always have. WTF. What else do Ilove that I don’t know that I do?
— John Tolva (@Immerito) March 21, 2012
Really the only way to get this out of my head was to mess with it.
Done.
“Can you switch to Pandora?”
Beat Research Chicago continues. And wow is it fun. But can you determine where in this set I was asked to stop by the bouncer? (I did stop. Quintessential needle scratching off the record. Finished the recording at my desk when I got home.)
Update from Beat Research Outpost #2
The Chicago incarnation of Beat Research has hit full stride. Jake, Jesse, and I are now in a twice-monthly groove (ahem) at Villains in the South Loop. And the first Wednesday of each month we overlap with the fantastic Urban Geek Drinks. All I need is for a NASA meetup to move in and I’ll pretty much have every interest covered.
Here’s my set from last night. Sanford & Son, music for Sith lords, 1980’s classics, my first foray into house (I know, right?) and of course some Chicago love. Do enjoy.
Beat Research Chicago begins
Here’s part of my set from the inaugural Beat Research Chicago at Villains last night. Fairly stompy with a bit of dubstep, drum and bass, and crazy Facebook users thrown in.
It’s the first time I’ve used Ableton with Serato in a live setting. Not a complete trainwreck. There’s hope.
Details and upcoming show info here.
Mission Elapsed Time: 20:00:21:06:42:40
Recently this blog (and my Flickr account) turned 20 years old, forever in Internet years. I went back through it all, retracing digital footprints made on what feels like a different planet. Here are some highlights.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show.
Subscribe to the podcast or the email newsletter or just read through the archives posted here.
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
