Noticing

/050 - Hazy

Got some serious BoC vibes going on over here tonight.

50 days straight? Crazy.

/049 - Material

Went to the hardware store today to buy the materials to build some basement shelving units. Hopefully we never have a water issue again, but if so I’d like to lessen the impact. Will also be helpful to encourage us to go through all the stuff down there and donate what we don’t need to hold on to. The rest of the day got eaten up so the shelves didn’t get made, but at least I have everything so I can work on it when I find pockets of time.

Also: Emily left a trap for me.

/048 - Nope

Had an experimental day. Lots of ideas, lots of trying. Nothing pretty came out of it but that’s how it goes sometimes.

(a lot of the time)

/047 - Zoom

Didn’t manage to get outside today so could only experience the lovely snowfall through a window. Made a few stir-crazy images in response. All done in camera with no added effects.

/046 - Imagery

Decided to try a different approach to things. It has always been that sounds come first. What happens if they don’t?

/045 - Film

Top 2: Maine, September 2019. Lomo 400 film shot with an Olympus 35RC

Bottom 4: Home, Autumn 2019. Very expired Kodak slide film, also on the 35RC

The day when your scans come back is so so great. I love the non-immediate nature of shooting film, and the sense that you can’t worry about it too much. Shooting digital (with anything except my phone) I always used to worry about it too much. Anyway. It has been a really long time since I had anything developed and I want to try to have shooting film be a more regular occurrence again.

/044 - Mondaze

Pictures from my usual Monday morning visit to the park.

Evening sounds from Continua and Phyllis.

/043 - Puddles

We’ve had a lot of rain this weekend and the nearby creek is running very fast. Took the recorder out to catch a bit of it and it turned out ok, but there’s a background noise that I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I have a suspicion that I’m picking up the freeway that’s about a mile away. I want to take it somewhere really quiet to see if I can isolate. Also, I like quiet places.

Went down in the basement to find that my sump pump decided to take a break so there was 1-2” of standing water. Didn’t lose anything important, but it was a very long day of cleanup. Goodnight.

/042 - Aperture

My wife’s (photographer) old camera is back from the dead, and since she has a new one that means I get to adopt it. It has been a long time since I’ve shot anything digital besides my phone. Low depth of field forever! (Also fisheye)

Morning sounds: Continua > Phyllis. Continua’s modulation options are wonderful for pseudo generative melodies and slowly evolving textures. Besides being a great filter, Phyllis also has probably the prettiest noise source I’ve ever heard. Felt like I was at the beach on the moon.

/041 - Gunk

This old tape machine (Sony TC-230) is full of it. 50ish years worth of dust and grime and disintegrated foam. Cleaned it up a bit tonight and managed to get the sticky mechanics moving again. It works, but still plays a bit slower than it should. Will probably just take more time for the oil to work it’s way down into the deep recesses.

Relatedly, I think the Electra machine needs a full recap and new transistors. I’m getting terrible distortion (not the good kind) out of it unless the input and output are set almost at zero. Luckily it came with the schematic so I can order the parts I need pretty easily. It’s a real shame that electronics these days don’t come with that type of information, but companies don’t want us to be able to fix things anymore.

/039 - Bluster

It was a beautiful day outside my window. Snow squalls all day long, the sky rapidly switching between intense sun and blasts of snow. Hard to focus on work, but it was the best kind of distraction. Sat down to play music this evening and nothing was working, literally. Bad cables? Reset the machines? Try try again. Finally things started behaving and almost immediately there was soft, snowy music coming out of the monitors. It was just that kind of day.

/038 - Clearing the Bench

A very long time ago I built my first pedal from scratch. It’s a feedback looper based on a few schematics that are floating around, and I had almost all the parts I needed to build it. Hence, it has lived for many years inside an ugly, old plastic case. I was absolutely hopeless at wiring so I decided to embrace it, leaving the wires extra long and using all the colors I had since the case was see through. Last summer I etched a new enclosure based on the cover of Rival Consoles’ Odyssey by the wonderful supermundane. Long story short I didn’t make the switch until today, and in order to make sure I keep my feedback magic — I left the crazy wiring.

/037 - Inlet

Passed the park this morning, deciding to stop at the inlet instead. It was very moody and very quiet.

/036 - Quiet Sunday

A day with no plans is basically unheard of, and we made the most of it. Relaxed around the house in the morning, watched a movie and took a walk in the afternoon. Finally finished the roll of film in the 35RC, so will be dropping 2 rolls off at the post office tomorrow. It has been a very long time since I have sent film away so very excited to see what will come back.

/035 - Otis

Family came over to visit today so we didn’t venture too far. It snowed a bunch so that was nice. I’m hoping it sticks around. The world always feels quieter under snow.

Had an early morning play with Audio Damage Quanta using the recording of the singing ice for granular processing, layered with sine waves. Running into Otis on norns for lfo-triggered sampling/delay/looping.

/034 - Treasure

Took Emi (and my beloved Olympus 35RC, still trying to finish this damn roll of film…) to a few thrift shops today. She calls them “the treasure store.” No major scores, but we did find a little bird feeder kit for us to build together. Then we went to “the quesadilla store” for lunch. The kit had all the parts cut and really only needed to be screwed together. — luckily she’s a natural with the power drill. We agreed that the front of her fort would be the best place for it. Hopefully the birds will discover it soon.

/033 - 7am Sounds

First day back at work so I stopped at the park this morning to try recording with the h4n pro. Pretty happy with how things came out given zero planning. Much much easier than dealing with using my phone and a mic and I feel like it sounds better too.

Left image, 1st recording: Looking south. The water moving beneath the ice was making this amazing ringing sound. The ducks were chatting. One belted out and I got to hear the river reverb.

Right image, 2nd recording: Leaving my perch, walking up the bank over snow. Stopped to tap a metal object with a stick that was laying nearby. Walking over lake rocks to the water’s edge. Looking north. I almost fell.

/032 - New

The last picture I took in 2019, and the first I took in 2020. Yesterday and today were filled with good friends, good food, and lots of laughter. May it bring good tidings the whole year through.

Field recording of needles from our Christmas tree, hitting the floor en masse as I brushed my hand across the branches. Guess this means the holidays are officially over. Back to work tomorrow.

/031 - Transition

I used to really enjoy writing haiku. Something about forming words into the accepted form always seems to bring about something that is more than the sum of its parts. Years ago, I used to post a lot of photos to my facebook account. A friend went through my images and pulled a collection that she found evocative, then sent them to me as a prompt — “put haiku to these.” I never did, but I didn’t forget the project. Decided to give it a try this morning and discovered these images there. Pretty appropriate for today I think.