MODULAR ACROSS AMERICA Ep 04: Buffalo, NY (ambient electronic)

Ambient electronic set to a snowy landscape, this was the goal. As numerous opening bands clang'd away in the background, I whipped up a twinkling dreamscape to accompany the winter landscape outside. When I'd finally gotten the patch where I wanted I prepped my recording and camera system, dragged a table and 50 ft of extension cables outside the venue ... just in time for the sky to start blasting freezing rain on all my stuff. Perfect.

... or was it? One of my all time favorite music videos is by a Florida band called Mercury Program (think upbeat ethereal Tortoise-world sorta jams with minimalist drums and vibraphone aplenty). I haven't seen the video in a decade, but from memory it is basically the most lush soundscape sorta jam, set against slowed down footage of Athens hardcore heavyweights Divorce obliterating a room full of punks. Juxtaposition maximalist.

Behold my riff on this concept. As Plaits and Mangrove twinkle away through a granular atmosphere generated by Mutable Instruments Clouds, lifelong touring bro and Buffalo's own Danimal Cannon rocks out with great fury, blissfully unaware of the soundscape enveloping him. Mostly because it was only in my headphones. The three sisters filter ties the room together, functioning as both filter, mixer and crossover. Halfway through the patch I manually roll the cutoff up, creating a space in the center of the patch for a swooping portamento pad I accomplished through "Smooth" mode on the Malekko voltage block. Stay smooth. Always.

Something something improvisation is the mother of invention. Although I'm bummed a piece written so specifically for a snowy landscape couldn't be realized as intended, I'm actually way happy with the extremely juxtaposed final product. Carpe Ambient.

My video is at DLive