A new track, yessir...

I call it "42-Year Voyage". Baked and roasted using the best sound transformation program Soundshaper. Shined and dusted on Adobe Audition, which i think is still the best sound program around. I've written some programme notes for this composition... so read on you like. You can hear the track by clicking on the link below...

The idea of humans and travel was my first level of thinking when I began working on this composition, which I hoped to further develop into the concept of space and time travel. I felt there was such a broad palette of sounds I could experiment with that it would be almost impossible to begin, although I also believed that in this way I could achieve whatever I wanted to create. So to make a start I would have to think about reducing things down, dividing parts into sections and focusing on one or two sounds at a time. My preliminary sounds were obtained from a library, which corresponded in relation to my opening narrative. Sources ranged from musical instruments, ambient backgrounds, animal noises, mechanical noises, and a collection of human voice excerpts.

I am excited about the genre of science-fiction, and establishing this as the main style of the piece invites the listener into an unknown world (or a distorted vision of our real world) where there is no grasp of reality. I took the idea of time travel (which also can be compared to space travel) and explored this concept using time-stretch, pitch-shift and reoccurring themes. The narrative focuses on the account of a traveller embarking on a journey and the beginning section conveys the start of a progression into a territory unfamiliar to the protagonist. From here forward, the traveller ventures into a space-age future as he shows you a world through his eyes and it is up to the listener’s imagination to continue creating new images that will maintain that emotional connection until the end of the composition. I think the piece has some significance with human exploration. To compare it with sound experimentation, there’s the gradual process of adding ingredients (of which are sounds) and mixing them together (sound transformations) to produce a new sound that is completely out of the ordinary, but aesthetically appealing, like in the discovery of a different or unfamiliar environment. I was inspired by Trevor Wishart’s concept of applying metamorphosis to sounds to create 'musical metaphors'. The sound processes I have applied were done through sound transformation applications that enabled me to produce intense and extraordinary effects through filtered processes achieving a science-fictitious element as a result, thus achieving the narrative development.

http://s61.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0KDZMF7F995PO1LEF6FLNGS69B

The Mighty Booooooosh...

(top to bottom: scott, myself & neil -- noel & julian on stage -- the moon)












































Monday 19th December, went to see the Mighty Boosh in a live "warm-up" show at the Pleasance Theatre in London. Finally a chance to see the best tv comedy show performed on a stage! The jokes were hilarious (old & new), crazy dance routines and songs, brilliantly timed ad-libs and funny catchphrases, and slipups and miscues which were more funnier than the jokes themselves...

I'm definitely going to see them again in Stoke in March, which hopefully will be more rehearsed than on Monday...!

More Wintery Pics...

Keele turned into Narnia for one day...

Snow Day!

A White Monday Afternoon in Winter...


















Looking over Keele farm...























The Snow Guy (BA Hons in Drama & Performing Arts)...

Keele at night...

Sufjan Stevens - 17th October 2005

A new addition to the world of modern folk/rock music, Sufjan Stevens is here to save the day. I saw him playing at the Shepherd Bush Empire last month (above is a really bad picture), and i'd write a review if I was bothered, but i'll post a link instead.

It was amazing... http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article321863.ece

Our Cat

Jonathan "Dimble"-by

10 Favourite Songs

1. The Beatles - A Day in the Life
2. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
3. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
4. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
5. The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
6. Ultravox - Vienna
7. Stranglers - Golden Brown
8. Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
9. Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
10. The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

also...

Here's a link to some lists i've been busy making (including favourite films & albums):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-fil/-/A3FFES4ULC02YG/026-9532486-5676443

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Wow...
I've never felt so happy leaving the cinema.

'Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith' was fantastic. I saw it last night and it was just the perfect end (or beginning I should say) to the Star Wars Saga. Plenty of lightsabre battles, flying limbs, amaaaaazing special effects and a decent space battle, this episode is definitely the best since 'The Empire Strikes Back', and rises up from the awfulness of Episode I & II. Even better, Jar Jar Binks only has one word in the whole film.

9 out of 10
Unmissable

Something Really Really Big

This Saturday March 19th 2005 is the day of the Stoke-On-Trent Premiere of Berlioz' Requiem, performed by myself...

...and an extra 400+ performers.

Here's the link http://www.kusu.net/club_homepage.asp?clubid=4118

Lucky there's a Family Guy...

It's the Family Guy Compendium that's top of my wishlist this time
Family Guy is a cartoon comedy similar to the Simpsons, beefed up with hilarious jokes and funny gags
Here's my hommage to my favourite series on tv:

BEST QUOTES
___________

Peter: If you could be stranded on a desert island with any woman in the world, who would it be?

Glen Quagmire: Taylor Hanson.

Joe Swanson: Taylor Hanson is a guy.

Glen Quagmire: [Laughs] You guys are yankin' me. "Hey, let's put one over on Quagmire."

Peter: No, he's actually a guy, Quagmire.

Glen Quagmire: What? That's insane. That's impossible.
[Pause]
Glen Quagmire: Oh god. Oh my god. I've got all these magazines. Oh god.
_______________________________________________

Meg: I just want to kill myself I'm gonna go upstairs and eat a whole bowl of peanuts.
(Lois and Peter stare in silence)

Meg: I'm alergic to peanuts.
(Peter and Lois keep staring)

Meg: You dont know anything about me. (runs upstairs)

Peter: Who was that guy? ________________________________________________

Doctor: Mr. Griffin I'm saying you're fine.

Peter: Now what? Are you coming on to me?

Lois: Peter, he's not coming on to you. He's trying to tell you you're healthy.

Doctor: ...can't it be both?
________________________________________________

Peter: Excuse me, is your refrigerator running? Because if it is, it probably runs like you - very homosexually.
________________________________________________

Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.
________________________________________________

Peter: I'll handle it, Lois. I read a book about this sort of thing once.

Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't nothing?

Peter: Oh yeah.
________________________________________________

Lois: You're drunk again.

Peter: No, I'm just exhausted 'cause I've been up all night drinking.
________________________________________________

Peter: I told Lois I wouldn't drink

Quagmire: Don't feel so bad Peter

Peter: Hey, I never thought of it that way.
________________________________________________

Brian: Hola, me Ilamo es brian ... Nosotros caramos ir condustedes.. uhhhh ...

Bellboy(spanish): Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said "me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es," just me llamo Brian.

Brian: Oh, oh you speak english

Bellboy (sigh): No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.

Brian: You .... you're kidding me, right?

Bellboy(spanish): Que?
_________________________________________

Lois: This can be a great opportunity for you and Stewie to bond.
Peter: Bond... James Bond. I'll do it.
________________________________________________

Peter: I got an idea, an idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about.
________________________________________________

Peter: My dad worked at that factory for sixty years. That's almost eighty years.

Passion is the Key

I am full of confidence
Not a worry
Let us agree that Lehman will concede two goals tomorrow night
All we then have to do is score six
Easy

Notes, Quotes & Anecdotes

I'm currently in the creation of my next piece for solo piano (my opus number two). But it's hard. Inspirations are bursting from all directions...Dudley Moore, Debussy, Trees.

I'm listening to Delgados' "The Great Eastern", when someone knocks on my door to turn it down. These walls just aren't very thick. Or should I turn my bass down...

I'm about to cook spaghetti bolognaise...by myself.

"I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there. Do I believe the world's still there? Is it still out there?... Yeah. We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different. Now... where was I?"
Leonard Shelby - Memento 2001

NOTE TO SELF: use less spaghetti.

Not Radiohead

this is a short poem
for my mum on mothers day;
did you get my text?