Is this SCARY music or NOT music at all? Mix and all other opinions please!

D

dreamer7

New member
:) A big hi to you all once again,

I've just put a new track up on Soundclick titled From Nowhere To Here And Back Again. This is definitely not for everyone, but does it scare you or are you of the opinion that this isn't music at all?

A dark filmic soundscape using cymbals, primal howls, saxaphone, violin, bamboo flute, harmonica and otherworldly voices. All instrumentation was improvised and recorded in one take in a field in Epping Forest, with processing and layering taken care of later.

Definitely best listened to on headphones in a low-lit room, as loud as is comfortable, to hear the subtle shifting frequencies that make up the wash of sound. Even though it should be obvious by my instrumentation list, I'd just like to point out that no synths or samplers were used in the origination, destruction and eventual re-creation of this piece.

It was recorded for an internet Halloween project and as it's Halloween when I'm posting this, it's worth mentioning that by improvising, with no thought given to structure at the time of playing, it may be entirely possible that the mind is open to being influenced by any mischievous passing spirits that might be around and who want to express themselves in some way – music from another dimension perhaps. It's worth contemplating at least and who knows what other realities are beyond our understanding?

Check it out on my Soundclick page at the link just below and let me know if you have any thoughts about the mix or anything else that grabs you.
Many thanks for your time all you good folk,
dreamer7
 
Greg_L said:
I don't take LSD anymore. Is it required to get anything out of this...this...whatever this is?
Click to expand...


I still have flashbacks. Oh hell, maybe my whole life is a flashback. Dont tell me. Cools sounds. I can think of lots of uses for those sounds. Hmmm.
 
I think you achieved the effect, although the title is wrong. It should be "Soundtrack for Hell" or "Kansas" or "Democrats Soliloquy in Bbmin7 add 13"...

seriously - I wouldn't classify it as music, but I think you did a good job of making this work as a scary piece of something...

cholo
 
Yeah, try using "soundscape" instead ;)
Do you plan to use it standalone? or as a background to video?
 
I absolutely LOVE soundscapes ...... sonic tapestries ..... whatever you call them and and I do quite a few of them.

I generally prefer to mix in some minimilist music here and there but this is very cool .................................... I could use some of this for something ........ not that I'd steal it of course. Should you hear some of it in any future stuff of mine it was an accident.
:D
 
Yep it's music but not so scarey as filmic - there is potential for it to disorientate but you've cleverly eschewed the usual spooky devices.
The creation of the faux noun/verb "origination" was a joke wasn't it?
If some of the more musical elements we given more treatment & prominence in the mix it'd get hairy.
I like it but wouldn't if I were in an altered state - in there it'd be spooky.
It'd make a great intro to a piece ...
 
Its music ? If I stick a mic by my a** and capture a fart on tape, it music ? Its a sound of nature at its best. Would it be coined a "phartscape". Got to spell it with a ph, makes it more sophisticated.
 
I'm not trying to be an ass, but really, how is that music? There's no melody, no rhythm, no nothing. It's just recorded sound. I can record cars driving by. Would that be music?
 
Pink Floyd released the 1st deliberate Music Concrete by a "pop" band. It was frying eggs etc. I believe.
As to who & what makes a thing music: that is a very long & convoluted argument we don't need to have because, generally, we get on rather nicely.
A mixture of intent, serendipity, the ear of the beholder and so forth - rather like the visual arts where - in the final analysis - the phrases "I don't know art but I know what I like" is good enough because it is a matter of taste after all is said and done.
 
Last edited:
interesting

pretty intense...

I am of the opinion that it is in fact music and is a bit scary...uh, not that I was scared or anything...
 
this reminds me of the mars volta (when they get all ambient.. just waiting for omar to start ripping some crazy latin guitar solo)


I think it's music.. the difference between this and putting mic on a street and recording cars is that it gives off a mood. Music at it's purest form is the expression of emotion into sound.. that's exactly what this is.. there's no distinc melody sure.. but it definately creates a mood and a tone.. cool shit
 
If you (whomever) require rhythm and melody to be classify something as music, then I simply suggest you turn this piece up. There are bits and pieces that rise up out of the soundscape througout it with those elements. They are just sparse.

Anyway, I like it. I certainly wouldn't want a whole CD of that (just my taste), but that piece could very well make a nice interlude, intro, etc.

My band played with a group from Boston once....wtf was their name? Damn it....Devil Music, I think....anyway, they had an electric violin, and some other weird stuff. I got a CD of thiers, that was about 45 minutes straight of similar "music" except it was focused about 2 or 3 octaves higher than this song. Definitely not something worth listening to a 2nd time. very piercing and Loooooooooooooooooooong.
 
Greg_L said:
I'm not trying to be an ass, but really, how is that music?
Click to expand...

It's classical music.

The classical music of powdered wigs and harpsichords was 250 years ago, it evolved into many different subgenres. Composers such as Stockhausen, Ligeti and Cage went this way. There are textures, and more importantly it evokes a feeling.

We did a piece last year with the symphony that had 200 kids sitting in the audience with bottles and glasses filled with water at various levels. It had sections with seconds, like "this section will be 20 seconds, and the kids on the right will make noise. The next 35 seconds will be the strings sliding etc".

There are "classical" pieces that require the violins to use pencils instead of bows, to hit the strings. We did one last year where the violins had to use spoons: since we are union members, someone complained that they would have to pay us more for "doubling", since spoons are another instrument. They couldnt afford it so only a few violinists in the back played the spoons and they got paid 15% more for the show.:D

In the 50s and 60s, there was "aleatory" music, music written by chance. Uusually done with computers, the notes and rhythms were completely random and largely irrelevant.

There is a "piece":rolleyes: by John Cage called 4'33". The pianist comes out on stage and sits at the piano for 4 minutes and 33 seconds without playing a note.

In it's most simplistic definition, music like this is music strictly because musicians are performing it, and musicians make music. Being a pro musician, I have an even easier definition: if you pay me to play your crap, it's music.:D
 
I'm sorry, but I don't buy any of it.

This is a nice recording of just sounds. That's all. There's nothing "musical" about it. If you wanna get all artsy-fartsy about it, then go right ahead. I won't try to stop you. I hear it for what it is - just random sound. ;)
 
Greg_L said:
I'm sorry, but I don't buy any of it.
Click to expand...

You are entitled too, that's the beauty of it.:cool: It's the same as modern art, some might see some fantastic "negative space", while others see that some dork through paint on a canvas.:) There is NO wrong answer here.

Same thing with olympic sports. Football is a sport. Basketball is a sport. Curling is dorks with brooms.:D Badminton is for the kids who couldnt make the football and basketball teams.:eek: It truly is all in the eye of the beholder.:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top