a meditative 3-track EP of ambient and minimal tracks.
After having released a number of singles of various styles over the previous few years, in my summer break from university in 2022 I decided to write a more cohesive project. A 3 track EP inspired by ambient music and nature writing, from thin air explores generative compositional processes over three contrasting tracks.
One of the central elements of ‘i’ is a plugin that I had recently finished for a university assignment. Called the carhythom, the name being a portmanteau of ‘carillon’ and ‘rhythm’, it took as sonic inspiration the often unpredictable shifts of rhythm found in pealing bells, and aimed to explore the relationships of harmony and rhythm in traditional polyphonic samplers. In a sampler, playing an octave interval as a chord would create a 2:1 polyrhythm, with the upper voice looping at twice the speed of the lower voice, and a fifth would create a 3:2 polyrhythm. This connection of harmonic and rhythmic consonance is really interested me, and with the carhythom I gave the user the option to explore it further, with the option to tune these ratios, such as making the octave relationship a 3:2 polyrhythm, or invert them, such as making the higher octave trigger at half the speed. I also included just intonation functionality – an equal tempered major third will give an approximation of a 5:4 polyrhythm but it will drift over time, whereas with just intonation, you can explore very complex but stable groups of polyrhythms, such as the 4:5:6 polyrhythm of a major triad.
‘ii’ was inspired by the music of gamelan orchestras, often meditative despite its often quite frantic rhythms and changes of pace. The percussive effect further explored the polyrhythmic effects of sampling, with layered rhythms created with pitch-shifted versions of the same loop. To adapt the piece for live performance, I simply assigned this loop to keys on a MIDI keyboard and explored the pitch-rhythm relationship directly. I continued the generative theme on ‘iii’ – I defined the structure and harmonic progression by overlapping loops of different piano chords, each of different lengths, and fitting percussion and other harmonic elements around this structure retroactively.
After finishing this EP I moved on to start my album Painting the Edges, where I continued my exploration of generative techniques on the track ‘Loving the Wind,’.
olly flaig 