I spent a lot of time surfing the Internet yesterday, as a kind of relaxing day. It’s been some time since I’ve done this, as the house work has kept us pretty occupied. I remember first seeing a visualization of Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” a long while ago, back in 2005. This was before YouTube was around, so I’m not sure…
Created by musicians Ólafur Arnalds & Halldór Eldjárn, Stratus is a piano installation project that allows people from all over the world to influence the music produced.
I found the bass line to be an incredibly curious and unusual opener. And as Marling’s vocals came in… the two seemed to do this really interesting thing where they were in sync and at odds with one another, at the same time.
I’m introducing things in a kind of non-linear way here. Mostly because I want you to experience the same process I experienced, earlier today. So first up, I’d say watch the video below. It’ll give you a bit of context about the song, and after it dives into the specifics… give a pause. And then keep on reading.
It’s a rainy, gloomy kind of day today. Thunderstorms this morning, with a lot of clouds and fog this afternoon. Paris 12 seems like an appropriate soundtrack for the day.
Earlier this morning, thanks to a post by Merlin Mann, I found a whole set of new music to explore. The whole MetaFilter thread is worth checking out, as there are various links to some really great stuff.
I found it kind of nice to remember some of these older tunes, but she clearly didn’t have the same reaction. The interesting thing with the Suzuki Method is that it really emphasizes memorization – so much so that even now, many decades later, I still can remember most of these songs. Even though I may not have actually touched a violin in years.
Musician Martin Molin (a member of the band Wintergatan) created a fantastic device that’s powered by 2000 marbles. The device handles percussion, xylophone, and bass, all the while recycling a torrent of marbles that makes the machine seem less like an instrument… and more like an entity with its own circulation.
I joined on August 2, 2011. The first thing I listened to was “Call of the Playground” by Shudder to Think. The song I played the most was Ordinary, by Copeland (a surprise). My most-played album was The Weatherman, by Gregory Alan Isakov (not a surprise).
When this happened, I was thinking that I wish I had a t-shirt. So I decided to just write in on a whim to ask. Lo and behold, I got a reply pretty quickly – and got sent a shirt in the mail several days later.
While Spotify is the main streaming service in the US (which still baffles me), I chose Rdio because I just preferred Rdio’s interface. I tried Spotify initially, and just found myself confused as to how to navigate songs and collections. Going to Rdio after Spotify was like a breath of fresh air. Clean, intuitive. Well designed.
Yume is an interactive song that you can control in your browser. Created by White Vinyl, you can move some of the elements on the page to adjust the volume of various samples.
I was reminded a lot of the Music Animation Machine, and how amazing those visualizations were to see over 11 years ago. I can’t recall specifically whether that project was an inspiration for my attempt at visualization (back when I still used Flash, and Gould” target=”_blank”>animated a Bach piece by Glenn Gould).
I don’t think I know Sufjan Stevens’ music enough to call myself a fan, but when I find a song I like by him… I really fall for it. I heard he had a new album out called Carrie & Lowell, and I’ve been listening to it (the whole album) pretty nonstop, while I’m working on my computer at home….
“Repetition can actually shift your perceptual circuitry such that the segment of sound is heard as music: not thought about as similar to music, or contemplated in reference to music, but actually experienced as if the words were being sung.”