a musicdisk
by Calvin French (PsySal)
finished 2021-12-02, released 2021-12-10
This was created in the Fall of 2021 using a Elektron Model:Samples, a Kawaii K-1, a TASCAM DR-07X for field recording, recorded onto a FOSTEX X-26 multitrack cassette recorder.
My workflow was to first create a pattern on the Samples, often over my lunch hour, then over the course of a few evenings I first added an initial take onto channels 1 + 2, playing the keyboard live according to a rough program gained through experimentation, and then over a few successive nights layering more music and sounds onto channels 3 + 4 piece by piece with the keyboard and the field recorder.
The field recordings were collected over the fall and include leaves blowing in the wind near the top of Douglas Fir Trail, a blower for a Halloween decoration on a neighbour's lawn (naturally sounding F), some percussive sounds from Riley Park Playground water fountains, a generator being used for flood lights near a construction project at Shaganappi Drive and Memorial Drive NW, bicycle disk brakes on a snowy night, and a bike bell ringing out in the bike room of my building (not exactly in order.)
The tracks were then recorded back into the TASCAM DR-07X digital recorder, making small adjustments to levels as they played back. Finally on computer they were mastered in REAPER according to a great tutorial on reaperblog youtube channel.
Recherche is called that because I thought of the word after working on the track.
Autumnal 1 is called that because it has autumn leaves sounding on it and that makes me think of that fine autumn day when I recorded them.
2 - 6 - 5 - 1 is called that because I had to unmute the tracks in this order on the drum machine for the intro.
SOUTH WEST MALL ENTRANCE is called that because there was a sign on Northland Village Mall which is a dilapidated mall undergoing renovations. This sign is over a very disused entrance at the back of the mall, but when I lived nearby I would lock my bike there because there was a nice railing near the loading dock for WAL MART. Sometimes, the WAL MART employees would be hanging out smoking or chatting at the loading dock.
Dave who gave me a bunch of tapes that I'm looking forward to jamming up with music, Jack who is on the album a little bit, Reduz becuase for some reason I often think of him when I'm making music, Thrasher/chroipahtz from back in the day for reconnecting and sending me all his MODs again, the guy on Kijiji who sold me the multi-track recorder for $35 this summer, and Cameron who gave me the K-1 a few years ago.