Category Archives: electronica

whispering

Posted by on January 27, 2009 No comments

things are moving briskly around here and lately it’s been all about quantity. the inner critic has been pretty quiet and that is likely what has been pushing my process along. a critical ear deep inside is a very useful thing but it gets in the way of doing the work. sometimes it’s better to slap something together and think about it later. all of the recordings and songs that i put together become ipod fodder the next day. putting them online puts me in a position to get some feedback and more importantly, motivates me to continue posting.

keeping the momentum is the hardest part.

the piece that i finished up tonight features the badly mangled voice of my good friend Amy. i don’t think that she has anything web-ish that she’d want to have linked (let me know if i’m wrong) but if she did, i would! i don’t think that you’ll hear it when you listen to this, but her voice brings a cadence and a color to this very static almost wind chime-like backdrop. it doesn’t really matter if you hear it. what’s important is that it pushed things along for me. check it out in the link below.

heavy nerd content ahead. you were warned.

today i did something pretty significant in my nerd life: i dumped my subscription to the linux audio users mailing list. the fact is, though i was an ardent supporter of gnu/linux and all of its promise, i don’t have time for it. i have learned the hard lesson that with gnu/linux and the audio software that runs on it you may not pay in money but you do pay in time. right now, i have no time. in fact, it’s been almost three years since i last fired up my debian box for any reason.

i have a full time job that doesn’t relate to my creative work. i have a wonderful family. i have a thousand things to do and one and a half hours a day to create when conditions are perfect. my laptop (yes, it has to be a laptop) has from the time i lift the lid to the time i put my fingers on the keyboard to be awake and functional. as i am launching my software, it needs to be finding the nearest network connection and negotiating my connectivity without any need for my intervention. when i plug in a peripheral, it needs to find it and make it useful immediately. and when i’m done i will close its lid and it had better suspend itself and be ready when i open it next time. sounds like a mac to me.

there is a lot to be said for gnu/linux and i will continue to push it as a great server solution, but for the composer on the go with little to no time for continuing education and system maintenance, it’s just not going to work out. keep up the good work and thanks for the memories!

thus endeth the nerding.

if you have some time, please take a listen to my latest and drop me a line on facebook or twitter or comment either here or in an email. i love the feedback!

white whisper

Creative Commons License
white whisper by j.c. wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at othertime.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://othertime.com.

whistling in the dark

Posted by on January 24, 2009 No comments

wayne henderson is a brilliant luthier and guitarist. i was lucky enough to see him at kent state university a million years ago (i think i was in high school at the time). the bill included tal farlow and a pile of greats like that. he’s an amazing showman and builds some beautiful guitars. i highly recommend Clapton’s Guitar by allen st. john as it’s a great look inside how wonderful instruments get made and henderson’s story is a hoot. yeah, i said “a hoot.” there’s no other way to describe it. you can also dig on some henderson in the current issue of the fretboard journal.

why all the talk of henderson? he has a bit of a reputation for really taking his time with getting his orders filled. building a guitar or any instrument is a process. it’s something that, once it has begun, has to be completed in once long run. at least that’s how i see it. it’s really tough when you stall out or get distracted. i’m in that place right now with some instruments i’m building and honestly my attention has turned to churning out piles of electronica. it’s a lot of fun but it feels like the instruments are being neglected. i suppose it’s more about following what’s working and getting back to other things when there is time but it would feel really good to finish them.

time is a precious thing these days. in my position i feel like i need to go with what’s working and right now that’s weird stuff. in that vein, i have some more to share. this tune is based on some samples i captured a long time ago and some public domain items. i will figure out the precise references soon enough and post them. for now, please enjoy and drop me a comment. i’m really enjoying the feedback i’m getting lately. thanks!

whistling-in-the-dark

Creative Commons License
whistling in the dark by j.c. wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.othertime.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://othertime.com.

more electronic messing around

Posted by on January 21, 2009 No comments

a little more messing around in the studio with hard time limits. posting sketches like this hold me accountable in a way. it really is less for anyone out there who has the inclination to download and listen to the track and more for me to put my work and process out in front of even a potential audience. any feedback i get is greatly appreciated so don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you dig it or can’t stand it.

besides, now that lost is back on, i have some time to kill. the score for that show drives me insane. i can’t tell if it’s the key or the irritatingly trite content that makes me crazy but i can’t even sit in the same room with it. i should be in my studio during that time anyway so it makes for a good motivator.

have a listen, if you don’t mind, and drop me a note. i’ll go back to my banjo now.

missed-it

Creative Commons License
missed it by j.c. wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.othertime.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://othertime.com.

an electronica break

Posted by on January 20, 2009 No comments

i was up really early last sunday and while the dude was sleeping i got a little extra time in the studio. since he was asleep and i didn’t want to take any chances with waking him before my coffee was brewed, i plugged in the headphones and started messing around. i dug out some old field recordings and started stretching and processing them. it was interesting, so i kept at it until i had something that was listenable.

this definitely falls under the category of compositional exercises as i had only about 45 minutes and i wanted to have something that could be considered “done” at the end of that time. short bursts are sometimes a great inspiration. it silences the inner critic and makes some of the decisions that might be debatable under other circumstances very black and white. i should do more of these.

i leave the origin of the samples as an exercise to the listener.

babies-and-bats

Creative Commons License
babies and bats by j.c. wilson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.othertime.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://othertime.com.