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Other Audio Works
I have not collected most of my music work into albums. The vast majority of what I have recorded
has consisted of individual songs done without regard to other songs and not a part of some larger
scheme (even most of the album stuff fits that description, but I at least made some effort to
enforce consistency). These are one-off bits of varying quality recorded over a number of years. Once
again, this is just a sample of what I've done. Most of it is either lost or not currently in a
format that I can upload easily.
These tracks are available free of charge for your listening pleasure, but they are NOT public
domain. I retain all rights to every bit of music on this page. Please don't steal from struggling
artists.
If you would like permission to use any of the material here, just let me
know.
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Thunderheads
1996
I'm cheating on the 1996 date for this one. I did indeed write this in the summer of 1996 as I finished up college, making up for a semester I'd taken off. However, I'm not sure when this recording was done. It was certainly at least a couple of years later, maybe as late as 2000. "Thunderheads" was a special song to me. There are certain songs I've written that have marked changes in my approach, and this was one of the clearest. I'd just come off of co-writing Dimensional Rift, during which time I had written the opening to Thunderheads. I was listening to a lot of Rush, which is a clear influence, I think. The song is complex but it flows well. Rather than jarring the listener from one section to another, it just sort of rolls along, despite having a lot of parts. I was very proud of this. Unfortunately, I've never gotten it to sound as good as it is in my head for some reason. This is just the closest I ever got.
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Tear It Down
2007
This was recorded for the first album released for sale by the Very Us Artists, entitled Nascence and Child. The challenge given to all contributors was to write a song with the theme of "Beginnings". My take on it was to write a song about a sort of rebirth born of destroying the old.
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Beyond the Limits of 4/4 Time
1998
Here is an exercise in self-mockery. I have long had an affinity for playing with time
signatures. That is, much of what I write does not follow the standard beat structure of
contemporary popular music, which is based in 4/4 time (really that should be one four over
another rather than "4/4", but I'm lazy). This whole song is in odd time signatures and
the lyrics are all about how allegedly cutting edge such a thing is. Really, this is kind of
an in-joke that I wouldn't expect more than a handful of people to get. That is why I've
never really included it in anything before.
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Calamana
2007
This is a song I wrote for my ex-wife, back when we were married, and presented it to her
in this form on our fifth anniversary. I only had about 6 hours to record and mix it, but if
I wanted to record it without her knowledge that was what I had to work with. Hence, it is
very bare. However, considering the limitations, I'm quite happy with it. "Calamana" is a
neologism coined by my her to mean something like "I love you," but expressed to a degree
that cannot be captured by existing words. This is either excessively sappy or very romantic
depending on your temperament. Either way, we're divorced now, so obviously this song didn't
do the job.
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Hider in the Darkness
2000
This somber little tune was one I wrote for live performance. It is incomplete in terms of
instrumentation, and it has been this way for years. I am putting it up here because I don't
think I'll ever get around to completing it. I really like the dark mood of this. I wish my
voice was good enough to do it justice.
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There Is Profundity in Madness
2007
This was recorded for Opus Cipher: The Prototype, which was the free demo album The Very Us Artists put out as a precursor
to releasing their first album. The Very Us Artists is an intriguing idea from the inimitable
mind of John LaSala and is something I encourage everyone to check out. I'm very glad to have
assisted in the founding of it. VUA's latest work is a book/CD combo (also available
electronically) called Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero. It's a fascinating collaboration between
writers and musicians.
As for this track, it was an amazingly quickly put together one, especially considering
its length. I did not use any MIDI sequencing, which is a rarity for me, despite all the
sounds being electronic. It's a high concept track that captures some of my more recent
ideas, though I doubt I'll ever record another track that sounds much like this one. The
concept for this album was "beginnings". Obviously I stretched that a bit.
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