Patient Trees explores some similar ideas to that of Soil. This time everything is constructed entirely out of Messiaen's second mode, also known as the octatonic scale. It features a low minor ninth throughout. The minor ninth is very dissonant, but in the extreme low register, as it appears here, the harshness is not so pronounced. Instead it brings forth a weird overtone combination, which I wanted to play with. The notes of the upper staff are mainly intended to highlight and shade the ringing of the minor ninth. It was not my intention to create such a dark sounding piece, but it is undoubtedly dark. I guess when you're playing with minor ninths, you're playing with fire. Sorry if the piece leaves you feeling totally hopeless.
A couple years ago I read Neil Young's autobiography. He talks a great deal about Pono, which is his project of creating a digital music format that does justice to the sound. It appears to be close to public release, and I recently watched a promo video for it. Neil gives quite a convincing argument. He basically says that recorded music is not nourishing us like it used to because of it's poor quality. Good quality has been missing in any consumer format after the LP, especially digital formats. After some thought, I tend to agree with him. I've never been picky about audio quality, mostly because many of the recordings I studied and listened to most were very old and not of good quality to begin with. But I'm questioning our instant information society a lot these days, and this argument fits right in there. We are obsessed with quantity today, perhaps because most of the stuff is low quality. We have to eat way more just to feel an inkling of satisfaction. Perhaps if I had less quantity and better quality I would feel more nourished by it, whatever it may be. I've recently upgraded some of my digital music formats, choosing the highest quality download settings. Although it's early to make the call, I could be getting more out of it. In other areas of my life I've been making similar changes.
Along those lines, I also experimented a bit with my Zoom recorder this week. I recorded Patient Trees in the highest quality setting the machine offers. The reason why I haven't done this in the past is because the files take up a lot of space, and they take a lot of time to move around on the computer and upload. But maybe it's worth it. Maybe you will get more out of this recording. Maybe the unintended hopeless sound of this particular piece will start some kind of awful chain reaction of sadness. Gee I hope not.
This talk of quality versus quantity brings up another relevant idea here - that of an artist giving content away for free. Many internet marketing gurus encourage us to give away a lot of content free of charge. Many older musicians and music business people I know have a real problem with the idea of it. Many younger musicians are giving things away left and right - some are not even passing a tip jar around at their DIY performances. Since I've been making art (never before the digital age), I've always had the notion that my stuff needs to be everywhere - formerly every store, now every corner of the internet. The more the better... quantity. And these internet projects are no exception. They started out lower profile. But as they became more important to me, and more noticed, I've been more public with them. The transparent nature of the projects means that some of the content is not going to be my best work. Although I work hard to create something I feel proud of every week, I can't create fifty-two favorite pieces in a year. I'm placing a great deal of value on the quantity of the work. I think it's a legitimate criticism of what I'm doing. But I'm just doing it. These projects are mainly for my own growth and exploration. I've just decided to include you in it, and use you for motivation and accountability.
Some friends of mine, who I have tremendous respect for, are questioning the digital distribution of recordings, and so far have not put any content of their band online. No digital downloads and not even youtube clips of performances. The only promo videos are of them goofing around and contain little or no music. They pressed only fifty copies of an LP that was only given only to the first fifty people to pay the cover at one of their live shows. It's impossible to get your hands on unless you were at that show, or one of your friends was. This kind of stuff runs quite contrary to the kind of marketing we're supposed to be doing these days, and it really baffled me at first. But I've come around to thinking that it might be the answer. Rise above the digital noise by avoiding it all together. They've gotten a good local following based on word of mouth. And of course the bottom line is that they totally deliver. They put on a great show. It's got me thinking. Quality over quantity.
P.S., after I wrote this whole post, I realized while uploading my higher quality wav file to Soundcloud, that they probably obliterate it with some kind of untamed compression. It might actually be lower it quality than it would be if I had uploaded an already compressed mp3. I'll check it out. Perhaps I'll swap it out the Soundcloud widget for a plain audio link.
P.S., after I wrote this whole post, I realized while uploading my higher quality wav file to Soundcloud, that they probably obliterate it with some kind of untamed compression. It might actually be lower it quality than it would be if I had uploaded an already compressed mp3. I'll check it out. Perhaps I'll swap it out the Soundcloud widget for a plain audio link.
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