 |
        |
 Back To Ampersand Index PAGE 14 - Halyard (Track 8) - I seem to like writing pieces about storms. I really like storms, and there never seem to be enough of them for me, so I guess it makes sense that I write about them as much as I do. I wrote 4 or 5 compositions in high school that outlined the contour of a storm, I did an entire live record outside where I played along with a storm, and even the track I helped create on Paul Wertico's StereoNucleosis record, "We Needed The Rain", had all of my guitar parts playing the role of a thunderstorm. After I wrote the main parts of this track and played the guitar solo for it, I thought that the end of my guitar solo sounded like a halyard hitting the side of a flagpole or the mast on my dad's sailboat. A halyard is the rope attached to a pole which is used to raise either a flag or sail. The track starts with a Minimoog creating a storm/ocean sound, isolated here: halyard_moogocean1.mp3 Sitting at a piano one day, I wrote a small little composition with an A and B section. The A section consisted of a 12 note pattern (24 if you count the alternating variation of the last note) which is played over four chords. After writing it, I decided that I only wanted the B section to be played on the piano, so I gave the 12 note pattern to a synthesizer, which you can hear here: halyard_8ths1.mp3 Eventually I decided that it sounded too precise, so I decided to sonically smear it a bit, and came up with this sound: halyard_synthsmear1.mp3. I gave the left hand of the piano to the brass instruments. The B section I left as I originally did it, on piano: halyard_piano1.mp3 When I put it together, I realized that I wanted a bridge section, so I put one in as the climax of the piece, and then decided it would also work well as an intro. For the intro section, since it wouldn't have the many layers of brass, and to universalize my instrumentation a bit, I wrote a small sax arrangement (using the Sinking of the Zenobia sax sound) to go over it: halyard_sax1.mp3 Recording the drums for this, Paul immediately decided that he wanted me to slow the recording down to half speed, so that he could play something really cool, instead of having to play twice as fast, and then I could just speed it up. The loop on the right that comes in at 0:31 is made from more of those VCR sounds. Here is the isolated rhythm section of the piece, which features the VCR loop in the outro: halyard_rhythm1.mp3 The Minimoog melody at 0:33 uses the same broken cable effect as some of the other pieces. Here is the isolated background arrangement of the piece: halyard_arrangement1.mp3 The text used is from the book of Jude, read in Slovak. I remember that there was a reason I picked the passage I did, but unfortunately I can't remember what that reason was. Anyways, you can hear it isolated here: halyard_slovak1.mp3 Recording the drums for this, Paul immediately decided that he wanted me to slow the recording down to half speed, so that he could play something really cool, instead of having to play twice as fast, and then I could just speed it up. Here is the isolated rhythm section of the piece: halyard_rhythm1.mp3 After playing my first guitar solo take, I decided that everything I did from 2:14 onwards was too boring, so I recorded something else from that point on. After doing them, I couldn't decide which I liked more, so I just put both in. At 3:14, right when the loud section cuts, I wanted to put in some "fairy dust" on the track. Apparently fairy dust to me sounds like very fast, extremely high synth arpeggios: halyard_fairydust1.mp3. The 8th note part is now given to the harp, and the bottom chords given to the piano. Starting at 3:47, the entire passage from Jude is read, sped up to fit it all in. At 3:55, the synth melody is given to a different synthesizer until 4:08. At 4:00, clips from the drum part, reversed, enter. At 4:06, the guitar solo from Wormwood enters. At 4:19, the entire background track becomes reversed until the end. At 4:27, the entire guitar solo, sped up a lot and reversed, enters again. The epilogue for the piece, which enters at 4:49, is the prologue I wrote for The Park, moved into this track by method of index marker placement. It starts with something I created out of Paul's drums from Dead Pixels. I EQ'd them so that the main resonant frequencies of his toms came out, and then I copied them two more times, and created a three part chord with them. The theremin from Boolean Mortality emerges and a mix of the background arrangement of the same track enters in a very chopped up, incoherent way: halyard_booleanchops1.mp3, as well as the the very quiet Minimoog melody from the beginning of &hearts, which I not only chopped up, but also altered the pitch of: thepark_secretundernightmelody1.mp3 At around 5:02, the typing sound from Dead Pixels swoops in. Here is an August 31, 2004 recording of Halyard. Note the annoying impression of EML Electrocomp 101 synth horns. It's also edited down because each A and B section is identical. halyard_archive1.mp3 Back To Index |