Electronic music has been on my mind a lot this past year or so. I've always been a fan of groups like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk, and I've always enjoyed bits of "classical school" electronic composition (like the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet by Louis and Bebbe Barron--which you should own if you don't already--or the works of folks like Vladimir Ussachevsky, Alice Shields and Priscilla McClean), and I've owned a few decent synths over the years (my wife bought me a dandy little Moog Opus for a wedding present--which is now in need of some TLC, and I'm gonna get to it one of these days...), but it's only been in the last year that I've actually started seriously trying to create the music myself (largely as a result of a period of months when I couldn't play lute or guitar due to a tendon injury and I had to play something--which led me to discover the MIDI sequencer in my digital recording software. I digress...). New paragraph. Take a breath. Start your second sentence...I know a lot of folks are turned off by what they consider to be the sterile, unnatural sound of electronic instruments, and I respect that point of view. I don't particularly like the sound of soprano sax (OK, I guess I can get behind Wayne Shorter...) and I can only take just so much harpsichord before I start to wonder when Dr. Loveless is going to spring his latest Rube Goldberg trap on Jim and Artie, so I get it that people may be pushed away from electronic music by the sound of the instruments. I disagree vociferously, however, with the argument that electronic music isn't "real music" because it's made with machines; all music (with the exception of unamplified vocal music) is made with machines, or rather, it's made by humans using machines. To quote Bob Moog..."when a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows." Or, as Geddy Lee puts it, "...all of this machinery making modern music can still be open hearted..."
I expect it has been something of a stretch for some of the folks in the vast Cult O' Griff to make the leap with me from the sublime plinking of Renaissance lute music to my current mania for robot belches and microprocessor farts, but electronic music (and the harware associated with it--man, I love me some analog!) dovetails well with that aspect of my personality that still wants to own a functioning jetpack, is disappointed that the International Space Station doesn't look like a doughnut with spokes, and would like nothing better than a robot butler to shine my shoes and prepare my food pills for me. As a composer (and I suppose I use that term rather loosely), it's exciting for me to build sounds from the ground up, and very freeing to let things sort of take their course as each sound/rhythm/texture is recorded, applying layers like a painter until a complete gestalt is achieved. Moreover, the little kid sci fi geek in me gets a tactile buzz from twiddling the knobs of the synthesizer like a ham radio operator, and I find the whole process to be a nice, middleman-free way to directly access those timbres and grooves and bizarre little melodies that are floating around in the darker reaches of my personal hard drive.
This year I'm going to get a chance to take the latest machinations of the Secret Underground Laboratory (and its official musical organization, the Subterranean Philharmonic Orchestra) on the road, so to speak, as I step out to do some gigs of electronic music and electronically-augmented guitar music, from both a performance and an educational perspective. I've been working feverishly on some new tunes that meld surf and pseudojazz guitar with electronic sounds, and adapting some of my existing canon (I have a canon--look how special I am!) of songs and instrumentals to the electronic/electric guitar vibe, and I'm crazy excited (and a little noivous) about taking this stuff to the liberries and coffee shops and wee little concert stages I play on. I'll also be presenting a lecture/concert at the Merriam Park library focusing on the history and philosophy of electronic music, wherein I get to be the guy talking about how much I dig Clara Rockmore and explaining the difference between high pass, low pass and band pass filters. I haven't yet decided whether I'll wear the tweed jacket with the elbow patches, the white lab coat, or something from the Brian Eno Collection (now available exclusively at Pamida!). It's gonna be a groovy year!
You'll be hearing plenty from me over the next several months about upcoming recording projects--both robotic and otherwise--that are currently in the works, and you can keep abreast of upcoming live performances by scrolling to the bottom of this very page or checking out my artist page (also titled "Griff Makes Music") on Facebook. I hope you'll give some of my new stuff a try and, if you like it, spread the word to the robot lovers in your life.
That's plenty for now. Until next time, be nice to animals, eat your veggies and don't overdrive your oscillators.
Be excellent to yourselves!!!
Rick
I expect it has been something of a stretch for some of the folks in the vast Cult O' Griff to make the leap with me from the sublime plinking of Renaissance lute music to my current mania for robot belches and microprocessor farts, but electronic music (and the harware associated with it--man, I love me some analog!) dovetails well with that aspect of my personality that still wants to own a functioning jetpack, is disappointed that the International Space Station doesn't look like a doughnut with spokes, and would like nothing better than a robot butler to shine my shoes and prepare my food pills for me. As a composer (and I suppose I use that term rather loosely), it's exciting for me to build sounds from the ground up, and very freeing to let things sort of take their course as each sound/rhythm/texture is recorded, applying layers like a painter until a complete gestalt is achieved. Moreover, the little kid sci fi geek in me gets a tactile buzz from twiddling the knobs of the synthesizer like a ham radio operator, and I find the whole process to be a nice, middleman-free way to directly access those timbres and grooves and bizarre little melodies that are floating around in the darker reaches of my personal hard drive.
This year I'm going to get a chance to take the latest machinations of the Secret Underground Laboratory (and its official musical organization, the Subterranean Philharmonic Orchestra) on the road, so to speak, as I step out to do some gigs of electronic music and electronically-augmented guitar music, from both a performance and an educational perspective. I've been working feverishly on some new tunes that meld surf and pseudojazz guitar with electronic sounds, and adapting some of my existing canon (I have a canon--look how special I am!) of songs and instrumentals to the electronic/electric guitar vibe, and I'm crazy excited (and a little noivous) about taking this stuff to the liberries and coffee shops and wee little concert stages I play on. I'll also be presenting a lecture/concert at the Merriam Park library focusing on the history and philosophy of electronic music, wherein I get to be the guy talking about how much I dig Clara Rockmore and explaining the difference between high pass, low pass and band pass filters. I haven't yet decided whether I'll wear the tweed jacket with the elbow patches, the white lab coat, or something from the Brian Eno Collection (now available exclusively at Pamida!). It's gonna be a groovy year!
You'll be hearing plenty from me over the next several months about upcoming recording projects--both robotic and otherwise--that are currently in the works, and you can keep abreast of upcoming live performances by scrolling to the bottom of this very page or checking out my artist page (also titled "Griff Makes Music") on Facebook. I hope you'll give some of my new stuff a try and, if you like it, spread the word to the robot lovers in your life.
That's plenty for now. Until next time, be nice to animals, eat your veggies and don't overdrive your oscillators.
Be excellent to yourselves!!!
Rick
