I usually try to edit out the glitch, clipping, artifacts and oddity that creep into my creative recording process. But years ago, I used to use those elements as devices to add an edge  and a rawness to the sound.

When I set out to create my piece for the latest ClassWar Karaoke compilation, I decided to revert back to that rawer way of making music,
to leave in the glitch and static and audio breaks and artifacts and even a bit of EQ hassle.

My topic is war, and war does not lend itself to gentle melody.

"The War is Over":

Video-maker Julianna Thomas used my song "Remote" in this video about the St. Agnes Hospital building in Raleigh, N.C. I have a weakness for older southern architecture, and found interesting the backstory to St. Agnes, which trained African-American nurses during the days of shameful segregation.

I'm delighted to see my song used in films like this.

Saint Agnes from Julianna Thomas on Vimeo.

I like the folks at Classwar Karaoke, who release an interesting compilation album every quarter or so.
For the 22nd release, I am pleased that my song "Quietly" is included:



"Quietly" comes from the part of me that is never noisy. 

The American Museum of Natural History created a short film called
"Remote Reconaissance of Another Solar System".  I am pleased
the film uses my song "Exurb"as its soundtrack.

When I first began making music with synthesizers, I found myself particularly intrigued with non-linear, "non-musical" devices--with software that would let me morph sound directly rather than merely play melodies in the song-structure sense.

Now I tend to mold samples into sounds that I sequence into melodies. Sometimes this process is for me the
creation of a simple, child-like melody. Sometimes the child-like thing crosses into offbeat percussion--not the complex percussion of poly-rhythmic instruments,but the odd percussion of sequenced bits of
things being tapped.

My piece for Classwar Karaoke 21, free over at the Free Music Archive, features lots of
percussion which goes wrong in what I hope are the right ways.

I am delighted that Level Zed, a game design company, used my ccMixter song "Exurb"
in its new game, called Dummy Escape.

The game is available for android in the Google Play market here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LevelZed.DummyEscapeLite

and available for the Apple market here:

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dummy-escape-lite/id589863802?ls=1&mt=8

Many thanks to Slava at Levell Zed for including my song in the game. It's another example of the fun things that Creative Commons sharing can mean. Thanks also to Mixters Institute of Kitchen Percussion and Kaer Trouz, whose samples were shared by them and used by me in the song.

Game image courtesy of Level Zed.

I love January 1. When we lived in southern California, we would go to the Seal Beach Pier with a friend and watch the seabirds, boats and marine mammals while failing to catch any fish. Today I drove with a friend to Hagerman National Wildlife Reserve, a wetlands area just south of the Texas-Oklahoma border.

This holiday season has been quiet and meaningful, after a year that proved more difficult than some years.  At year's beginning, I am pleased to announce that the digital label We are All Ghosts included my song "Memory" in its year-end compilation.  I am pleased to be included, but also pleased to be included among other artists to whom I listen and with whom I feel an affinity in outlook, if not always in style and approach. My thanks to Thomas Mathie for including my track in the compilation.
I am a person to whom memories are very important, so the song title was as natural as breathing.