Phantom Circuit is an excellent UK-based podcast which plays an electic mix of
electronic music and intriguing offbeat material. The April 2015 edition (episode 153) marks a triumphant return after a brief hiatus. My song, "Forgotten Fields", first released in 2009, is one of the pieces featured on the podcast.  I really enjoyed hearing the other artists' work on this podcast:

Phantom Circuit #153 (19th Apr. 2015): first edition of Series 4 by Phantom Circuit on Mixcloud

Snorkel

The latest release from the Classwar Karaoke netaudio project, issue 28,
includes my new track "Snorkel".

I love to see my music travel. From Japan, video-maker Minamiguchi Yuichi used my song "Homework" to accompany images of a solo art exhibition by artist Yukawa Masaki in Gallery Kobayashi in Tokyo:
YUKAWA Masaki solo exhibition 2014 from storm petrel on Vimeo.

This video from ABC Open SW WA on Vimeo uses my songs "Little Penguin" and "Faith without Creed" to accompany an interesting set of images by photographer Sam Harris:

Sam Harris - Moments and Light from ABC Open South West WA on Vimeo.

"Flyway" is a song I created 8 years ago. Flyway incorporates a sample by xTheOutsiderx, from this track: Sleep Alone Film-maker Hagen Betzwieser just used "Flyway" in a film called "Dynamic,Affordable,Apollo-Free", which I find quite entertaining:

Dynamic, Affordable, Apollo-Free from Hagen Betzwieser on Vimeo.

One of my favorite music-makers is Dave Keifer, who records as Cagey House. He makes fun, experimental music that goes all sorts of interesting places. I was delighted to find that his latest song on Classwar Karaoke gave me a bit of a shout-out. Here is "Hey for Gurdonark". Thanks, Cagey House!

The Classwar Karaoke Project just released its 25th compilation. I enjoy contributing to this project, as well as listening to the contributions of others. For the 25th edition, I contributed the piece "Ten Kisses Goodbye". It's a gentle, melodic instrumental that seek to impart an idea or two about partings, and adolescence, and the youthful in us all. Here is the track:

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.

I am pleased that my song "Remote" is featured on the 20th Classwar Karaoke compilation.

I like to be part of a huge whole of disparate and interesting sounds. The entire compilation is located here:

I believe in open spaces. Not only the geographic spaces, like the open fields of my north Texas USA home area, but also the metaphoric open spaces. For me, open spaces have come to symbolize the quiet, thoughtful journey of observation--the quest to see where others might pass on by. Open spaces also has a sharing component for me--the spaces in which friends pass songs back and forth.

My new extended play release is called "Open Spaces". It's been released today on the Scottish label We  are All Ghosts. It's comprised of seven songs making up around 23 minutes of music. Each piece was constructed by using a simple hand-held woodwind instrument to create a sample, and then using a software synthesizer to render the sample into a song.

The EP is being released under a Creative Commons BY (attribution) license for easy sharing.
Free copies of the EP are available at Archive.org. A free-or-donate lossless version is available at
Bandcamp. Those who like to listen to a streaming version may stream it below.

My thanks to Thomas Mathie, owner of We are All Ghosts, and creator of the artwork on the
EP.

Tom Ray and Doug Whitfield run the Music Manumit Podcast. They were kind enough to feature me on a recent episode. I enjoyed speaking with them about sharing culture, Creative Commons, netlabels, my music, and music in general.

Here is the link:

http://www.musicmanumit.com/2012/11/gurdonark-121113-music-manumit-podcast.html

I am delighted that my song "Obscure Places" is on the 19th edition  of Classwar Karaoke, hosted at the Free Music Archive. I created this piece using samples from a small red flute from India, the sound made by tapping on a small piece of Orrefors crystal, and the sound made by tapping into a hanging bit of plastic  holiday holly.

The Invisible Agent Podcast features solid electronica well-chosen by different moderators. Invisible Agent co-owner Warren Daly put together a podcast of Ambient Melodies for May 2012. I am pleased that he included my song "A Pinch of That" from the EP "Weights and Measures". I will post the mixcloud player here, as the other artists on the podcast certainly merit a listen. Many thanks to Warren and Invisible Agent for including me in such fine company.

Warren Daly - Ambient Melodies - AgentCast - May 2012 by Invisibleagent on Mixcloud

I am pleased that my music forms the soundtrack of Keller Davis' short comic film "Powerpoint". The film is posted here:


Powerpoint


Winner of "Best Narrative Film" at CouchFest Film Festival 2011.
Official Selection at Texas Film Festival 2011.
Official Selection at Dallas VideoFest 2011.
Filmed as part of InSWAMPnia 24-Hour Film Competition in February 2011.

Directed by Keller Davis
Director of Photography Jensen Yancey
Written by Kara Mohr
Production Designer Hannah Woods
Starring Justin Payne, Kara Mohr, Ruben Gonzales

Produced by Escape Plan Productions (Austin, TX). http://escapeplanatx.com